We Bought at Home Depot a Model 125 Automatic, well my wife wanted the 4 year extend warranty well I'll list coronologically what happened.

2006 Mower was delivered it was not set up properly battery cable I had to connect, cable was set next to battery I called the supplier local dealer I was not very impressed.

Mower Ran fine until it quit and could not start well the person came out took mower to store replaced the filter for a Feild Replaceable Part ?

Afterwards Mower ran fine.

Spring 2007 Decided to change oil & replace Air Filter stopped at Home Depot bought correct parts Home & Garden person very Nice Man Ok head home, I grabbed one of my filter wrenches, I cleaned off any oil residue as I always do ( I have changed over 500 filters ) and my wrench could not turn it.

I rechecked my work wiped the tool and filter again to double check again attempting to remove the filter, slipped again. I reconized the trouble was a overtightened filter done by someone with a " attitude problem " I called HD to let them know I have a problem if they would fix this under warranty.

Got somewhere the Mgr on duty was to call John Deere.

I emailed John Deere they sent me a response for a toll free call well the sand paper sugguestion came up, I think the person on the other end was not listening to me like she thought she was in charge, this really started to grind me.

After phone tag well I decided enough was enough I was not going to pay a $65.00 service call for someone who could not come until whenever. I stopped by Sears on the way home for work picked up a large Craftsman Channel Lock Pliers went home and grabbed the filter in its jaws and took me 5 minutes to damage the old filter to apply enough torque to remove the filter.

I replaced with a OEM Filter & put in the oil myself. Of course I applyed oil on the rubber O ring as I always do and hand tightened it.

Overall you really do not know who but in fact I have called the John Deere Dealer and Advised them not to bother and hope the owner knows I will no longer want him out after the comment of charging me ( or attempted to gouge me for the no longer needed service call )

At this point I responded tonight to John Deere & will file a Complaint to the State Attorney Generals office over this issue.

I will NEVER EVER BUY ANOTHER JOHN DEERE TRACTOR AFTER ALL OF THIS and I have not even got past 1st year warranty against defective workmanship blah blah and my HD 4 year extended warranty.

is this Customer Service ??????????????????

I could get a horse to do my grass or a cow without any complaints !

I use a big pair of Channelock pliers to remove stuck oil filters all the time. It's one of my favorite car maintenance techniques. I actually reviewed my big Craftsman "arc joint" pliers (the generic term for Channelock pliers) and discussed using them to remove oil filters in the review. Keep 'em handy!

--Bob

It is 12:30 at night. Spent it trying to get the oil filter
off my John Deere 125 automatic tractor I bought at Home Depot Oct 2006. I too had the problem tractor would not start, had to take the thing into a John Deere mechanic.
The battery was not charged. Good thing I had a pickup or I
would not know how to get it there. Home Depot had pushed it onto my truck. You know, no gas available in the store.

Oh, and then all the rubber bands holding the grass catcher
and grass guards have broke off within the first year.
Sound familiar to you too?

So now I have a filter all bent up. I have to figure out what to do, I am going to a Auto Zone with the new filter
and try and get a end filter cap with socket, funny size.
I ruined my heavy duty auto filter adjustable wrench trying
to twist it off. Yes it was the same engine assembler.
He must be laughing at this.

John Deere sucks. I hope they go out of business. Next time
I'm buying a Honda or Toro.