OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Why do I bother with these fools

Sold a mower to a bloke an hour ago and he brought it back saying it stopped. I asked him if he had put fuel in and he said no. I said here is your money please go away. When I was selling it to him I had my doubts about his ability to understand how to use mower and I was right

Let me guess, ethnic? We are not selecting good ones.

Yes MF and we have them pouring into the country and Australia is being dragged down by them

Hi Norm and Mf,

Yes they can be annoying ,especially the people you sell a 2 stroke mower to and they bring it back the next day not going because
they straight fueled the mower but say they put 2 stroke mix into the tank but you can tell it's not 2 stroke fuel.

I would just give them another motor for nothing but it only happened a few times and was another reason I didn't like
selling 2 stroke mowers.

I felt sorry for a young Japanese guy that bought a 4 stroke mower from me then filled the fuel tank with engine oil and wanted
the mower fixed when it wouldn't start.

Grass is not big in Japan ,their most common grass is Forest Grass. Japan Schoolyards, children's playgrounds, small parks and just general areas where people go to have fun are normally covered in dirt, sand, fine gravel or a combination of the three.

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max,
I can't believe this fool that brought the mower back because it stopped working because it ran out of fuel. I knew there was a problem when I had to show him 3 times how to start it, this involved moving the throttle fully back and pull the cord, then move the throttle forward off the choke. Anyway good riddance to the fool I don't have time to hand feed idiots

That sounds like one my brother's former bosses. He purchased a new push mower fuel it and was cutting with it when it died. He crank and crank and would not stop. He was so pissed he took a sledge hammer to it. Then as a after thought he checked the fuel tank. It was out fuel.

Or the idiot that brought a mower from Walmart fueled it, cranked it up, mowed with hitting something bending the crankshaft and just mowing with it until threw a rod thru the crankcase. All within a few minutes starting it.
Darn fool never put oil in it. And top things off Walmart gave him his money back.

This world is f%#$#&D. Aliens out there best stay away.
Save yourselves from our bottomless stupidity.

Yes MF,
It isn't good but it is the world we live in and Gumtree seems to breed them

I think AI will take us out before some alien race like the Daleks do. We are now creating our own planet destroyers. Most aliens won't mess with us until we start colonizing other planets then we will become a pest to deal with.

Hi AVB,
Aliens would take one look at Earth and say "you gotta be kidding me" and move on to other planets

And then yesterday I had a couple of Sudanese want a mower "because we are mowing lawns" I sold them a Rover with a Quantam motor on it and they brought it back later saying it kept stopping. I just gave them the money back, it is not worth trying to explain to them if you just keep pushing a mower into long grass it will keep stalling. The problem is all these people jumping into mowing at the moment are picking up all the jobs Jims Mowing blokes don't want to do, long grass in backyards that haven't been cut for 6/12 months or vacant blocks or general rubbish jobs. This sort of work requires tough equipment and domestic mowers just aren't designed for it. When I say to them get a Honda GXV160 they freak out at the prices, even second hand ones. The other problem then with the Hondas is they bodies are too heavy to push around in long grass. There is no single mower on the market that will cover all these types of jobs

Hi Norm,

I hope they aren't scamming you by getting the use of a mower for free for a day ,it costs a little over $30. to hire
a mower and that only pays for 4 hours .



Talking to a mowing contractor the other day he said he just buys a new Honda mower every 12 months , he said the motors are
still good after 12 months but the bases are worn out , sounds like he never replaces the axle bushes and just lets
the bushes wear out until it wears into the base.

Out my way so many people just pay to get their laws cut so you'd make more money cutting laws these days than selling mowers.

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max,
I just think they are not smart enough to mow lawns, it is not just as simple as just pushing a mower around. Yes I know about contractors keeping their Hondas for 12 months and then replacing them, sure wish I could find those motors and put them on other bodies, they have years of life left in those motors. I have seen the front of the bases worn through just from gravel etc hitting it from the inside. As for mowing lawns, those days are behind me, my legs are not up to it. Fixing the mowers I can do in my own time, it is just dealing with the Gumtree people that gets to me at times

Mentioning getting into the mowing business there is 14 yr old over here that is trying to go in whole hog per say into the business including repairs. Just depend on your parents to carry you around to all the jobs mowing nor back up when it come to repairs especially when they know nothing about repairs themselves.

We think we finally got it thru to him to start out slow and learn the business as his business grows.

Norm mowing lawns all day is behind me too as I approaching 65 quickly now, plus the Afib isn't helping any either. No wonder it has taken me several months getting my truck back on the road between the rain, cold, and just not feeling good. Hopefully next week I get the fluid in it and its all fours on the ground again.

Hi AVB,
Good on the kid for wanting to give it a crack but at 14 it is too difficult as you say to get around till he can drive. Repairs on mowers is a lifetime of experience, it just involves suck a skill level, it is being able to weld ,being able to fault find, it is being able to work out how to get things apart without breaking things. It also depends on the type of repairs you are doing and how old the equipment is that you are working on, it is just not a case of bolting new bits on and all is good. On top of all that you then have to deal with the customers who can't understand why it is so expensive to repair something when they can go down to Walmart and buy a new Chinese mower for what it is going to cost for the repairs. As you are well aware of it is too hard to make a living doing this sort of work. There is better work for a 14 year old to be looking at, he will never get rich in this industry. Most of the mower repair places have long gone around here, the few that still survive are mostly doing repairs for contractors and they only work on commercial grade equipment, they do not touch domestic equipment
Glad you are feeling a bit better, but the news after you hit 65 is always going to be downhill, the brain still thinks young, and I can do this or I can do that but the body can't do it and if you do do it what used to take you an hour now takes you 2/3 hours. I just get up each day and do one bit at a time, 3 years and I am 80

Had another one come back yesterday, broken pawls on the pull starter. Ok this can happen I guess, put another top on it and I went to prime it and it wouldn't prime. Was about to change the fuel tank/carby when I thought I had better check the fuel. Put some fuel in it and it started first pull. Obviously he was pulling the Poo out of it trying to start it with no fuel in it. I do deal with very low level people most of whom should not be mowing their lawns

Doing a clean up and taking a few loads down to the scrap, sick of fixing mowers for fools and people who have never used a mower before

Norm, We as humans should be getting smarter but seems in the last 20+yrs our schools with all the parents interference are dumbing down the next generation. Serious the government just a test on students 8th graders couldn't even read on a 3rd grade level and the math skills were even worse, barely a 2nd grade level. They tried blaming it on the Covid-19 affecting teaching level. Now they are considering holding back the ones that can't until bring their grades up to the class they are in.

Most operators of new equipment just throws away the instructions and depends on someone else to show to use the equipment.

I had one customer last week that couldn't start his riding mower. Guess what the battery wasn't even connected. At least it wasn't connected backwards.

Yes AVB,
I believe our school levels are about the same out here, I don't think it has anything to do with Covid, I think it has a lot to do with teachers and this woke rubbish and teachers being involved with political things going on around the world and not concentrating on teaching kids the basics