That certainly would be a better way to handle it. Its too bad that I can't think of a company that would handle an issue that way today, though I hope there are some. I do believe they cost themselves more in lost sales and damaged reputation than it would be to jump on the problem and correct it.BTI said:
Bad Power Trac Experience
- Thread starter Central_PA_Chris
- Start date
- Views: 18518
Mobil1
New member
Chris,
I agree with all you have said,customer service and satisfaction is not a big priority with them.The Power Trac people are always nice when they tell you "tough" it's your problem now.I bought 1430 with trailer pkg. in 2003,had trouble with treadle cable pulling out of hydroback after 3 weeks.When Terry asked me to bring to power trac so that HIS mechanic could see ,install and adjust correctly,I did!!! When I was there I noticed that on 2004 models they went to hydraulic drive and eliminated the set-up I have and am having so much trouble with!!!Power Trac mechanic fixed my machine and they acted like I was doing somthing wrong or did not know what I was doing.....WELL HIS REPAIR "DID NOT LAST ONE HOUR",and i was broke down again after 16 hours of driving to and from tazwell.They refused to upgrade my machine for free or admit it was a bad design and want $6,000.00 to do so.Please keep in mind I am not the homeowner that runs machine on occasion,I do Landscape Construction.I have been forced to try and create my own solution as I have a lot off money tied up in it.On my trailer Pkg they sold me a trailer that could carry 7,000 lbs...but actual weight is 8,600 lbs and will do nothing for me.I contacted them AFTER getting stopped and weighted by police...upgrade to 10,000 lb axles,wheels,springs,etc..$1,800.00....POWER TRAC WILL-NOT PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS ..VERY CHEAP AND LEAVES CUSTOMERS HOLDING THE BAG!!!FIND A BETTER COMPANEY TO DEAL WITH.THEY OFFER LIP SERVICE AND WORDS ONLY ...........
I agree with all you have said,customer service and satisfaction is not a big priority with them.The Power Trac people are always nice when they tell you "tough" it's your problem now.I bought 1430 with trailer pkg. in 2003,had trouble with treadle cable pulling out of hydroback after 3 weeks.When Terry asked me to bring to power trac so that HIS mechanic could see ,install and adjust correctly,I did!!! When I was there I noticed that on 2004 models they went to hydraulic drive and eliminated the set-up I have and am having so much trouble with!!!Power Trac mechanic fixed my machine and they acted like I was doing somthing wrong or did not know what I was doing.....WELL HIS REPAIR "DID NOT LAST ONE HOUR",and i was broke down again after 16 hours of driving to and from tazwell.They refused to upgrade my machine for free or admit it was a bad design and want $6,000.00 to do so.Please keep in mind I am not the homeowner that runs machine on occasion,I do Landscape Construction.I have been forced to try and create my own solution as I have a lot off money tied up in it.On my trailer Pkg they sold me a trailer that could carry 7,000 lbs...but actual weight is 8,600 lbs and will do nothing for me.I contacted them AFTER getting stopped and weighted by police...upgrade to 10,000 lb axles,wheels,springs,etc..$1,800.00....POWER TRAC WILL-NOT PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS ..VERY CHEAP AND LEAVES CUSTOMERS HOLDING THE BAG!!!FIND A BETTER COMPANEY TO DEAL WITH.THEY OFFER LIP SERVICE AND WORDS ONLY ...........
SpringHollow
Elite Member
On the plus side, I have found Terry to be really helpful over the phone, helping me with repairs and modifications without getting paid. Unfortunately, I deal with many instrument vendors where their response to even a simple question is "place a service call and we will come and work on it". They usually charge $600 - 1000 just to arrive.
Ken
Ken
AltavistaLawn
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2005
- Messages
- 226
There are two very unfortunate facts:
Theres nothing else on the market to do what a PT1850 will do; or any of the other units for that price range.
The PTs are not commercial quality. My 1850 has some serious design flaws.
Theres nothing else on the market to do what a PT1850 will do; or any of the other units for that price range.
The PTs are not commercial quality. My 1850 has some serious design flaws.
J_J
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2003
- Messages
- 18,952
- Location
- JACKSONVILLE, FL
- Tractor
- Power-Trac 1445, KUBOTA B-9200HST
Something you guys should think about, is the next big malfunction might be your own machine, and what do you think of the treatment that some members of the PT crowd have received. It seems like that some of your are saying , tough, it is your machine now, so take care of the situation. You all have a good idea what PT, should have done. They have been less than helpful about my older 1445, and yes, Terry has been helpful to us all. He should be, he is there trouble shooter and the answer man. It appears that PT is a closed nit community, not answering to anybody, even their customers. Do you realize that we , the owners, are doing the major advertising for them. Then we should also be able to call their attention to unfair and negative business practices. They are one of a very few companies that that sell and essentially forget about you until you need some parts. Does anybody know the other people up there except Kristy Kevin and Terry. That $50.00 mis order is a joke, and I will not order anything from them using that logic. You guys could make a difference if you stated your concern and disappointments about certain things to the owners that be. Don't even get me started about the lack of documentation for the PT. The Kubota manuals that I have , make PT's Xerox copies look like kindergarten kids scratches.
You all know that Chris got a bum deal, and with enough feedback from the PT users group, they just might pay a little attention to what will happen if they keep on getting negative press. The same thing goes to Robin engines.
You all know that Chris got a bum deal, and with enough feedback from the PT users group, they just might pay a little attention to what will happen if they keep on getting negative press. The same thing goes to Robin engines.
IrTxRx
Silver Member
All,
I have been saving for a 1430 for almost 4 years. Money has been in the bank since early summer. Stories like Altavista, Mobil1, Weedpatch and now Chris have kept me from buying. I don' mind a product having a few kinks when it is as unique as the PT for my uses, but I REALLY don't like the idea that I can give PT $25K of my money and if my tractor doesn't work from day 1 then I have $600 worth of scrap metal.
why can't PT take Chris's back, give him a new tractor, PT gets the new engine from Robin and all they are out is some secretarial labor for paperwork with Robin. I agree about the ford ranger and foreign engine scenario...seems the same thing to me.
Do lemon laws apply to tractors?
I have been saving for a 1430 for almost 4 years. Money has been in the bank since early summer. Stories like Altavista, Mobil1, Weedpatch and now Chris have kept me from buying. I don' mind a product having a few kinks when it is as unique as the PT for my uses, but I REALLY don't like the idea that I can give PT $25K of my money and if my tractor doesn't work from day 1 then I have $600 worth of scrap metal.
why can't PT take Chris's back, give him a new tractor, PT gets the new engine from Robin and all they are out is some secretarial labor for paperwork with Robin. I agree about the ford ranger and foreign engine scenario...seems the same thing to me.
Do lemon laws apply to tractors?
ponytug
Super Member
I am sorry to learn that Chris had a meltdown so early in his PT ownership, and I totally understand his frustration in dealing with finger pointing.
A CEO, and a former commanding officer on a nuclear attack submarine, put it succinctly; "If you are the XO, and are asleep while someone else is piloting the boat, and it runs aground, it is your fault."
Being caught in finger pointing is not pleasant, nor is the thought that your brand new baby is flawed. That said, nothing is perfect, and mean time between failures is a statistical distribution. Some units won't fail for 5,000 hours (my old Saab comes to mind), while others will experience major failures early in life.
I can definitely empathize with Chris.
I had a wheel motor blow a seal at 5.2 hours, spraying the engine compartment, muffler, oil cooler, everything with oil, and dumping a couple of quarts of oil on the ground.
It was nearly a Sedgewick, and it made me appreciate how fast you could have a major fire, and how big the fire extinguisher needs to be.
After I found the problem, the Power-trac response was to send out a replacement wheel motor. I changed the motors out, and sent it back. My shipping cost to be credited to future purchases from PT.
Was Terry very helpful about it? Definitely.
Did PT send an instruction sheet on how to do it? No.
Did I have to ask PT to send hose plugs? Yes.
Overall, do I think it was a great response? No.
Was it what they had legally agreed to do? Yes.
Did I know that it was all that they would do before I bought the tractor? Yes.
Was it one of my primary reservations with buying a PT? Yes.
In the end, before purchasing a PT, I decided that
A) I couldn't afford the Swiss superior engineered version, or its service contract.
B) I could probably fix most of what would break on the tractor.
C) my view was that the factory delivered tractor is really just a starting framework for building the right tractor for me.
Reading TBN, you can tell that for various people the tractors work great, as is. While for others, the tractors need substantial modifications to do routine things, and other users make major changes and improvements. The creativity of the group here never ceases to impress me. Not to mention the willingness to pick up a welding torch and have at it.
The state of the PT reminds me of the auto industry in the 1960s (or the tractor industry). Cars were largely assembled, rather than designed, and certainly not engineered on anything but the simplest dimensions. As a result, owners could make enormously better cars at home, with simple tools and modifications. I remember our family having two cars in our driveway that differed by a factor of 2.5 in HP/volume, and a factor of 3.5 in mpg. The comfort and handling were not even remotely comparable. The Deutz tractor that a neighbor bought was 15% more fuel efficient, which may not sound like much, but in marginal farming, it was huge.
In concrete terms, we own three vehicles today; one is unmodified from the factory with 80k miles, one, @110k, has had some minor electrical modifications put in by me (autodimming headlights and a cell phone amplifier), and one, @380k miles, has had large sections of the electrical system modified and replaced, and the fuel system and drivetrain altered, becuase it needed it. For the latter, I knew enough to design better than the original engineers, while for the first one, I don't know enough to improve on the original for our use.
For me, it is the same with PT. I didn't think it was perfect when I bought it, but it was a starting point, and it had capabilities that other tractors didn't have, and couldn't be user engineered in. e.g. 30 degree cross slope motion.
As an aside, I help start companies for a living, and I did do a quick evaluation of Power-Trac while I was there.
Are there a number of significant items that they could do better? Yes.
Could I advise PT on how to be more successful, more competitive? Yes.
Did they show any signs that they wanted to hear the advice? No.
And that, as they say, is the end of story.
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."
Sure, I'd love to see Ford/Chrysler/GM/US company X be better, more effective, more profitable, and be better places to work, but they have to want to change before they can improve. On a personal level, I wouldn't wish a poorly run, managed company on anyone, whether a customer, employee or owner.
Bonus points to identifying Eddie D. Reynolds.
All the best,
Peter
A CEO, and a former commanding officer on a nuclear attack submarine, put it succinctly; "If you are the XO, and are asleep while someone else is piloting the boat, and it runs aground, it is your fault."
Being caught in finger pointing is not pleasant, nor is the thought that your brand new baby is flawed. That said, nothing is perfect, and mean time between failures is a statistical distribution. Some units won't fail for 5,000 hours (my old Saab comes to mind), while others will experience major failures early in life.
I can definitely empathize with Chris.
I had a wheel motor blow a seal at 5.2 hours, spraying the engine compartment, muffler, oil cooler, everything with oil, and dumping a couple of quarts of oil on the ground.
It was nearly a Sedgewick, and it made me appreciate how fast you could have a major fire, and how big the fire extinguisher needs to be.
After I found the problem, the Power-trac response was to send out a replacement wheel motor. I changed the motors out, and sent it back. My shipping cost to be credited to future purchases from PT.
Was Terry very helpful about it? Definitely.
Did PT send an instruction sheet on how to do it? No.
Did I have to ask PT to send hose plugs? Yes.
Overall, do I think it was a great response? No.
Was it what they had legally agreed to do? Yes.
Did I know that it was all that they would do before I bought the tractor? Yes.
Was it one of my primary reservations with buying a PT? Yes.
In the end, before purchasing a PT, I decided that
A) I couldn't afford the Swiss superior engineered version, or its service contract.
B) I could probably fix most of what would break on the tractor.
C) my view was that the factory delivered tractor is really just a starting framework for building the right tractor for me.
Reading TBN, you can tell that for various people the tractors work great, as is. While for others, the tractors need substantial modifications to do routine things, and other users make major changes and improvements. The creativity of the group here never ceases to impress me. Not to mention the willingness to pick up a welding torch and have at it.
The state of the PT reminds me of the auto industry in the 1960s (or the tractor industry). Cars were largely assembled, rather than designed, and certainly not engineered on anything but the simplest dimensions. As a result, owners could make enormously better cars at home, with simple tools and modifications. I remember our family having two cars in our driveway that differed by a factor of 2.5 in HP/volume, and a factor of 3.5 in mpg. The comfort and handling were not even remotely comparable. The Deutz tractor that a neighbor bought was 15% more fuel efficient, which may not sound like much, but in marginal farming, it was huge.
In concrete terms, we own three vehicles today; one is unmodified from the factory with 80k miles, one, @110k, has had some minor electrical modifications put in by me (autodimming headlights and a cell phone amplifier), and one, @380k miles, has had large sections of the electrical system modified and replaced, and the fuel system and drivetrain altered, becuase it needed it. For the latter, I knew enough to design better than the original engineers, while for the first one, I don't know enough to improve on the original for our use.
For me, it is the same with PT. I didn't think it was perfect when I bought it, but it was a starting point, and it had capabilities that other tractors didn't have, and couldn't be user engineered in. e.g. 30 degree cross slope motion.
As an aside, I help start companies for a living, and I did do a quick evaluation of Power-Trac while I was there.
Are there a number of significant items that they could do better? Yes.
Could I advise PT on how to be more successful, more competitive? Yes.
Did they show any signs that they wanted to hear the advice? No.
And that, as they say, is the end of story.
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."
Sure, I'd love to see Ford/Chrysler/GM/US company X be better, more effective, more profitable, and be better places to work, but they have to want to change before they can improve. On a personal level, I wouldn't wish a poorly run, managed company on anyone, whether a customer, employee or owner.
Bonus points to identifying Eddie D. Reynolds.
All the best,
Peter
Last edited:
IrTxRx
Silver Member
Just curious how the "Bad experience" is going. Worse, better or same
Z-Michigan
Veteran Member
I keep reading the PT forums because I think it would be an extremely useful smaller machine for my place. But I keep reading these horror stories. Not that many, but relative to the small number of PT users out there, significant. I keep waiting for a big company (ideally Kubota or JD) to make a knockoff of the PT that works reliably, has dealers and a real warranty. Whenever that day comes, I'll probably be first in line to get one.
SnowRidge
Elite Member
Depending upon what you need the machine for, search TBN for Ventrac and Steiner. They are somewhat similar.Z-Michigan said:
