MTD Troy-Bilt, Yard Man, Cub Cadet, Poor Product Design, Poor Customer Service Valley City Ohio

MTD is a holding company for many brands. Among others is the Troy-bilt brand of lawn mower. On 6-14-2009 I purchased a Troy-Bilt Mustang ZT-50. Within a year, the welds holding the deck to the lift rod assembly broke. This was covered under the warranty and I received what I would describe as excellent service from Rob --- who was the MTD service manager for the Kentucky region. This was after an odyssey of trying to discuss the issue with several MTD customer representatives over the phone. ( It took a call from the Lowe's Outdoor Equipment manager to get their attention). Flash forward to September of 2013. After careful inspection and maintenance of the equipment over the 4 years of ownership. The electric PTO switch quit working.

It was while trying to troubleshoot this problem that I discovered that the main transmission belt was worn and in need of replacement. I immediately consulted my Troy-Bilt operator's manual for instructions and part numbers, traveled 30 miles round trip to obtain needed belts. When I got back I followed the attached instructions only to discover a bracket welded in place - This bracket is in none of the documents or illustrations on the MTD website - which prevented me from following the MTD instruction manual. I called the MTD hotline and got a rude brush off from two different operators. Both stated that since this problem was not illustrated in their manuals either I would have to call back and consult with the apparently better trained techs that work from Monday to Friday.

Growing more frustrated, I decided to take a video of the situation with my trusty Ipod which illustrated the problem and show it to the Lowe's store employees. After driving another 30 miles round trip, none of the employees stated that they had seen anything like that and since their were no floor models we were basically out of luck. They did however promise to locate the MTD field rep for their area and get him in touch with me. This was on a Saturday. Following up on the following Wednesday, I received the name and number of Ryan Cheek, who the store clerk Eddie Satterly assured me would be in touch to explain a method for resolving the problem.

Today, Saturday, after not hearing back from anyone at MTD, I called the number and got Mr. Cheek, who explained he was on a camping trip. I apologized for interrupting his camping trip. I then began explaining my problem which Mr. Cheek recognized. He apologized for my problems and stated that the belt could be removed by taking out the central bolt which held the pulleys for both the transmission and deck drive pulleys to the drive shaft of the engine. I then stated that I had tried this but could not due to the ratchet turning the engine. He then replied that I would then need an impact wrench to remove the bolt. I then explained that - in addition to spending 30 dollars for this same advice on Fixit.com - I could not understand why it was incumbent on the consumer to spend as much as 300 dollars for an impact wrench to rectify a problem which was not documented in any of the manuals published by MTD?

Things naturally went downhill from there. Mr Cheek stated that neither John Deere or other manufacturers published this information either (REAL LAME ARGUMENT SINCE MTD WAS OBVIOUSLY THE OEM FOR THIS EQUIPMENT) I then commented that this was illustrative of a company that was not interested in growing market share and would not be purchasing any more equipment made by MTD in my life time. Needless to say, I am not happy with MTD or any of it's representatives and highly recommend anyone reading this to avoid the brand or any of its cleverly disguised sub-brands (Cub Cadet, Troy-Bilt, etc...) by anyone interested in yard equipment that they expect to last more than the limited warranty period of 2 years.