Troy Bilt Warranty vs Lowe’s Customer Service

 

Preface: The original title of this post was “Troy Bilt Warranty: Bravo or Bull?” I started writing this letter today to send to the respective companies, and to post here on my blog. What started out as pure disappointment and frustration with two companies however turned into stunned amazement at the level of customer service with another company. I’ve decided that I’m still sending it out to the respective companies, Dixie Sales, Troy-Bilt, and now to Lowe’s corporate as well. Read on.

I’m writing this letter of complaint to Troy Bilt, MTD, and Dixie Sales (their factory authorized warranty parts distributor in North Carolina) in regards to the tractor I just purchased. I decided on posting it here rather than just solely relying on them to respond to a complaint via email and I’ve already tried on the phone with no luck. So mainly this is my goal at superseding their Google search results so that when people type Troy-Bilt then get this page instead of the other pages these companies would rather have you land on. I’m really really good at getting Google results! lol.

On March 19th of this year I purchased a Troy-Bilt Bronco lawn tractor from Lowe’s  in Albemarle, NC. Now I’ll admit I didn’t purchase the $3,600 John Deer ZTR that I wanted, but instead settled for a mid-line $1300.00 42-inch Troy-Bilt Bronco lawn tractor, neither the lowest nor highest class of tractor, but still my first ever “new” riding lawn mower. My wife will tell you that I’m all about “firsts.” I grew up without a lot of money to spare and we worked hard for all we had so I’m fairly delighted when I purchase something “new” that’s never been owned for the first time. I remember my first flat-screen and my first “man-chair”, both of which reside in my living room right now. I’m in my first new house, with my first nice yard, and my first wife.. you see how this can go on? Well, this is the first time I’ve shelled out over a thousand dollars for a lawnmower, so I’m fairly attached to the concept of it remaining pristine!

Three months later the PTO deck engage cable breaks. Specifically the spring snapped in half. Now when I talk about this spring you should understand that the spring is located above the mower deck, under the riding platform, and above the blades I think you’d agree that there’s absolutely no way any kind of user-error could have caused this to occur. It just a freak incident.. poor spring design, flawed piece, etc. I’m ok with that. It happens to any bulk-manufactured part from time to time. If you build 2 million of anything,  a few of ‘em are gonna break and I’m ok with that.

I called Troy Bilt on July 7th  and was informed that I have to go through the local warranty repair center, which in my case is Stanly Tractor located here in Albemarle. Fair enough. I loaded my tractor onto the trailer and drove it down to Stanly Tractor who told me they can’t give me the spring. Instead they have to replace the whole cable because of the spring design. Again, I’m ok with that I suppose. It makes sense because of the springs tapered design that it would all be one part.  Then they proceed to tell me they can’t “give me” the part. They have to install it or else they’ll have to charge me for the part as if I was buying it out of warranty. Apparently all their “technicians” are Troy-Bilt certified tractor engineeers… (I’ll believe that when swine gracefully float through the air!).  Really… I’m an engineer who works in about five different highly technical arenas and I can’t put my own cable on my tractor? All right.. why not. It saves me the headache right?

The warranty repair center, Stanly Tractor, (who I’ve got no problems with –  they were as helpful as they can be under their rules) told me I had to go to Lowe’s and get a copy of the receipt faxed over, so I do so that same day, about 12:30 in the afternoon. I called back and confirmed that they’d have my part shipped ASAP because my yard had already been 5 days without mowing right after a torrential rain and it was looking kinda scruffy and in need of attention. They said OK and that I could expect the part by Monday. Slightly aggravated at not being able to mow my grass for another weekend I nonetheless went home and watched grass grow.. literally. It’s crazy out here right now after all this rain!

I called on Monday July 11th to check on the status of the part and was told that it wasn’t in yet and that they had my number and they’d call me when it came in. Ok. (It’s now been four days since I made my warranty request). By Wednesday I still hadn’t heard anything so I called them again and spoke to the same rep I’d spoken to before. By now he knows me by name and he informed me the part wasn’t in yet but that it would be by the end of the week or Monday (the 18th!) at the latest. Grrr..

Today (July 18th) I called Stanly Tractor again to check on the part and was told that it had just now been shipped from their MTD distributor to them and should be here by the end of THIS WEEK (that puts it somewhere around the 23rd of July if that date is correct.) When I asked why it hadn’t been ordered the day I told them to order it I was told that they have to wait for a certain amount of parts before they’ll send a truck. In other words, they won’t just ship me my part.

Ok. First; that’s crappy customer service. When something you sold breaks under warranty your words to me had better always be “I’m very sorry Mr. Jordan, we’re overnighting you one today. You’ll have it tomorrow and it’s absolutely free of charge. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.” That’s customer service. I run a customer service company of my own so I’m used to having to be the one saying it!

Instead I’m told that because of the weight it has to go freight. Wait a minute.. it’s a 1 pound cable. Weight shouldn’t be a problem. I informed the gentelman of this and that’s when he said “Oh, it’s not your part that’s heavy. It’s because we have to wait for a full truck before they’ll ship us parts.”

Ok, so because enough people don’t have broken machines right now, you’re telling me it’s not a priority? It’s a really good thing I’m posting this publicly or my language wouldn’t be half as nice as I’m being right now!

So I called Troy Bilt again and explained my dilemma with Jasmine, their customer service representative. Jasmine tells me that I have to go through Dixie Sales because Troy Bilt doesn’t actually warranty their merchandise. Apparently MTD does, and MTD uses Dixie Sales in North Carolina so I’d have to call them to get anything resolved. I called Dixie Sales, spent 20 minutes on hold and then when my call got picked up I heard “Hello, hello? Click.” Ok.. so MAYBE my call was having some trouble and she couldn’t hear me. That happens to the best of us, so I call back. After another 15 minutes my blood is starting to boil and I know I’m getting nowhere…

So let’s recap what’s involved in getting warranty work on a Troy-Bilt lawn tractor.

Bought it at Lowe’s – they can’t help and refer to TroyBilt.

Troybilt – Say they can’t help. I need to go through a warranty shop. Refer me to Stanly Tractor

Stanly Tractor – Takes three weeks to get a part that I should have in 3 days, but not really their fault.

MTD – Uses Dixie so I have to call them.

Dixie – Can’t get through to them via phone. So I gave up and called Lowe’s again.

Intermission: (Between the last paragraph and this next paragraph I had a wonderful afternoon with the people at Lowe’s. Read on)

So I called Lowe’s again this afternoon and spoke to a guy I call Seasonal Mike. His name is Mike and he works in the seasonal department and the poor guy never gets a break from that phone. He always answers the phone “Seasonal Mike” with no pause or hesitation, like it’s his whole name. Really friendly guy though and is always helpful when I’m in there. So I call Seasonal Mike in one last ditch effort to try to see if I have some recourse through Lowe’s since we paid for this thing on a Lowe’s card and I’m still paying it off.  (I have a real problem paying for broken stuff that no one wants to fix…. especially when it’s a 2 dollar part.)

Mike patiently listens to my story and tells me that he understands my frustrations but that I’d need to speak to someone over him if I’m to get anything accomplished. He remembers me from the day I came in to talk about this back in the beginning of July. He offers to get me Sean, the manager of his department. This makes sense to me so I hold for Sean.  Now… poor Sean. I’ve been working on trying to get this tractor fixed for two weeks, not cut my grass in three weeks, and this is about the sixth guy I’ve told my story to.  He lets me get through the entire thing… even down to the end where I’m so frustrated that I can’t take it any more and I ended my dilemma with “And I want someone from Lowe’s to tell me they’re either going to overnight me a replacement PTO deck engage cable or I’m bringing this tractor back. I’ve been paying on it for four months and I can’t get any help from Troy Bilt.” I’m pretty much fuming at the end…

Sean doesn’t bat an eye. He doesn’t blink and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even pause to breathe… He just says “How far are you from Lowe’s?”  ”About three miles” I say to him, thinking he’s going to offer to find some way to get me a replacement cable today.

“Just bring it in here.. I’m gonna replace it for you.”

I was so floored that I didn’t know what to say….

“I’m sorry. What?”

“Just bring it in. I’ll take care of it. How long till you’re here?” he says.

“Umm.. about 20 minutes I guess…” I said, still stammering (more so than usual).

So it’s now about 7 hours later and I’m back from Lowe’s with my new tractor, my yard is cut, and my new shiny tractor is parked in it’s shed until the weekend. I have no qualms with Troy Bilt tractors.. I really enjoy mine. Except for this one little problem it’s always run like a top.  The problem I had with it was a fluke mistake that could happen to any manufacturer. However my success with Troy Bilt’s customer service has left me disgusted. MTD and Dixie Sales have left me disgusted with their warranty coverage to the point I’ll be danged sure never to buy anything that requires me having to use them again if I can avoid it!

Sean, and Lowe’s of Albemarle, however… I don’t have the words to express how much I think they went above and beyond on their customer service! I’ve been waiting for three weeks almost on a FREE replacement warranty part that they didn’t have to do ANYTHING about, and yet without batting an eyelash this manager says “I’ll take care of it. Bring it to me and I’ll replace the whole tractor.”  Hell, when I walked in the building it was already sitting at the front door ready to load on my trailer!

I’ve been shopping at Lowe’s for years and I’ve always been taken good care of there. Yes, they tend to be a few dollars more on stuff, I’ll admit that. They aren’t necessarily the cheapest supplier, but I probably spend more money in that store each month than any other single company with the exception of my mortgage, and sometimes I’m pretty sure my Lowe’s bill exceeds my mortgage payment.

So, to Sean and Seasonal Mike from Lowe’s: Thank you very much for your outstanding customer service! You both worked harder than necessary to remedy my problem. You’re awesome and you’ve made a customer for life!

Dixie Sales and Troy-Bilt Warranty Division:  You guys suck!

And now I’m going to bed!

 

More Information:

Dixie Sales:

Web –  https://www.dixiesales.com/default.aspx

 

Phone –  800-753-4943

Troy Bilt

Web – http://troybilt.com

Phone – 800-828-5500

 Update: One month later…

I feel it’s only fair to perform your due diligence in an editorial article, especially if you’re ripping a company a new one, so in all fairness I’m going to update this post with the responses I got from each of the vendors from my emails I sent out the day I originally wrote this article.

From Lowe’s – received on 7/20/2011 – From Chrissy H.

I’d sent an email to Lowe’s corporate to try to personally thank those responsible at Lowe’s for the outstanding customer service. Being in a customer service industry myself I know the phones always ring with complaints but who ever takes the time to call and tell you how awesome you are, right? So I felt they deserved that for going above and beyond to help me out, especially when it really wasn’t their problem to begin with.

Here’s the email I sent to Lowe’s:

______B E G I N______________

I wanted to take a moment to thank you guys personally for the amazing customer support I received today from my local Lowe’s store. I was having a horrible time resolving a warranty issue and your  store manager simply decided to make the problem go away…. I love the guys (and gals) at that store.  What started today as an online editorial blasting TroyBilt ended up as my thank you letter to Lowe’s and Sean from the Albemarle store. I’ve posted it online if you’d like to review. Please express my sincerest appreciation to Sean (the manager) and “Seasonal Mike” at the Albemarle store if at all possible.  The information about my issue and its resolution can be found here: http://carolinaregion.com/2011/07/18/lowes-albemarle/

 

________E N D______________

This is the response from Lowe’s:

______B E G I N______________

Hello Tommy,

 Thank you so much for taking the time to share your compliment for Sean and Mike with me!  I’m very glad to hear that they provided you with such outstanding service.  I’ve shared your kind words with the senior management team at the Albemarle store to ensure they are both recognized for a job well done. 

Thank you,

 Chrissy H.

Lowe’s Customer Care

________E N D______________

From TroyBilt – received on 7/29/11 from Karen W.

Here’s the email I sent to Troybilt:

______B E G I N______________

I’m writing to let you know of my dissatisfaction with my Troybilt tractor’s warranty request I filed over two weeks ago that I found out today has only just now been shipped.

Rather than depend on an email response, I posted this online at: http://carolinaregion.com/2011/07/18/lowes-albemarle/
I think you’ll find all the necessary information there regarding my case with my Troy Bilt Bronco and the extraordinarily long time it has taken me to come to a resolution, which in the end wasn’t resolved by the warranty division anyway.

I look forward to your response.
Thanks.
________E N D______________

 

Below is the email I got back from Troybilt TEN DAYS later… it took them ten days to reply at all and this is the best they could come  up with…

 

______B E G I N______________

From Karen W.: Thank you Thomas Jordan for contacting our online customer support. We apologize however we are unable to access the link you have provided.

If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to write us again in the future. You may also call our toll-free Customer Support Center at (800) 828-5500. Please note the Reference Number of this inquiry, 110719-000001, when communicating with our company regarding this matter.

________E N D______________

Seriously? The best you have is  ”Umm, we don’t know how to respond to that so we’re gonna say the internet broke.” Sorry guys.. the website was active and alive and functioning fine and you got the same link that the rest of the vendors did. Nice response!

Response from MTD ( the manufacturer of TroyBilt) – from Ralph Heysek on 7/28/11

Note: My first response from Troy-Bilt was that they’d received my email (on 7/19) and assigned me an incident number and told me I’d be contacted back within 5 business days. This next email is the actual response to that:

______B E G I N______________

Mr. Jordan;

After reading your blog I wanted to contact you.  My name is Ralph Heysek and I’m the Operations Manager for the Customer Support Center at MTD Products Inc.

Let me start by offering my sincere apologies for the series of events that happened while trying to have your tractor repaired.   It is unfortunate that we could not get your tractor back in service in an acceptable time.  This type of delay is not acceptable.  I will take the opportunity to learn from this situation so we can prevent it from happening to someone else. 

Since the tractor has been replaced I want to offer my name and service should you need any help or repairs in the future.   Please feel free to contact me directly should any other problems arise.  In the meantime I can offer to send you your first set of replacement blades when you need them.

Again Mr. Jordan; I apologize for the experience you had, and hope that I have an opportunity to make it right in the future.

Ralph Heysek
Phone: (redacted)
Ralph.Heysek@mtdproducts.com

________E N D______________

Yes, MTD took a couple of days longer to respond than I’d have liked, but considering their response I’m akin to believe it’s because someone kicked it up the chain to the proper person, who took the time to personally respond to my request, give me his email, phone number, and offer to directly assist in the future.  Again, MTD isn’t really responsible for this issue. I only took it up the chain to them because they own Troy-Bilt and since Troy Bilt wouldn’t make it right I went to their bosses instead.

 

So, let’s recap the responses from the companies involved:

Lowes: Wasn’t their problem but they fixed it anyway.

MTD: Wasn’t their problem but I’d already had it fixed and they responded with a fairly nice offer to assist the best way possible post-incident.

Troy-Bilt: It WAS their problem, they didn’t respond for over a week, wouldn’t send me my part, and finally played dumb to the whole scenario instead of actually responding with anythign of substance, and even then it was only from a standard customer-support email center, not a person with the capability to handle the problem.

Dixie Sales: They never replied to my email and I never got through on the phone after trying for 40 minutes.
Believe it or not: THREE WEEKS LATER I got a call that the local tractor company had received my part. They just called me LAST WEEK! (and it’s currently the 10th of August) and told me they could install the part the following week because it just came in. That would have been almost two months of no grass-cutting because I have a useless $1,500.00 tractor!! I told the guy not to worry because Lowe’s replaced the whole tractor for free and he didn’t know what to say!

 

My response:

I’m going to send this updated post back to Ralph Heysek to let him know I’ve received his email and make sure he knows I want to publicly thank him for his assistance. And Ralph, yes, I’ll be taking you up on that offer of replacement blades one of these days! lol.

I’m also going to send it back to Troy-Bilt and let them know that every other vendor responded and I’m anxious to know what they want to do to earn my business back…

We’ll see how it goes.

 

3 Responses to “Troy Bilt Warranty vs Lowe’s Customer Service”

1. Jd Williams says:

   July 27, 2011 at 12:24 am

   Where did Troy Bilt get the blades that they sold me on the pony model they sold me in April 2010 that was no better than a coke can. these blades came to pieces and broke off. this could have killed some one. the BBB is going to hear of this If someone wants to see this piece of crap I will post pictures.

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2. Tommy Jordan says:

   August 10, 2011 at 2:07 pm

   I updated this post to reflect the responses from the various companies involved. Interesting read, I think anyway.

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3. Tommy Jordan says:

   August 10, 2011 at 2:08 pm

   JD, I finally took the time to update the post with my responses. You’ll not be surprised to hear that the only one who didn’t respond satisfactorily was…. Troy-Bilt. Check out the update at: http://carolinaregion.com/2011/07/18/lowes-albemarle/

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