Re: Top O\' the Line Box Blade????
Harv, glenmac, Here is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of my box blade. My Kubota salesman did all the interfacing with Cammond. From the representations made to him by factory personnel he was optimistic that I would get a "one time special good deal" as a customer service PR thing. The capo di capi (BOSS of BOSSES) finally got back into town on Tue and today made his final offer. I pay them $50 dollars to repair the damage I did to the boxblade subsequent to their initial waranty repair. Then I give them back the box blade in trade for a larger and more expensive blade with no particular price break. I want to be adult about this and not bite off my nose to spite my face so given my needs and time constraints and convenience I will take the deal. I will also comment further about this situation.
The instruction book does NOT say to stop the tractor prior to raising and lowering the scarifiers. That isn't expected with their other models and wasn't mentioned up to and beyond the time of the first waranty repair. The Kubota guy Kevin D. Luper, a prince among men, asked Cammond about that and in light of the fact that I did operate that way and experienced additional difficulty with their clearly inferior underengineered product which bent like a soggy pretzel, they said you can't do that. A bit late, I think. If that was their position why wasn't that information in the operator's manual. Plenty of other info was in there. If there were a distinction in the required operation between this sorry piece of crap and their industrial rated equipment (rumored to be better) then why didn't they mention it?
It would be too bad if this or any subsequent posts (stand by) prevented any sales of their product with either the Cammond or Gearmore labels.
I have questions: How was I supposed to make a determination that this piece of crap couldn't be operated like its big brothers? Maybe by the laying on of hands to feel its aura or perhaps with a OUIJA board? With one it is OK but with the other it isn't? Of course the prohibition was only issued after the second episode of equipment failure. I think maybe if it were in the operator's manual then I legitimately would owe them for repair and the first repair which they did for free was a boon. It became, not their problem when it recured. Very interesting.
The way that the vox populi is heard is sometimes in the marketplace and sometimes in the courtroom. It is only $50 (for the repair) but lost time and a drove of other issues with monetary consequences are beginning to bubble to the surface any moment now, perhaps. Small claims court seems like a reasonable way to redress my grievance. I hope the big boss has time to represent himself conveniently as lawers are not permitted. Seems like a slam dunk to me. I think I had every reason to believe I could use this equipment in this way since all the other models are used that way and my instruction manual did not prohibit it for this model. If I had an expedient alternative I would take it to avoid contributing volume and profit to them through this additional sale.
I paid nearly $800 for this useless toy and it will cost me about $700 more (plus the $50 repair charge) to get something that is rumored to be usefull. The only good news is that I can probably get it tomorrow. We are coming into the fall rainy season and need to get some things done yesterday with a box blade.
Through all this my Kubota salesman at Chaprell Dodge/Kubota on Broadway in Ada, OK has tried to get me the best deal possible. Kevin D. Luper put himself through college brush hogging and has an extensive farming/ranching background and knows what he is doing. He thought I was not expecting anything that he himself did not expect.
In sharp contrast to the treatment I'm receiveing from Cammond, Chaprell Dodge/Kubota are truly customer oriented. On the way to the dealer to return my box blade this afternoon, I overheated my little Dodge Dakota due to coolant loss. Stopped on side of highway looking like a geyser (not geezer). Nearby body shop gave me two gallon jugs and let me use their water to refil my radiator. The owner says, "here take this one too, its coolant, that will help keep it cool. Is that nice or what? Gave me a gallon of anti-freeze/coolant! When I get the Dakota painted he'll get to bid the job, you betcha. Anyway a lady stopped to ask if I needed a ride while I was pouring water into what looked like "Old Faithful" at Yellowstone. She followed me all the way to the next town to the Dodge/Kubota dealer, just in case. Is that nice or what? I get there and tell the service manager sketchy details of my problem and he gets a mechanic on it IMMEDIATELY. They fix the split hose, fill me up with coolant and (drum roll please) refuse to fill out a ticket. It is a freebie. Then they go in and order me a hose (dealer item). Of course I will buy the hose but still free coolant and free labor to trouble shoot and make a temp fix. Pretty nice, I think. Note all the nice people I dealt with today? The guys fixing my truck had no idea whatsoever what was going on in the Kubota and implement portion of my visit or that there was a tractor side to it at all. They were just being accomodating to a customer.
And then there were the results with Cammond/Gearmore in total stark contrast to virtually everyone else I talked to this afternoon. Sort of paints a picture doesn't it. Given a fresh start and knowing what I know now, I wouldn't get anywhere near their products irrespective of how good some of them may be reputed to be. I'll paint over their name on the side of my new one to avoid advertising for them.
Given two equivalent implements from different manufacturers and knowing what I know about Cammond/Gearmore's business practices regarding customer service, good will, and the like, I would rather buy from soneone I knew nothing about than contribute to the likes of Cammond/Gearmore. Of course Cammond/Gearmore box blades de junk are blissfully unaware that the negative publicity that can be generated by one motivated extremely dissatisfied customer could easily reduce sales sufficiently to exceed the $50 they extorted out of me by an order or two in magnitude. This is sometimes referred to as stepping over the dollars to pick up the dimes. How myoptic can one "business man" be?
If I weren't in such a cheerfull mood due to having dealt primarily with good folks today I would not hold back in such a reserved manner but would instead tell you how I really feel about those (*&^ing (*%*ers.
Of course thats just my opinion, you might like to do business with such people.
Patrick
P.S. This to is NOT an urban (or rural) legend.
