Which dealers give good service and which don't

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Wonder how it would go down if , and it is only fair after all, that dealers named and shamed those who are bad payers by name and how much they owe . Now professional businesses would not do this, firstly because it would breach GDPR but mostly because it would be seen as unethical and the farming community would take great unbridgeable to their personal business being discussed on a forum.
Shame the same courtesy , all too often on here, does not apply in return.
Would everyone be quite so oblidged to offer their tuppence If the other half of the story were likely to come to light.
Tends to be very one sided and, as others have said , only half a story most of the time.
I see nothing wrong in naming and shaming bad / slow paying farmers, nor bad dealers.
If it weren't for Google reviews, and forum threads, how many more would have been conned by the likes of Queer Folks ? Quite a few other dealers on here were defending them at the time which tells me a lot about them too. (n)
 

Fendt516profi

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yorkshire
You ask why die hard jd here . 20 years ago ish . When blue tractors dominated , a new 8560 with new. Combi and front press arrived. Front linkage was supposed to have bracing to bell housing , it came with out , well drilling commenced and one Friday oil stared pissing out of a crack in gearbox , tractor stranded in field , said nh dealer Could not come to sort it till Tuesday as bank holiday , Mike goes to evergreen now Doubledsys , for a few bits on the Saturday morning in a huff , moaning about nh dealer and tractor problem , with in 3 hours a demo 6910 was in harness with out any question take it till your sorted , it never left , blue scrap went back and green ever since , 7 in the yard at minute
That's obviously when salesmen wanted to sell stuff. One gesture and there reaping years of loyalty
 

Gapples

Member
When I worked at main IH dealer in the 70's it was common practice to put old trans fluid back into tractor but the customer would be charged for new ,also a starter motor would be repaired but then sprayed with black rattle can and charged out as fully reconditioned
But the thing is the customers did not know what went on

I also worked at an IH dealer from the 70s through to the 2010s ( not all the same dealer )
We were never asked to put old oils back in & charge out new oils, we did obviously put old oil back in when it was deemed perfectly ok.

There was one time we were asked to make up "extra" jobs, find faults if we could or make them up if we couldn't to try & get more work, I was appalled & refused point blank, as did the other lads who had all worked in the area for a long time, my reputation came before anything else to me & the idea quickly fell by the wayside.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
One dealer in the area used to pin bounced checks prominently to the wall behind the counter so that all could see. Along with the names of anyone who had not paid by the sixth month after invoiced. Didn't seem to do his business any harm.
Wouldn't be acceptable these days.

As far as finding unnecessary work goes, most workshops really are too busy most of the time to do this. However every mechanic is different and some will replace more parts than others "just in case". That's not cheating or anything, it is just how some are. The very occasional one, taught be more unscrupulous 'old school' dealers, will replace far too many parts with new it has to be said, with the attitude of 'I'm not paying and if they want it to work they will have to pay'. In some cases they may be correct, but for the wrong reason. You certainly don't want to pay to strip a complex machine down a second time after a while for the want of replacing a suspect part worth say a couple of hundred quid that wasn't OK after all.
 
I also worked at an IH dealer from the 70s through to the 2010s ( not all the same dealer )
We were never asked to put old oils back in & charge out new oils, we did obviously put old oil back in when it was deemed perfectly ok.

There was one time we were asked to make up "extra" jobs, find faults if we could or make them up if we couldn't to try & get more work, I was appalled & refused point blank, as did the other lads who had all worked in the area for a long time, my reputation came before anything else to me & the idea quickly fell by the wayside.
How common was it with other dealers to make bogus warranty claims?
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
How common was it with other dealers to make bogus warranty claims?
It used to be fairly common. I remember back in the early 80's when a dealer had been paid to replace synchros and a clutch actuating rod, that I know of, there were probably far more, but never did them. When the synchros did go wrong, they already had the parts and had been paid for the job, but charged the farmer again for the repair work when it eventually failed, usually between 2000 and 3000 hours, which for the average farm in those days was between four and six years of age. The clutch rod was far more dangerous if it failed. They also did the same thing with a known issue with Subaru rear brakes, which locked up prematurely.

Nowadays it is far more difficult. Parts have numbers and are allocated to particular jobs and often stock parts are not allowed to be used for the warranty jobs. Every failed part has to be kept and inspected. One brand had an area service manager that would inspect the failed parts and would destroy them all with an angle grinder just to be sure they really had failed and would not be reused for a cheap repair of another machine.

Sometimes it really is to the customer's benefit that the dealer can cheat a bit. I'll always remember and never forgive Land Rover for sending a service manager to see my new Range Rover which had dangerously locking rear brakes. Many parts had already been changed and the dealer was at a loss to find the culprit. The prat from LR was demonstrated the issue and actually said they had already paid out too much on my vehicle [it had a weak clutch that slipped from the first day but the replacement lasted 100,000 miles of hard work] and washed his hands of it. This was on a premium vehicle less than six months of age!
The dealer principle, now deceased poor chap, had it back in and claimed for more work on another vehicle's warranty and after another attempt did sort it. They never found out which of the many parts they changed cured it and it was fine from then on. I love their vehicles but hate the LR company with a passion. That wasn't the first time I'd been let down by the arrogant twits.
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
Good Service
NCE Ltd
Pecks
Ankers (Ben Burgess)
Big Bale South
Big Bale North

Bad Service
Marshall Land Rover
Close Mitsubishi
I know we have discussed this in the past Andrew. Close mitsi have been excellent to us on our three shoguns. So it could be down to individual people. Just goes to show we all have different experiences with dealers
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
I know we have discussed this in the past Andrew. Close mitsi have been excellent to us on our three shoguns. So it could be down to individual people. Just goes to show we all have different experiences with dealers

I knew someone had but couldn’t remember who.
 

traineefarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Mid Norfolk
As helpful as a thread like this has the potential to be, we must remember that bad employees and managers come and go and even the best can have an off day and be very unlucky if they happen to serve a vocal complainer on that day.

I'm currently having difficulties with a company with an impeccable reputation for excellent service that has been trumpeted by myself and many others on here. I have been billed for parts not received, received parts that I've not ordered and having returned them can't seem to get a credit raised.

Past experience assures me (I hope) that they won't let me down and will get it sorted in time, but if it was my first time dealing with them, it would also be my last. If I was to name them on a public forum, the harm done would be undeserved to what is usually such a helpful and hardworking team.
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
As helpful as a thread like this has the potential to be, we must remember that bad employees and managers come and go and even the best can have an off day and be very unlucky if they happen to serve a vocal complainer on that day.

I'm currently having difficulties with a company with an impeccable reputation for excellent service that has been trumpeted by myself and many others on here. I have been billed for parts not received, received parts that I've not ordered and having returned them can't seem to get a credit raised.

Past experience assures me (I hope) that they won't let me down and will get it sorted in time, but if it was my first time dealing with them, it would also be my last. If I was to name them on a public forum, the harm done would be undeserved to what is usually such a helpful and hardworking team.
an excellent well written post....
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 3 1.6%
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    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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