Kioti dealer service call pricing...unreasonable?

[jeff9366]

The nearest Kioti dealer is 63 miles from my house. I called the dealer to set up a service call, and was surprised to discover the dealer is now charging a $75 service visit fee (regardless of the type of work performed -either scheduled maintenance, warranty service, or out-of-warranty- with an additional fee of $4.25/mile round trip.

If your tractor needs to visit the Kioti dealer to have its problem corrected:


Dealer service at the dealer's premise will require two round trips, which is 4 X 63 mile segments = 252 miles. (4 X 75 mile segments = 300 miles.)

The dealer's driver/mechanic will require at least six hours for service discussion, transportation plus loading, chaining and unloading. (Dealer cost 6 X $50) (Dealer customer charge for labor 6 X $80)

Fifteen to twenty gallons of fuel.

Wear and tear on HD truck and HD trailer.

Commercial insurance for HD truck, HD trailer and your tractor.


Any special considerations when purchasing used over new?

Start with the nearest dealer and work out.

Transporting a tractor for service is expensive and inconvenient, whether you trailer it or the dealer trailers it.

 

[oosik]

I had warranty work done on my 2009 Kubota. New set of heavy duty steps replaced the OEM steps. I paid $75 for the service call. It is 50 miles round trip. Nothing for parts & labor.

 

[azbinder]

I did a warranty product update on a customers utility vehicle. About a 5 hour round trip plus the 45 minutes for the update. Was no charge to the customer for anything. Warranty paid travel since it was an update. Doesn't happen too often, but I've seen it a couple of times.

 

[Torvy]

Another variable not mentioned is OP location. Fuel prices vary wildly by state. You also may have state law differences vis-a-vis warranty fees. Sometimes those 'free' services are baked into the cost at POS.

 

[TCowner]

I should consider myself lucky. My John Deere dealer charges me $60 (includes both pick-up and return). I am about 20 miles from the dealership. Now, these charges are for tractors I purchased from them so I can can't be certain if the charges are discounted.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Hi all,

Sorry if this isn’t the correct forum for this question, but I’d like to know what others are seeing for an in-warranty service to the tractor’s location.

I purchased and took delivery on a new 2021 CK3510 HST about 17 months ago, so it’s still under the 2 year ‘bumper-to-bumper’ warranty. The nearest dealer is 63 miles from my house.
Two nights ago, at 351 hours, it threw a CEL with the codes ‘4881 F 30’.

I called the dealer to set up a service call, and was surprised to discover the dealer had changed their service policy to ‘promote their services’, and were now charging a $75 service visit fee (regardless of the type of work performed -either scheduled maintenance, warranty service, or out-of-warranty- with an additional fee of $4.25/mile round trip.
While my phone GPS says the dealership is 63 miles away, they claim it’s a 75 mile trip.

They are saying to come out, even if it’s just to perform a 'computer reset', I’m looking at:
$75 + 150 miles at $4.25/mile = $712.50 minimum.
That is unless, of course, I can find a way to bring the tractor to them.

I was shocked to find this out this afternoon, but then I realized I don’t have any direct experience to compare.
Is this typical? Are you all out there with Kioti tractors in the same boat, or is my dealer unreasonable?

Thanks.

For reference, to haul my 36,000+ pound payloader, which requires a semi-tractor, and a lowboy, my local excavators and loggers charge me about $5-7 a mile, a cost I forward to my customer. A smaller tractor that can be hauled with an equipment trailer, car hauler, or whatever is right in the price range they're asking.

Edit: that said, charging a service call fee on top of a milage fee does seem excessive as does charging you milage to and from.

For example, a couple of years ago when I had the tire manipulator truck come out and change two tires on my payloader, the tire outfit charged me by hour to run a truck that is at least $200K to get into to the point where they were done at my place. While expensive, I get it: the truck is expensive and the operator needs to be skilled.

Picking up a tractor is semi-skilled the operator must be sober (that can be a problem in some areas of our country) and skilled enough to leash a tractor down on a trailer, say $20-30 an hour. The truck is likely a one-ton so $60-65K new and the trailer price can range up to $10K, with both being depreciated business expenses. On the other hand, if it is a real tech with at least a two-year tech degree, as an operator of the dealership you look at what that person can make you in a day in the shop and start justifying what they are charging you to get the tractor.

Personally, I'd send the salesman out to get the tractor and charge $300 buck to pick it up and to drop it off to give the sales slug something for his or her time, as well as to pay for and pad a little for wear and tear on equipment.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Hi all,

Sorry if this isn’t the correct forum for this question, but I’d like to know what others are seeing for an in-warranty service to the tractor’s location.

I purchased and took delivery on a new 2021 CK3510 HST about 17 months ago, so it’s still under the 2 year ‘bumper-to-bumper’ warranty. The nearest dealer is 63 miles from my house.
Two nights ago, at 351 hours, it threw a CEL with the codes ‘4881 F 30’.

I called the dealer to set up a service call, and was surprised to discover the dealer had changed their service policy to ‘promote their services’, and were now charging a $75 service visit fee (regardless of the type of work performed -either scheduled maintenance, warranty service, or out-of-warranty- with an additional fee of $4.25/mile round trip.
While my phone GPS says the dealership is 63 miles away, they claim it’s a 75 mile trip.

They are saying to come out, even if it’s just to perform a 'computer reset', I’m looking at:
$75 + 150 miles at $4.25/mile = $712.50 minimum.
That is unless, of course, I can find a way to bring the tractor to them.

I was shocked to find this out this afternoon, but then I realized I don’t have any direct experience to compare.
Is this typical? Are you all out there with Kioti tractors in the same boat, or is my dealer unreasonable?

Thanks.

gotta be a dealer thing. My Kioti dealer is 70 miles away. It was $300 for them to deliver my new tractor. Luckily I have the ability to move my own so I did.
Ive had good luck in the past with local towing companies moving stuff during their slow times of day. Never hurts to call and ask for rates.

 

[TugBarge]

I currently work for a Kioti dealer (my last day is a few days away).

If purchased brand new and something catastrophic happens - they take care of it without charge.

Otherwise, they are $2.50/mile. If they had an empty truck in the area they could sometimes cut the trip fee in half. No service charge.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Picking up a tractor is semi-skilled the operator must be sober (that can be a problem in some areas of our country) and skilled enough to leash a tractor down on a trailer, say $20-30 an hour. The truck is likely a one-ton so $60-65K new and the trailer price can range up to $10K, with both being depreciated business expenses.

Finding drivers and other help is tough. I dont know why, what happened to all of the people (welfare maybe?)
Equipment costs are still high to horrible and good luck finding someone to fix them. One of my friends has a 2020 Ram 5500 that blew an injector pump. Been at the dealer for 6 months waiting on parts. Really hard to make 2 payments to keep one truck on the road.

 

[ddbackhoe]

I currently work for a Kioti dealer (my last day is a few days away).

If purchased brand new and something catastrophic happens - they take care of it without charge.

Otherwise, they are $2.50/mile. If they had an empty truck in the area they could sometimes cut the trip fee in half. No service charge.

moving to greener pastures?

 

[3gunr]

moving to greener pastures?

New job or new state?

 

[TugBarge]

moving to greener pastures?

I am going to a CAT dealer... really looking forward to the change. Same state, more upward possibilities.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Good for you, to being everything you hope it will be.

 

[TugBarge]

Good for you, to being everything you hope it will be.

Thank you!

 

[deezler]

CAT is a hugely successful company with a lot of upward mobility, for SURE. Congrats. A buddy of mine has a neighbor who started as a mechanic in our local Michigan CAT rental and service shop (was able to bring home backhoes and 305 excavators from work every night for neighbors to use, awesome perk). Became shop manager, and now, is manager for the entire midwest CAT rental fleet. Probably makes 250k/yr now, but does have to travel a lot. Bought his nice subdivision house for ~400k in mid 2000s and just sold it for closer to 800k, to move out to Illinois and be centered in the rental region.

 

[TugBarge]

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack the thread.

CAT is a hugely successful company with a lot of upward mobility, for SURE. Congrats. A buddy of mine has a neighbor who started as a mechanic in our local Michigan CAT rental and service shop (was able to bring home backhoes and 305 excavators from work every night for neighbors to use, awesome perk). Became shop manager, and now, is manager for the entire midwest CAT rental fleet. Probably makes 250k/yr now, but does have to travel a lot. Bought his nice subdivision house for ~400k in mid 2000s and just sold it for closer to 800k, to move out to Illinois and be centered in the rental region.

That's great to hear a real success story like that. It appears they really prefer to promote from within, which is a serious perk.

I moved from automotive service manager into Kioti, very small Kioti dealer so I actually did parts, service manager, and some sales. Loved the sales the most - a local CAT dealer was looking for a sales guy and I was fortunate enough to make it through. I'll be inside sales as the newbie.

I appreciate the well wishes thank you.

 

[grsthegreat]

I had CAT dealer come and repair a transfer switch for me on a job, as the control board is not available for non cat dealer purchase. They sent 2 guys and their large equipment service truck to remove 4 screws and swap a board. Customer got a bill for about $2300. Probably 5 minutes work And $300 part.

no wonder CAT has money.

 

[raxxter]

Thanks to all who responded to my initial post, I apologize for not responding to anything earlier but with the holidays and all, things have been extremely busy to put it mildly.

As for a follow up, I wound up borrowing a trailer and taking my CK3510 to the dealer. I arrive just as they opened, as arranged. When I backed up to their service bay, They brought out their Kioti diagnostic kit, pulled the codes, cleared the CEL, and reprogrammed the tractor without it ever leaving the trailer. Fifteen minutes from start to finish.
As it was covered under the warranty, I didn’t get charged anything.

I asked the mechanic what the problem was and the young man told me “…one of the programs had corroded. I pulled it out and replaced it…” (Corroded, so you pulled it out and put in a new program?...I’ll let you work on my tractor while it’s under warranty, but I think you’ll stay away from my computers…)
He went on to say the problem might have been due to the cold, and he’s only ever seen that particular code twice.

It’s been a week (of even colder weather – with daily use) and so far, so good.

I do understand time, fuel, wear and tear on service trucks, etc. are not free. And I understand the dealer has to make a profit.
But, I am not impressed with the idea of a service charge of over $700 for something that turned out to be a software fix – while under warranty. And for that being a minimum charge -on top of anything else- once it's out of warranty. I suppose it's my excuse to buy a trailer that can haul the tractor.

I’m just glad the tractor is back into daily operation, and all it cost me was $70 bottle of whiskey I gave as a ‘thank you’ to the guy I borrowed the trailer from.

 

[grsthegreat]

Any Excuse to get a trailer….

 

[old and tired]

You can borrow my trailer anytime... .