FarmTrac Troubles

[blueliner]

blueliner,

That was one of the word pairs that a dragon-lady English teacher beat into our heads 50 years ago. After nearly 900 dead serious posts in this thread, I thought a little lightening up might help. These guys have their reputations and life savings on the line. They deserve a break from the pressure once in a while.

I enjoy reading your articles, and hope your participation can help resolve this mess.

Calif.,

Dragon-lady, eh? Heh!
The mean, yard stick-totin' type, right? I'll never grow too old to forget such stuff. Ooh.

You're 100 percent right... a few lighthearted moments are welcome, considering all the pressure the dealers are under.

Like you, I hope to contribute something helpful.

--b

 

[taxpayer]

Hey everyone, haven't posted in a while, things are really coming down to the wire it seems. the latest fax from textron to the dealers indicates to me that something difinitive will probably occur between June 16 and July 1. I do not expect it to be good for the dealers, whatever it may be.really would like to hear from the people who bought tractors on the"less than zero program". I know us dealers are really absorbed by all we have endured up to this point and have not given as much of our attention to the injustice and outright fraud perpitrated on you by Farmtrac. you placed your trust in your dealer and Farmtrac's promise to you, only to find you were lied to by farmtrac and that your dealer could not help because they had also been ripped off by these crooks.it hurts deeply when a good and loyal customer, asks "what about my warranty or where is my rebate?"and the dealer can only answer "it no longer exists and I can't do anything about it".most have been very understanding of the dealers.my friends, your dealer, whomever they may be, values your trust and realises it is necessary in any sucsessful business.and to have been unable to prevent the violation of that trust by anyone in this industry is heartbreaking to any honest dealer. Please, let us hear from you, we value your comments good or bad. if we,dealers,customers and friends stick together, we may yet see something positive come out of this.thank you---------------Taxpayer

 

[SESS]

To all Farmtrac customers past, present and future: Taxpayer summed it up, plan and simple. You are stuck, we dealers are stuck. You customers are out rebate checks and warranty, we dealers are out our lively hood. To be self employed is a tremendous obstacle to say the least. To be self employed trying your darnedest to sell a product that you truely believe in, to only have the rug pulled out from underneath you SUCKS! This sucks that so many good people both the customers, employees and dealers were HAD by a bunch of greedy individuals with nothing in their site path except their own personal gain just makes us MAD AS HECK! We are fighting and we are fighting hard. We need all customers to get on board with us. Contact us by PM and we will get you pointed in the right direction which I believe is through your government officials and by law suit. You have every reason to file a suit against Farmtrac. Whether you will get anything out of it, is yet to be seen. But fight and do not give up. We dealers are certainly not giving up!

 

[case1570]

Came across a quote last night that I tought was appropriate.
"NOT GETTING CAUGHT IN A LIE IS NOT THE SAME AS TELLING THE TRUTH"
You can use your own judgement as to who this applies to.

Signed: A dealer doing their best to support our customers in bad situation.
Case

 

[taxpayer]

Thanks Sess, for the comments, I would to add that any parts issues,repairs needed and questions by customers should be directed to their dealer.the farmtrac dealers have and will remain loyal to their customers and will assist in anyway we can. thanks for your support.-------Taxpayer

 

[SESS]

Attention not even zero Farmtrac customers: I found a piece of extremely startling information in the Edgecombe County (Taroboro, NC) law suit that was filed by LS Cable vs Farmtrac(which is public record and anyone has access to the file to review!). The grand total of payments due to customers who purchased the "not even zero" program is $2,971,485.53----that is millions folks! I was shocked at the figure and could not believe that that rebate program had defrauded that many people of that much money. $2.9+ MILLION dollars is alot of money that was just flat out, down right and intentionally stolen from the customers. Appauling, absolutely appauling. If you have not gotten really mad at the money that was stolen from you-now is the time to be mad. Call your governor, your state representative, your senators, your newspaper companies-that is what those people were elected for-to help the American people out. That money was "stolen, misplaced, lost, wrongly invested" whatever you want to call it-it is fraud in every sense of the word! Send emails, send letters, make phone calls-but contact your government officials and get them involved and ask "WHERE IS MY MONEY!". I can tell you, that the money is not in the USA anymore!

 

[blueliner]

Hello everyone,

I received a note yesterday from REDNECKFORD, a forthright TBN reader and former dealer that contrary to his name, is *anything but* a redneck. Folks like RNFord don't end up with two Master's Degrees by accident -- but with hard work and ability. Good job, stud!

In addition, he has kindly provided permission to share information with all of you. On behalf of many, I extend tremendous gratitude to RNFord ... and all others that share information.

He is a veteran -- of the same dirty tricks Farmtrac dealers have experienced.

In his note, RNFord reinforced some beliefs many of us have held to be true.

I am not a Farmtrac Dealer. I was a Ford/New Holland dealer for nearly 20 years and went through the buy out of New Holland and Versitille, the merger with Fiat and the buy out of Case by New Holland.

When New Holland bought out Case they got nearly $980 million of worthless paper.

They made it hard on all the little dealers (3 million dollars or less), using all the tactics that Farmtrac dealers are facing today.

- They loaded up the dealers with inventory that they did not order.
- They cut programs and cut volume programs on the fly. They started pushing many costs down onto dealers.
- They rotated Territory Managers and other personnel, disrupting unwritten promises between dealers and previous personnel. New Territory Managers and others knew nothing them. Without the agreements in writing, they became unenforceable. The adage became, "Just pay for it."

Do these procedures sound familiar, dealers?

RNFord also had other insightful takes:

I agree with you... I have tried to motivate the dealers to solve problems themselves, because no White Knight was on the way to save them. The longer they wait, the larger the problem becomes for each of them.

Time *is* important ... something that will be scarce June 16th -- on T-Day.

Some [dealers] think that legal action can happen in a few weeks what many *DO NOT* understand is that legal action usually takes months -- and years -- and still will give them no relief. Been there done that.

The court of law is a last resort -- a slow, unsure one.
Corporations have bulked-up legal teams on retainer.
How can the working class citizenry compete with that?

What other court exists?
The court of public opinion.
Major corporations become uncomfortable with media scrutiny.

I am able to sound off on the web site because they have taken all I have and... what are they going to do to me?

Many dealers are afraid to talk or say any thing. I just hope you can get this issue before the larger general public.

That's the plan... with help from dealers and other informative readers.

Click here to e-mail information, questions or comments about "tractor loading" or any related topic.

Private messages or faxes are also accepted.

fax: (623) 687-9467
e-mail: bob_benedetti@hotmail.com

--blueliner

 

[case1570]

Thank You Blueliner, keep up the great work.
I think people should also know what I think; It was only a short time ago that Scat Trak dealers (a Textron Co.)were relentlesly pushed to take units or face cancilation. They took large amounts of units at full invoice price to keep the line, only to find out that some parts of the company were sold and that the dealers contract did not go along. They lost all programs, warranties and then found the exact same new model units that were left over at the factory for sale at auction. They then had to compete with these half price units. The majority of them went out of business because they could not pay the floorplan company (Textron) the difference when their new Scat Traks were worth half of the floorplan amount. Dealerships reputations were destroyed and most customers went without warranty, parts and the programs that they were promised. The story sounds familiar does it not?

Please call your state representatives and tell them what is happening. We need your help or it will happen again.
Case

 

[taxpayer]

To all you "less than zero victims" and those left without warranties. I spoke this morning with one of my customers caught up in this mess, he told me a call to tarboro got him the same thing he got with the program"LESS THAN ZERO".he readily agreed to talk to Bob Benedetti.if you want your voice to be heard,then give your story to Bob.you have scores of fellow victims out there, who need you to help them, let your voice be heard, contact Bob.-----Taxpayer

 

[Brad86]

please help!!!! I have a 8075 DT farmtrac i busted the back glass out of the cab and cant seem to find a replacement. The glass co. said they couldnt replace it because it was curved the only way would be to but lexan in it. He also said that the lexan would be really easy to scratch. I really would like to find a replacement if there is one out there. Ive called every dealer that i can find a number for, but now im here just in case i missed some. So if there is anybody that has one or has any ideas please let me know. bradleychilders@yahoo.com
Thanks