I think the CEO of Mahindra told me **** off

[Teachu2]

I was surprised to see 14 new Mahindra tractors lined up on East Broadway Mayfield KY at a local lawn mower and chainsaw shop on Monday. All had loaders and were 4WD from large to small. They must be expanding their distribution. Around here they seem to be viewed more highly than some of the China tractors.

My closest Mahindra "dealer" also sells trailers, but his main business is financing. Parts Department is his phone and UPS. Service Department is his phone and a local mobile mechanic. Not a lot of confidence in his operation....and he's 100+ miles away.

My Kioti dealer is 30 miles away, and has been in the tractor business over 70 years, family-owned and operated. Two locations, both with parts and service on site and mobile. No comparison.

 

[Teachu2]

To make a long story short, I bought a new Mahindra 4025 4wd in 2013. I致e had lots of issues with from day one. I was hoping to get an electrical issue and coolant leaked fixed before the warranty ran out. I致e had these problems since day one and they were never fixed correctly. The tractor has about 246 hours on it and just had a head gasket put on.
Anyway, take a look at the CEO痴 email. What do you think? Is he telling me to pack sand in a very passive aggressive way or does he lack reading comprehension. I tried to take all of the names out of the email string except for Mr. Iyer the CEO. I was also dealing with Mahindra customer service and a VP.

Hi Mr X,

I am glad the tractor is working normal and wish u have all the fun with the toy.

Regards
Mani

Sent from my iPhone.

Considering that you told him you were done with his lousy company and were buying a competitor's product, he gave you the courtesy of a polite reply and wished you well. That's as much of his time as he should waste on a lost cause.

 

[Coyote machine]

I would be curious to see the Dealer's Preparation checklist?? You might ask for that next time you visit them?? Assuming Mahindra does such a thing?? Might be interesting to see how many of your problems were the responsibility of the dealer to check??

I agree. For instance my Kioti dealer assembles loaders and backhoes on site, in his shop. PDI can be a place where things get overlooked, depending on what's in a dealer's shop when a new tractor is being sold. IMO, before any tractor is put on a lot for sale all PDI type work should already have been performed, at a minimum. Beyond that the problems the OP described should have been corrected to his satisfaction way before warranty ran out. One must be proactive and keep calling, writing, and whatnot until all issues are corrected, JMHO.

 

[jwm171]

First, I never used any profanity with the title; I wrote it with the “****”

There are a lot of holes and missing pieces of this story. Over the years I have reached to Mahindra numerous times and never received any response. That was until I got the email that I thought was offensive from the customer support rep. So, I forwarded it on to all of the executives at Mahindra. I was frustrated and venting. There really wasn’t anything I expected from them.

As far as, “Communication”, I had spoken with a VP that said he would follow up with me in a couple days (never happened), and they would send a Mahindra Technician to verify the repairs and go over the tractor (never happened). I literally said to my wife after the call, “If they call back, I’ll buy a new tractor”.

I am surprised that so many people expect the bolts to come loose. That seems odd to me, I would have thought the problem was caused by inadequate torquing, my belief was that the workers are just using impact guns and not verifying proper torque or using proper torque patterns. What extreme do you go too, when checking for loose bolts, and how often? Please don't take this as being sarcastic, I'm 100% serious when I ask this, why would loader bolts come loose but not head bolts?

90% of the time this tractor is used to get firewood and maybe 7% for snow and 3% misc. I normally hand load the bucket with wood as I cut. My loader work seems pretty light duty.

I am certainty not without fault here, there is a lot I wish I would have done differently looking back. The point posting they entire email chain was to be a transparent as possible.

 

[mcfarmall]

One thing that I would advise anyone to do when dealing with tractor, truck, camper, whatever issues is to start a file folder the very day you take delivery of the item. Save every correspondence both ways, copy yourself on every e-mail, no text messaging. The idea is to create a paper trail from the very start. Document EVERYTHING including a simple handwritten note of phone calls with date, time, description/transcript of the conversation, who you talked to, etc.. Without detailed documentation, the phrase, "I sent several e-mails and I got no response" means absolutely nothing to a supervisor, district manager, CEO or whomever.

Now if you had told them that on June 19th, I e-mailed Dink Winkerson, the Midwest district manager about my problem with the head gasket and I got no response. A week later on June 28th, I e-mailed Dink's manager, Marty Schiemenhauster and he told me blah blah blah. With details like that you can build a credible timeline of correspondence that will get you far and will get action.

I have to say that some of your complaints seem borderline nit-picky and every new manufactured vehicle with few exceptions will have issues like that routinely but most of us here simply apply the wrench or screwdriver or install a new hose clamp or whatever. Many of these items like the battery cable with the poorly crimped lug come from a tier II,III, or IV supplier they might have issues that aren't directly the fault of the OEM.

I also fully understand the mindset that when you pay $XX,XXX for a piece of new equipment you shouldn't have any issues for a very long time. I suffer from that mindset as well but as I get older I realize that it's mostly a pipe dream.

When I get my tractor, I will probably spend the first few days removing the loader mounting bolts and replacing them with an application of blue loctite and a prominent witness mark so that I can visually detect if they have turned.

 

[Rustyiron]

Hey I ran into Dink Winkerson drinking in a bar parking lot with Marty Scheimenhauster.:laughing:

jwm, sorry for your situation, it seems to be not all that uncommon with "them". In hindsight, mcfarmall's above post above would have been a game changer for your raw deal. This unfortunately seem's to be a necessary approach to more than just tractors. It's a shame you need to prepare for a lawsuit starting with your first issue these days.

 

[Ortimber]

The head gasket problem seems like a legit gripe, but seeing how there was coolant hose issues I suspect there is a chance the tractor may have overheated?

I have purchased close to 10 new pieces of equipment. I usually spend the first weekend or two going over the manual as well as checking the machine out. Every machine has had a few issues such as loose bolts, scratched paint, a poorly routed hose, a rattle, etc. While it would be nice to trust that everything comes out of the factory without any issues, it doesn't always happen.

 

[Coyote machine]

First, I never used any profanity with the title; I wrote it with the “****”

There are a lot of holes and missing pieces of this story. Over the years I have reached to Mahindra numerous times and never received any response. That was until I got the email that I thought was offensive from the customer support rep. So, I forwarded it on to all of the executives at Mahindra. I was frustrated and venting. There really wasn’t anything I expected from them.

As far as, “Communication”, I had spoken with a VP that said he would follow up with me in a couple days (never happened), and they would send a Mahindra Technician to verify the repairs and go over the tractor (never happened). I literally said to my wife after the call, “If they call back, I’ll buy a new tractor”.

I am surprised that so many people expect the bolts to come loose. That seems odd to me, I would have thought the problem was caused by inadequate torquing, my belief was that the workers are just using impact guns and not verifying proper torque or using proper torque patterns. What extreme do you go too, when checking for loose bolts, and how often? Please don't take this as being sarcastic, I'm 100% serious when I ask this, why would loader bolts come loose but not head bolts?

90% of the time this tractor is used to get firewood and maybe 7% for snow and 3% misc. I normally hand load the bucket with wood as I cut. My loader work seems pretty light duty.

I am certainty not without fault here, there is a lot I wish I would have done differently looking back. The point posting they entire email chain was to be a transparent as possible.

Head bolts get factory torqued. Loaders don't always come with a tractor, and as explained already above, they are mostly a dealer assembled item and installed before delivery, by same. AND loaders get torqued a lot in use by improper use, angles of attack, to a pile of whatever, etc.
Best example is airplanes. Their bolts are wired so nuts can't come loose or fall off.
It is naive to think that every bolt/nut is going to be properly torqued at delivery, and even if everyone was- they do, obviously come loose. Not all nuts, but some.
It's mostly a function of flexing, forces of vibration and such that tractors sustain when used for what they are designed to do.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

CincyFlyer, there is zero doubt about the zirk fittings being greased, I was trying to show a pattern of QA issues.

I can concede somewhat on the fasteners needing to be checked, but a properly installed mechanical fastener should not come loose. I have serious doubts that anybody climbs under a brand new truck to look for loose bolts.

My orange BX 25 has 1500 hors on it. Never a loose fastener because they were not installed right during assembly, only ones that were a design fault using a poor choice of system.

Ron

 

[Agvg]

They can't design things so they get loose, if it's critical the normal way is to use locktite or other proper way to secure the bolt, must be very uneducated mechanics to not do a proper install, checklist is a nice way to keep quality up so it is strange the dealer don't use that.