Redneckford, a couple things to be considered when trying to get to the bottom of any scheme is Motive and opportunity,a check of the Escorts group shows it to be among the largest Financial conglomerates in india,it is apparent they are excellent business people and it seems to me that they would not allow a subsidiary of theirs to embark on a move to gain highly desired inroads into american markets without a very solid business plan in place, I can not see a motive to deliberately deplete the resources of a potentially profitable venture,although any good businessman knows that unproductive employees left unmanaged will reak havoc on a business's profit margin.For the firm of Alverez & Marsal to leave a company they had been hired to save from financial disaster, mired in red ink would be a black mark on their reputation, I don't see that happening either. Textron most certainly would not expend large amounts of capital on a company just to cause it's downfall.no motive there.more likely it was not a failure caused by any corporation, but rather by individuals within corporations, by whom and where located is the question to be answered.the fact that Farmtrac failed and who was to blame has not been the issue with the Farmtrac dealers, but rather the manner in which the results of the failure have been handled.I think the biggest obstacle to overcome is the fact Textron,Farmtrac and Escorts all work out of one or two large offices with many employees, while dealers work out of 285 (more or less)offices with very few personell. each corporation operates with a corporate mindset, while dealers have to contend with 285 individual mindsets.it has been difficult to come to a meeting of the minds between the dealers and Textron on how best to solve the problem,but good people have been working hard behind the scenes and much progress has been made, I am confidant that we will overcome the tremendous blow suffered by all, a little poorer, a little wiser, but still maintaining that get-ur-done spirit.---------Taxpayer
FarmTrac Troubles
- Thread starter gamble77
- Start date
To all Farmtrac owners:
This is the week that the dealer co-op representatives meet in London, England with Escorts Limited the manufacturer of Farmtrac to talk about setting up a parts supply line. My impression is that financing has been promised by a third company. If Escorts wants to do something to meet part of their obligation as a world citizen I would think they would be happy to sell parts to the dealer co-op. If they only want to hold Farmtrac,North America dealers (and tractor owners) hostage to the past failed policies of Escorts LTD then it may be different. It has been unusally quiet this morning on the dealer only web site. I think everyone is holding their breath to see what comes out of this meeting. Ever since the dealer site was set up it had been a very busy place. People have worked very hard trying to make it possible for the parts supply to restart.
Let's all wish the dealer representatives a safe trip and the best possible success. Let's all hope that Rajan Nanda of Escorts has finally decided to do the right thing.
This is the week that the dealer co-op representatives meet in London, England with Escorts Limited the manufacturer of Farmtrac to talk about setting up a parts supply line. My impression is that financing has been promised by a third company. If Escorts wants to do something to meet part of their obligation as a world citizen I would think they would be happy to sell parts to the dealer co-op. If they only want to hold Farmtrac,North America dealers (and tractor owners) hostage to the past failed policies of Escorts LTD then it may be different. It has been unusally quiet this morning on the dealer only web site. I think everyone is holding their breath to see what comes out of this meeting. Ever since the dealer site was set up it had been a very busy place. People have worked very hard trying to make it possible for the parts supply to restart.
Let's all wish the dealer representatives a safe trip and the best possible success. Let's all hope that Rajan Nanda of Escorts has finally decided to do the right thing.
redlevel
Gold Member
longtrman said:
I don't suppose there is any chance that they will reach any kind of agreement that includes honoring remaining warranty on tractors sold within the last two years? Or to make the refunds due those of us who got stuck with the "less than zero" fiasco?
Acquiring financing and establishing a parts supply are important, but if dealers think this will restore the Farmtrac name without correcting the other things I mentioned, I think they are wrong.
I certainly hope the dealer reps are successful in getting the parts supply pipeline set up.
redneckford
Platinum Member
THIRD PARTY FINANCING-----?????----AIN'T that what has caused most of the problems for the dealers and the customers? If Escorts is that large of a financial concern in India shouldn't they have the resources to finance a little parts distribution network at the tune of 5-6 million dollars. I do not Like the sound of the "THIRD PARTY" angle!!!! Somebody is going to get burned again. Do you really think a customer is going to come to the dealership and "Pay" for a part that is suppose to be under warranty? Who is going to take the hit when the dealer has to "give" that part to the customer. You better reread the law about warranty---If the Dealer has the part and ability to fix the problem he/she will have to do it on their nickel. So be careful on this agreement!!!!!
SESS
Gold Member
redlevel said:
IF a parts program is set up, that will in no way "FIX" what has happened to us all and the dealers are not nieve to think that this will fix anything. But it is a start to trying to resolve part of the problem. The dealers, for the most part, have taken on this parts co-op program themselves. It is something that has been worked on since all this broke back in Jan. There is possible financing for the dealers to get parts for their customers, but it is costing us first. Unfortunately, I feel that the any warranty is a no go. Sad and extremely frustrating but foreigners, specifically Indians, never "believed" in warranty anyways. Anything they could do to get out of paying for a warranty claim they would do.
As for the "not-even-zero" rebates, we are hopefully that the Federal Government will help out with that. Again, a very sad situation. The NEZ program was fraud in the fullest form it could be and to think that $2.9 million was stolen from fellow Americans just rots my stomach.
We dealers are trying just as hard as we can to make things right with our customers and hope that the customers realize that. I know that in our dealership we have eaten out of our own pocket whatever costs a customer would have encountered. To say that it has almost put us in the poor house is an understatement. The blue tractors are great pieces of equipment with a great dealer base. We all just hope that at the end of this, each dealer still has a company to call their own and their reputation still in tact!
Good luck and safe trip to those dealers attending the meeting in London!
[QUOTE
As for the "not-even-zero" rebates, we are hopefully that the Federal Government will help out with that. Again, a very sad situation. The NEZ program was fraud in the fullest form it could be and to think that $2.9 million was stolen from fellow Americans just rots my stomach.
Has anyone had any help or response from our government officials on the "not even zero" problem? We and our customers sent emails some time ago and did not even get a response. Now if they are working on things that is one thing if they are not we need to put more pressure on them. Most of us are solid small town people who know right and wrong. We also remember who helped and who didn't come election time.
Case
As for the "not-even-zero" rebates, we are hopefully that the Federal Government will help out with that. Again, a very sad situation. The NEZ program was fraud in the fullest form it could be and to think that $2.9 million was stolen from fellow Americans just rots my stomach.
Has anyone had any help or response from our government officials on the "not even zero" problem? We and our customers sent emails some time ago and did not even get a response. Now if they are working on things that is one thing if they are not we need to put more pressure on them. Most of us are solid small town people who know right and wrong. We also remember who helped and who didn't come election time.
Case
redlevel said:
I just heard from the dealer rep on the dealer only site. Nothing is off the table. They do plan to come down hard on Escorts about Less Than Zero and the lost warranty. Personally I don't hope for much. If Escorts had been much of a world citizen they would have honored the warranty all a long--after all they made the tractors. Like Case said we have to try for as much as we can, accept what we get and then work at getting more. The dealer group is not trying to restart Farmtrac,NA--that is beyond our power. We don't even worry about Farmtrac,NA 's reputation--they did that to themselves and to us also. We are merely trying one step at a time to make things the best we can for our customers and friends. The dealers really aren't able to do the big strokes they would like to--some dealers owe from $5000 to $165000 interest to the floor plan company in addition to the principle on the tractors. When interest is acruing at 12% on from one to maybe 40 or more tractors without sales it hurts big time. We just do what we can about today--yesterday is done we can't repair it. If we can sell the tractors we have and service them with parts without all 285 dealers going bankrupt that will be somewhat success. Most of the dealers including myself have done warranty work with no hope of ever getting paid. One of my customers heard that Farmtrac failed offered to pay me for warranty work I did on his tractor last December. Some dealers have much more that they will never see. Please don't try to punish us for what Escorts or Farmtrac,NA did to us--we are the ones trying to get some order to keep the value of your tractor from plumetting. But on the other hand they are really pretty much just ford tractors with somebody else's decals. You can't punish the iron. You can only punish the dealers trying to help you. Does that make sense?
redneckford
Platinum Member
SURE does but it seems that the laws of the land work against the hard working individual with no money and alot of debt. (No money to make big campaign contributions and very little time to campaign against the wrongs of the world) How can anyone explain how the dealers were dumped on the customers were duped and no one from the government has made a move to right this wrong. It just seems the harder you guys try to right a wrong the more you get punished for it from the very laws that are suppose to make America the Country of choice around the world. They are still dieing to come to this country!!! When the news organization will not even take the story and run with it you know something smells to high heaven cause they love to report bad news. THIS IS NOT JUST BUSINESS-----THIS IS STEALING!!!!!!!
redneckford
Platinum Member
P.S. you can't come down hard with your hat in your hand cause you are the one that will have to take what they will give. Someone better listen to T----p---- and get to work on public---public opinion cause that is the only thing that politicians understand and that is the only way this disaster will ever be solved for the good of "all" American citizens---dealers and customers!!!!!!----LOUD and PROUD it is the only way!!!!
and PROUD it is the only way!!!!I checked with my attorney back when this all began and he told me the same thing Redneck,Dealers who have parts in their stock that they have paid for out of their pockets,will most likely eat the expense to fix the customer's tractor, there may be no one to warranty the parts and maybe not the labor.most dealers, myself included will shoulder the load out of customer loyalty and respect.we can only hope for customer understanding if the load gets too heavy.Escorts has had many opportunities to step to the plate, as LS-Cable did.they have instead choose to make more profit off the dealer's misfortune.if they wanted to do the right thing, the parts would be sitting on the dock, marked paid.----- taxpayerredneckford said: