50 hour service RANT!

[Podunkadunk]

Guys, I need to relieve some steam. I took my Kubota in to the local dealer last Wednesday. They were supposed to have it back to me by last Friday, but didn't call. They finished it Monday around noon and I had to call them to find that out. I went and picked it up Tuesday, early evening. I brought her home, put her in the garage. I hadn't bothered with her until today.

That's where the trouble starts. First, in a previous life, I was a Flight Engineer. Isn't much about my particular aircraft I don't know. I'm also an FAA Airframes and Powerplant Mechanic. Not boasting, just establishing my attention to detail and I absolutely insist on the same standard of excellence when it comes to my stuff, as I would do if I were fixing your airplane...

Anyhow, being that it was the first service, I figured I'd let them do it. They gave me a song and dance (when I bought it last December) about how the first service is the most important, how it looks good for the warranty if something goes wrong (if they did the service), blah, blah, blah. I know that speel is BS and a 2 year warranty is a 2 year warranty. Truth is, I just didn't feel like doing it nor having to dispose of umpteen gallons of hydraulic fluid and engine oil. Anyhow, that's not the issue.

The issue is this. Since I don't trust anyone (call me paranoid or whatever, it's cool) I marked (inconspicuously with a red 'sharpie') each bolt that had to be removed to drain fluid, marked the filters (all 4 of them, it's an HST) and made a lot of "mental" notes of the situation.

I was going to go do some pasture bushhogging today, so I FINALLY go out to the garage for a little quality assurance/spot checking on their handy work.
Here are my notes:

1. Oil quantity is overfilled. Cold engine, oil level is 3/4" ABOVE the FULL line! That's unsatisfactory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. The tranny hyd. fluid level is 1/8" BELOW the LOW line! (Yes, the 3 point is in the fully lowered position).

3. Somebody (in their infinite wisdom) decided they would adjust the toe-in on the front tires. Oh by the way, it's not due until the 200 hr service. The toe in was already in limits (5/16"), because I check it regularly...(I know, I'm geeky like that). Anyhow, the right tire tie rod nut was backed off 4-5 turns! Believe me when I tell you guys that it wasn't that way when I dropped it off with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was tight and jammed against the stop!

4. The front axle has 2 bolts that are required to be removed to properly drain the oil from the front axle assembly. Guess what? Yep, they removed the left side, but not the right. Ironically, the left side also has the bolt you remove to check the fluid level and the filler bolt. That's right, they only let out probably 1/2 of the front fluid. Because the right side bolt sits low, it's impossible to drain all the fluid from just the left side. SoB's...

5. Tranny hyd. fluid draining. There are 4 bolts that must be removed to properly drain the hyd. fluid. Guess what? Yep, you get a trip to Aculpulco!!! ding, ding, ding....Nope, they only removed 1 of the bolts. They removed the larger one in the middle and bottom of the tranny housing. There is one more just forward of that one and 2 back in the back, which, sit low and there's no way to properly drain out all the fluid if the rear two aren't removed. So, those arseholes only drained about 3/4 of the fluid.

6. This may be "nit-picky", but to me it matters. On a 50 hour service, they are supposed to grease the battery terminal connections. They didn't. They are dry as a desert bone. I would have let this go if not for all the other BS.

7. They wrote on the invoice sheet that they washed the tractor. NOPE, if anything they took it through a mud hole. When I took the tractor in, you could have eaten off any part of the tractor. I run a tight ship. I keep my tractor clean. There wasn't a speck of dirt on it when I dropped it off. Man that burns me up.

After I did my inspection, I got on the phone and called the service manager. I told him that this was unacceptable and that I was highly upset. I think that part was a no-brainer since I was using expletives that MikePa would ban me for if I used them on this site.

Long story short, they are coming to pick it up tomorrow and take it back. I told him that when I was in the Navy, if I had done my job like that, people would have died and I would have been amongst the dead! He was like "yes sir", "sorry sir", "I'll fix everything sir"....blah, blah, blah.

Why don't they just come out and tell you the truth? You know, we cut corners, overcharge, overbook the maintenance shop, crack the whip on those guys and demand that they do a specific number of units a day, all at your (the sucker who brought it in) expense, because half the dumbarses out there don't know shat from shinola and don't even know how to check the oil, much less read their owner manuals... (disclaimer, sentence is a "run-on" I know...I did it to illustrate my point better).

Word to the wise for all you newbies to the tractor industry like myself.
DO YOUR OWN MAINTENANCE, AS I WILL DO FROM NOW ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't trust anyone. Those guys are good people, I don't doubt it, but it's kind of like your wife taking your car in to the mechanic..."ma'am, you need a new tranny (when she came in for a new alternator belt). They'll do you in the drive-thru!!!

I wonder how many schmucks go in for all their services and get shafted like this...and don't even know it?

I feel better! I know it was long, but thanks for listening guys.

Podunk

 

[keving]

Sorry to hear about their incompetence. I trust my dealer and I still do my service for much of the same reasons. I wouldn't let them have it back...

Maybe you can call in an airstrike on them...LOL

 

[RonMar]

Do you know how hard it is to get qualified people these days, let alone competent ones? Heck, my wife is continually having trouble finding people to clean rooms at the hotel where she works(head housekeeper). I would not take it back to them. What happens when you complain and send your food back to the cook? Not many people are as observant as you appear to be, particularly with mechanical items. They probably don't get many complaints like this as the customers usually don't know the differance. If the service manager was genuine, he probably chewed out the service tech that did the work, but I doubt he fired him for it, nor will he be monitoring his work any closer(who has time). Guess who is going to be wrenching on your machine again? Hum, I wonder how long a HST will last with a handfull of shavings applied downstream of the filter? Now that he knows you are watching, those bolts might get touched, but it dosn't mean the maintenance won't get gundecked...

I would demand that the dealership refund your money and provide new fluids and expendables to compensate for your waste of time. I would not put the machine back into their hands to screw it up again. I would say I had lost faith in their ability to deliver and will perform the work myself. You obviously know more about what needs to be done than they do.

Good Luck

 

[Kendall69]

If this helps any the same thing happens to me EVERY time I take a vehicle in for service.

One vehicle 2 quarts more than the vehicle could hold.
Next vehicle, nothing was touched, evidenced by dirty oil, and dust or mud on the drain plugs or fluid level indicators.
Next vehicle 4 quarts too much oil ( it was a big truck )
Next vehicle took in for a low tire - “nothing found“, wife drove home with a 4“ nail in the tire on the freeway.

And on , and on and, on..........

Come to think of it I have NEVER had a proper service from any dealer I have ever gone to.

 

[lopezian]

Wow, Podunk, sorry to hear about your trouble. I am not mechanically inclined but I did manage to do my own 50 hr service, so I'm intimately familiar with all the bolts you describe. The owner's manual even describes exactly what to do. Maybe the mechanic has never seen the owner's manual?

 

[mjncad]

Podunk:

I hope you have another Kubota dealer that you can turn to if you need service that you don't have the tools to do yourself.

Never mind the pressure put on the techs by the boss to crank out work; I sometimes wonder if some of guys in garages can even read, let alone understand the manual.

 

[MikePA]

Guys, I need to relieve some steam.

Instead of just ranting here, send all this information to Kubota USA and cc: the dealer. Oh, any moderator would ban you, not just me.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Call me paranoid, but I dont take any of my vehicles to the shop unless it is absolutely necessary. There was this lady with Ford Taurus, she always went to the dealer for service at the right mileage, yadda, yadda yadda and the car was getting worse and worse - the dealer service could not find the problem.

Finally, her friend checked out the car - spark plugs on the front bay of the engine were in OK shape, spark plugs on the rear bay were different, and burned down to the core. They never bothered to replace them. Now replacing plugs is easy, even in hard to reach place, how do they deal with more complicated problems, I dont really want to know.

 

[Soundguy]

Know you know why i do all the service and repairs on my tractor that i possibly can.. vs taking it in someplace.

You never know what will come back broke or incorrect once you let it out of your sight.

Youd think the dealer would run a better dept than that.. as it is.. he's eating alot of money to redo the service correctly... when he just could have done it corectly in the first place... I guess that proves the old quote.. "treat it like it wasn't yours"...

good luck!

Soundguy

Guys, I need to relieve some steam. I took my Kubota in to the local dealer last Wednesday. They were supposed to have it back to me by last Friday, but didn't call. They finished it Monday around noon and I had to call them to find that out. I went and picked it up Tuesday, early evening. I brought her home, put her in the garage. I hadn't bothered with her until today.

That's where the trouble starts. First, in a previous life, I was a Flight Engineer. Isn't much about my particular aircraft I don't know. I'm also an FAA Airframes and Powerplant Mechanic. Not boasting, just establishing my attention to detail and I absolutely insist on the same standard of excellence when it comes to my stuff, as I would do if I were fixing your airplane...

Anyhow, being that it was the first service, I figured I'd let them do it. They gave me a song and dance (when I bought it last December) about how the first service is the most important, how it looks good for the warranty if something goes wrong (if they did the service), blah, blah, blah. I know that speel is BS and a 2 year warranty is a 2 year warranty. Truth is, I just didn't feel like doing it nor having to dispose of umpteen gallons of hydraulic fluid and engine oil. Anyhow, that's not the issue.

The issue is this. Since I don't trust anyone (call me paranoid or whatever, it's cool) I marked (inconspicuously with a red 'sharpie') each bolt that had to be removed to drain fluid, marked the filters (all 4 of them, it's an HST) and made a lot of "mental" notes of the situation.

I was going to go do some pasture bushhogging today, so I FINALLY go out to the garage for a little quality assurance/spot checking on their handy work.
Here are my notes:

1. Oil quantity is overfilled. Cold engine, oil level is 3/4" ABOVE the FULL line! That's unsatisfactory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. The tranny hyd. fluid level is 1/8" BELOW the LOW line! (Yes, the 3 point is in the fully lowered position).

3. Somebody (in their infinite wisdom) decided they would adjust the toe-in on the front tires. Oh by the way, it's not due until the 200 hr service. The toe in was already in limits (5/16"), because I check it regularly...(I know, I'm geeky like that). Anyhow, the right tire tie rod nut was backed off 4-5 turns! Believe me when I tell you guys that it wasn't that way when I dropped it off with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was tight and jammed against the stop!

4. The front axle has 2 bolts that are required to be removed to properly drain the oil from the front axle assembly. Guess what? Yep, they removed the left side, but not the right. Ironically, the left side also has the bolt you remove to check the fluid level and the filler bolt. That's right, they only let out probably 1/2 of the front fluid. Because the right side bolt sits low, it's impossible to drain all the fluid from just the left side. SoB's...

5. Tranny hyd. fluid draining. There are 4 bolts that must be removed to properly drain the hyd. fluid. Guess what? Yep, you get a trip to Aculpulco!!! ding, ding, ding....Nope, they only removed 1 of the bolts. They removed the larger one in the middle and bottom of the tranny housing. There is one more just forward of that one and 2 back in the back, which, sit low and there's no way to properly drain out all the fluid if the rear two aren't removed. So, those arseholes only drained about 3/4 of the fluid.

6. This may be "nit-picky", but to me it matters. On a 50 hour service, they are supposed to grease the battery terminal connections. They didn't. They are dry as a desert bone. I would have let this go if not for all the other BS.

7. They wrote on the invoice sheet that they washed the tractor. NOPE, if anything they took it through a mud hole. When I took the tractor in, you could have eaten off any part of the tractor. I run a tight ship. I keep my tractor clean. There wasn't a speck of dirt on it when I dropped it off. Man that burns me up.

After I did my inspection, I got on the phone and called the service manager. I told him that this was unacceptable and that I was highly upset. I think that part was a no-brainer since I was using expletives that MikePa would ban me for if I used them on this site.

Long story short, they are coming to pick it up tomorrow and take it back. I told him that when I was in the Navy, if I had done my job like that, people would have died and I would have been amongst the dead! He was like "yes sir", "sorry sir", "I'll fix everything sir"....blah, blah, blah.

Why don't they just come out and tell you the truth? You know, we cut corners, overcharge, overbook the maintenance shop, crack the whip on those guys and demand that they do a specific number of units a day, all at your (the sucker who brought it in) expense, because half the dumbarses out there don't know shat from shinola and don't even know how to check the oil, much less read their owner manuals... (disclaimer, sentence is a "run-on" I know...I did it to illustrate my point better).

Word to the wise for all you newbies to the tractor industry like myself.
DO YOUR OWN MAINTENANCE, AS I WILL DO FROM NOW ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't trust anyone. Those guys are good people, I don't doubt it, but it's kind of like your wife taking your car in to the mechanic..."ma'am, you need a new tranny (when she came in for a new alternator belt). They'll do you in the drive-thru!!!

I wonder how many schmucks go in for all their services and get shafted like this...and don't even know it?

I feel better! I know it was long, but thanks for listening guys.

Podunk

 

[Podunkadunk]

Update: After reading the replies, I reconsidered. I'll be calling the Kubota dealership back when they open this morning to demand a full refund. I'll go get the materials needed from the dealership and do it myself. If I get any "friction" when I call, I'll post the details.

Podunk.

 

[RedRocker]

Podunk, feel free to borrow my tractor any time, I'll even throw in the fluids in case you feel like checking things out!!

 

[Podunkadunk]

Update II - I had some extra time on my hands so I basically cut and pasted my post on TBN into a Faxing document (I cleaned it up some, so it wouldn't be so offensive). I faxed it to the owner of the dealership.

I got a call back (after the meeting he had with his employees) and the owner said he didn't want to lose my business. This was his offer:

He said they would come pick up the tractor by lunch today (they did, the guy came and left with it already).

They'll re-do the entire 50 hr. service (except replace the filters, which they did do that before).

He'll personally supervise the job...(yeah right, but it sounded good).

They'll refund the entire price of the job, minus the cost of the 4 filters (1 fuel, 1 oil and 2 HST hydraulic filters).

They'll have it back to me before 1600 tomorrow. Oops, 4:00pm.

I get 10% off my next purchase!

I was giddy, but didn't lead on that I was. As you already noted, I told them to come get it.

I don't think I could have done any better on the deal. I mentioned to the owner that I was reluctant to send it back, because you don't send a steak back at a restaurant, he ASSURED me that he'd be out there when it was done and that all the personnel in the service dept. went to his soap-box meeting he had with them in reference to the service I received. He was really apologetic and said he still wanted me to come in for future servicing.

He doesn't know it and I didn't tell him, but I won't be back for ANY basic servicing. Kubota's don't break so I don't have to worry about any kind of maintenance anyhow .

Just wanted to let you all know. What do you all think, even though it's a little late now, I still want to hear your comments.

Thanks to all,
Podunk

 

[AlanB]

Sounds to me like you got a small business owner that cares about his customers. One, (you) raised a problem which he addressed thoroughly in my opinion (assuming he follows through which I think he would, nobody like's to get caught short twice) and is doing his best to make things "right".

You never know, you may want to go bigger next week, or something

 

[MikePA]

I agree with Alan, great outcome. The dealer has some employee issues he has to address. Service technicians could be the problem, the Service dept mgr could be or a combination. He probably wouldn't know about them if you hadn't done what you did.

 

[MossRoad]

... Oh, any moderator would ban you, not just me.

Yeah, I'd ban him, too, if requested.

... First, in a previous life, I was a Flight Engineer. Isn't much about my particular aircraft I don't know. I'm also an FAA Airframes and Powerplant Mechanic. Not boasting, just establishing my attention to detail and I absolutely insist on the same standard of excellence when it comes to my stuff, as I would do if I were fixing your airplane...

...I marked (inconspicuously with a red 'sharpie') each bolt that had to be removed to drain fluid, marked the filters (all 4 of them, it's an HST) and made a lot of "mental" notes of the situation....

Good advice for anyone to check on their service people. Make sure the job was really done correctly/ honestly.

Another good thing to do is ask for any replaced parts to be returned to you.

Glad you got it worked out with the dealer.

 

[dmccarty]

Podunk,

When I shopped for a tractor some of the criteria was how well I liked the dealership, the salesman, what did the shop look like, etc. Did I feel that they would handle a problem correctly. I ruled out dealerships because of things like this.

So I buy the tractor and the salesman delivers. We off load the tractor with FEL and we still have the box blade and the rotary cutter to move. We hook chains up to the box blade and FEL. The sales guy, who is driving the tractor, asks, "Mr Dan, where to you want the box blade." I point to a spot.

He drives the tractor over and starts lowering the box blade.

And the FEL FELL OFF THE TRACTOR.

I'm not sure what hit the ground first, my jaw, his jaw or the box blade.

We then had a few hours of rather hot work getting things back in order. Basically the FEL had not been setup correctly. Also there was a bracket that came out shortly thereafter that prevented this from happening.

There was no harm done to anything except the salesman's ego. He left the equipment until Monday at which point they would come back and take it to the shop to get it right. Over the weekend I blew out a hydraulic hose because it had not been setup correctly and operating the 4n1 bucket caused it to snag and pop.

This was all made right by the dealer and the salesman. I did not have to say a thing. This story made it around the dealership as well. Many months later I was in the dealer buying parts and talking to an employee. He figured out that I was The Guy with the tractor that had the FEL fall off. The employee said that the day this happened, the salesman got back to the dealer late, went into his office for a few minutes and then went to the shop and proceeded to chew on a mechanic.

The salesguy is not a person who I would think would be a good fanny chewer. He is a real nice guy. Which is why I bought from him. But he chewed some fanny that day. The FEL falling off was embarassing.

I have had the dealer service the tractor a few times and everything has been done correctly. And I'll buy equipment from them as well. They are good people. One sure messed up though. But they made it right in the end.

Give your dealer a chance to make it right.

Later,
Dan

 

[Podunkadunk]

I did, by allowing them to come and get it and work on it a second time

You've got an interesting story there. I couldn't help but smile, although I know it wasn't a humorous situation when it happened.

As for the particular dealership I had the 50 hr. service problem with, they are all good people. The salesman is a hoot, just a good ole country boy like me trying to make ends meet. He's a straight shooter and I admire that in a guy. After I faxed the letter explaining what happed to the owner, I called "Sam" the salesman (name changed to protect the innocent) and apologized to him for sending it. That's how much I like the guy. He knows where his bread is buttered too, I've spent about 15,500.00 in there since December, tractor, 6' boom, front grill guard, tractor weights and an echo line trimmer just recently. He feels my pain and said that it was extremely rare that something like this happens. He also said that the owner called him into his office after receiving the fax, asking about me and what he knew of me. "Sam" said he put in a good word for me and that I was good peeps.

This is my second dealing with the service manager. The first time was when they were building my tractor after I bought it. He gave me a walk around of the tractor showing me all the in's and out's of the machine. I like the guy, don't get me wrong, seems decent.

What I didn't like was the incompetence. If you ask me to or pay me to do something for you, you can rest assured that I'll do the job correctly the first time. All people make mistakes, but AN ENTIRE LIST OF THEM IS UNACCEPTABLE. A 50 hr. service is pretty cut and dry. Drain fluids, add fluids. Grease and lube, replace filters. It's not rocket science and I don't blame the service manager personally. The tech. just didn't know what he was doing. However, the proverbial "buck" has to stop somewhere. Someone is Mea Culpa. I just sent the fax to the top man and I'm sure since he was made to look like crapola by proxy, the "shat" descended down the slope! That's why I called "Sam" and apologized, even though I know he had nothing to do with it.

To shorten a long story, I'll do my own routine maintenance from now on. If something breaks on it, I'll let them do the warranty work, but like you being "the guy who's FEL fell off", I'll be the guy who caught them slackin'! Our reps will precede us when we walk into the dealership. Maybe they'll tighten up and at least do any future work for me correctly.

Thanks for posting and thanks for the "interesting" story.

Podunk

Podunk,

When I shopped for a tractor some of the criteria was how well I liked the dealership, the salesman, what did the shop look like, etc. Did I feel that they would handle a problem correctly. I ruled out dealerships because of things like this.

So I buy the tractor and the salesman delivers. We off load the tractor with FEL and we still have the box blade and the rotary cutter to move. We hook chains up to the box blade and FEL. The sales guy, who is driving the tractor, asks, "Mr Dan, where to you want the box blade." I point to a spot.

He drives the tractor over and starts lowering the box blade.

And the FEL FELL OFF THE TRACTOR.

I'm not sure what hit the ground first, my jaw, his jaw or the box blade.

We then had a few hours of rather hot work getting things back in order. Basically the FEL had not been setup correctly. Also there was a bracket that came out shortly thereafter that prevented this from happening.

There was no harm done to anything except the salesman's ego. He left the equipment until Monday at which point they would come back and take it to the shop to get it right. Over the weekend I blew out a hydraulic hose because it had not been setup correctly and operating the 4n1 bucket caused it to snag and pop.

This was all made right by the dealer and the salesman. I did not have to say a thing. This story made it around the dealership as well. Many months later I was in the dealer buying parts and talking to an employee. He figured out that I was The Guy with the tractor that had the FEL fall off. The employee said that the day this happened, the salesman got back to the dealer late, went into his office for a few minutes and then went to the shop and proceeded to chew on a mechanic.

The salesguy is not a person who I would think would be a good fanny chewer. He is a real nice guy. Which is why I bought from him. But he chewed some fanny that day. The FEL falling off was embarassing.

I have had the dealer service the tractor a few times and everything has been done correctly. And I'll buy equipment from them as well. They are good people. One sure messed up though. But they made it right in the end.

Give your dealer a chance to make it right.

Later,
Dan

 

[Soundguy]

Sounds like a great outcome tot he problem. Assuming they get it right.. I'd call that one 'settled' and go on with it.

Glad it worked out. It seems like a real fair deal.

soundguy

 

[riptides]

Running a business is hard. That being said, getting good people to do the right thing is hard.

So, in your situation, I applaud you for bringing it to the dealers attention.

That is hard too! A lot of people will just flip out and be done with it. In this case, the dealer proved he is worthy, and tried to make it right.

I'd say that worked out for both of you, and that is something to move forward with.

It is hard to make things work right. It is easy for anyone to rant and walk.

Good for you.

-Mike Z.