For training purposes, some calls are recorded. How can I help you today?"
I inherited an old John Deere self-propelled mower with the house I purchased. Despite its age, this mower is extremely effective and mows my yard with more precision than any other machine I've owned. It's shown me why people spend the extra money on the brand, however, the other day while I was mowing the self-propelled band broke. Given its age, it's not surprising, but I love this mower so much that I'm willing to do the work to track down a suitable replacement. I'm aware it's at least a decade old, but it trims so well and everything else works fine. In fact, I've continued to mow with it, but the self-propel function doesn't work now.
My best bet was to contact the company and see if they could help me find a compatible belt to replace this one with. The closest John Deere dealer is about 45 minutes away, so I thought contacting the company first might help me avoid the trip. I called this number twice, but both times a recorded voice said, "Your call did not go through, please try your call again.” This was frustrating, but clearly means this phone number doesn't work.
A simple Google search found me a new number, and this one was still live (1-800-537-8233). A voice assistant immediately answered when I called, stating, "Thank you for calling the John Deere customer contact center. To locate a dealer nearest you, press 1. To process a warranty registration, press 2. For online store questions and support, including parts-related parts, press 3. For questions related to residential, commercial, sports and golf products, press 4. To order a John Deere publication, press 5. To repeat this message, press 6."
I chose option 3 since I had a parts-related question and then was given two more options, "For parts, press 1. For toys, apparel, home, and workshop, press 2." After pressing 1, I was asked if I wanted to participate in a survey (I opted out) and was immediately transferred to a live associate. This was great since it only took 2 minutes to get to this point. However, the customer sales agent spoke very broken English and clearly didn't have the technical breakdown to assist me with hunting down this part. That was disappointing, so it looks like I will either have to call back and try my luck with a new agent, or make the trip down to the dealer and see if I can find a mechanic to talk to down there.