JD seems to be too big for its britches

[Soundguy]

I went by the local JD dealer to get cornhead grease.

"We don't carry it"

Can you order it?

"Huff" (walks to computer.. taps a couple keys)

"You have to order over 32 tubes to get it..."

Thanks.. good by-

I called the other JD dealer.. an industrial dealer that also carries some of their larger ag equipment. They didn't have it.. never heard of it.. weren't interested in looking it up...

Incedentally, both of these dealers gave me the same runaround when i wanted to buy a pto generator a few months ago... Everywhere in town i went said that JD sells them.. both of those dealers just stuck their hands up in the air and said I should look on the internet, or mail order places....and that they don't carry them. A search of ebay shows that JD does indeed make pto generators.... Makes you wish dealers had to perform at some certain level of quality.. or else loose their dealership... I almost called/wrote corporate.. but decided in disgust that the apathy probably runs quite high there..

For the record..before I get flamed.. keep in mind that I do own a JD tractor, and am not just randomly griping at them...

This is a legitimate gripe about a customer-no-service situation.

As it turns out.. someone else made the profit on the oil, and the generator.

Soundguy

 

[MikePA]

This isn't a problem with JD, it's a problem with these 2 JD dealers.

 

[RobS]

That's unfortunate Chris. Unfortunate for you, for others looking for service and ultimately unfortunate for John Deere. If I were you, I'd send your post, as is to John Deere customer service. From what I've seen up here they take their dealer issues pretty seriously. We had a pair of dealers (same owners, two locations) that were just miserable. I only occasionally popped in for a filter or something because they were convenient. I got my backhoe from one of them but only for the deal (it was used) and it was a miserable experience. That was over a year ago. Those dealers are no longer John Deere dealers and one of our local ag dealers is opening a residential store to fill the gap /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Dave4410]

I agree with Mike. You shouldn't hold it against Deere. If the service was as poor as you say, Deere has probably heard about it. Get in touch with Deere. I think they want to know about these things. I've found that there's usually a guy somewhere in the parts dept. who likes a special assignment like researching the items you were looking for. Next time ask your sales guy who that might be, or go to the owner.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

My guess is that you live in an area where they don't use too much cornhead grease. 2 choices, Either order 32 tubes, or order some from Illinois...
While your at it, go ahead and put me down for 10 gallons of prop wash and a dozen muffler bearings...

Don't flame me, I'm just trying to be funny.
OK, I'll bite.
What does one do with cornhead grease?

 

[johndeere2210]

Cornhead grease is a specially formulated grease for use in the row unit gearcases. It is a non clay, non hardening type of grease. I am sorry to hear of the bad experiences with different dealers. John Deere has always been a customer oriented company and usually does not tolerate too many bad customer satisfaction reviews before the Territory Aftermarket Manager starts asking questions. As with pretty much everything, one or two bad apples can spoil the whole bushel. Please don't let a bad experience with a couple of dealers make you think that we are all bad. Thanks.

 

[beenthere]

Do you want the dealer to sit with 31 tubes of cornhead grease?
I don't like 'lazy' parts people, but suspect Deere won't send them just a tube. Maybe I am wrong, and I don't like that practice either. Rather the dealer could have communicated with other dealers and found someone who had the tube of grease.

But there are always bad apples somewhere in the barrel. Communication to Deere may help weed this one out, or get a system in place where an individual tube could be purchased (I thought they came in boxes of 10, but could be wrong). I will check on that though.

 

[cowboydoc]

I agree with beenthere and Mike. There are bad dealers in every trademark. As far as specialty items I wouldn't be too happy to order 32 tubes of grease so that I could sell one. Looking at it from a business perspective that isnt' very profitable. It's the same with the generator. Alot of that stuff they have to order so many of them. My dealer doesn't carry any of that kind of stuff because Deere makes them order a specific # of them. I buy hundreds of thousands worth of equipment and they wouldn't order me a power washer that I wanted because they had to buy five of them. I understood his position that he didn't want five powerwashers sitting around in the middle of winter. I think too many times we confuse customer service with business.

 

[johndeere2210]

I agree with you beenthere. There are specific items that can not be purchased in quanities of one, however, there are always other avenues to pursue. The dealers in our area will communicate and there is always the good ole parts locator system. If a customer does not mind waiting a day or two, an item can usually be had. The bottom line to being a successful dealer is GOOD customer service, before, during and after the sale. Any customer should be treated fairly whether we are talking about a thousand dollar lawn mower or a $250,000 combine. While I am venting, another thing that trips my hammer is a dealer that whose first question to a customer is "where did you buy that machine?". It seems to me that it doesn't make any difference. If a customer comes in wanting parts for a machine that was purchased somewhere else, that is the perfect opportunity to start gaining a new customer. Thank you again for the "venting" time.

 

[keeney]

Well, the concept of forcing the dealer to take more quantity than they want IS JD's fault, now, isn't it?

Lots of other companies sell lots of other $2 parts in single quantity, and its not a problem.

They just need to get their act together so as to be able to efficiently sell things in smaller quantities. Its not like they don't have regular shipments of parts going to the dealer - dropping another tube of grease or a PTO generator in the shipment shouldn't be such a big deal.

Somebody else will figure out how to eat their lunch and pretty soon its goodbye JD dealers, and then pretty soon after that its goodbye JD.

- Rick