On 6 Jun 2004 07:54:17 -0700, (Jack Hobbs) wrote:

===I'd like to add John Deere to the list of junk string trimmers! I'm
===peeved because John Deere doesn't honor their warranties.
===
===I bought a John Deere S1400 because there's a dealer nearby, the name
===recognition, and the hope that John Deere would be a better trimmer
===than the cheapo trimmers.
===
===It never started easily, and the starter mechanism soon broke. That
===was replaced under warranty. But next, the muffler fell off. The
===John Deere dealer says it would require 6 hours of labor to repair
===(???!!!!) plus parts, and is not economically repairable. The dealer
===called their factory contact, who wouldn't authorize repairs or
===replacement, even though the trimmer was still under warranty. The
===John Deere dealer denied any responsibility.
===
===I'm not likely to ever purchase another John Deere product. I talked
===about my experience with an arriving farmer who wanted an $8000 mower,
===and he asked the salesman to explain why JD wouldn't honor my
===warranty. Don't know the response, because the salesman hustled him
===into an inner sanctum.
===
===Fortunately, I had purchased the trimmer from Home Depot, who gave me
===a full refund. Kudos to Home Depot!!! I purchased an Echo SRM 230
===trimmer. Starts easily, the bump head works better, is just easier to
===control, and doesn't "burn my arm" like the John Deere used to do.
===I'ts a pleasure to use, compared to a HomeLite (?) and the John Deere,
===and I recommend it to others.
===
===Jack.
snip


IIRC Homelite is who made the trimmers for JD. I know they bought the
company a while back. Weather they own it yet is questionable. JOhn
deere is John Deere, and HOme depot would have had to jump through all
the smae hoops as a John Deere dealer would to offer you a refund and
get a refund from JD in return for their loss, so I would have to
assume your main problem was in the dealer you choose to do business
with and not JD itself. My local dealer here is a reall a$$hole, and
I refuse to deal with him for similar reasons. The dealer I use will
bend over backwards for you to please you, and most dealers all know
well up front what can and what can't be honored by warranty if they
want to take the necessary steps which in all reality your delaer did
not want to do.
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