Buying kubota add ons online?

[kubuddha]

Ovrszd,

My local dealer is 10 miles from home, I purchased my 3030 82miles from home. One, they were $2,500 higher, two, he exuded a bad attitude and wouldn't allow me to start the tractor.

However, I did buy a can of paint from him for my new tractor. I think he got the message!

 

[Iron]

Selling parts online for a Kubota dealer can be difficult - by design. Kubota did one thing last year to curb online orders with drop shipping the piece(s) to the end user. If an order is drop shipped, there is an additional fee PER LINE ITEM. This means if you order a valve of some type and it has 6 different seals, 4 bolts, 4 washers, 4 nuts you are now charge an additional fee on 19 items making the end price to high to consider. Having to ship to the dealer first, then relying on freight charges as a whole from the dealer puts on more of a level playing field.

 

[Dusty]

Selling parts on-line for a Kubota dealer can be difficult - by design. Kubota did one thing last year to curb on-line orders with drop shipping the piece(s) to the end user. If an order is drop shipped, there is an additional fee PER LINE ITEM. This means if you order a valve of some type and it has 6 different seals, 4 bolts, 4 washers, 4 nuts you are now charge an additional fee on 19 items making the end price to high to consider. Having to ship to the dealer first, then relying on freight charges as a whole from the dealer puts on more of a level playing field.

To put it bluntly, Kubota caved into the pressure of the dealers that didn't want to offer this service and pushed Kubota to eliminate the dealers that were able to adapt to the 21st century. There is a Kubota dealer that I know that won't accept an order for parts unless placed at his place of business and paid for in advance. He won't take a credit card by telephone. Then, he won't ship to you, but insists that you come to his store to pick up the parts. No way that I want to have anything to do with this dealer. Kubota wasn't loosing money on the drop ships, and if they were, there was no reason to make such a drastic change so as to drive away the mail order business. If the local dealer stocked parts, it would be nice, but he doesn't even stock on quart of UDT or SUDT. He wants you to purchase what he can make the most money on. His Kubota parts department is pathetic. Too this day, I don't know why Kubota doesn't force these mediocre dealers to either change or loose the franchise. I drive 15 miles further to buy parts from a dealer that has a decent inventory to pull from. I call and if they don't have the part, they order it without a deposit and call when it arrives. My next tractor will also come from them.
Dusty

 

[MarkV]

I was disappointed that Kubota changed their shipping charge which makes it less practical to do on line parts orders. I understand the dealer’s desire for the change and don’t fault them for wanting to keep their local business local either. My problem is that to go to a local dealer involves a 100 mile round trip drive and with gas prices what they are my $2 widget cost me $20 dollars. With the old system where I could order on line my $2 widget cost me $7.

MarkV

 

[66gladiator]

Kubota (other manf. as well) have strict rules as to advertising prices in any media, so not always dealers fault. With wholegoods (accessories) Kubota requires that we have face to face contact somewhere in the purchase process, to avoid a cyber dealership that would drive down prices and cause service and quality to suffer.
Also, there are so many variables even on accessories that make it hard to advertise prices with any accuracy.

As to e-mail, I agree it is an under-utilized tool in the ag business, and I do answer mine promptly, but out of all of our employees, only one other besides myself are computer literate.............

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Kubota wasn't loosing money on the drop ships

Yea they where, the drop ship program that they had was really abnormaly good. It is going to force dealers to stock more parts instead of relying on a very forgiving dropship program.

We sell Kubota parts online, and this has really had little impact to the way that we do business.