3040 Hour Meter

[Maka]

Hello Sandman, James, Woods, Ken and JC. We are all on the same team here as owners or dealers and all want to help each other. I personallyy know Ken and have great confidence in his dealer skills and customer service and support.

This is an age old debate that we as dealers have to suffer with. It is on every brand forum here and will only be answered personally by the buyer and dealer.

I believe that Sandman got his tractor when there were some folks trying to jump on the Montana freight train and selling tractors cheap on the net be it their website, ebay or other and they did a dis-service to customers, real servicing dealers and Montana. That kind of stuff is not longer tolerated and has subsided greatly.

I have not spoken to Sandman on this but know his posts. He got a ridiculously low price, good for him but here is the problem. Sandman is a large guy and had he actually sat on a 4540 he would have from the get-go known it was not for him. Had he gone into a stocking dealer who could have shown him the proper tractor for him (4340 in my opinion) that would have been a great start. Next, the dealer he purchased from was not real interested in servicing as much as I can gather but I will never know as I believe he passed away thus no longer a dealer. Had he purchased from a dealer in or near his area he probably would have a relationship with them where he could just call and have what he needs sent with no problem. Sandman, I am happy to help you as you know and will do this as long as I can so you don't have to worry.

Here is where I sit on this whole debate. I sell only what I can service, period. I don't quote low prices over the phone, Period. My tractors are excellent and a great value with great quality. I don't need to give them away.

I have employees, shops, delivery trucks, insurance, stock about 35 Montana tractors plus implements and parts and we offer free field service for warranty work and if it can't be serviced in the field we will pick it up, fix it and return it free of charge.

If joe customer comes in and I or one of the sales reps spends the time to tell him about the tractor and he goes elsewhere then that is OK but he will not get the service from me that my customers get. Here is how I operate.

I have lots of customers who log, hay, have tree farms etc. They need help, I jump as quickly as I can. This goes for the home owner who needs service as well.

I had a guy come in who I spent on 3 occasions about an hour each time and then he called a company in Missouri and bought the tractor from them and had his brother in Missouri bring it up on his way to visit. At this time I had to pay shipping on each tractor I got and it was an added expense so I was a bit more expensive than the guy in Missouri.

He later called and asked if he had warranty work needed would I do it and I said of course. He asked if I would pick it up and since he was about 75 mi away I said sure at $2.00 a loaded mile and he would have to wait for the service until I could schedule him in as my customers come first, period. He asked if I would sell filters to him and I said sure, but pay first and then I send. He did not like all this but oh well, to bad.

I can't blame a guy for trying to save but he can't blame me for not jumping to his needs and trying to make an honest decent living.

This is an old debate seen here on TBN for years and won't be settled here but I will say that my customers are very happy and know that when they need me I am there. Why am I there? Because I don't give stuff away but offer an excellent staff with excellent service at a fair price.

I really hope this does not fuel a huge debate. There has to be balance for the customer and the dealer or else no one is happy.

For Ken, you are doing a great job and Sandman and all others we should use this forum to help each other as well as those considering a Montana.

Thanks,
Maka

 

[xxxsandman]

Your right Maka, I wasn't trying to start a Montana dealer pricing debate or anything. It was brought up and I gave my consumer take on it.

My original point I was trying to make is simply, Montana seems to have changed their handling of warrantee parts recently and I think this change is for the worse. Me not having a dealer anymore and NO local dealer, I really need the ability to call Montana and get warrantee parts, if something breaks, which it has. Montana has always been very quick and accomodating, until now. Now they want me to go through a dealer, but I don't have one. What do I do? If Maka didn't help me out, I would probably still be waiting on my warrantee parts. Thank you MAKA, I really do appreciate all you have done for me!!!

If Montana had a solid dealer network ALREADY in place, I can see them having this policy. But they don't have a solid dealer network yet, there's large gaps and I'm sure there is plenty of owners like myself that don't have local dealers. These people went out on a limb and bought one of their tractors anyway. Montana needs a policy in place that will allow these people to get the warrantee parts they need, without hoping that a dealer somewhere will pick up the tab and take care of them.

I imagine this problem will lesson as the Montana dealer network grows, but there will always be someone that owns a Montana tractor that is under warrantee, that doesn't have a local dealer. What do they do for warrantee parts?

I really hope Montana realizes their current warrantee parts policy isn't good for the customers without local dealers and re-thinks the way they handle this. I would think the dealers would want this changed too, as no doubt the current way will cause a lot of dealers extra unecessary paper work and add to the time it take customers to get their parts.

James

 

[montanaman]

Very well said Maka.

Also, I can understand you being upset that Montana has changed their policy of sending you parts but it's a part of their growth I guess. As a dealer, the parts need to be ordered and paid for along with freight. A warranty claim is filed and it gets reviewed and then the dealer is paid for the part and warranty time determined by the time book. This time amount on a small repair is usually about the amount of time it takes to shuffle all of the paper!!

I have found that Montana does work very hard to see that every customer is happy but as they grow larger, things will change.

Please understand that it isn't because they don't care about you as a customer and don't want to help you!! They have to file a claim with LG for every part and the dealer doing the repair has to retain that part for a while should they decide to inspect it.

When Montana started, they were smart enough to really go out of their way to help but the downside to this is that when you get bigger, you have to operate more efficiently. For this reason, they expect the dealer to be the guy helping the customer and they are there to help the dealer.

If it's a simple part, you should be able to still work something out with your closest dealer to help you.

Take care,
Ken