There I was, merrily wandering home from the pub after a nice last days shooting of the season and I get a phone call......
"Hi, I bought a John Deere 545 baler off (so and so machinery dealer), just wondering how you got on with it?"
What the flip?! I sold a good baler to a dealer 15 months ago in good faith (along with a mower and wrapper). Being a one man band (and in need of some cash) I had decided I'd be better off using a contractor.
The baler worked fine when it left here (as did the wrapper and mower), I had only used it for a couple years to bale dry silage/haylage, hay and straw. It made a lovely bale, but as with all 545's it needed some gentle driving and a bit of patience now and then, but overall I was pretty impressed with it. The last job I did with it was to bale 10ac of Wheat straw one evening in August 2013, I pulled into the field about 7pm, baled 101 bales and only needed to get out once! (because I noticed a bale with stripped net on one half and so wanted to check the rollers were clear).
I had bought a manual for it, tidied it up a bit and generally looked after it while I had it- replacing nearly 3 belts and numerous pick up tines etc. The chap that phoned at 8pm on a Friday night in JANUARY said he had had a nightmare with it. The JD dealer was called out to it numerous times and gave up on it saying it was 'cursed' (his words), apparently there were "sensors missing and the belts were totally shot...it would only net wrap one in 3 bales if we were lucky and no two bales were the same size".
How would you react to this? Firstly, why is he ringing me now and secondly why is the dealer giving my number out rather than coming to me (even at this late stage)? I kept calm and asked a few Q's about the machine he had bought as it sounded very unlike the machine I sold to the dealer (the dealer did have a number of these balers around too). There were a few distinguishing marks that I could identify my old baler by easily, said buyer has asked me to email pics to him.
Im a bit flummoxed to be honest (and not too worried really), but I don't want to fall out with the machinery dealer as he is local and I may well want to buy from him or sell him some kit in the future. At the same time, this poor chap has bought an old used JD baler and had lots of trouble. What would you do?
"Hi, I bought a John Deere 545 baler off (so and so machinery dealer), just wondering how you got on with it?"
What the flip?! I sold a good baler to a dealer 15 months ago in good faith (along with a mower and wrapper). Being a one man band (and in need of some cash) I had decided I'd be better off using a contractor.
The baler worked fine when it left here (as did the wrapper and mower), I had only used it for a couple years to bale dry silage/haylage, hay and straw. It made a lovely bale, but as with all 545's it needed some gentle driving and a bit of patience now and then, but overall I was pretty impressed with it. The last job I did with it was to bale 10ac of Wheat straw one evening in August 2013, I pulled into the field about 7pm, baled 101 bales and only needed to get out once! (because I noticed a bale with stripped net on one half and so wanted to check the rollers were clear).
I had bought a manual for it, tidied it up a bit and generally looked after it while I had it- replacing nearly 3 belts and numerous pick up tines etc. The chap that phoned at 8pm on a Friday night in JANUARY said he had had a nightmare with it. The JD dealer was called out to it numerous times and gave up on it saying it was 'cursed' (his words), apparently there were "sensors missing and the belts were totally shot...it would only net wrap one in 3 bales if we were lucky and no two bales were the same size".
How would you react to this? Firstly, why is he ringing me now and secondly why is the dealer giving my number out rather than coming to me (even at this late stage)? I kept calm and asked a few Q's about the machine he had bought as it sounded very unlike the machine I sold to the dealer (the dealer did have a number of these balers around too). There were a few distinguishing marks that I could identify my old baler by easily, said buyer has asked me to email pics to him.
Im a bit flummoxed to be honest (and not too worried really), but I don't want to fall out with the machinery dealer as he is local and I may well want to buy from him or sell him some kit in the future. At the same time, this poor chap has bought an old used JD baler and had lots of trouble. What would you do?