Pratt's Lawn & Garden

Dear John, We hope you change your mind. A lot of these reviews have been responded to, and there is a reasonable explanation for a lot of the concerns people have presented. We will be more than happy to answer any of the questions you have, and hope to do business with you someday. Thank you, Pratt's Lawn and Garden

Dear Krysty C, I'm sorry to hear about your last experience with us. I wanted to provide some information for people reading these reviews, so they understand why some of the decisions were made regarding your units. I'm going to start with the security deposit. All of our mechanics are commissioned. What that means for the customer, is that in the 30 minutes it takes him to diagnose a problem with your mower-- if he doesn't get paid for that time-- then he could have made that money from working on another unit. Because he isn't an hourly employee, he deserves to get paid for the time he puts into the unit. It is a standard practice of this type of business to have a shop labor rate, similar to a car repair shop. Our prices are very reasonable, and actually cheaper than the national average-- as well as competitive with our competition in Lebanon and Rolla. It is posted in 4 different locations up near the front counter. The reason we can wave the fee if you leave the mower, so that we can use it as used parts for a customer that might come looking. It's not to rip you off or to steal your equipment, it's to make sure the mechanic gets paid. If the customer doesn't pay him, then the business has to-- and if 10 people a week didn't pay the deposit, the business it out $400 alone. Because this job is seasonal, there is always a bottleneck of mowers around March-April. Everyone is bringing their mowers in to get them ready for the season. There are a lot of factors that go into long wait times. We might be at a two week turn around and then have to order parts after he looks at it. To keep it fair to everyone, we always work the units in the order they came in. We will speed up the wait if the unit is doing the same thing within 30 days of the unit being picked up/delivered. If we see that it is something that the mechanic missed the first time, we will wave the $40 diagnosis. Another fact that many people aren't aware of, is that gas has an expiration date, especially with the ethanol and other additives in it. Even left over gas in the gas tank can contaminate a fresh batch of gas. It starts to do damage in about 2 weeks time without any kind of stabilizer or ethanol treatment in it. Again, I'm sorry for your experience. I hope I've addressed some of your concerns. Please let us know if there is anything further we can do for you. -Pratt's Lawn and Garden

Dear Summer, I can't really speak on the events at the Rolla store, because this is the Waynesville location. However, this brought up a great topic for those reading reviews, and I wanted to make sure I could help someone out that may be reading this. It is ALWAYS important when you're speaking to any customer service representative or insurance company to record their name and a reference number down. We see it a lot where the company will tell the customer one thing, and without a reference number, there is no way to be able to track down that representative and have them push the warranty through. As far as a tune up goes, a lot of times a clogged air filter, or a carburetor that needs to be flushed out from the bad gas. A lot of the time a tune up can fix a running issue. The warranty company doesn't cover tune ups, because they consider it to be maintenance. Again, I can't speak for events that take place at the other location, but down here if you call within 30 days of picking up the unit and it's doing the same thing, we are more than happy to have you bring it back down and the service manager will take a look at it to see if this is a fault on our half and if it is we will take care of it for you. Thanks for your time, Pratt's Lawn and Garden (Waynesville)

Mr Dedrick, I wanted to apologize for the frequent trips it took to get the mower running properly. According to our system, it was first picked up for a tune up. The tune up was performed and the mechanic had noted "engine surges but quits when the blades are engaged" This is typical for Briggs and Stratton engines. The blades were also worn out, which can actually put strain on the engine as well. It looks like we replaced the blades and the mower left here working. I see that you were able to mow the grass, and then the next time you tried the pto failed. It seems as though that problem must have been fixed easily because there was no charge to you for the pick up or the repair as a customer courtesy (it wouldn't be a traditional come back because there was not an issue with the PTO engaging on the first ticket, and you said you were able to mow once you got it home after the tune up). It looks like you heard a pop and the pulley broke, which would also have been a different issue, and that would be why we did in fact change you only for the parts and no labor for it being a "come back" although this wasn't on the original ticket. We wanted to make sure that you were satisfied, and this is why we didn't charge the diagnosis fees on all the various repairs beyond the "running weak" issue reported originally when you requested a tune up. It looks like the third time we picked up this mower, for a third separate issue we saw that our attempts to save you a new carburetor weren't going to work. The carb, being $100, was declined by you for us to fix. Because we wanted to fix the fuel issue/leak the carb was giving you, we then put in a fuel shut off valve to hopefully save any further problems with the mower. According to my notes, we picked this mower up each time and sent it back to you repaired for the problem each time. We are sorry that you had so many issues with your mower in a short time period. I do hope everything worked out with the mower and you were able to use it the rest of the year. I see that we have continued to do business with you since this incident and for that I am grateful. I hope we don't have any further issues in the future. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you, Pratt's Lawn and Garden

Dear Tek, I just wanted to let you know that there is a new counter person now since 2014. We don't think you'll have any issues like this again if you want to come back down and try us again! Ask for Leanne, and I'm sure she will be more than happy to help you out with whatever you need! Thanks, Pratt's Lawn and Garden

Dear Soldier, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience. I want to let you know that we have since then changed over all the employees. Hope to see you again and make this next experience better than your last two! Thanks, Pratt's Lawn and Garden