Kids not allowed at Tractor Dealership?

[mikehaugen]

Your example has nothing to do with children at dealerships, its about a salesman who takes care of his customers and is rewarded for good service. Cut your kids loose in that same Mercedes dealership crawling in and around the cars and see what kind of attention you garner. You can spend more money on a tractor than a Mercedes.

For some reason people feel that dealers should "put up" with the lack of respect for their equipment because you may be a potential customer. That is what you are alluding to in your example.

I think I must have missed the part where the kids were climbing all over the equipment and displaying a "lack of respect" that he expected the dealer to put up with. Could you point it out? The kids were merely PRESENT. This thread has gone into examples of how SOME kids are terrible little demons with no respect, and everyone has apparently associated that with the original post. I agree that some kids are wild and dangerous, and that some dealers have to have rules because of them, but why in this thread do we directly compare these examples to the the example of the OP?

 

[J F]

Do you really have to ask why?

 

[mikehaugen]

I understand people's viewpoints here, and how the rowdy kids will ruin it for everyone else... I get that. The example I quoted was implying that the children with ultrarunner were that way. That is all I was pointing out.

 

[txdon]

Forgot to mention... I did call the Dealer today to ask if kids are welcome.

Never did get an answer because all options including the operator went to voice mail.

Thanks for trying to get the dealers side of this story. It sounds like they are a business in decline with no experience how to run a business after the father died.

 

[J F]

....or they were just busy with other customers. :confused3:

 

[txdon]

....or they were just busy with other customers. :confused3:

A good business would have at least had a human answer and explain the rush of people on the lot and inquire about a call back number as soon as a salesman is free.
No excuse for not answering the phone during business hours.

Even the small business here in Texas have the phones forwarded to a cell phone of a person that can help.

 

[yelbike]

Now here's an example of where a "farm kid" would be really unlikely to play chicken in the streets. Nor by sticking his
hand in the mower blades or the pto.

Don't think for one second "farm kids" are more intelligent. I'm not a "farm kid", I grew up in a small (pop 900) town 10 miles away from a large (pop 800 000) city. I don't consider myself a "city folk" either. I remember way back in grade 10 a class mate of mine, a "farm kid" ran his hand through a triple belt, all the way a around a sheave on the side on a combine. He broke many bones in his hand. It was an accident though likely preventable(I never knew all the details). Another incident, last summer two "farm kids", best friends apparently, played chicken with their dirt bikes,(head-on). Well they collided, one died at the scene. Please don't tell me farm kids are more intelligent. Not sayin' city slickers are any smarter either.

Unrelated but interesting since we're far off topic. I read a statistic many moons ago: 40% of pot smoking kids live in the city, guess where the other 60% live. The principle likely applies to more then just pot, don't put your head in the sand.

Back to topic. Personally I bring my 4 kids to dealers,though never in a boat, as around here they usually have a sign not to board them. No point in jump in cars or truck as the kids are in them nearly everyday. They can't play on the tractor at home so why do it at the dealer's place? If one asked to climb in a combine, I may oblige but it would be under DIRECT supervision so they don't get hurt. Also if I buy a new tractor, I don't want half the world population to have boarded it. It would be my new baby. I guess I just respect or realise that tractor on the dealership's lot will be someone else's baby one day and it should be treated that way. JMHO

 

[J F]

A good business would have at least had a human answer and explain the rush of people on the lot and inquire about a call back number as soon as a salesman is free.
No excuse for not answering the phone during business hours.

Even the small business here in Texas have the phones forwarded to a cell phone of a person that can help.

I wouldn't know, until I had a chance to "run" that particular business. I could give you a bunch of scenarios that probably wouldn't make any difference to you, though.

 

[txdon]

awh .....you never know. Run a few by......

 

[daugen]

Don't think for one second "farm kids" are more intelligent.

yelbike, I must respectfully disagree. A kid getting his hand accidently caught in the combine is no different than a hundred adults who did too; we all know farm machinery is dangerous. And as far as two kids running head on into each other, agreed, pretty stupid, tragic, and both paid the price.

There will always be exceptions, so a blanket statement may be unreasonable, but I still think the mental attitude of a kid who has worked his childhood on a farm, well, he/she will simply look at that tractor differently. Now when a child is four years old, likely all bets are off, but where's the parent anyways? Maybe it's not manners, maybe it's not "upbringing" regarding being respectful of things you don't own.
But it's something. Ok, I'll keep my head up far enough to get at least one ear out of the sand...