John Deere's poor dealership decision making IMO.

[two_bit_score]

My experience is limited ....

The sales person said they are very busy certain times of the year and really don't do much in the hobby market...

In all fairness... the person that referred me is third generation and the family farms thousands of Central Valley acreage and said the Dealer has been great... even has customer appreciation at the owners home by invitation...

Kubota line is/was more in line with small acreage users so probably why tractor I wanted was in stock ready to go... Deere would have to order with no Demo...

Well, there you are. Your needs and your friends are daylight and dark apart from each other. You should have known that he was not using a dealer specializing in hobby farms.

There are big farm dealers of all brands. And there are hobby farm dealers.

Why didn’t you go to the dealer you use for your 110TLB?

 

[orezok]

"Laws. Overbilling clients can constitute an example of breach of contract and result in fines, lawsuits, or prison time. ... Some individuals that have been convicted of overbilling were done so under the charge of mail fraud, or under the False Claims Act in the United States."

Not exactly. Most of the work product is produced by clerks and paralegals, the attorney reviews it for accuracy and signs off on it and bills at their rate.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

My experience is limited but Deere never had a salesperson in and was not taking appointments for the next 6 weeks due to fall harvest.

I left my business card and got did get a call back in December saying it was a great time to buy at year end... by then I had bought my KUBOTA three months prior.

The sales person said they are very busy certain times of the year and really don't do much in the hobby market...

In all fairness... the person that referred me is third generation and the family farms thousands of Central Valley acreage and said the Dealer has been great... even has customer appreciation at the owners home by invitation...

Kubota line is/was more in line with small acreage users so probably why tractor I wanted was in stock ready to go... Deere would have to order with no Demo...

Your deere dealer was obviously understaffed and under inventoried in the CUT segment. I probably would have walked too.

You should have come down to mine. You would've been recognized in moments. Some people get mad if someone doesn't acknowledge them while their outside kicking tires. I don't like to be bombarded. I like to look over various features, after research, and then talk to sales, to refine my decision making. Now, I would have my mind made up before I pulled in the parking lot, unless there was some big sale on a particular model that I didn't know about.

 

[ultrarunner]

Well, there you are. Your needs and your friends are daylight and dark apart from each other. You should have known that he was not using a dealer specializing in hobby farms.

There are big farm dealers of all brands. And there are hobby farm dealers.

Why didn’t you go to the dealer you use for your 110TLB?

15 years apart and the Yellow Industrial Deere Dealer cannot sell AG or Green.

Even though I live in a regional with 8 million people +/- many counties here have no Dealers as in zero when it comes to AG... and the AG dealers in farm country really aren't focused on what they call Hobby farmers... probably why Kubota found a market underserved.

Now in Olympia WA and nearby there are many Dealers...

The SF Bay area is just different and I will leave it at that...

 

[two_bit_score]

In Texas the AG dealers were stocking and selling the 110 TLB’s.

 

[ultrarunner]

Good to know...

My neighbor was looking for a Gator and yellow couldn't help.

 

[jaydee325]

This is just a question and I'm not looking to pick a fight.

To those of you who lament the loss of your local small family owned dealership (of any kind), do you support them with your business? Do you buy incidentals such as oil, filters, belts, batteries etc from them or do you seek out the lowest price at your nearest big box auto parts store or discount department store or on line?

Not supporting your local dealer is part of the problem, no?

 

[JWR]

This is just a question and I'm not looking to pick a fight.

To those of you who lament the loss of your local small family owned dealership (of any kind), do you support them with your business? Do you buy incidentals such as oil, filters, belts, batteries etc from them or do you seek out the lowest price at your nearest big box auto parts store or discount department store or on line?

Not supporting your local dealer is part of the problem, no?

No.

I get your point but it is not relevant. There may be all sorts of other axes to grind here by other people but my only point (see post #64) is /was that for decades John Deere has intentionally, methodically and purposely sought to shove their smaller individual dealers out of business. It is their business policy evidenced by their behavior in many, many cases time after time over the years. They did it to my local dealer in the last month and they did it to my dealer back in WV 15 years ago. Deere wishes to have ONLY larger dealers and combined multi-dealer companies to work with.

Us customers boosting the profit levels of those small individual dealers by patronizing them and buying everything we can there has absolutely no effect on the Deere policy or behavior.

 

[jaydee325]

No.

I get your point but it is not relevant. There may be all sorts of other axes to grind here by other people but my only point (see post #64) is /was that for decades John Deere has intentionally, methodically and purposely sought to shove their smaller individual dealers out of business. It is their business policy evidenced by their behavior in many, many cases time after time over the years. They did it to my local dealer in the last month and they did it to my dealer back in WV 15 years ago. Deere wishes to have ONLY larger dealers and combined multi-dealer companies to work with.

Us customers boosting the profit levels of those small individual dealers by patronizing them and buying everything we can there has absolutely no effect on the Deere policy or behavior.

We will have to agree to disagree!

The local Kawasaki motorcycle dealership is a single store, family run operation that has cultivated a customer base that continues to support them. This dealership is among the highest rated stores by Kawasaki in the state and they are left to continue on. There is at another Kawasaki dealership nearby that I know of that was forced to give up their franchise by Kawasaki due to poor sales performance.

It's not just Deere. I also know of a small family owned Kubota dealership that was forced out by Kubota.

 

[two_bit_score]

No.

I get your point but it is not relevant. There may be all sorts of other axes to grind here by other people but my only point (see post #64) is /was that for decades John Deere has intentionally, methodically and purposely sought to shove their smaller individual dealers out of business. It is their business policy evidenced by their behavior in many, many cases time after time over the years. They did it to my local dealer in the last month and they did it to my dealer back in WV 15 years ago. Deere wishes to have ONLY larger dealers and combined multi-dealer companies to work with.

Us customers boosting the profit levels of those small individual dealers by patronizing them and buying everything we can there has absolutely no effect on the Deere policy or behavior.

Your implication that it’s just Deere that is doing it or that they do it in some malicious, nefarious manner is simply wrong.

You might want to consider investing in Deere. It’s a well run company and their stock closed at $193.10 today.


.

 

[RickB]

I used to live in the Northeast. Last year an outfit from Texas that owns a double handful of Deere Ag dealership’s in the Southwest bought 8 or 10 Deere dealerships in eastern NY and New England having something like 24 total locations. I have done business at 3 and am familiar with a few more. There’s no way 8 or 10 dealer principals woke up the same day, week or even month and decided to sell out without HEAVY input from Mother Deere.

 

[Diggin It]

This is just a question and I'm not looking to pick a fight.

To those of you who lament the loss of your local small family owned dealership (of any kind), do you support them with your business? Do you buy incidentals such as oil, filters, belts, batteries etc from them or do you seek out the lowest price at your nearest big box auto parts store or discount department store or on line?

Not supporting your local dealer is part of the problem, no?

I do when it makes sense. I buy filters and necessary parts from mine. It's a one location privately owned small business, but they sell a lot of machines. It's in a ag focused area and they do more business than I first thought. Mostly LS as far as new tractors, but they work on most any brand. I've seen Case and JD machines there in various stages of disassembly.

When my MMM belt gave up, I tried to get it from there, but even they admitted the price was outrageous ($120 something). I ended up getting it elsewhere.

 

[JWR]

Your implication that itç—´ just Deere that is doing it or that they do it in some malicious, nefarious manner is simply wrong.

You might want to consider investing in Deere. Itç—´ a well run company and their stock closed at $193.10 today.


.

I did not imply that it is just John Deere. Others of the major manufacturers do similar things, probably modeled after the successful JD business model. I do not like the practice, it is malicious as viewed by the small dealer whose family and himself have busted butt in the business for 78 years. Try telling them it is not malicious. Deere does it slowly enough and insidiously enough that it slides into the past over a period of time longer than the life of many of the businesses and often long enough for the older dealer to have died. Certainly over a period of several generations of corporate management. They have stuck with the plan. I would apply the term unethical and on a personal level, cruel, more so than nefarious. So far as I know they are within their legal rights to execute the plan under their business model as they obviously are. That does not make it a good and right thing to do from a human and ethical standpoint. To deny their plan operates as it does is wrong. I'm sure you don't deny it. We all know it is and continues to be. And frankly my dear, I don't give a **** what their stock prices are. 'Well Run' is your subjective conclusion, true in some ways and false in other ways.

 

[JWR]

We will have to agree to disagree!

The local Kawasaki motorcycle dealership is a single store, family run operation that has cultivated a customer base that continues to support them. This dealership is among the highest rated stores by Kawasaki in the state and they are left to continue on. There is at another Kawasaki dealership nearby that I know of that was forced to give up their franchise by Kawasaki due to poor sales performance.

It's not just Deere. I also know of a small family owned Kubota dealership that was forced out by Kubota.

What you said is factual. I don't see that we disagree.

 

[5030]

Here in Texas, Deere has already forced smaller dealerships to either buy other dealerships, or sell your own dealership. Our dealership had been family owned since like 1936.

So now, there are these "entities" that own multi-dealerships, reducing competition. Some "wet behind the ears" board member/s at Deere must have come up with this idea.

Now the word on the street is that Deere wants to get down to maybe only 4 "entities" to own all the dealerships in Texas.

While this may give corporate Deere some advantages, I for one, don't subscribe to it being better for the little guys wanting a compact tractor.

I would like to hear from some of the guys on the inside of these dealerships and how they feel about the pros and cons of this corporate move.

What will happen to Deere long term due to this?

I don't much care. Don't and won't own anything green, garden and crops excluded.

 

[two_bit_score]

I used to live in the Northeast. Last year an outfit from Texas that owns a double handful of Deere Ag dealership’s in the Southwest bought 8 or 10 Deere dealerships in eastern NY and New England having something like 24 total locations. I have done business at 3 and am familiar with a few more. There’s no way 8 or 10 dealer principals woke up the same day, week or even month and decided to sell out without HEAVY input from Mother Deere.

So is the net effect a positive one for the company, customers and shareholders?

 

[two_bit_score]

I did not imply that it is just John Deere. Others of the major manufacturers do similar things, probably modeled after the successful JD business model. I do not like the practice, it is malicious as viewed by the small dealer whose family and himself have busted butt in the business for 78 years. Try telling them it is not malicious. Deere does it slowly enough and insidiously enough that it slides into the past over a period of time longer than the life of many of the businesses and often long enough for the older dealer to have died. Certainly over a period of several generations of corporate management. They have stuck with the plan. I would apply the term unethical and on a personal level, cruel, more so than nefarious. So far as I know they are within their legal rights to execute the plan under their business model as they obviously are. That does not make it a good and right thing to do from a human and ethical standpoint. To deny their plan operates as it does is wrong. I'm sure you don't deny it. We all know it is and continues to be. And frankly my dear, I don't give a **** what their stock prices are. 'Well Run' is your subjective conclusion, true in some ways and false in other ways.

So were you or a family member of yours one of the small dealers that feel they were forced out of business by Deere? And if you don’t intend to imply that Deere is the only one doing things this way it seems to be true that they are the only ones you seem to be complaining about. So, just how personal is this grudge?

 

[RickB]

So is the net effect a positive one for the company, customers and shareholders?

In less than a year it is impossible to tell. I am not certain all the deals have even closed at this time. It will be interesting to see how many of the 24 total locations remain open for business 24 or 30 months out. Losing a dealership location is seldom a positive outcome for the customers.

 

[ovrszd]

It is my contention no small dealer has been forced out. They'll each been given criteria to survive. The ones that didn't made that choice.

 

[Diggin It]

It is my contention no small dealer has been forced out. They'll each been given criteria to survive. The ones that didn't made that choice.

And if that criteria is above their past performance to a point that meeting it is unreasonably difficult, THAT is being forced out.