So earlier this week I started the generator, a Coleman Powermate 5000, and pumped water from our well to the holding tank. Ran three and a half hours, no problem. Went out later that afternoon to put the generator to charge (we are on solar and had some clouds so I needed to charge the batteries a little) and, low and behold, gennie starts but is not putting out any power!!
DH checks it out when he gets home and, yes, something is definitly wrong. Mind you, we just purchased this confounded thing in March!!
So, we think, no problem this generator has a two year warranty. I look up the service center closest to us and DH gives them a call. Turns out, Coleman Powermate has filed for bankruptcy and they are no longer doing warranty work for them!!
So, the guy at the service center listens to DH describe the problem and service center guy says it sounds like the brushes have just worn out are easily replaced
and they only cost about a buck each. Great, I go into town yesterday afternoon and pick them up from the service center. DH tries to install them this AM and, of course, they don't fit our particular generator!
So, DH tries to call the Coleman Powermate phone number and of course just gets a busy signal. As a last resort, he calls Lowes in Show Low, AZ where we purchased the thing last March. He talks to the manager and the manager says go ahead and bring it in and they will credit us the FULL amount of the purchase and we can then pick out a BRAND NEW generator from the two models that they have. This is unbelievable to us!!
We just don't generally have this kind of luck!! But it was also a smart move on the part of this manager. We ended up upgrading to a slightly larger John Deere gennie and, even though we ended up having to pay a little over $200.00 to make up the difference, we are satisfied with how things turned out and will continue to choose Lowes for our future purchases rather than the Home Depot that is directly across the street from Lowes. Props to Lowes!!
