Authorized Kubota Warranty Service Provider? Part 3 of 3

[DonaldP]

(Continued )

So what happened between the time that the Kubota Service Rep saw the factory hood placed on the tractor and the time I picked the tractor up a week later?

I'm afraid nobody knows, or nobody is talking.

The hood could have been damage caused when reinstalling the FEL after replacement of the lower subframe unit and the hood, most likely.

But whatever it was, it was indeed something that the Dealer felt much more comfortable denying rather keeping a customer. It must have been pretty serious... serious enough that they didn't want their Insurance company to know about. Insurance is for just this kind of thing. But they know that.

So, the next day when I had unloaded the tractor from the trailer and could take more time to see what had really unfolded, I wasn't all that surprised.

The 300 hour service covers the Fan Belt and the Alternator belts... both of which were loose. The Alternator Belt was chirping and the idler pully was not even contacting the belt. That leads me to believe that their sincere offer to cover the 300 hour service at no charge due to the issues I was having at their dealership was nothing more than lip service otherwise the belts would have been properly adjusted for the the 300 hour service.

There was paint overspray on the headlights where the lights weren't totally masked

There were fingerprints on the hood in dried paint where someone had touched the surface before it had dried

There was paint on the tops of the front rubber topped spring stantions that support the hood when its closed (on top of the radiator support), both sides, most likely when the hood was closed a bit before the paint had hardened properly.

There was paint overspray on the removable filter (it appears they didn't even remove that when painting the hood on the tractor).

But in the end I suppose its just the fact that a dealer would make up some crazy excuse... like I painted my own $52,000 tractor with overspray to make some point with them because hey... why not? Yes that's it. It's called plausible deniability, and these folks and many others do it all the time.

It would have been much wiser to remove the hood to paint the newly replaced and then re-damaged hood rather than doing it on the tractor.

So in talking with Kubota they are willing to replace the hood as apparently the hood that was used for the replacement "shouldn't have made it to your tractor or into the supply chain with a paint defect as you're stating, we will honor the replacement of the hood due to cosmetic defects"

Additionally, Kubota is standing clear of the quality of the work purportedly done by the Dealership. "We are not responsible for the quality nor of any issues you have with the work performed when visiting a Dealership for service to your Tractor".

In other words it appears that Kubota's liability for any and all work completed at any of its authorized Dealerships is solely limited to its responsibility to provide a replacement part, and the labor during the warranty period for that part. Other issues such as paint chips, scratches, removal of or replacement of any other part or service done while your equipment is in for warranty work is not the responsibility of Kubota, even though any damage you may receive from the dealership may be experienced by you while the equipment is in for warranty work.

Any work done, in error, or any consequential damages experienced by the customer and the equipment is between the Dealership and the customer. Any other work required outside the replacement of the warranty part or service is between the dealership and the owner of the equipment (customer). Kubota takes no responsibility for the service quality of the dealership even though the dealership is required to be an "Authorized service agent" of Kubota.

In the end Kubota says they are replacing the hood yet again, they cant toss the Dealer under the bus why would they. They cant. It's a business relationship, and simply because there are unhappy customers with what the dealership is doing does not mean that Kubota has to toss out the baby with the bathwater.

Kubota is in a difficult place here too, maybe or maybe not due to some fault of their own. But in any case is there ever a winner or a loser in this kind of thing?

I don't know, but like I said, I'm a newbie here, and I'm not very smart. What are your thoughts?

 

[Have tractor did travel]

First - you make an excellent presentation, which makes your views and opinions immediately gain respect. Don't be self-deprecating "and I'm not very smart". You are, and it shows (and I mean that nicely).
2nd Kubota makes excellent product and is a world renoun manufacturer. If they make a mistake in dealing with you, it will be an aberration. I think they have dealt with you just fine.
3rd It is astounding to me how sloppy American business conducts its business. Your Kubota dealer has demonstrated that throughout your relationship - after they got your money.
Any business establishes it's level of competence - excellence - customer satisfaction. Your former dealership has set it's bar low. Save yourself the aggravation and move on. Your purchasing decision was half right - you bought the right tractor.
Kubota will not terminate it's relationship with the dealership based on one customer interaction. But it will go into a file, and when the time is right (for Kubota), Kubota will choose to associate itself with a dealership that more closely reflects Kubota's values.
You've heard "You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear." That's the situation in which Kubota finds itself, and has accepted its situation - for now.

 

[DonaldP]

Hi HT,

Thank you for your well thought out reply, and ditto to you on personal respects. There is much to be said for honest responses that cover the issue while offering additional insight.

I did want to clarify a bit about my post after your comments.

I agree that Kubota is working hard to resolve my concerns. There is more that interests me too with regard to how Kubota has interacted with this dealer, or dealers as a whole.

I will share with you that I did let my frustration flow with the Kubota Service rep when I met with him at the dealership.

In a private moment with him I explained that while my 2 to 5 hour use backhoe didn’t express any leaking during the 20 or so hours of total tractor use before it was “repaired” without my approval, I shared the following.

“Now , I don’t know if this is some kind of scam on the part of the dealership, but if its a routine type of behavior where authorized service centers might report work that isn’t needed as warranty work and then turn it in to you folks for reimbursement for work that is either never done, or that’s not necessary, then I would think that Kubota would be very much interested in that type of situation. That could be millions of dollars a year out of pocket for you, for Kubota. Why on earth would a dealership treat my equipment as if it were theirs to do with as they feel?, after all it is MY tractor, not theirs. They should have informed me of anything done to my equipment previous to doing the work. Period. What am I to think? Their choice of not communicating what needed to be done has put the question of doubt squarely on their shoulders for this, and I can’t understand why they would do that, take that risk, if there wasn’t some kind of skullduggery going on.”

I know the Kubota Rep heard me and knew exactly where I was going. He looked at me directly after that, not agreeing and not disagreeing either. It’s as if he knew, that I knew … and that I wasn’t far from the mark.

Kubota has treated me well, at every turn (as far as one on one technical support for any issues I’ve had so far) and I have no reason to believe that will not continue to play out.

As you said, and I agree wholeheartedly, Kubota may not be in a situation currently where it can react to these types of customer issues with its dealerships, for now.

But what intrigues me even more is how that line between Kubota and the dealerships seems to be a bit flexible, and yet not so, depending on the situation.

I would love to know more about how that relationship is managed in order to prevent cross-liability issues that may expose either party to challenges based on eithers individual or combined action or inaction. It’s just intriguing to me.

Is there anyone out there with insight into this? I’m sure whether it’s Kubota or some other manufacturer doesn’t matter. Generally they must all have some means of managing their dealership community that benefits both parties for legal, warranty, or service issues.

For those that have not read the !!UPDATE !!, please do.
The warranty work that was unauthorized by me on the BH92 backhoe failed as performed by the dealership. They left out a clearance washer that caused the backhoe to fail. That was my concern from the get go… I would much rather have had a non serviced, factory only, piece of equipment for as long as possible over the situation that I’m now experiencing… equipment that was “repaired” without my consent or knowledge, whether it actually needed it or not, and is now failing due to that poor service or repair.

Thanks again for your input.

 

[5030]

Have any idea what Kubota charges for a new hood? I do at least for my M9's, which is why I had one of my hoods removed and sent to a body shop for some tin work and repainting. It was 250 bucks and it looks teats. A new hood for my M9's is almost a grand for the upper section (there are 3 sections total, not including the grey plastic front grill and screen, my hood's bolt together btw.

Any competent body shop can refinish a hood and make it proper for a lot less that a new hood.

 

[DonaldP]

Have any idea what Kubota charges for a new hood? I do at least for my M9's, which is why I had one of my hoods removed and sent to a body shop for some tin work and repainting. It was 250 bucks and it looks teats. A new hood for my M9's is almost a grand for the upper section (there are 3 sections total, not including the grey plastic front grill and screen, my hood's bolt together btw.

Any competent body shop can refinish a hood and make it proper for a lot less that a new hood.

I hear you, thanks for your positive and valuable input. I agree that any “reputable” auto body person could create as good or better results as compared to a factory hood paint job. The question then is why didnt that happen at this dealership. I think we all know the answer. Thanks again !!!