Having tradtor hauled.

[Navasot]

If the customer is paying to haul by the mile, that's a financial incentive to take it to the closest dealer, whether it was purchased there or not.

As to getting "second class" treatment on warranty work, will that sour the tractor owner on becoming a potential purchase customer??

Hes not getting second class treatment hes getting normal quality service...

 

[Capricious]

Hes not getting second class treatment hes getting normal quality service...

Don't mean to be argumentative, but if I am told that someone else gets service before me because he bought the item there and I did not , I would consider that second class service.

Now, that may or may not be a big deal to me, depending on the exact circumstances, but you are still telling me that I am being treated differently because of it.

My question to dealers is, do you worry about telling someone that? Are you concerned about losing a potential customer? And wouldn't that be balanced by those that
bought from you, but get their warranty work done elsewhere?

 

[DavesTractor]

Capricious,

You wouldn't imply to someone that they are second class, nor penalize them for buying elsewhere. You would just tell them your shop is booked solid (if it is) and to drop the tractor off and you would work it in sometime next week. Or something like that. You give them good fair service, and apply warranty coverage to anything you legitimately can.

But I'll give you an example....we just had a guy roll in with his tractor and it had a failed headlight switch. This is a solid repeat customer. We are booking 10 days out in the shop right now. I pulled a guy off a rush job in the shop and we replaced the switch while he waited. And as luck would have it, we did not have a switch in stock, so I took one out of a brand new tractor. In less than 30 minutes, he was gone. The tractor is out of warranty, but we charged him zero labor. We essentially moved this guy to the front of the line, robbed a switch from a new unit, and allowed him to go home with his tractor instead of coming back later to pick it up. That's how you take care of good customers. But you see, a customer like him expects this, and he pays a fair price up front for his tractor, pays whatever tax is due and builds a relationship with the dealer. He brags us up to his friends and helps us sell tractors.

I am trying to think of how I might explain the other type of customer, but anyway I do it sounds negative. I think I just won't go there.

 

[John Dougherty]

That varies by brand as far as the warranty contract, but as a practical matter a dealer for xyz brand can get reimbursed for warranty work on any xyz tractor, so he will generally do the warranty work as it is good business (although generally not profitable) to do so. But if a dealer is really busy, a customer that bought from him will generally get his work done before a customer that did not. And a dealer will sometimes "goodwill" a minor problem that isn't actually covered under warranty at his own expense for a good customer. So there are advantages to going back to your selling dealer.

We will do Mahindra warranty work on any Mahindra as long as it was legally purchased/owned and registered, etc. To do otherwise just looks like sour grapes and never ends well. The exception is if a local guy runs over the state line to avoid sales tax and then brings it to us for warranty, we do require that he show us proof of paying "use tax". If so, we are on it, if not he evaded tax, not avoided tax and we won't touch the tractor. We won't get sideways with the tax folks for any reason....they can make or break a small business and it isn't worth a little bit of warranty reimbursement income. But I think I have opened up another subject, and we probably should not get off track.

What kind of grapes?

 

[DavesTractor]

What kind of grapes?

California grapes!:dance1:

 

[John Dougherty]

California grapes!:dance1:

Dave,
I know that you a highly regarded contributor to this site and as far as I know, your dealership is first rate. Now, I am not a California Legislator, but I am pretty sure that they were the ones that put into law the component talking about 'Farm implements' and use tax. Maybe you should call congressman Doug about this issue. As far as doing warranty work on 'out of state tractors', are you really sure you want to go there?

 

[DavesTractor]

John,

Thanks for the kind words. The Farm Tax exemption is a great deal, and if it is applicable to a purchase, it lowers the state tax down to about nothing, although local tax applies. We like it and appreciate that Tax Exemption. If I am missing something please let me know. If there is a way for a Californian to buy a new tractor in Oregon at a dealer and not owe CA tax, I need to know that.

We do warranty work if a tractor was purchased legally out of state, but not if done illegally. If a California buyer goes out of state and buys a 1 year old Mahindra from a private party, he does not owe CA Use tax, just as if he bought it from a private party in CA. Or if a guy lives in Nevada and moves here. Or perhaps he has a home in Arizona, but also spends the summers in CA and brings his tractor with him. All of that is fine. Or he inherits it....all good, so long as it is a legal purchase, we are going to do the warranty, and with a smile. We just are not going to get sideways with the BOE. They have been nothing but helpful and they never give us a hard time, likewise we collect tax when due and pass it on.

This is a rare event that an illegally purchased tractor comes into the yard for a warranty repair. It happens just a handful of times a year. The good news is that it is easy for a customer to square this up with the state. You go to the BOE office, fill out a form and pay the tax.

BTW, I really, really, dislike taxes and I seldom agree with how our tax dollars are spent. But that really doesn't matter...and I suspect I pay more sales and income tax than the average guy.

Perhaps we should get back to "having a tractor hauled"?

 

[John Dougherty]

Dave,
I appreciate your response. Dave, I am not aware that buying a tractor in Oregon or any other state is illegal while living in California regarding 'use tax'. Perhaps you could site that part of state law that shows there has been an offense committed. If so, I would be the first to send a check to the State. I obviously don't want to break the law. Can you help? I am with you on paying more taxes! In 2009 I paid $1.1M to the federal govt. Ugh! Good luck.
Thanks, John

 

[DavesTractor]

John,

They ought to give you a free tax pass for a year and maybe a ride in a military jet....that's a ton of tax $$. Google "publication 217" and maybe throw in "CA BOE", and you will pull up a pretty straightforward page on this.

I'm thinking for every $100k in taxes, we ought to at least be given an excess used HUMVEE or something.....

Thanks.

 

[John Dougherty]

Thanks, Dave. Until next time. Good will and good luck.
John Dougherty