Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

You will appreciate that you read this review. Let's start with my optimism that perhaps the negative reviews I saw here on Amazon.com were isolated incidents. I was really hoping to have a great experience, brush off all the 'nay-sayers' and settle into a long and lasting relationship with a new mower. I was wrong. The negative reviews for this product and for all Husqvarna products should be front and center when considering buying any Husqvarna product. Weigh them heavily; like, 10 times heavier than the positive reviews. My 24 year old Toro mower died on my wife a week ago while I was out of town. Hop onto Amazon.com- order this beast of a mower and wait 2 days for it to arrive. I help the UPS guy pull it out of the truck and immediately assemble this sporty looking grass muncher. Sure as can be, it fired up on the first pull. WHAT THE HECK? *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* I'm no mechanical genius, but I've been cutting lawns for about 38 years. Mowers aren't supposed to sound like that. Metal on metal isn't good. I tip the mower over, look under her sweet sporty chassis and see that the blade is hitting the inside of the mowing deck. I wiggle the blade- she's on there tight. I stand behind the handle looking her over and kind of lean into her a bit. I notice that when I put about 2 lbs of pressure on one corner of the push handle, the whole mowing deck flexes. Hmm... maybe I was leaning on it and the deck was flexing. I fire her up again. *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* Well, this isn't going as planned. I'll call Husqvarna. The response to my request to have the unit replaced (I mean, after all, out of the box, the blade shouldn't be catching the deck) went like this: You bought it at Amazon.com? You'll have to take it to a service center, have it evaluated and maybe fixed. With my SUV in the shop, I requested that they have a local dealer bring me a new unit and take this one away- Husqvarna already does business with the local dealer- you guys take the time to evaluate it- I'll be mowing. I'm told, "That's not how it works." My reply is, "Well, the mower with your brand doesn't work." After which, I get, "Well, you bought it Amazon.com..." I then politely tell the young lady that I understand it's not her, but the policies. I then ask for a supervisor. 10 minutes of hold time... Pierre answers the phone. I tell him I bought the unit through Amazon.com. His response, "Well, there's a lot of different people and distributors that sell our products on Amazon.com; (I explained that the seller of record was Amazon.com; shipped and sold by Amazon.com)- he didn't believe me. (for the record, I have snap shot that shows the shipping label from Husqvarna to Amazon.com's fulfillment center). I explain; as the customer, I bought the brand- not the retailer. Regardless of where I buy it, it's defective and I believe every effort should be made to replace the unit with as little effort and impact to me. I'm already inconvenienced. I explained further; after reading many poor reviews of Husqvarna's service, I was still willing to take a leap of faith. You have an opportunity to prove those negative reviews wrong. Again, "That's not how it works." I explained the alternative was to have the unit sent back to Amazon, me write a realistic review of my experience and buy another brand. "OK, thats your choice," is the response I get. Dear Potential buyer- move on to another brand. Husqvarna family of brands TO AVOID are as follows: McCulloch, Poulan, WeedEater, Gardena, Jonsered, Zenoah, Diamond Boart, and Flymo. Regardless, after seeing how flimsy this Husqvarna mower was, I have to say; nice design for ascetics, but poor quality of materials and certainly no quality testing going on with this brand. This is not an isolated incident. Poor quality products, no service recovery- not a company you want to do business with. Dear Amazon.com- drop this vendor! They do not recognize Amazon.com as a reseller and do not value the Amazon.com shopper. Psst. I suggest an Amazon.com internal mystery shop to experience this for yourselves. Oh, I bought a Toro model # 20337 at my local dealer. While I really wanted a 190CC engine, I'll settle for the 160CC engine and a long, happy relationship with another Toro. I will always love you Amazon.com! However, the Husqvarna brand isn't winning you any prizes and is proving to be a terrible partner.