Don’t be like me (buy local)
I purchased a Cub Cadet Z3 54in from Home Depot. The free delivery in 7-10 business days to my house seemed easy and hassle free. After the mower was delayed for multiple days in a row for delivery, I decided to look into the matter and found out that a third-party company called AAA Cooper had received the mower but was unable to deliver it to my house because it was too heavy. I had to plead with Home Depot every day for a week straight for somebody to look into the matter and finally after almost 3 weeks, I got them to issue a rescue ticket.
At last, I finally received the mower only to start it for the first time and the PTO to immediately kick off the engine. I checked under the deck and the middle blade is completely seized. The deck is clearly bent and I just need to return this at this point.
When people on this sub say to buy from a local dealer, please listen to them and don’t be like me. This has been an absolute nightmare to deal with from getting this delivered to receiving a broken mower deck. Hopefully one of you can learn from my mistake and avoid big box stores.
edit: borrowed a trailer and returned the mower to Home Depot. Took about 10 minutes to do the return. Is this fixable? Sure. Should anyone settle for purchasing new equipment at full price in this condition after a ton of hassle? I personably would say no and find it strange to argue against that, but to each their own.