The Shop

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the other two reviews…
I brought my riding mower to The Shop for a tune up and was charged over $ 200.00 for parts and service. Seemed incredibly expensive, but not being a mechanic I took Mel’s word for it. He started the mower up and it seemed to run well so I brought it home. When I tried to mow my lawn for the first time, after the tune up, the mower ran very poorly, losing power and shutting down just minutes into the job. My father in law happened to be over and he took a look at it. He diagnosed the problem as a bad solenoid, which was an $ 11 part. We replaced it and the mower ran like a champ. I returned to The Shop to talk with Mel and as soon as I said the mower wasn’t running well he became hostile. With a raised voice he told me «you’re not getting your money back!» I told him I hadn’t asked for my money back and, in front of other customers, he told me to get the F#*K out of his shop. I was so amazed at his awful attitude and crass behavior that I decided $ 200.00 wasn’t worth subjecting myself to his surliness…
Needless to say, I would suggest you take your small motors to anyone other than Mel at The Shop. He is a hateful and terrible person to deal with, which might be tolerable if he was an honest and decent mechanic… He is neither.
On a side note: I recently drove by Mel’s house and noticed the wind had blown a huge tree down which took out his car port and caused considerable damage to his property… Smiled to myself thinking, maybe karma really does exist.

I can’t give this business ANY stars. I dropped off a cut-​off saw TWO WEEKS ago and they have not even touched it yet. I asked if they would call with an estimate of what the repairs would cost and Mel tells me that they don’t do estimates. He asked me what was wrong with it — how the heck should I know? It won’t start which is what I told him when I dropped it off.
I would highly recommend you take your small engine repair work ANYWHERE but The Shop and Mel — the terrible customer service owner — in Skagit County.

Continuing my review: Washington Tractor (Previously Barnett Implement), the local John Deere fixed the problem, which was an incompatible (translation: WRONG) spark plug, which makes the level of incompetence at The Shop even worse than I thought. Washington Tractor also found a belt going bad, fixed the tilt on the mower deck, repaired the cracked and broken hood as best they could (20+ year old plastic tends to break down) and advised me of a few other things to monitor … and how to fix them myself if and when the time comes. The folks at Washington Tractor as competent and considerate – exactly the opposite of Mel and The Shop.

I rarely will write a bad review, but the way I was personally treated throughout the interaction with Mel and this facility was terrible.
Where to begin…
I presented this facility with a restoration mow deck I was working on. The deck had significant rust on the stamping (main structure), and a couple of the spindles were difficult to turn. My initial email request to The Shop was promptly responded to on March 11^th, stating the restoration would be taken care of, «no problem». I delivered the deck that day and both Andy (the tech), and Mel (the owner?), came to my truck to take a look at the deck before stating they would give it a whirl… remember, that was March 11^th.
Sequence of events:
3÷11÷2013 — Email request explaining service required, response from The Shop telling me to get the deck in
3÷11÷2013 — Mow deck delivered, invoice/​job opened
3÷12÷2013 — The Shop did not have the manuals nor parts lists on hand, so I did the research and provided them (via email) with the part numbers needed and the links to suppliers and the belt length cross references
3÷28÷2013 — After no status update for 16 days, and a phone call from me, I find out that they did have some parts on order and they are waiting for them to arrive on an «unknown date» form their distributor. They stated the only problem they were facing was the blades. I contacted Simplicity/​Briggs directly, and they sent me the service and parts manuals for the tractor and the deck, which I provided to The Shop to help them out.
5÷3÷2013 — We are now 5 weeks from my last update from The Shop, and 8 weeks since I delivered the deck. After finally reaching them by phone, and hearing the same «we don’t know when the blades will come in» response, I found the blades, Made in the USA, and readily available. I ordered them, and had them delivered to my home ⁵⁄₁₀. My wife then hand-​delivered them to The Shop the same day.
5÷6÷2013 — I sent a follow up email confirming the blades tracking info for 5/​10, and received a response stating the tech (Andy) would be able to put it all together on Saturday (⁵⁄₁₁) while I waited… BUT, they also did not have the belt! I re-​forwarded the original message where I provided the p/n’s and cross reference for the belt, as well as the links to where they had the belt available, and expressed my disappointment in how this was handled. He stated that they do not «surf the webb looking for these parts». He followed that up with «A restoration project of this type would have been much easier and a whole lot less frustrating for all concerned had it been started in the winter months when our business is much slower paced».
5÷10÷2013 — Blades delivered by my wife
5÷11÷2013 — I called to verify the deck was ready for pickup. Mel said «It’s as ready as it can be, you didn’t plan on mowing with it, did you?» I responded in disbelief, thinking he was kidding with me, but he proceeded to explain that the deck was not safe, and in the same breath, stated they put the new tensioner and blades on and I needed to come get it. He then hung up on me as I was responding.
Here is the worst part:
5÷11÷2013 — I arrived at The Shop, and met Mel in the service area. I told him that I was trying to be very patient, but was confused as to what had been happening the past 9 weeks. He responded that he wasn’t a patient guy, and told Andy, his tech, to «deal with this idiot, I’m not talking to him». As he left the room he called me an [expletive] as he entered the sales floor where a family with children was present. I told him there was no need to swear, especially in front of children, and he stated that he didn’t care.
Andy, the tech, took me to my deck and explained that he hadn’t even really looked at or worked on it until Thursday of that week, and that the stamping was too weak to support the spindles. He then asked that I pay for the work performed!!! Confused again, I asked «what work was performed, and if the deck could never be used, why in the world they performed any work?» At that time, Mel returned to the service area, grabbed the invoice and parts they did not install, and called me a «cheap [expletive]», and stated that I «just wanted something for free». Ironic, considering I was left with a non-​working deck with the 3 blades I procured installed. He told me to take my «[expletive]» and «get off his property».
In summary, absolutely horrific experience with this unprofessional, bitter man and his business. To his credit, Andy was very polite and professional through the whole ordeal, and seemed to genuinely care about customer service.
I am following up with the BBB, and Simplicity (as The Shop is a distributor for them).
There are many fine implement and small engine repair shops in the area (Sno and Skagit Counties)…find another shop.