Ag-Pro Texas - 8 weeks and tractor is still there waiting on repairs!

[johncanfield]

My 4720 cab John Deere has a slipping PTO - every time I tried to mow in not so tall grass/weeds it would start slipping and the MX6 3 point mower would come to a halt. Worked great last year. There are several other minor repairs I wanted to get done so the plan was to get everything done at one time.

So I called Ag-Pro (Fredericksburg, TX) and asked the lady in service how busy the shop was since "I didn't want my tractor sitting there for three weeks waiting on repairs.." The lady replied, "bring it on in, service is a little slow right now...." :thumbdown: I hauled it in June 17. Obviously not.

Every time I call I get a story about how busy they are, everybody is haying, they are training new techs, or "what is wrong with it?" Last week this gal gave me some encouraging news - "your tractor has been assigned a tech and as soon as the bay is cleared, he will start (or maybe she said it was in the bay..)"

Called a couple of hours ago and the service guy (I've talked to him previously) said it was outside the shop and needs to go on the dyno - great, my tractor is inching towards the bay. Maybe I'll get to mow by Halloween.

I do feel sort of sorry for the service guy caught in the middle - too much work and not enough resources, I've been there from both sides of the desk.

Anybody else have service problems with Ag-Pro? Our former small local Deere dealer had a pretty good service department but they lost or sold the Deere franchise to Ag-Pro. Apparently they have been gobbling up small dealerships all over the area.

 

[Jchonline]

My father is around Athens. There is an Ag-Pro there that bought out the local dealer. He has had the ZT mower in for service one time, it was fine. We looked at tractors there before he bought a Kubota. The biggest concern with Deere is always small fish in a big pond when it is farming months. This is why I didnt buy Deere. I was just afraid they would have no time for me. Not that they would not want to... The sales guys were super nice, but getting calls from farmers all during the visit with me. They just dont have the time. On the flip side...if I paid $300k for a combine I would expect personal service as well!

 

[johncanfield]

Progress, my tractor is under roof in the shop. They might need to split the case, if so I probably won't see my 4720 for another few months - there will always a higher priority job to take care of. The tech on my job already got pulled off to work on a skid steer, this is not looking good.

 

[Rebeldad1]

after this much time I would ask them to deliver a loaner till its fixed

 

[johncanfield]

I've thought about that, if this was a warranty situation I would for sure. If they do need to go into the case, I'll want a meeting with the general manager before I let them do that. I might want to take to the former Deere dealer I bought it from, they will still work on Deere stuff but they don't have a Deere code reader.

 

[johncanfield]

Update...

Yippee :drink: . Finally my tractor is ready, I just had shoulder surgery so I'm going to have them deliver it. They spent a bunch of hours ($$$$) diagnosing and repairing my PTO issue where it was slipping under load. It appears this was mainly the result of a bad previous repair, they found Teflon plumbers tape in the valve body and some rust due to moisture (and a cross threaded plug.) The PTO passed the dyno test and the valve pressure is good now.

 

[Gafn]

John

Great to hear about your tractor, and hope the shoulder is doing well..

 

[5030]

I have green stuff as well as orange stuff. My problem with green is the chain dealerships. Used to deal with an independent Deere dealership but Deere pulled the plug on them and the multi store dealership came in. None of the sales people know squat about what they sell, the service department is a revolving door now. You go there and it's like a new car dealership, all glitz and no substance. I get totally turned off with that stuff. When the green wears out, will be no more on this farm.

 

[johncanfield]

Thanks for the kind thoughts. I had a total shoulder joint replacement almost three weeks ago and have physical therapy 3x a week. Therapy hurts when he stretches my joint but in this situation pain=gain. I'm really surprised how far I've come with rehab but I'm exercising at home and trying hard to get the shoulder back to normal (but being safe in the process.)

Anyway... I read my service notes more carefully yesterday and the plug that I thought was cross threaded actually had the head rounded off or something like that. Guessing the previous guy tried to tighten the plug so much he boogered up the top of it. For this repair they had to pull a rear tire and take some other parts off to access the stuff that needed repair.

I had several minor things that I wanted addressed. There were several areas of leaking oil or hydraulic fluid and the tech found several loose fittings. They did a full 500 hour service and I had the tires filled with anti-freeze. I bought the Deere radio kit and a radio and had them install it as well.

As far as the smaller dealerships disappearing, I have mixed feelings about that. Our small local Bobcat dealer was sold to a larger firm that has several dealerships in the area. Service is still quite good and the techs are sent to training (or at least the lead tech.) As far as the small Deere dealerships getting gobbled up, I'll reserve my evaluation until I have more experience with this particular dealer. The lead tech/service manager is quite knowledgeable, dedicated and trying his best to keep up with the workload. I really like the guy. I bought a ZTrack (Z945M) from this dealer a few weeks ago and that was a good experience (as expected.)

I had a Kubota L2900 that was extremely reliable, I think it only needed to go in the shop one time at 100 hours for a leaking front axle seal. I did all of the other minor repairs and maintenance on it. A Kubota in the 60-75 HP range was on my shopping short list but when I saw this Deere 4720 on the former dealer's lot I fell in love and I have zero regrets about my choice.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Glad you got your tractor back. Hope they fixed it. So they didn't have to split the cases?

I've ranted before about chain dealerships....In this area, Orange brand is also chain dealerships too.

Main rant for our town is the service department's flat rate has gone from about $70/hour to $104/hour. Too freaking much for a $20/hour tractor mechanic.

The good news is they often have specials to move equipment at good prices, and our local dealership has kept it's staff after being bought out.

Hope your shoulder continues to heal. I was just through Fredericksburg back on July 6th on the way to/from church camp. Bought some really good peaches and came home and made our own home made ice cream.

Hope you like your new mower. I believe they have fuel injected gas engines now. I'm guessing they get better economy.

We haven't had any good rains in 2 months now, so I don't need to mow.