Local dealer gone

   / Local dealer gone #1  

radman1

Elite Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
3,017
Location
midwest
Tractor
JD 4520, Toolcat 5610, Bobcat S300, Case-IH 125 Pro, Case-IH 245, IH 1086, IH 806
Our local JD dealer can no longer get parts/equipment from JD beginning today. Dealer has been in area about 5 years. Doors close this week and they sell CUT's, lawnmowers, gators, attachments etc. JD wants them to be part of larger Ag dealer in area but no larger dealer wants to join with them so JD is cutting them off. They were going to join with another ag dealer 20 miles outside of town but the deal fell through. Part of the problem is JD corp's new policy. There is a new Lowe's store being built and they will have the ability to sell JD gators, lawn mowers, zero turn mowers etc. I guess this is happening along the coasts and now here. It basically makes it impossible for someone like my dealer to compete when all of his equipment but CUTs are also be sold by big box chain. The big issue is Lowe's doesn't do any service repair, has limited parts and no ability to demonstrate equipment or attachments. JD expects the local ag dealers to use mobile truck and trailer service to service customers with repair or warranty issues on stuff sold by Lowe's or you can haul your mower or whatever to the ag JD dealer 20+ miles out of town. Some guy is suppose to come to my house with his pickup and trailer to fix my issues. What a crock. Will he have the right part? The right tools? Fix it in a timely fashion? Probably not.
I live in a city or over 250,000 and only one other Kubota dealer with CUT's. I think JD is making a big mistake in this region and will have poor service, repairs and parts availability. There are 4 JD ag dealers in the area, all 20-40 miles away. The only winner in this situation will be the Kubota dealer.
 
   / Local dealer gone #2  
I can't comment on all of your issues but I started using the JD mobile service provided by my dealer a couple of years ago and it has worked out great for me. I was concerned with cost but it is very competitive and I do not need to haul my equipment or have the dealer pick it up. :)
 
   / Local dealer gone
  • Thread Starter
#3  
JDGREEN4ME said:
I can't comment on all of your issues but I started using the JD mobile service provided by my dealer a couple of years ago and it has worked out great for me. I was concerned with cost but it is very competitive and I do not need to haul my equipment or have the dealer pick it up. :)
Is there a fee just to come to your place? Have you had any major repairs or complaints with the mobile service? My current dealer also had that service but not anymore. The service seems to me more designed for minor servicing issues like oil changes, tune up, minor adjustments etc. For example could they replace a bearing on a mower that went bad?
In my case, the closest dealer is 20-25 miles away rather anyone local as in your dealer. I am not sure the next ag dealer is going to do a reliable job in a timely fashion or be excited about doing any job when they are 20-40 miles away when the relative distance is so great.
 
   / Local dealer gone #4  
I'm sure there will be a fee to come out to your place and service your equipment. Just like there would be a cost (time/fuel) associated with you loading your equipment onto a trailer and taking it to the dealer... or having them come pick it up.

As for your other concerns, don't condemn the other dealers until you have experienced their service (or lack thereof). With a pre-conceived notion, you're only setting yourself up to nit-pick every little thing and make an otherwise acceptable service call into one where nothing was done "right".
 
   / Local dealer gone #5  
radman1 said:
Our local JD dealer can no longer get parts/equipment from JD beginning today. Dealer has been in area about 5 years. Doors close this week and they sell CUT's, lawnmowers, gators, attachments etc. JD wants them to be part of larger Ag dealer in area but no larger dealer wants to join with them so JD is cutting them off. They were going to join with another ag dealer 20 miles outside of town but the deal fell through. Part of the problem is JD corp's new policy. There is a new Lowe's store being built and they will have the ability to sell JD gators, lawn mowers, zero turn mowers etc. I guess this is happening along the coasts and now here. It basically makes it impossible for someone like my dealer to compete when all of his equipment but CUTs are also be sold by big box chain. The big issue is Lowe's doesn't do any service repair, has limited parts and no ability to demonstrate equipment or attachments. JD expects the local ag dealers to use mobile truck and trailer service to service customers with repair or warranty issues on stuff sold by Lowe's or you can haul your mower or whatever to the ag JD dealer 20+ miles out of town. Some guy is suppose to come to my house with his pickup and trailer to fix my issues. What a crock. Will he have the right part? The right tools? Fix it in a timely fashion? Probably not.
I live in a city or over 250,000 and only one other Kubota dealer with CUT's. I think JD is making a big mistake in this region and will have poor service, repairs and parts availability. There are 4 JD ag dealers in the area, all 20-40 miles away. The only winner in this situation will be the Kubota dealer.

The JD dealers here in the North Valley are hanging in there (Redding, Chico, Willows, Gridley, Colusa--all within 50 miles of my place).

It's the Kubota dealers that concern me. I bought a new B7510HST/LA302 FEL in May05 from the Kubota dealer in Redding. By Jan06 he was out of business after 35 years selling Botas (family problems among the owners). Now the JD dealer in Redding handles Kubota.

A few years ago the Kubota dealer in Chico closed his doors. Last year, finally, another outfit started selling Botas in Chico.

If my 7510 needs service, I suppose I'll have to borrow a twin-axle trailer from a neighbor and haul it to the dealer with the F150 (one of the advantages of having a fairly light weight tractor like the 7510--don't need a diesel duelly to haul it around).
 
   / Local dealer gone
  • Thread Starter
#6  
NoMo said:
I'm sure there will be a fee to come out to your place and service your equipment. Just like there would be a cost (time/fuel) associated with you loading your equipment onto a trailer and taking it to the dealer... or having them come pick it up.

As for your other concerns, don't condemn the other dealers until you have experienced their service (or lack thereof). With a pre-conceived notion, you're only setting yourself up to nit-pick every little thing and make an otherwise acceptable service call into one where nothing was done "right".
Not trying to be argumentative but no way can a guy with a pickup pulling a single axle 6x10 foot enclosed trailer have the capabilities of a repair shop. If they make a round trip to my house and don't have what is necessary, will they charge for the next trip? Remember these "new" dealers will have no existing referral base. The average home owner wouldn't even know who they could contact since these other dealers are all out of region. I don't have any problem hauling my tractor as I do it fequently now but if I had any idea this could happen, I would have bought another kubota. JD just had the features and specifications that I wanted at the time. The new xx40 kubota series will probably have the same features I looked for in a JD and kubota is much closer.
Yea, buy your gator from Home depot and then try to find service. On TBN everyone talks about how important it is to get good service from your dealer. What if there is no service after the sale? Now drive 40 miles to get a part?
I have been to 2 of the other JD dealers and had good experiences with both but the distance can be a PIA and waste of time. Both of the other dealers built brand new shops and have great facilities in the past year but neither one of them currently do any mobile trailer service. They are in rural areas (pop of 1500 and 5000 in each location) and no financial incentive to go mobile. Currently there is absolutely no JD service in a city of over 250,000 which seems crazy. The hundreds and probably thousands of home/acreage owners in and around Lincoln, NE have no JD repair or service facility.
I priced a new JD CUT at these other dealers before buying mine locally. One dealer had no cab tractors available. The other had 1 cab model that had been shuffled between 3 other co-owned JD business and it was 8 months old. These rural guys just don't have the volume or market for CUTs. They were also $3000 higher in price for a tractor sitting on the lot for 8 months.
 
   / Local dealer gone #7  
JD came in and pulled all their new equipment from our local dealer.They are still open but I don't know to what extent.I sure don't like the looks of it,same thing happened to the NH dealer at the other end of town about 2 years ago.
 
   / Local dealer gone #8  
It's gonna keep gettin' worse.
The corporate mentality is sell big or sell out.

BTI
 
   / Local dealer gone #9  
Yesterday I did a return at Lowes and the guy already in line had a JD push mower with some sort of problem.

Not sure what was wrong but I did catch that it was the second mower he purchased there with the same problem.

He went to the parking lot to get his receipt, manuals, etc.
 
   / Local dealer gone #10  
It's not just Deere. AGCO is "streamlining" their dealers in this area. We're down to just one Massey Ferguson dealership with-in a 2-hour drive. (Was 5 of 'em at one stage)

A NEW John Deere dealer opened here about a year ago. They paid over $1.500,000 for their property. No telling how much to equip the shop. They have several service trucks and pick-ups for the sales staff. Nowdays, you'll see Deere adds during major sporting events on TV. Adds pop up in magazines, newspapers, and even a couple highway billboards I've seen. You have to sell a BUNCH of lawn mower blades and green paint to recoup that overhead. And it won't be getting any better in the near future. Little "mom and pop" old fashioned country tractor dealerships are a thing of the past, I'm afraid.
 
 
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