Dealer needs a good bashing...

dixiedrifter · Jun 27, 2004

I seriously got rubbed the wrong way a couple of weeks ago by a local New Holland dealer.

Notice I did not say MY dealer, they are not gonna get a dime of my money and I am going to tell everyone who will stand still long enough not to do business with them.

Anyone got the mailing address for the vice president of New Holland North America? I think his name is Alan Rider.

Bob_Skurka · Jun 28, 2004

I feel the same way about the local JD dealer in my town. Nothing wrong with the machines, but the dealership leaves a lot to be desired in terms of courtesy.

Gary_in_Indiana · Jun 28, 2004

I have two in my town owned by the same guy and I drive to another town to buy anything substantial just to avoid these people. I find myself scowling and muttering to myself all the way out about having to make the drive but happy when I see them and smiling all the way home. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

ByronBob · Jun 28, 2004

What happened? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Or if thats too long a story just give me the bullets. Quote you one price on the phone then bag you when you got there?

Henro · Jun 28, 2004

My local blue dealer turned me off too...and he is just a mile up the road...too bad (for both of us really) so he did not get a chance at my business...

His loss...

Golfgar4 · Jun 28, 2004

Well, if it's any consolation, you can add our local Kubota dealer to list. When I went in to get some basic pricing information, the guy literally threw a brochure (with no pricing included) at me and said, "There you go!" /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

The best dealers in my area (so far) have been AGCO, NH, and Century.

In all fairness to JD and Kubota, there ARE other dealers within a 1 hour drive that I will certainly talk with before I make a final decision.

Muhammad · Jun 28, 2004

Just so everyone participating in this thread knows, our policy on posting complaints about dealers is that you may post about your experience, but not the actual dealer name. All we're hearing is one side of the story, so we have to be fair. Every major manufacturer has customer service departments equipped to handle dealers who may be out of line.

Bob_Skurka · Jun 28, 2004

I'm going to take the same side as MikePA did on this. From the perspective of the dealer, you are essentially a tresspasser. I've called the police on people who have come to ask my employees questions and had several physically escorted off our property.

Now the local JD dealer won't get any more of my money because his attitude toward people is that he doesn't even seem to care if you buy or not. I walked in (twice) with a checkbook to buy a tractor outright. I had a heck of a time even getting a sales person to acknolwedge my existence. I had previously purchased some small JD equipment from this dealership and had some service work done with no problems, but their sales department needs a real serious attitude adjustment! No more $$$ from me!

cag · Jun 28, 2004

Dixiedrifter you had a Bad experience with a Dealer it happen to most of us at one time or another. I'm sure you will be the better man and buy somewhere else /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif cag

TCowner · Jun 28, 2004

There is a problem in my area (SE Minnesota) is that many of the smaller dealerships are being purchased by the larger ones. The result seems to be a "take it or leave it" attitude.

While the sales people may differ the policy with respect to dealing with customers is set by the big owners. I predict in 10 years there will be almost no competition among dealers of the same brand unless you are willing to drive 150 miles or more. The dealers is going to set a specific profit margin and will refuse to budge knowing that most of us don't want to travel that far for service.

dixiedrifter · Jun 28, 2004

I'm going to take the same side as MikePA did on this. From the perspective of the dealer, you are essentially a tresspasser. I've called the police on people who have come to ask my employees questions and had several physically escorted off our property.

 I can see why he did what he did, but he did not have to cop an attitude with me in the process. There is a big diffrence between someone who is willing to patiently wait to get 2-3 minutes of an employees time to help decide whether a peice of machinery needs to be brought in for repairs and someone who just sits there and wants to talk someone's ear off for 15 minutes. Obviously there has to be a line drawn somewhere, but running a man off without letting him speak his peace is just bad business.

You know, I wouldn't even be on here if he would have just said, "I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude, but he is in the middle of repairing this combine right now, but your welcome to come back at xxxx time whenever he goes on break/lunch/should be finished and talk to him then."

If I truly had a problem with the dealership not honoring a warranty, or screwing me over on something else whenever they had a legal responsibility to correct something then the next time they would be hearing from me is when the sherrif drops by with a summons to court.

I'm a consumer advocate, and I dabble a bit with credit repair (yes it can be done, you can get accurate negative info off your reports and its legal, but that is another board.) and have dragged a few companies to court pro se (latin for "do it yourself"). One of the other posters said something about the old bait and switch routine. Most states have deceptive trade practices acts wherein bait and switch routines are prohibited. I always recommend getting all business telephone conversations on tape (if its a one party consent state you don't have to tell them your recording) and if the dealership renigs on its former quote and you decide to purchase the equipment, drag them off to court. In TN you can seek treble actual damages for the old bait and switch.(3x what they tried to screw you out of). 

Now the local JD dealer won't get any more of my money because his attitude toward people is that he doesn't even seem to care if you buy or not. I walked in (twice) with a checkbook to buy a tractor outright. I had a heck of a time even getting a sales person to acknolwedge my existence. I had previously purchased some small JD equipment from this dealership and had some service work done with no problems, but their sales department needs a real serious attitude adjustment! No more $$$ from me!

I have had the same animosity from other green dealerships, which I can look over. They deal with a lot of customers and have a lot of irons in the fire at once and sometimes ppl slip thru the cracks.

I don't want everyone to think I'm completely negative, I do believe in giving praise where praise is due. The blue/orange dealer in Savannah, TN sales person has always been extremely nice to me and taken the time to answer all the questions I have. He has priced equipment competitively and as a result I have made several purchases from that dealership. Parts ppl are always nice too.

Also I'd like to mention from the other dealership I was speaking about erlier, that the individual's who was so rude to me's wife who works on the parts counter is very nice and helpful.

Henro · Jun 28, 2004

As a follow up to the comment I made above...

I think we all understand that color is independent of the issue. A bad dealer is a bad dealer. Red, orange, blue, green or pink...doesn't matter.

Bad is bad, good is good, and life is life...

Thinking on my previous post, even though it was based in fact, it could be taken as a slam on blue, which it was not, especially since my Kubota dealer also has a NH dealership...

Actually I think if I were to buy a third tractor it would be blue...those sloping hoods and curved loader arms sure seem nice... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Texxon · Jun 28, 2004

Kinda new here, but here are my experiene with local tractor dealers. I had my heart set on a John Deere after playing, er using my Father-in-Laws old Model 40, fine old tractor, well built. I went to a home show here and one of the local John
Deere dealers was set up there. I had to pry information about his products out of them. He gave me some brocheres and told me all the info I needed was there. I then went to another JD Dealer about 50 miles away. There were guys outside, one salesman helping load a tractor, other guys to my left looking at something. I started looking at their CUT's.
The salesman that was helping load walked right past me and disapeared somewhere. I started to approach two other guys and before I got to them, they walked away, so I turned around and went to the entrance and went inside. NO One in sight! So decided that I would go to the other dealers, maybe he was just tired at the home show. Wrong! Kinda like I had leporsy or something! I have been to the two local Kubota dealers, Farmall, and Massey, also Kioti and Century dealer.
All these people were first rate, willing to answer my questions, show me their product and give me a price. Althought I still have the NH and Mahindra dealers to go to, You can bet one thing, when I do buy a tractor, within the next month or so, IT WILL NOT BE JD GREEN!!!!

Junkman · Jun 29, 2004

( I'm going to take the same side as MikePA did on this. (rest of quoted post removed) )

It seems that something is missing here.... I have read this post from top to bottom, and I don't find any posting by MikePA..... I know it is late, my eye sight failing, my mind wandering, but.... Where is MikePA's post????? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

dixiedrifter · Jun 29, 2004

I posted some specifics and named names. It may have gotten deleted by the mods.

Bob_Skurka · Jun 29, 2004

( ( I'm going to take the same side as MikePA did on this. (rest of quoted post removed) )

It seems that something is missing here.... I have read this post from top to bottom, and I don't find any posting by MikePA..... I know it is late, my eye sight failing, my mind wandering, but.... Where is MikePA's post????? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )

Junkman, there were several specific references made in one of the posts, Mike repsonded, as did a couple others, in a way that was too specific. Those responses were deleted. And I think they probably should have been. There are 2 sides to every story, and while I think Dixiedrifter should have taken some offence to what he described in his (deleted) post, and I think the dealer could have handled things better, I also think that Dixiedrifter went beyond what could be considered reasonable by "going around" (again from the deleted post) the owner(?) of the dealership and going into the service department, etc.

dixiedrifter · Jun 29, 2004

I'm aware that insurance companies and anyone who has a shop generally frowns against non-employees being the shop area. Now mind you, if I had non-chalantly walked directly thru the front lobby of the building straight into the shop, then I could see myself getting run off. But there are three garage doors going out to the yard and I was basically standing at the east garage door.

Anyhoos, I did manage to talk to the mechanic later (off the clock) and he managed to give me the advice I needed. We also got to talking about what happened that day and he told me that later that day a snake fell out of the combine on the person who insulted me and tried to bite to bite him. I guess what goes around comes around.