Heavily advertised flexible hose blew out with 21 months left on the warranty, but efforts to file a claim failed to get a response. Photo by Scott Nesbitt
Given the steep decline in customer service and product support, we may be witnessing the end times, or at least a sign that the economy is in for a rocky ride.
I’ve been around long enough in various pursuits involving products, warranties and customer relations to know that people who service machines need to stock up on common parts and start building relations with brick-and-mortar suppliers rather than having faith in online sources.
I used an online source to buy a multimeter in early March. One of its functions didn’t work. It took 11 weeks, three phone calls and eight email exchanges — which involved five “customer service” agents — to get a return material authorization (RMA) so I could ship the bad unit and get a good one. Shipping cost me about 50% of the price of the meter. I could have bought the same product for $10 more from a local auto parts store and exchanged it the same day it failed. So much for saving a couple of bucks by going online.
I recently tackled intermittent starter failure on two riding mowers and an unreliable electric PTO clutch switch on another. Installing known-good switches didn’t help. The safety interlock switches were fine, and the starters and PTO were in good condition. Searching for problems in the wiring harness takes a lot of time, so I opted to buy wiring harnesses.
But only one harness was available, at either dealers or online. A second harness might be available in a month to six weeks. The third was obsolete unobtainium.
The one harness quickly available was made in China, sold online by a company with a Japanese-sounding name. The part number is supposed to fit 64 model numbers of riding mowers. The after-market maker and marketer are both making profit on this harness.
Faulty factory wiring diagram did not show the actual wiring of a machine, thwarting attempts to accurately trace and find a fault that disabled the machine’s starting system.
What economic kerfuffle or pending calamity would prompt the OEM to stop offering this item that is obviously in some demand and would provide at least some profit?
This same OEM also does not always print accurate wiring diagrams in the operator manuals for these machines.
Two of the machines use the new-style four-wire safety switch for the operator seat. But the wiring diagrams don’t show all four wires.
No luck getting an accurate diagram after 45 minutes of phone calls and email exchanges with alleged service experts at the OEM — all they provided was the part number of the harness they no longer offer.
Finally ... there’s the flexible hose that gets a lot of advertising, which emphasizes its multiyear warranty.
Eight weeks after purchase online, the hose blew out. Emails to the company come back undeliverable, and the customer service phone number is only answered by a robot that says my call is very important.
From now on, my first choice is buying from a human with a street address.
Scott R. Nesbitt is a freelance writer and former GCSAA staff member. He lives in Cleveland, Ga.