That is a great idea, but hard to implement as far as it relates to dealer visibility. All manufacturers are loathe to print a list of problems/solutions that might make its way to the public as it can bite them. But this still should be done in some manner at least at the regional service manager level. They need to share solutions to the oddball problems with each other and when a dealer from across the country has this weird intermittent loss of power issue they can go right to the connections that caused the grief for Gas. Another thing they should do is have a conference call regularly where the regional service managers discuss difficult cases. Seems that someone in the room always has the answer, but the question must be asked. Like I said before, most of the service managers are excellent mechanics in their own right, and I do not give out those sort of compliments easily.
I'm sure pleased that Gasifier got his machine working well. He is a hard user (not an abuser, don't misunderstand me) and he is the sort of guy that can flesh out weaknesses in a machine. Next time they decide to introduce a new machine, they need to give him one for 6 months and let him see what if any weaknesses he can find. I'm serious about that. Some guy that just mows a pasture 3 times a year won't find the flaws that a guy clearing a forest will reveal.
Thank you for your insight Dave. I appreciate it.
I’ll share you a few thoughts looking back on my experience.
To start. It hasn’t been a good one. I did all the same work with my other past tractors and did not have any major issues.
The 81 acre property is mostly woods, and was thinned out by a forester with a feller and skidder. All the really heavy duty stuff was done with much larger, industrial equipment.
One great thing to having the forest thinned that I was/am looking forward too is the much better access we will have to the rest of the property now. The forest was very, very thick.
So I am using my loader with the grapple to move branches and tree tops off the skidding trails. Piling some of them to burn. (Some I’ll leave for the wildlife, who love it for nesting and coverage.)
I’m also digging and removing the smaller stumps and weaving the trails through and in between the larger ones. And of course using the bucket on the front loader to do the dirt work of moving rocks and soil into low spots and filling them in, back dragging, and moving soil short distances. I also use my tractor for mowing tall grass/small size brush, firewood retrieval, and for snow removal.
But. Yes. I obviously do work my tractor. Probably more that most owners out there do of this size tractor and smaller.
The idea of lending a new tractor to find flaws is a good one. For Mahindra. But I doubt it will happen.
I want to say am very happy to have my tractor back and working again. And thank you to the local mechanic who solved the problem!
But the thoughts of all the frustration and lost time on my now seriously delayed projects with a very expensive new tractor will not be fixed with a $250 service. And I know. Lost time is not covered by the warranty.
A customer’s time is worth ...... ?
A customer is worth...... ?
Those thoughts will not leave my mind anytime soon.
Now imagine if the dealer and Mahindra got together and REALLY tried to make the customer(s) happy. Any customer who had very significant lost time because of a new tractor with serous problems. Like me.
What would that number be? Maybe 3 or 4 in every 100 tractors of 50 horsepower or smaller size?
And they came up with an idea and implemented it together. Like they said to the customer. What type of implement could you use, that would help save you some time, each time you used it. To help you to slowly make up for all that lost time you had.
How much would that cost the dealer and Mahindra if they did it together?
So they provided a gift certificate of say $750 to use as customer saw fit at the dealership, OR very steeply discounted an implement by 50% off retail cost. (If the customer could use an implement for their tractor that would really benefit them by saving time and it had a max cost of $1500.) That would go a long way. Much further than a tractor service.
A past poster said to me he thought the dealer would have something to say to me the next time he saw or talked to me. I talked to him on the phone the day they delivered my tractor back to me. I had called him because I had to drive out of town to pick up a brother at the airport two hours away. I wanted to give him the opportunity to do something for me. And I asked him what he and/or Mahindra could do for me about all my lost time, frustration, and now delayed projects. He said I’m sorry we don’t have any kind of program for that. And I don’t think Mahindra has any kind of program like that. And he expressed that he had a lot of lost time and frustration with my tractor as well. That is understandable. He didn’t build it. But he sold it, so bears some responsibility in my view.
Don’t get me wrong. I think he feels bad about it. He probably isn’t real happy with me either after all the trouble he had to go through as well with this tractor and me calling Mahindra Corporate out of complete frustration. But that is a result of my Mahindra tractor. He didn’t build it. Before this he and I had a good relationship. I bought equipment from him, he made money, and I used it to get the work done I needed done. They service it, 9/10 times just for routine maintenance.
And now I feel somewhat bad because our dealer/customer relationship is certainly not what it was. Because I have to wonder how they feel toward me from this point forward. Will I feel good about bringing any of my stuff to them for repair and/or service?
I have thought about how before, when I was very excited about my new tractor(and before these major problems), I was thinking of buying several different implements for my tractor. From the same dealer. Boy would they save me some time. I don’t know what I’ll do now.
Anyway. Thank you all. Gentlemen. For listening to my frustration about my tractor problems.
Maybe. Hopefully, it will save some headaches and frustration for another customer and/or dealer in the future.
And thank you again to my dealer’s mechanic for fixing my tractor.
And thank you to Brenda and Ernesto at Mahindra who were very understanding of my frustration and situation.
The snow is still falling and I’m going to go work my tractor some more.
Have a good day folks.
what a relief!
That’s good maybe all the bad is behind you. Good Luck
