New DeWalt mower threw rod. Warranty advice?
Greetings. My first post here. My 17 year old son decided to start a lawn-mowing business and not ask me for help. So, he buys a brand new $600 DeWalt gas mower (Model# 12AVP2R3739 w 3 year repair contract, which sounds worthless from the call I made) from Home Depot. 31 days into the purchase, the mower won't start. You pull the starter cord and you dont feel the usual resistance. Sometimes, there's a metallic scraping sound that sounds like a scre rattling around, but I didn't hear it today. I took it to a warranty center and the woman said it was low on oil. I took it home and added oil, but it didn't seem all that low.
Today, I took it to a mechanic who said it had thrown a rod, which sounds like a total loss. The warranty place charges $85 to do a tear-down to acces if it was my son's fault or if B&S will cover the damages.
What would you recommend? Has anyone been in this situation before? TIA.