Which dealers give good service and which don't

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Was that under RECO as a distributor? Can't see RECO as having been particularly generous with their warranty approvals.
Yes about 1980, they started selling them when the roterra was king and I vowed not to have a power harrow due them always falling part, but Reco came in with 3 year warranty, the first one we had 4m hm nearly made it but a bearing let go, so went away to be rebuilt, it was common to do every bearing and seal where one would sort it.

Went on to have new one every 3 years for 15 years, they spent first 3 years in front of a drill then relegated to any double passes that were needed, still have the last one, a DM
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
I've never really had bad service from dealers, but I do question labour and travel charges sometimes.
What I do object to is paying travel both ways when you know the fitter only went next door. (this was not a main dealer).
 
Well, I was the foreman/service manager for about 12 years, with 3 different companies.
The first company & last company were sound as a pound, I was never asked to "invent" warranty claims.
Besides I'd been told a few times on service manager conferences that IH, CaseIH & also Claas were doing spot checks.
They were allegedly phoning customers to check certain jobs had been done, perhaps some of you guys can confirm this IS indeed the case ?
Anyway, warranty is a dead loss for dealers as most probably realise, it also takes up a fair % of a dealers workshop time.
This made it difficult to make serious profits required to run a workshop as many customers ran a mile once machines were out of warranty due to parts & mainly labour costs.

So, there was a time I was asked to "make up" warranties to ease the situation, make better profit, the theory being manufacturers have plenty money & dealers don't ( we all know this is utter rubbish )
I refused, explaining it was fraudulent, when pushed further I said ok, I'll make up the warranties but I'm NOT signing them off, I said to the gaffer he'd have sign them off, to my surprise ( NOT ) it was decided I was correct after all, it was fraudulent & the dealer could wind up in court.
PS
I'd already been told by a manufacturer that the person signing false warranty would the one in court ...

The moral of the story is always be honest to yourself, the truth may not be what everyone wants to hear, but it's the truth & in the end they'll respect you for that.
A case plant dealer,known mainly for skidsteers was putting in more warranty claims than average and a farmer was visited by case engineers to investigate why he had four drive motors in twelve months. The machine had less than 100 hours on it and hadn't even had its first service with no problems at all. They had the dealership taken off them
 

fermerboy

Member
Location
Banffshire
Have had the same thing happen to us, not brakes though. Spoke to manufacturer at highland show and they said they'd paid out on it.
I can guess who that was.
Friend of mine found out that his machine which had never missed a beat until one problem which led him to the manufacturer, had been subject to many warranty claims by the dealer.
I believe they were doing work on similar machines, and claiming parts and labour under warranty and billing the customer as well.
 

Qman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Derby
The hand gun on my 14 year old Karcher pressure washer was leaking. I bought some parts and spent several hours fixing it and when I tested it was leaking much worse!

I took the gun to the Karcher Centre in Nottingham where the mechanic mended it for me while I waited. I asked him how much and he said £0.00, so I gave him a drink. I've now used it and it works perfectly.

So a very big thank you to the excellent Karcher Service Centre in Nottingham. I know where I will buy my next pressure washer from.
 

Pluto

Member
Location
Hampshire
I would sadly second the Marshall one... Painful to deal with, very painful.

Same here I’m afraid. Sold me a Discovery which had supposedly been MOT’d.
Quite obviously hadn’t, and should never have been on the road 👎.
Having said that, the vehicle has been as sweet as a nut since it was put right, but not by Marshall’s.
 
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
What’s the difference between repaired and recondition if it works and it’s got a warranty ?
 

bumkin

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
pembrokeshire
I have just remembered something I heard several years ago about the local mf dealer....
A farmer had problems with brakes on his tractor and was very surprised to be told that it would not be covered by warranty as his trailer brakes were faulty
However when he enquired with manufacturer he was told the dealer had been paid !!!!
there was a time when M F brakes were notoriously bad, I think it did them a lot of damage customer wise, I went to visit an old friend i hadnt seen for about twenty years who was a contractor and I was surprised to see a yard full of deers as he had been an MF man through and through he went to the agent about the issue with the brakes and they told him it was his trailer brakes causing the problem he said they were the same trailers he was using before the dealer refused to sort the problem and he went to the deer agent and swapped the whole fleet the moral to this story is don't pish off a life long customer
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
I've never really had bad service from dealers, but I do question labour and travel charges sometimes.
What I do object to is paying travel both ways when you know the fitter only went next door. (this was not a main dealer).
Yes, that's a pet hate of mine too. One particular dealer is a bugger for it - and for telling lies. I'm not receptive to their BS - I tell the truth and expect the same in return
 
there was a time when M F brakes were notoriously bad, I think it did them a lot of damage customer wise, I went to visit an old friend i hadnt seen for about twenty years who was a contractor and I was surprised to see a yard full of deers as he had been an MF man through and through he went to the agent about the issue with the brakes and they told him it was his trailer brakes causing the problem he said they were the same trailers he was using before the dealer refused to sort the problem and he went to the deer agent and swapped the whole fleet the moral to this story is don't pish off a life long customer
How long ago was that ?contractor near me had that problem dealer not interested no masseys anymore blue instead
 
On the warranty subject, I've been doing a bit of work for a dealership, warranty claims have to be backed up by at least 6 photos, machine, attachments, photo of machine on the job, photo of hour clock, serial plate, new part, old part and a printout of the service log from plugging the machine into the laptop.

All designed to stop you fiddling claims
Yes I have seen a laptop plugged in when the dealer was fitting four washers to the door hinges to raise them slightly as the bottom of the door frame was catching on the frame of the cab. Holding it out slightly and letting water in when rinsing it down.
The firm seemed more interested in paperwork than actually supplying a reliable product or good product support, 6 months to replace a solenoid after they actually figured out what was wrong !!
Had to email the UK distributor , the dealer phoned me and his first words were " But you told me you weren't using the tractor" to which I replied " What I actually said was it was the last tractor I would go to use as it's so unreliable" It was under extended warranty, now sold !!
 

ACEngineering

Member
Location
Oxon
Maybe need it own thread but this one will do :unsure: Many thanks @TripleSix 😎👌
 

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ACEngineering

Member
Location
Oxon
What do you have to buy for that? I reckon @TripleSix wrapper just went up unless I get at least a Kit Kat

Actually didnt buy or sell anything :LOL: Just told him where his transmission problem was and that the part is obsolete so he will need to get one made(y) May have saved him blown seals in transmission though or a split trans pump fingers crossed.
 
Actually didnt buy or sell anything :LOL: Just told him where his transmission problem was and that the part is obsolete so he will need to get one made(y) May have saved him blown seals in transmission though or a split trans pump fingers crossed.

Saved a bloody big bill.
The manitou man at the local dealer had never seen that particular problem.

I dread to think what direction the diagnosis and repair would've headed in if we'd let them loose.
 

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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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