Eagle River Small Engine Repair - Chugiak, Alaska

Liz F.

John and his crew do an excellent job of fixing my older model riding lawn mower and snowblower and doing maintenance on my push mower. John and his service are honest, very fair with what he charges and worth the trip from Anchorage.
Thanks John for being the person you are.

ryan H.

Dropped off snowblower, was running like it was brand new. Pretty good turn around time. 10/10 would come back again.

Roy M.

Earlier this year in March, I brought one of the bigger POULAN chainsaws (50cc, 20-inch bar and chain) to the only small engine repair place on the Old Glenn highway in Chugiak. The saw would run but would quit bog down when the throttle was opened. About two days later, they called and told me to go pick it up now that it was fixed.

The owner also mentioned that the drive clutch was in bad shape and needed replacing. So, I ordered a new clutch, new chain bar, new air filter, and new chain. I installed the air filter. Then I brought the saw to their shop again. It took only one day for the owner to replace the clutch with the new one after I brought it to their shop. So, I went and picked up the saw again. I tried to use the saw on a large 12” diameter spruce tree, but it would still bog down under a load. So, I brought it back to their shop and told them of the continuing problem.
I did not hear from them, but I did check on the saw during the first week of July. It was still on their list for maintenance. Yesterday, Aug 14th, I went to check on the saw. The woman behind the counter pulled the paperwork and told me that it was “fixed.” I looked at the work order to see how much the charges would be for just a 'high-speed needle adjustment' and noticed what the owner of the repair shop had written on the work order.
The work order had comments about ‘sharpening the chain”, and ‘cleaning it up’. I just looked at the woman behind the counter and told her that there was no need to sharpen a brand-new chain. She was confused so she went to the back of their shop and got the owner.
By this time, the owner was looking very irritated and was giving me the ‘evil eye.’ I ask him why he has ‘sharpened’ a brand-new chain. That’s when he exploded. He grabbed the saw, turn it upside down, and did his best in a loud voice to tell me that he had to clean the wood out of the clutch too. As if I was that dumb. Of course there would be wood there . . . it’s a wood chainsaw. He also said that the tank had some bad gas, and that he had to clean the air filter. Little did he know, the air filter was brand-new, and I had just filled the tank with new, clean fuel just prior to me trying to cut that 12-inch spruce tree.
Right then and there, I knew that it was useless to argue, so I told me that I would just like to pay for his work and be done with it. Behind me were two other male customers. My personal opinion is that the owner wanted to save face and berate me for his incompetence and being caught lying in front of an audience. I again said, “I’d like to pay you for the work and be done with it. I have no desire to argue with you at all." I held my composure and did not raise my voice to match his.
His agitated and angry reply was: “JUST TAKE IT. I DON’T WANT YOUR MONEY. JUST TAKE IT!!”
So, I walked out of the office with the saw to get away from the owner so he could at least deal with his other customers. Just as I was getting in my truck to leave, he came out to me, looked at me, and said, “Don’t you ever set foot on my property again. Don’t ever come back here.” I just looked back at him, eye-to-eye, and calmly replied: “No problem. I won’t.”

When I got home, I inspected the chain teeth and found the teeth full of burrs, and the rakes that set the depth of the cut had been filed down . . . on a brand-new chain.

My impression: The owner was trying to save face for lying to me in front of two other, non-native customer in the audience.

Robin D.

This is the place for anything small engine run. Wizardry is about the best way I could describe the way they bring machinery back to life. If you need a lawn mower, snow blower or even a generator this would be the first place to call. They also seem to service snow machines and small motorized vehicles. If you buy something used anywhere, this is where I’d bring it for a tune up before even heading home. The yard is indicative of an owner who loves what he does and who refuses to let older machines to go to an early grave.

Mark W.

Wow. Avoid. They took are snowblower for 3 weeks. The snowblower has a snow cover and the bars were bent when we picked it up. They twisted back when we got home. But, the shroud that directs the snow was broken. The first time I turned it on and got into a small amount of snow it just blew it up into my face. We live in Anchorage so it was a 30 minute drive to drop it off. Called them to let them know, took 5 calls to get a person. We paid $250 dollars and are being told to bring the snowblower back to them. Forget it. They claim it is not their fault. We asked them to make sure it was in good working condition. Now it has dumped another 4 feet of snow and I am back to the shovel. Thanks for absolutely nothing.

UPDATE: We spent $60 to get the part we needed. Look how much fun they added to our life. AVOID

Another UPDATE: the tire they promised they had fixed… it’s flat

Gabe O.

shame that there not a zero stars option. I took my snowblower in on Dec. 27th. The owner / operator told me a month, but then added that it usually is less time than that but he still estimates longer than it actually is. I called him again on Jan. 29th and at that time he told me that there were still 9 units ahead of me. I called again on the 2nd of Feb. and was told then that there were still 4 or 5 units ahead of me. Now back in December he had told me that he did about 10 units per day.
He called me back on the 2nd and told me that he had been working 12 hour days for the past 3 month and that I had to come get my machine because obviously his service wasn't good enough. He had my machine for over 5 weeks and never touched it. I would not recommend this shop for any service. No communication in all that time unless I tried to call. There are other shops in the Anchorage area that will communicate with you and are not backed up with 5 to 6 weeks of machines. Take your business somewhere else.

Padres

John is awesome!! Picked up and delivered my snow blower for very reasonable price. Have used him in the past and will do so whenever needed. Extremely nice, hard worker, and he is always grateful for the business. Keep up the good work John. You are an asset to Eagle River.

Heather C.

John (the owner) is a wonderful person and really takes pride in what he does. He's professional, knowledgeable, respectful, and very communicative. He really went out of his way to fix our snow blower before winter hit, and I've very appreciative! Truly great experience and service - I will be recommending him to anyone that needs small engine repair work done.