The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugly

[blurrybill]

Nobody expects a free lunch, as you call it. That is a separate issue from a company standing behind their product as sold through an authorized distributor. Glad all of your deals work out; I wouldn't presume, however, to tell you what is a waste of time to you -- you have that right and choice.

 

[ejb]

>>I guess it kind of goes towards what we haved talked about on here with regards to Walmart and the likes. They have great prices but their service and such is deplorable.


That was kind of the point I tried to make the other day..many (or most ) people, including people on this forum will shop halfway across the country to save a few hundred dollars from the local dealer who may be charging more, and then wonder why the guy with rock-bottom prices, can't back up the price with a first-class service dept. Nothing is free...if people are not willing to pay a price for a tractor that includes a good enough profit margin and overhead costs, there is no way a dealer, or any other business, can offer top quality service and rock-bottom prices and stay in business very long.

 

[blurrybill]

ejb,

I anticipated this line of discussion evolving again. Nevertheless, I wanted to allow other TBN members the benefit of my experience with a significant tractor purchase - good or bad. I don't feel as though I'm eating much crow here, since I think the issues go beyond price. Still, I respect your opinion and thanks for sharing it. I would point out that spending significantly more money for the same product (the local dealership conglomerate was $4K over out-of-region deals on just the tractor and mower - that includes three different dealerships. Also for your consideration, does a reduced price necessarily require abrogation of ethical standards and practices?

Bill

 

[JC4HD]

Blurry Bill,

I'm really sorry about your experience thus far and I hope it all works out in the end. Once this is passed I am confident (as a 4310 owner) that you will really love your new machine, and it sounds like you found a good dealer locally to handle any future service or warranty needs.
If I understood you and your problems correctly it seems like the selling Dealer is the one to go after for the non warrantable costs! All the items that you had to pay for are things the selling dealer should have done!
Keep fighting and keep us posted... but also enjoy your new tractor!

 

[blurrybill]

Thanks, Pete, that would be great support, should you feel so inclined. I would like to know how to send an entire thread as an email. I'd like to send it to the purported supervisor at the customer help number. Perhaps JD would like to know more details about my experience as delineated in these posts. Then again, I told the first woman that I would be posting my experience.

It WAS LIKE TALKING INTO AN EMPTY PIT - there was no response. I wonder how much training these people have and what the threshold is to get the attention of someone who may even be TRAINED to care, if that's possible.

Bill

 

[Golfgar4]

I guess I'll throw my $0.02 in here.

I'm still in the nether world of trying to figure out what I'll do when I'm ready to buy my tractor. I can see both sides of the argument.

I like the idea of having my money stay in my own community at a local dealer, which should also be convenient for the servicing of my tracor. But on the other hand, I might very well be tempted to purchase somewhere else if I could save $4,000.00 too. That's a hunk of change. And if my local dealer doesn't have the best reputation, I'll consider it even faster.

I don't agree that I, or anyone else should buy local just to buy local or because it's convenient. I haven't seen or heard too many complaints from people who purchased tractors from Carver's, and many of these people are on the opposite side of the country. It all boils down to the quality of the dealer. And sometimes, no matter how careful a person is, they still get burned.

In Bill's case, he went the step further to drive the 350 miles to the dealer to be there to inspect and try to take care of any "small" problems he might find. Most of the others that purchased long distance just had the tractor shipped and hoped for the best. He believed, as I would have, and as I think most people would have, that because this was a dealer for a well known product that had an excellent reputation (the product - not neccessarily the dealer), that there would be a certain amount of quality control applied to his purchase.

O.K. He was wrong on that point. But neither he, nor anybody else that hadn't had first hand knowledge of this dealer's performance would've known that. The point is, he made his decision based on the best possible information he had. And regardless of what anybody else thinks, he made the decision that was right for him. How many times have we all seen someone ask a for advice and get many different answers. But what always surfaces is that the person asking for advice ultimately has to make their own decision that fits their own needs and circumstances. We tell them to do what feels right for them.

Well Bill, you did what you felt was right for you. I applaud you for it, and applaud you for how you're dealing with a situation that every one of us hopes we'll never find ourselves in.

 

[tdenny]

Wise guy,

I'm really having a hard time with the fact that someone spending $26,000 on a tractor is categorized as attempting to get a "free lunch". That is the most ridiculuous thing I've heard out here yet. I'm happy to hear for your sake that all of your local purchases have gone so smoothly.

As far as purchasing from Carver - from what I've read on TBN they are a great dealer and VERY customer oriented. For some of us shopping around has saved us thousands of dollars and certainly wouldn't qualify as a waste of time.

 

[ejb]

>>Also for your consideration, does a reduced price necessarily require abrogation of ethical standards and practices?

No, but if one guy is undercharging all his competitors of a similiar product, you do need to wonder how he can get away with it...nobody is giving away tractors.

BTW: My post was not directed at you on particular, it was a response to something that cowboydoc said and I agreed with. I don't even know if you had a dealer closer than 350 miles...for all I know that was the closest one to you.

The point was a comment on society in general...everybody complains about poor service, understaffed stores, jobs being shipped overseas, etc, yet, the lines at walmart keep getting longer and longer and longer and their business keeps growing and growing and growing, because, unfortunately, most people only care about getting the rock bottom price. They only want to make sure they don't pay a penny more than they have to for anything...walmart and many other retailers know this and they know that most peole will put up with poor service etc as long as they can pay the rock bottom price for something,

I know nothing about your purchase in particular...I am sure you made the best decision for you particular circumstances.,,sorry it didn't go as smoothly as you'd hope.

 

[BobT]

Well couldn't resist tossing in my .02 cents ...

By most any standard of product quality and customer service, you've had a bad deal as you describe things. As others have noted, once this gets resolved (and it will) I hope you enjoy your tractor and life as a tractor owner.

While it is true that this guy is a JD dealer, I think your issue -- legally speaking --is with the dealer, and not JD corporate. Corporate MAY want to get involved and try to enforce their will on the dealer to make this work out in a favorable way, but I think you are confined to trying to get cash consideration from the dealer who did the sloppy work. I think the best analogy is a car dealer. God knows I have had PLENTY of terrible deals with various dealers. But never once was I able to prevail upon Ford Motor Co to make me whole again.

The nice lady at JD corporate in all likelihood has never even seen the specific tractor you own, let alone ridden on one. She is a corporate answer-giver, and probably has little to no authority to issue check payments to disgruntled tractor buyers.

I think a great deal of these kinds of problems arise because people are totally inexperienced tractor buyers. In the past, almost every tractor was purchased by a farmer or a professional builder, landscaper, highway dept., etc. These people knew exactly what to expect, and also were able and usually willing to do the finish fittings themselves. No big deal.

Today’s compact tractor buyer is more often a yuppie type who is buying as much for emotional reasons as for the work loads he expects to use his equipment for. Things like "scratches on the hood" may be outrageous on a brand new pickup or SUV, but almost every tractor and implement has some issue of scratch, dent or rust. It just does.

I think all of the major compact tractor manufacturers have yet to realize, let alone understand and deal with all of these issues of type of buyer, uses and expectations.
TBN is a great place for all of the affected and interested parties to express themselves, learn and adjust to the realities of today’s compact tractor marketplace.

No doubt a rather considerable number of the existing dealers of all the manufacturers are back in the business and customer service models of the 50s and 60s. They need to do some serious surveying, education of the dealer network, and more extensive and improved educational materials for the first time buyer.

Having said all that, I think it is wrong and unfair to make judgments about John Deere tractors or JD corporate based upon this one instance. They have a superb, even fabulous history of quality and customer service. I am fairly certain in the end that reputation will prevail and your problems will be resolved favorably for you. Just sorry you had to go thru all this. Sure does make a sour taste in the mouth, I can understand.

 

[MikePA]

Could you have stopped payment on the downpayment check?