Ellington Agway Power Equipment

This Fall I brought my Ariens snowblower back to Ellington Agway Power Equipment for a tune up, because after five years the engine was beginning to surge ( a clear indicator of future carburetor problems). I want to emphasize here that this was strictly a precautionary measure. When I brought my snowblower to them it worked. I had never had any difficulties with it whatsoever. It always started on the 2nd - 4th pull, every time! The first shock came when I got the service estimate. Apparently I needed a whole new carburetor (they don't clean them any more, they just replace them), and unbeknownst to me a major component of the drive train was worn out and needed to be replaced. A simple tune up was going to cost $365! After seeking expert advice elsewhere I concluded that the carburetor issue was unfortunate, but credible, but I had no way of knowing if they were telling me the truth about the friction wheel. I just had to go with it. A week later I picked up my repaired machine and wheeled it into garage confident in the knowledge that I was now prepared for the winter?s weather. When the first storm came I went out the night before to check the snowblower and fire it up in preparation for the next day?s storm. Nothing! Zilch! No amount of pulling would get my snowblower to start. After a hurried call to Ellington, I brought the machine back to them where they looked it over and returned it to me in twenty minutes. Apparently I had a bad spark plug. This struck me as odd since I knew that I had paid for a new spark plug as part of the original tune up. My machine still wouldn?t start with the pull cord, but at least it would with the electric starter, and I wasn?t in a position to be picky since I needed it for the next morning. The next morning I went out and started it with the electric starter. All went well until about five minutes in when I noticed that I had lost my reverse gear. Then after another ten minutes I lost all the rest of the gears. My machine was dead! A quick inspection of the machine revealed that a bearing retainer plate had vibrated loose. One screw was gone, and the other two were so loose that they were about to fall off. As I stomped into the house to find my telephone I happened to notice the missing bearing in the snow on my driveway. Clearly some knuckle dragging wrench monkey had neglected to finish the job he started. This time they came out to me to pick my snowblower up, and they even left me with a free loaner for the storm. Long story shortened ? This second round of repairs where done promptly and without charge, but my machine still doesn?t run right. This morning it still required about ten minutes of intermittent cranking with the electric starter and a can of ether to get my snowblower started. I will never go back to Ellington Agway again, and neither should you.