Central_PA_Chris
Member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2007
- Messages
- 43
My PowerTrac experience: Avoid them like the plague.
After much research and reading online, visiting tractor dealers and looking at similar products (versitrac) I decided to take a road trip to purchase a Power Trac 425. I timed the trip with some time off I had over the 4th of July, so I picked it up on the tail end of a work trip down that way with the intent of mowing 10 acres over the week of the 4th, my last chance to cut the field myself before the weeds and burdock went to seed.
I bought this machine based on a need for a versatile mower to tackle both brush/field mowing and to eventually cover my front end loader needs. I currently own a Bobcat 864 for heavier FEL needs while I’m building a house and taming new yard/brush/stumps.
One of my main concerns buying power trac was customer support, with no local dealers (I’m in central PA, so about 7 hours away from their HQ) I was a bit worried what would happen if I had any problems. The internet forums had quite a few positive stories regarding their support and they are easy units to work on, so I decided to risk it.
I called ahead to get a machine prepped and headed down. Test drove their demo 425 on the gravel pile with the bucket, it can move gravel. Hooked up a mower, huh, no PTO power. Tapping and jiggling ensued, nope, no PTO on the demo unit, I should have taken that as a sign and walked away right then. Ended up playing with a brush mower on a larger diesel unit.
Got my 425 with brush mower home, ran it for two hours cutting 4’-5’ overgrown field, which it handled pretty well. Tried it on the soon to be yard area which has some minor pits and ruts, it really didn’t like that not enough travel/flex/articulation or something to keep traction and smooth motion. It did take down a fair sized autumn olive that was in the field with little effort.
At 2.1 hours on the meter it suddenly started to sound louder and like the engine was reving. I shut it down and gave it a once over, air filter, oil, throttle cable, etc. nothing seemed amiss. I figured I might have bumped my hearing protection out of place and it just sounded louder. A friend dropped in and we chatted, so the machine had time to cool down. Fired her back up and kept mowing at 2.4 hours either noise changed again or I saw smoke. Dunno which happened first, anyways big billowing smoke surrounded the engine area. Shut her down quickly and jumped away from the machine. Let her cool a bit, when I decided it was safe to move in it was immediately apparent that engine oil had sprayed all over the engine compartment, dipstick zero. I walked away. Called powertrac the next day (Monday of 4th of July week), no answer. Ahhh, they mentioned not working or being around over the 4th of July week when I was in. Interesting that they didn’t update their phone message, lucky it had come up in conversation or I would have been plenty frustrated by the end of the week.
Anyways, the next Monday Terry called me back, basically said, that sucks I feel for you, but call Robins, we can’t help you. I quite nicely and politely told a story about a lawn mower that I had had which blew an engine when brand new, got repaired through that engine manufacturer and that it was never right again. It always blew smoke and was in and out of the shop till I put a free sign on it and wheeled it out to the curb. I stated clearly that I was not willing to accept a rebuilt engine on a brand new tractor. Terry said “Robbins is a good company to work with.” Holy crap, no reassurance that Powertrac will stand behind me if Robbins wants to rebuild a blown engine instead of putting a new one in? Just “Robbins is a good company to work with.”!!! No statement that this should never happen, we are sending you a new unit and will pick up the dead one? No offer to refund anything? No offer to take the lead on getting a freaking brand new tractor up and running again? No offer to ship me a new engine and take the local install bill and deal with the faulty engine themselves? No offer to put one in the back of a pickup and drive it ½ way to me if I would meet them ½ way? Nope, just good luck and let us know how it goes. Gee thanks.
I was pretty frustrated before that call, after that call I was still frustrated but now felt unsupported, disillusioned and plain scared that I made a bad purchasing decision but decided to take a crack at Robins repair network.
Called Robins, they actually had a repair shop at my local (just two miles away) hardware store. That was a bit of a relief as a local repair seems more likely to me to be quality, they know they would have to deal with it again if the repair is bad and are in the same community. They said they were backlogged and it would be three weeks till they got to it. I went forward with this, went in the next day with the towing valve diagram and signed it into the repair queue.
I called Terry to find out his recommendation on how to remove the mower deck and straighten the unit out for towing, he fixed me up with what I needed to get it into towing position. I mentioned it was going to be down for three more weeks minimum and that this was really quite a bit of inconvenience on a new tractor, going to have to rent something or hire someone to clear the field before the weeds go to seed. He suggested that I look into other Robins dealers which I didn’t want to do because local repair seemed the best chance at a quality repair and best local recourse if THAT goes awry. Then he offered to call Robins and have them try to get the repair shop to move it up in line. That struck me as a really bad idea when looking to get a quality repair. Pushing a repair guy to let you budge in line didn’t sound constructive to me, so I turned that offer down.
I was getting pretty upset at that point, over a month of down time in the making, no offers that were even vaguely constructive, no reassurance that they would stand behind me if I wasn’t satisfied with Robins. Absolutely no offer of anything that would even share or split the issue/inconvenience and get me up and running again. Zilch. I decided that Terry was great as repair and knows the machines, but maybe I ought to be talking to someone in customer service. I slept on the matter to give myself some cool down time, but slept like crap and decided that it was time to sever this relationship, I had zero faith left for powertrac and felt it was time to return this dead beast and move onto a real solution. I though about it before calling: was my only position that I want to return it? Or if they actually offered something constructive, handled me nicely would I give it another shot. I figured if handled well and offered something constructive (see any of the suggestions a few paragraphs above) I’d give it another shot.
So I called receptionist and asked for customer service, again figuring that maybe I had been talking to the man for repair information, but that someone else there was more oriented to customer service. Receptionist said she was connecting me to Kristi, which I thought odd, sales and customer service all wrapped in one? I told her this was not working, not acceptable and I wanted to return the unit. Well I certainly didn’t get any handling or offers to make things better, to make things right, just “No you can’t. We have a no returns policy. All sales final.” I’ll admit right about then I lost my temper and don’t know my exact wording. I do know I didn’t yell or curse. However, I remember laughing at her and saying that I didn’t believe that that was a firm policy and that any company, much less a small American one that relies on good reputation online and word of mouth recommendations would let a dissatisfied customer exit gracefully and walk away from what was turning into a bad experience. I also said if they didn’t take it back I was going to try to get satisfaction through my credit card company and would post my experience and opinion of their company online.
So she said she’d get back to me. She emailed me the next day with a written legal/credit card chargeback defense type letter . Still no offers to try and make it right, basically just screw you, we got your money, go away.
That was July 11th 2007, as I write this it’s ten days later, I have not entirely decided what to do next. It’s still in my local shops repair queue. I really do want to be out of any relationship with that company, but thus far my issues have really been with the company, not the machine, bad engines happen, so I might be happy with the machine in the long run, but the thought of dependence on them for attachments, hydraulic oil filters, support if it breaks again really tics me off. I think I’ve fallen back to my original position, I’m not willing to accept a rebuilt engine on a new tractor. I’ll wait a week or so till I see what the repair guys say, then decide if it’s time to get a lawyer.
I strongly advise anyone considering one of these things to looks elsewhere. Buy something with a local dealer and actual customer service.
Update: It’s now September 5rd 2007, just got word that it was the governor that died, causing some chaos that resulted in the rear mainseal blowing out and ejecting all the oil from the engine. No one can really explain how this caused the mainseal to blow out, but with no overheating signs, grooves, metal fatigue etc found by the repair place, they are replacing parts and putting her back together. Don’t really know what to make of that.
Sorry if this isn’t very well edited, just not enough time to do everything that should be done. I’ll update this with my experiences with the machine eventually and post this on my web site with the response letter from Power Trac, but for now this will have to do.
After much research and reading online, visiting tractor dealers and looking at similar products (versitrac) I decided to take a road trip to purchase a Power Trac 425. I timed the trip with some time off I had over the 4th of July, so I picked it up on the tail end of a work trip down that way with the intent of mowing 10 acres over the week of the 4th, my last chance to cut the field myself before the weeds and burdock went to seed.
I bought this machine based on a need for a versatile mower to tackle both brush/field mowing and to eventually cover my front end loader needs. I currently own a Bobcat 864 for heavier FEL needs while I’m building a house and taming new yard/brush/stumps.
One of my main concerns buying power trac was customer support, with no local dealers (I’m in central PA, so about 7 hours away from their HQ) I was a bit worried what would happen if I had any problems. The internet forums had quite a few positive stories regarding their support and they are easy units to work on, so I decided to risk it.
I called ahead to get a machine prepped and headed down. Test drove their demo 425 on the gravel pile with the bucket, it can move gravel. Hooked up a mower, huh, no PTO power. Tapping and jiggling ensued, nope, no PTO on the demo unit, I should have taken that as a sign and walked away right then. Ended up playing with a brush mower on a larger diesel unit.
Got my 425 with brush mower home, ran it for two hours cutting 4’-5’ overgrown field, which it handled pretty well. Tried it on the soon to be yard area which has some minor pits and ruts, it really didn’t like that not enough travel/flex/articulation or something to keep traction and smooth motion. It did take down a fair sized autumn olive that was in the field with little effort.
At 2.1 hours on the meter it suddenly started to sound louder and like the engine was reving. I shut it down and gave it a once over, air filter, oil, throttle cable, etc. nothing seemed amiss. I figured I might have bumped my hearing protection out of place and it just sounded louder. A friend dropped in and we chatted, so the machine had time to cool down. Fired her back up and kept mowing at 2.4 hours either noise changed again or I saw smoke. Dunno which happened first, anyways big billowing smoke surrounded the engine area. Shut her down quickly and jumped away from the machine. Let her cool a bit, when I decided it was safe to move in it was immediately apparent that engine oil had sprayed all over the engine compartment, dipstick zero. I walked away. Called powertrac the next day (Monday of 4th of July week), no answer. Ahhh, they mentioned not working or being around over the 4th of July week when I was in. Interesting that they didn’t update their phone message, lucky it had come up in conversation or I would have been plenty frustrated by the end of the week.
Anyways, the next Monday Terry called me back, basically said, that sucks I feel for you, but call Robins, we can’t help you. I quite nicely and politely told a story about a lawn mower that I had had which blew an engine when brand new, got repaired through that engine manufacturer and that it was never right again. It always blew smoke and was in and out of the shop till I put a free sign on it and wheeled it out to the curb. I stated clearly that I was not willing to accept a rebuilt engine on a brand new tractor. Terry said “Robbins is a good company to work with.” Holy crap, no reassurance that Powertrac will stand behind me if Robbins wants to rebuild a blown engine instead of putting a new one in? Just “Robbins is a good company to work with.”!!! No statement that this should never happen, we are sending you a new unit and will pick up the dead one? No offer to refund anything? No offer to take the lead on getting a freaking brand new tractor up and running again? No offer to ship me a new engine and take the local install bill and deal with the faulty engine themselves? No offer to put one in the back of a pickup and drive it ½ way to me if I would meet them ½ way? Nope, just good luck and let us know how it goes. Gee thanks.
I was pretty frustrated before that call, after that call I was still frustrated but now felt unsupported, disillusioned and plain scared that I made a bad purchasing decision but decided to take a crack at Robins repair network.
Called Robins, they actually had a repair shop at my local (just two miles away) hardware store. That was a bit of a relief as a local repair seems more likely to me to be quality, they know they would have to deal with it again if the repair is bad and are in the same community. They said they were backlogged and it would be three weeks till they got to it. I went forward with this, went in the next day with the towing valve diagram and signed it into the repair queue.
I called Terry to find out his recommendation on how to remove the mower deck and straighten the unit out for towing, he fixed me up with what I needed to get it into towing position. I mentioned it was going to be down for three more weeks minimum and that this was really quite a bit of inconvenience on a new tractor, going to have to rent something or hire someone to clear the field before the weeds go to seed. He suggested that I look into other Robins dealers which I didn’t want to do because local repair seemed the best chance at a quality repair and best local recourse if THAT goes awry. Then he offered to call Robins and have them try to get the repair shop to move it up in line. That struck me as a really bad idea when looking to get a quality repair. Pushing a repair guy to let you budge in line didn’t sound constructive to me, so I turned that offer down.
I was getting pretty upset at that point, over a month of down time in the making, no offers that were even vaguely constructive, no reassurance that they would stand behind me if I wasn’t satisfied with Robins. Absolutely no offer of anything that would even share or split the issue/inconvenience and get me up and running again. Zilch. I decided that Terry was great as repair and knows the machines, but maybe I ought to be talking to someone in customer service. I slept on the matter to give myself some cool down time, but slept like crap and decided that it was time to sever this relationship, I had zero faith left for powertrac and felt it was time to return this dead beast and move onto a real solution. I though about it before calling: was my only position that I want to return it? Or if they actually offered something constructive, handled me nicely would I give it another shot. I figured if handled well and offered something constructive (see any of the suggestions a few paragraphs above) I’d give it another shot.
So I called receptionist and asked for customer service, again figuring that maybe I had been talking to the man for repair information, but that someone else there was more oriented to customer service. Receptionist said she was connecting me to Kristi, which I thought odd, sales and customer service all wrapped in one? I told her this was not working, not acceptable and I wanted to return the unit. Well I certainly didn’t get any handling or offers to make things better, to make things right, just “No you can’t. We have a no returns policy. All sales final.” I’ll admit right about then I lost my temper and don’t know my exact wording. I do know I didn’t yell or curse. However, I remember laughing at her and saying that I didn’t believe that that was a firm policy and that any company, much less a small American one that relies on good reputation online and word of mouth recommendations would let a dissatisfied customer exit gracefully and walk away from what was turning into a bad experience. I also said if they didn’t take it back I was going to try to get satisfaction through my credit card company and would post my experience and opinion of their company online.
So she said she’d get back to me. She emailed me the next day with a written legal/credit card chargeback defense type letter . Still no offers to try and make it right, basically just screw you, we got your money, go away.
That was July 11th 2007, as I write this it’s ten days later, I have not entirely decided what to do next. It’s still in my local shops repair queue. I really do want to be out of any relationship with that company, but thus far my issues have really been with the company, not the machine, bad engines happen, so I might be happy with the machine in the long run, but the thought of dependence on them for attachments, hydraulic oil filters, support if it breaks again really tics me off. I think I’ve fallen back to my original position, I’m not willing to accept a rebuilt engine on a new tractor. I’ll wait a week or so till I see what the repair guys say, then decide if it’s time to get a lawyer.
I strongly advise anyone considering one of these things to looks elsewhere. Buy something with a local dealer and actual customer service.
Update: It’s now September 5rd 2007, just got word that it was the governor that died, causing some chaos that resulted in the rear mainseal blowing out and ejecting all the oil from the engine. No one can really explain how this caused the mainseal to blow out, but with no overheating signs, grooves, metal fatigue etc found by the repair place, they are replacing parts and putting her back together. Don’t really know what to make of that.
Sorry if this isn’t very well edited, just not enough time to do everything that should be done. I’ll update this with my experiences with the machine eventually and post this on my web site with the response letter from Power Trac, but for now this will have to do.
