The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugly

[BobT]

Well Bill,

Your testimony:

<font color=blue>It is important to note that Ben was professional, courteous and helpful without disparaging either me or the dealer.</font color=blue>

Too bad you felt it necessary to disparage EVERYONE (except yourself of course).

In my opinion, TBN does NOT exist to offer people like you a place to light fires and torch reputations as a method of bullying and compelling others to give you your way. You would have gotten the SAME result with Deere & Company if you had just contacted them with your concerns, and followed their well established process of customer issues, and allowed the process to serve you and them (and minus the hundred-message-week-long reputation assassination).

I have followed this forum for three years, and NEVER ONCE have I seen anyone attack John Deere or any manufacturer in the manner you have. On the contrary, whenever issues have come up---as they inevitably will amongst human beings with real lives and real tractors---Deere and Company has ALWAYS acted in an attentive, interested and exemplary manner and served the legitimate needs of their customers. They did so again in this case, in my opinion.

This really was a TINY little issue of a few hundred dollars that could have -- and should have -- been settled with a couple of phone calls.

 

[gdilling]

Re: The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugl

Hi rancar
I know this is off the issue concerning blurrybill's problem, but I read that you have a JD 4710. I'm considering a near term purchase of this tractor or a Kubota L4610. Did you consider the Kubota and if you did why did you go with the JD instead? Are you happy with the 4710? Any cons you could clue me into?

 

[blurrybill]

You are entitled to your opinion and your experience may have led you to that conclusion. I had no experience and only operated throughout my dealings openly and honestly. I do not believe that I trashed JDs reputation. On the other hand, I consistently stated that I would report my experience accurately, before, during and after. I did exactly that. A few hundred dollars may be inconsequential to you; it is not to me. Scratches, poor setup in many ways may be meaningless to you; not to me. Lack of response from the dealer may be no big deal to you; not to me. Nor was the experience I had after a tremendous amount of research to make a once in a lifetime purchase.

I am satisfied with the resolution to date. My tractor still isn't working as designed. That is the truth. It may be meaningless to you -- not to me.

Further, you have no direct knowlege whatsoever as to how the problem would have been resolved with Deere, unless you have inside information that was not shared. The issue IS NOT TINY and was, in fact, not settled with a couple of phone calls.

I do not view you as the arbiter of what is relevant on the site. That said, I continue to respect your right to express an opinion on what I believe is a relevant tractor purchasing issue.

Bill

 

[bigpete]

Hey, Bill. Glad you have been able to reach a point in this arduous process that moves your level of satisfaction to toward the "equilibrium" point.

I can appreciate your level of investment, monetary and otherwise, in the machine that is now truly yours. I can only guess that I will learn quite a bit from your subsequent threads written not only about the closure of the remaining deliverables on your 4310, but about the capabiltities and features that you will be uncovering in the next weeks and months.

I must say that I think your invitation, to us all, to evaluate and participate in your resolution was really unique. The spirit of the posts registered all over the map, and it showed quite a range of sensitivity, purchasing, and general business accumen.

With a very high level of confidence, I can say that there may never be another Deere/kubota/New Holland/Massey Ferguson purchase that finds its way to the point you have reached, at least not on the same path. However, the buying and delivery principles exposed in this thread have educational bearing on countless tractor transactions yet to take place.

Go dig a trench, relocate a few thousand pounds of fill, or t'ool through the woods on that new machine and think back about how you got there. Betcha' it will bring a grin to your face pretty soon. I'd also bet you a bagel with cream cheese that you will feel like you got a good deal after all.

Regards,

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color=blue>"Ben said that he had arranged for JD to pay half of the $440, with the dealer picking up the remainder, apparently a traditional way of handling this kind of problem"</font color=blue>

I have to say I think Deere was more than fair on this. Having a lot of experience with manufacturer-dealer-customer problems I was guessing Deere would hammer on the dealer to split the $440 with you.

I'm happy they did what they did for you. I think this once again speaks to John Deere as a company.

 

[glennmac]

Re: The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugl

People can draw a lot of different conclusions from your experience, Bill...... Look on the bright side and cut loose the resentments. You bought a great tractor at a great price. The substantive problems are really not that bad, notwithstanding the poor performance of the selling dealer and the process frustrations. The cruise control was fixed by the local dealer under warranty. You got resolution on the $440 after what is probably a normal time lag for a large company. The mower knob issue you can undoubtedly figure out from the manual........ Something sounds wrong with the hydraulics setup, however. The tilt cylinder shouldnt sag. It also seems that something is hooked up wrong if you can't use the mower and FEL without uncoupling hoses. You will have to have someone review the hydraulic setup. The problem will be who. The proper party should be the selling dealer, but he is 350 miles away and you probably don't want to rent a trailer to bring it to him. The local dealer won't want to spend time on the hydraulics unless he can be compensated by someone: you, the selling dealer, or JD under the warranty. You will have to work that problem out, but I bet the problem will be easy to solve by a competent JD mechanic......I don't know anything about tillers, but you will be able to figure out all the settings and techniques by asking questions here, reading the manual, and asking the dealers.......The cosmetic stuff is irritating, but it is a reality in the tractor business......Go out and play with your tractor; it's a great stress reliever.

 

[rancar]

Re: The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugl

Hi gdilling....

When I initially shopped around, I looked at all the three big manufacturers. I didn't look at the Kubota L4610 per se but Kubota as the manufacturer. I think Kubota are good machines....really couldn't find much to complain about them. I priced the L4610. It was comparable in price to the JD 4710. But, I have always been partial to John Deere...they were by first choice. I located a dealer who provided a good price on the tractor package I was looking for and so went with it.

I'm extremely pleased with the 4710. Haven't had it all that long but apart from two minor warranty problems (manufacturing related) that the dealer quickly addressed at no cost to me, I haven't had any problems with it. It runs smooth, has the power I expected it to have, and with the eHydro it runs so easily, just like a car with automatic transmission. This is important for loader work that I'll be doing a lot of. I have not regretted my purchase of this unit.

If you haven't yet done so, look at my thread entitled "New 4710 Came Home Yesterday" in the JD Owner/Operator Forum. More commentary and numerous picture attachments are there for your perusal. If you have even more specific queries, let me know and I'll try to help any way I can.

Bob

 

[Fly_Rodr]

It is good to see the problems being worked out on your John Deere. I have had my JD950 for 12 years did have to buy 1 battery and brake shoes ( brakes shoes my own fault). I would say it has been great. I just finished shopping for a new tractor yesterday. I remember one of the things the dealer said was not to worry if you have to move, you can get it serviced by any authorized dealer. Enjoy the new tractor I'm sure in the years to follow it will treat you well. The power of the internet is communication and this thread proves that. Thanks to all you TBNers, what a great forum.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Re: The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugl

<font color=blue>"The cosmetic stuff is irritating, but it is a reality in the tractor business"</font color=blue>

Maybe this is showing my naivete' here, but why are dings, scrapes and scratches acceptable on a brand new $25,000+ tractor? I can't imagine any of us finding a dinged door, scraped bumper or scratched fender on the same price new car or truck acceptable when we arrive to pick it up at the Chevy dealership where we ordered it. What's the difference?

I can imagine hearing that it's "OK" because a tractor is going to get dinged up anyhow, but the same applies to a new car or especially a work truck.

Personally, that's one of the reasons I like to buy used instead of new. They come with a couple dings and marks already so I'm not the one getting the acid stomach over that first imperfection. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Re: The truth: 4310: the good, the bad, mostly ugl

Whats the difference, well first of all most tractors will head immediatly from the show room floor to the fields where as your car will probally stay in the garage. Most farmers and people who buy tractors expect to get scratches on it anyways so as long as there are no huge gouges we never worry about them. But to each their own and you and everyone for that matter deserves to get what they pay for and if you want perfect paint then you let the dealer know and he should make sure you get perfect paint. I pay money for reliability and ease of use and could care less if there was a ton of scratches as long as the machine did what I ask of it. On the plus side if the machine is already scratched up you do not have to worry about scratching it? Take care.