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A MAN was left without answers for over a year after he paid $3,100 for a lawnmower repair that never came.
James Atchison, who relies on a riding lawnmower due to mobility issues, took his machine to a hardware store in 2023 when it started overheating and shutting off.
Helping Hand Hardware store charged Atchison $3,100 to order a new motor for the lawnmower in early 2024.
Atchison, a resident of Marion, Texas, approximately three hours outside Houston, was also informed that the final repairs would cost an additional $500 to $600.
But the motor never arrived.
After months of waiting, Atchison decided to ask for his money back when the lawnmower still hadn’t been fixed.
“I spoke to a man (at the store), he told me the motor was still on backorder,” Atchison, told CBS affiliate KENS.
Frustrated, he asked for a refund and told the store he’d pick up the mower himself.
He called the store in January, February, and March but couldn’t get answers.
He said in March, the store told him they couldn’t find a receipt for his $3,100 payment.
Atchison sent them his copy of the receipt in response.
After the store still didn’t give his money back, Atchison’s wife had enough with the miscommunication and warned the store they would go to the media with their story.
Only then did the store offer a partial refund, saying they would keep $650 for labor costs.
But the ordeal wasn’t over yet.
Atchison said that it didn’t make sense for him to receive a partial refund, and he again reached out to KENS.
When reporters showed up at Helping Hand Hardware, the owner claimed he knew nothing about the situation.
Statement by Helping Hand Hardware
Helping Hand Hardware in Marion, Texas, shared the following statement in response to James Atchison’s yearlong battle with the store.
“After I spoke with my new shop manager I was able to surmise that this was a very convoluted and technical issue,” store owner Roger Scheffel Jr. told CBS affiliate KENS.
“I could definitely see the breakdown in communication and understand the customer’s viewpoint, based on the fact that they could not possibly understand all of the nuances.
“Rather than attempt to explain the situation in great detail, I made the decision that it was best for us to proceed with ‘The customer is always right.’
“They certainly were not trying to take advantage of us, it was just a complicated situation involving back orders and defective parts from the manufacturer.
“We even attempted to solve those defects at a cost to us of close to $600 dollars, which in the end we wrote off to ‘good will.'”
Source: KENS
The store’s manager insisted they still wanted the $650 for their work.
KENS gave them two days to respond.
But just hours later, a different owner, Roger Scheffel Jr., contacted the station.
Scheffel said he had just learned about the situation and wanted to make things right.
He insisted that this isn’t how they do business.
Scheffel apologized to Atchison.
“He was very nice. He said ‘I’m so sorry you had these issues and I will pay you back all your money and give you back your mower,” Atchison said.
The next day, the full refund was in Atchison’s hands.
Scheffel later explained the store had struggled to source a working motor due to defects and backorders.
While they had spent nearly $600 trying to resolve the issue, they wrote it off as a goodwill gesture.
“I made the decision that it was best for us to proceed with ‘the customer is always right,'” Scheffel said in a statement.
Atchison was relieved to get all his money back.
Helping Hand Hardware didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The U.S. Sun.
