CORTLAND MOWER SALES INC

My 18 year old mower would not start. Since I had purchased a new mower for my home I was using this one at my weekend cottage. I was informed that the price would be around $500 to repair it. I was reluctant to allow the repair work because of the age of my mower, but the service manager said that it was still a very good mower and they don't "make them the new ones as good as this anymore". In spite of my trepidation I agreed to get the work done. After Cortland Mower keeping the mower over a month and charging me over $500 I picked it up and took it an hour away to my rural weekend cottage. The following weekend I went to start it and it would not start at all nor would the battery charge. I loaded it back in my truck and made the hour trip back to Cortland Mower. They kept the mower another two weeks and then informed me that it would be another $150+ for additional work that they had to do. I explained the age of the mower, what I had already paid, etc. The service manager would not compromise, admit any culpability, or even take $10 off the additional charges. At this point he threatened to sell the mower if I didn't pay the additional charges and pick it up. I really had no choice, but again tried to reason with him when I picked it up. When I challenged the veracity of the dealership over this shady transaction he became abusive. He personalized his comments and told me to get off his property. I asked him to call the local police so that we could jointly file a report and he refused. He told me that I could file any report I wanted to and then cursed me out. At that point I could see that he was very angry and I asked to just have someone help to load the mower on my pick up truck and I would leave. He refused and told me to load it myself. I informed him that I was a 60 year old military veteran with a heart condition and shouldn't push it up the pick up truck ramp myself. He said that he didn't care and then walked away. I pushed it up myself which left me breathless. I have thought about this for two months now and finally decided to report the incident to Angie's  list. This is the first time that I have ever written a negative report on anyone, but I don't see any alternative. I could have saved money by going to a large dealership for the repair, but have been a good customer to Cortland Mower for twenty years. I even purchased this mower from them originally and would have purchased another from them if they said that the mower was not cost effective to fix. I even bought mower oil and batteries from them rather than the big box stores to keep the money in my community. The bottom line is that I have never been treated that badly or felt so abused as a customer in my entire life. I would never recommend Cortland Mower to anyone ever again and even considered legal recourse. I hope that no one ever has the same experience that I had with Cortland Mower and would caution anyone from using their service department. 

When the mower was returned to me, I checked all fluid levels before using it.  They had failed to add transmission fluid.  I have never done business with them since.  The questionairre asked for approximate date of service...it was actually near 2000 this service was performed, but this year was not among those listed.

I chose them because they were nearby.  It was easy to get the equipment to them, meaning that timely, they said yes, they could get it done quickly.  They do well.  I will continue to use this company in the future.