Hello all,
Here is my John Deere story. I bought an L130 the first year JD started selling garden tractors at Lowes. I bought my L130 at a JD dealer. After 1 year, I noticed while mowing that I was losing power. Long story short: so was everyone else's L130.
JD admitted they put way too small of a transmission in these tractors. This was Moline headquarters that told me they made a mistake with the trannies. However, they are not under warranty (lol/haha...serious?). They were. So for $900, JD put a new and improved tranny in my tractor.
In one years' time that tranny started to go to the local dealer felt horrible for me and other customers whose 2nd tranny burned up. At this point I contacted JD head quarters. After getting tossed around from supervisor to supervisor, all I got from them is "yes, we realize that our tranny suck but we will not help you". That is great customer service isn't it (grr)?
Now for the X300:
My neighbors across the street noticed my grass not cut because the L130 finally died. They asked me if I would be interested in buying their mower. It is a 2009 X300 with 40 hours on it. Their son moved out so they had no one to mow their lawn so they hired their lawn out and did not need the 300 anymore. They offered me a great deal on this new(!) tractor because they felt bad for my situation with my L130. I promised myself I would never buy a JD again, but the price was too low to pass up. Also, everyone told me that my L130 was really not a JD. It is an MTD with green paint on it. People told me if I wanted a real JD that I needed to buy one made in Illinois. That's in America people...or at least I thought.
After owing the X300 for 2 weeks, I could not get it to turn over. I got online to trouble shoot the problem. I found 100s of posts about a ecu sensor that was faulty. However, JD will not admit that the part is faulty. They will tell you that is what the problem is and you need to buy a "new and improved" part. Again, not under warranty because John Deere doesn't back up the parts they sell that are made in Taiwan/China/Hong Kong---not in America! Not in Moline, Ill.!
I just bought a new ecu part. It will take me 2 minutes to replace it. By the way, the JD dealer said it would charge me 110 dollars labor to replace it. Even though they know it's a 2 minute repair. So, once my new JD starts again, I'll get some sucker to buy it and I'll be looking at Kubotas, Husqvarnas, etc. I do feel good about the wasted money I have spent with JD and their junk products. I have got my money back and then some. I've got it back in spirit.
Every time I go to Lowes and Home Depot, I stop and talk to the people looking at mowers in the front of the store. I tell them this story about JD and their faulty parts and how they will not replace them. I love it when people say thank you for sharing this. We will not buy a JD. I'm guessing I'm around $50,000 in lost sales for Lowes/Home Depot and JD right now...and counting. I am also slowly placing "John Deere sucks" signs all over the community. They are steel signs so they last forever. Every time I go on vacation I will take some sign and my hammer and continue warning people of JD and the junk that they sell.