My fiance's VERY old riding lawn mower (he bought it for 100 dollars this summer) broke recently.?

Question

The starter and generator needed to be fixed. The places around here were charging between 400 dollars for rebuilt parts, or 500 or more for new, but fiance found a place...the guy looked at it and said it would cost $91.97 (or maybe he meant between 91 and 97 dollars?). He said the other places were trying to rip us off. Anyway, he called today saying the work was done and the bill was 230 bucks! Thats a 250% markup from the verbal estimate! We really dont have the money and woudlnt have gotten it fixed if we knew it would be that much. My problem is that he did the repairs without talking to us first, since it was obvious that it was going to cost much more than his verbal estimate. I called up complaining and he was rude to me and fiance, and said he would take off the parts and give us back the mower and old broken parts.

My ?...is he still going to charge us for labor? Should we pay it? Or just tell him to keep the mower in exchange for the bill? something else? HELP!

The lawn mower is very old anyway, so it makes no sense to put too much money into it, rather than save for a new one.

I'd rather avoid court, but I dont really want to pay a labor bill that may be 100 or more dollars when we were planning on paying that or less and having a FIXED mower in the end!

Answer 1

I would refuse to pay the bill, let him keep the mower if necessary and worry about it when he tries to collect. Keep an accurate record of what was said, who said it, when, what, and why. You may never need the info, but if he files a claim, you will get a chance to give your side to a mediator before it goes into the legal system. He should have contacted you on a junky mower and a bill that high.

Answer 2

Starter and generator?
Separate? or together (ex: old mowers like sears garden tractors used a belt style starter..... the starter would start the engine, and keep turning while the engine was running to act as a generator/alternator..... this is simple to replace.. its just a starter....


Newer ones have whats called a stator under the flywheel.... it charges the battery......., in most occasions..... if the starter works, you can always put a charger on the battery to keep it up and use the mower (if it has no electric pto) or jump it off another battery...... to start it.....


The starter? That would cost around $120
You have not only parts.... but labor to deal with.....