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Man... sounds like one of those angry posts from that guy with the "off brand" tractor! Lol.
Dealer Various Dealers... wanting best price
- Thread starter GreenBFarms
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- Views: 5307
brain55
Veteran Member
I've written a few more Kubota warranty claims than JOHNTHOMAS has tractors. It takes some creative writing to get paid for your time. I will tell you absolutely Kubota does not pay for travel time on service calls or pick-up and delivery, and only in rare occasions will they pay for diagnostic time. Warranty is not a profit center for dealers nor does it likely create a net loss. It does take a technician away from jobs that do pay for all of his/her time though. I doubt a dealer will refuse to do your warranty work because you bought from somebody else, but if he has to choose between working on your tractor and one that he sold, I think it is pretty easy to figure out who will get priority.
Barlow's is a high volume dealer that likely sees a variety of repairs and probably has a dozen or more mechanics. The first dealer I worked for the most we had, was one other guy and myself. A lot of the time I was the only mechanic, so obviously we weren't going to see the volume of repairs. The low volume guy like that hasn't likely made that warranty repair a dozen times to where he can beat flat-rate and will need more diagnostic time too. This first dealer used the shop as a profit center. The other dealer I worked for viewed the service department as a necessary evil. He used it as sales support. In all but the last year he owned it, the shop did not make money. He preferred a clean shop to a busy shop. Obviously the two different trains of thought will view warranty compensation differently.
The first owner, whenever a customer would compliment any service work that was done, he would bring them out to the shop and have them thank me personally. A few of those took the time to write letters of appreciation. The second one had never received that type of letter until after I started working there. The only year his shop made a profit was the year another mechanic and I ran the shop.
Anyway back to the topic. Shop the dealer not the price completely. Saving a few bucks and having to deal with a lesser dealer may cause more aggravation than it was worth.
One more thing about warranty. It isn't just the tractor that gets warranty repairs, it's the implements also. Short line manufacturers are terrible about paying anything close to full shop rate for repairs. I've seen it be less than 30%. That can definitely cause a net loss for a dealer on warranty especially if out of the kindness of his heart, he sends out a technician or picks up the implement to bring back to the shop at no charge.
Brian
Barlow's is a high volume dealer that likely sees a variety of repairs and probably has a dozen or more mechanics. The first dealer I worked for the most we had, was one other guy and myself. A lot of the time I was the only mechanic, so obviously we weren't going to see the volume of repairs. The low volume guy like that hasn't likely made that warranty repair a dozen times to where he can beat flat-rate and will need more diagnostic time too. This first dealer used the shop as a profit center. The other dealer I worked for viewed the service department as a necessary evil. He used it as sales support. In all but the last year he owned it, the shop did not make money. He preferred a clean shop to a busy shop. Obviously the two different trains of thought will view warranty compensation differently.
The first owner, whenever a customer would compliment any service work that was done, he would bring them out to the shop and have them thank me personally. A few of those took the time to write letters of appreciation. The second one had never received that type of letter until after I started working there. The only year his shop made a profit was the year another mechanic and I ran the shop.
Anyway back to the topic. Shop the dealer not the price completely. Saving a few bucks and having to deal with a lesser dealer may cause more aggravation than it was worth.
One more thing about warranty. It isn't just the tractor that gets warranty repairs, it's the implements also. Short line manufacturers are terrible about paying anything close to full shop rate for repairs. I've seen it be less than 30%. That can definitely cause a net loss for a dealer on warranty especially if out of the kindness of his heart, he sends out a technician or picks up the implement to bring back to the shop at no charge.
Brian
