Nick Posted June 7, 2005 Posted June 7, 2005 This article was in the local paper this morning. June 07, 2005 Lawnmower a pain in grass By Jeremiah Horrigan Times Herald-Record jhorrigan@th-record.com Gardiner – By his own description, Chris Matthews' back lawn looks like a hayfield. It's got that amber-waves-of-grain look. "I'm afraid to let the kids play back there anymore," said the father of three boys. "For sure they'll lose the ball. And I might lose them." Matthews, who's 35, laughs easily about what was once his well-manicured lawn. He and his wife, Cheryl, bought an 1851 farmhouse on two-plus acres along Albany Post Road in Gardiner about 10 years ago. Together they've taken meticulous care to bring it back to its original state. That care is evident everywhere except the front lawn and the back yard. And therein lies the story of the Lawnmower from Hell.Matthews decided to buy a new Cub Cadet 1180 riding mower in the spring of 2003. Bought it from a distributor in Wallkill for $2,400. Though his old John Deere still worked perfectly, it wasn't as easy for Cheryl to maneuver as the new mower. The Cub rode and cut like a dream for a month, then blam, the deck, which houses the mower's blades, fell off. The dealer acknowledged there was a manufacturing problem with the deck's weld. He rigged it back up with a J-hook that did a lousy but better-than-nothing job of keeping the grass down. Then the battery went. Just a little wiring problem, they told him. While that little problem was allegedly being addressed, the shop, like the battery, went out of business.Matthews is a patient man. Deferential, maybe to a fault: "I could get hit by a bus and I'd apologize for stopping out on the road," he said. He stored the mower for the winter, confident that spring and the mower's warranty would bring new answers to his problems. Spring sprang, and Matthews' hopes went south. The wire replacement blew the mower's alternator. Matthews called the company's Cleveland headquarters and spent most of last summer trying to get through. In the meantime, he paid a guy $250 to fix the balky alternator, even though the machine was still under its two-year warranty. That's about the time the fuses started blowing. Matthews and his sometimes-rolling lemon limped through last summer, often trimming as much turf as grass. This year, the ever-optimistic Matthews thought everything would be different. He got through in April to a fellow named Ken Hammonds in Cub Cadet's consumer division. All would be well again, Hammonds assured Matthews. He authorized a Poughkeepsie dealer to repair the machine even though the warranty had expired. The machine was duly picked up, and Matthews waited. And waited. Matthews continued to call the headquarters, started playing phone tag a fellow he knows only as "Jim." On the rare occasion when they've spoken, Jim has accused Matthews of trying to shake the company down for a new machine. "For that he called me un-American," Matthews said. "Promised me I'd never get a new machine. I said OK. All I want is the old one fixed so it works. Hammonds at Cub did not respond to several phone calls for comment yesterday. Matthews finally saw some action last week, when the Poughkeepsie shop overhauled the machine. They returned it Saturday. It started right up. It ran. For most of Saturday. "It's blowing fuses again," Matthews said yesterday, which is something he still refuses to do, even though he's lost some sleep of late, wondering why he ever said goodbye to that John Deere of yesteryear.
MDB Posted June 7, 2005 Posted June 7, 2005 Cub has not amounted to a #%*&^$& since MTD bought them out.......xx(
Kent Posted June 7, 2005 Posted June 7, 2005 And now Lowes may be switching from Cub to John Deere... Could get interesting to watch....
Nick Posted June 7, 2005 Author Posted June 7, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Kent And now Lowes may be switching from Cub to John Deere... Could get interesting to watch.... I assume he bought it at Lowes that's the only "dealer" for Cubs in Middletown.
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