Dealer I'm getting a little disappointed with Kubota Dealers

[MarkV]

It is just the nature of commission sales in my mind. Dig deep enough on the forum and you will hear the same story about dealers of all brands. Many here will recommend that shopping the dealership is as important, if not more so, than shopping the brand.

Good luck with the search.

MarkV

 

[DieselnHooters]

Oh, and I don't feel empty inside if a dealer doesn't give me a hug, although I do still place a bit of weight behind a man who will look me square in the eye when he shakes my hand. I just don't care for someone who makes a claim but has no factual basis to back it up. As a cop I've got a pretty finely tuned BS detector and when it starts going off, I wonder how good a dealer is going to be down the road.

Sorry about my earlier comment...that was only meant to be funny

For what its worth I see what you mean, Kubota is the premier brand in CUTs and I can sure imagine some dealers being big-headed about this.

 

[brin]

I've got a 2000 New Holland TC-29 with a FEL that I bought new and now have almost 400 hours on and knock on wood have had no problems with it and I am completely satisfied. It is a fine tractor and a friend of mine has a Kubota and he is happy with his...I have a 3020 JD with a FEL that I bought used 25 yrs. ago with who knows how many hours and it has and is great...go figure...looks like you just pick what seems right for you...be careful though, I see a lot of folks say pick the one where you like the dealer..remember ..things change....ownership changes or the dealer goes out of business...so I say pick the tractor you like and there will always be a mechanic that can work on it...

 

[TripleR]

I've got a 2000 New Holland TC-29 with a FEL that I bought new and now have almost 400 hours on and knock on wood have had no problems with it and I am completely satisfied. It is a fine tractor and a friend of mine has a Kubota and he is happy with his...I have a 3020 JD with a FEL that I bought used 25 yrs. ago with who knows how many hours and it has and is great...go figure...looks like you just pick what seems right for you...be careful though, I see a lot of folks say pick the one where you like the dealer..remember ..things change....ownership changes or the dealer goes out of business...so I say pick the tractor you like and there will always be a mechanic that can work on it...

Agreed, the dealer where I bought my first Kubota had his franchise pulled and then went out of business. It took about two years to get another one close. Fortunately I didn't have any problems during that time.

If I had to, I would travel some distance to get what I wanted at a good dealer.

I do agree with those on finding one that fits as I hate my John Deere 2305's control layout. Fortunately, I don't have to use it often.

 

[crbr]

I'm looking for a tractor in the 40 to 50 horsepower range, 4x4 with a FEL, and a heated and air conditioned cab is a must. I've looked at pretty much all the major brands now as they are all fairly well represented in my area. The thing that really is starting to bother me is that every one of the dealers that only carry Kubota does nothing but knock the other brands. Today I was explaining that I'd looked at New Holland, Case/IH, John Deere, Massey Ferguson and looked at Kubota non cab units. The dealer had to say that NH and Case were just complete garbage, that MF is being sued by the government and doesn't make a good tractor anyway and that JD doesn't make anything themselves anymore so they're crap too. This is the 3rd Kubota dealer that I had been to that only carries Kubota that talked down about other tractors. Now the Case/IH dealer I went to also carried Kubota and they were happy to sell either brand and were quick to offer that all the brands that I was looking at made good tractors and that they all had strengths and weaknesses. This is how the other non Kubota dealers behaved as well. The behavior of the aforementioned Kubota dealers really turns me off. I can understand selling the benefits of the brand that you deal in and pointing out the weaknesses of other brands but to outright dismiss other tractor companies as making crap is not acceptable in my opinion.

Personally I'm starting to feel that Kubota probably puts together the overall best package for the price point but there are things that I don't like about them. I also find things about other brands that I don't like. I'm really in a toss up now as to what I'm going to end up with and am really not in any hurry. I just wanted to share some of my recent experiences in tractor shopping. Some things are very personal to a tractor and certainly have an influence, such as placement of controls, etc. I feel in the end that since the pricing is comparable for apples to apples in all of the brands that I've looked at (I'm looking at high end units not stripped down basic models) that I'm probably going to just end up buying based on price and financing along with what control layout overall feels the best to me.

Dealer in Maryville TN stinks. Similar issues and then some. I happened to have been sent a survey by Kubota and told the truth. Dealer calls me several weeks later with some lame excuse of a poor performing employee yada yada...... That stunk even worse. Never offered to make amends, just excuses.

I went to a nicer dealer in Athens TN.

 

[Lyrch75]

Been in sales or sales management for a good while.

Rule #1. Never, ever, attack a competitor.
It elevates them in and lowers yourself in the customer's eyes in every study done.
You sell the strengths of yourself, your company, and the product. You should always show where your product excels beyond the competition and explain why that is important, but do not mention the competition.

 

[Lt CHEG]

Sorry about my earlier comment...that was only meant to be funny

For what its worth I see what you mean, Kubota is the premier brand in CUTs and I can sure imagine some dealers being big-headed about this.

No need to apologize, I took your comment to be humorous, I didn't take any offense. And in all honesty I expect a dealer to try to court someone purchasing a $150K tractor more than me with a $35K to $40K purchase. My thing is just because this is my first tractor purchase it doesn't mean that I haven't used some of this equipment before, nor does it mean that I don't have any idea what they're talking about.

Been in sales or sales management for a good while.

Rule #1. Never, ever, attack a competitor.
It elevates them in and lowers yourself in the customer's eyes in every study done.
You sell the strengths of yourself, your company, and the product. You should always show where your product excels beyond the competition and explain why that is important, but do not mention the competition. .

This is exactly what happened to this particular dealership with me. I did some commission sales while I was in college. I was pretty good at it too. I look at it almost as an act of desparation when a dealer has to throw a haymaker at a competitor without any factual basis to back it up. My take was to sell the customer on whatever it was I was selling, explain what benefits my product had over the competition and explain that my product was the best value. I never dismissed a competitive product as junk because it's just unprofessional.

 

[coobie]

I'm looking for a tractor in the 40 to 50 horsepower range, 4x4 with a FEL, and a heated and air conditioned cab is a must. I've looked at pretty much all the major brands now as they are all fairly well represented in my area. The thing that really is starting to bother me is that every one of the dealers that only carry Kubota does nothing but knock the other brands. Today I was explaining that I'd looked at New Holland, Case/IH, John Deere, Massey Ferguson and looked at Kubota non cab units. The dealer had to say that NH and Case were just complete garbage, that MF is being sued by the government and doesn't make a good tractor anyway and that JD doesn't make anything themselves anymore so they're crap too. This is the 3rd Kubota dealer that I had been to that only carries Kubota that talked down about other tractors. Now the Case/IH dealer I went to also carried Kubota and they were happy to sell either brand and were quick to offer that all the brands that I was looking at made good tractors and that they all had strengths and weaknesses. This is how the other non Kubota dealers behaved as well. The behavior of the aforementioned Kubota dealers really turns me off. I can understand selling the benefits of the brand that you deal in and pointing out the weaknesses of other brands but to outright dismiss other tractor companies as making crap is not acceptable in my opinion.

Personally I'm starting to feel that Kubota probably puts together the overall best package for the price point but there are things that I don't like about them. I also find things about other brands that I don't like. I'm really in a toss up now as to what I'm going to end up with and am really not in any hurry. I just wanted to share some of my recent experiences in tractor shopping. Some things are very personal to a tractor and certainly have an influence, such as placement of controls, etc. I feel in the end that since the pricing is comparable for apples to apples in all of the brands that I've looked at (I'm looking at high end units not stripped down basic models) that I'm probably going to just end up buying based on price and financing along with what control layout overall feels the best to me.

I feel your pain !!That is why I bought 41.5 hp Kioti.Not knocking Kubota as I own a Kubota RTV 900,kubota 6500 gen and a kubota 326 ZTR.cobie

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Been in sales or sales management for a good while.

Rule #1. Never, ever, attack a competitor.
It elevates them in and lowers yourself in the customer's eyes in every study done.

I'd totally agree with that, but there are a surprisng amount of customers who do want to hear some trash talking. I take a pretty high road most of the time, and its surprising how many people ask you to be critical. If thats done right, I don't think its all bad.

 

[Lyrch75]

I'd totally agree with that, but there are a surprisng amount of customers who do want to hear some trash talking. I take a pretty high road most of the time, and its surprising how many people ask you to be critical. If thats done right, I don't think its all bad.

Yeah, some folks will be "What do you think about Brand X's Model Y? Is yours better than that?" and you respond professionally going over the details of the advantages of your product compared to the one mentioned, big score for you. Shows that you know the industry, not just your sales brochures. People will like that.

Even after that you will get some who want you to rip the competitor's product. With these folks I always tried to make a slightly rough joke emphasizing our strength and move on. Tended to work fairly well, not always but most of the time.