warranty question

[HVACDIESEL]

Hello I am in the process of purchasing a BX-24. It is coming from a different state.Usually I dont do this sort of thing, but there is a big price difference.Has anybody had trouble getting warranty work done from a non selling dealer.

 

[klrobert]

My father bought a new L3400 at a dealer several miles away. He had a warranty issue and the local dealer wouldn't touch it. If you buy from a dealer that is not local, be sure you have a way to haul it in case you have to take it back for warranty work.

 

[ihookem]

I bought mine out of state and had warranty work done close by. They were a holes about it and I think they ripped me off. It's their loss cause I don't buy anything from them at all and will never go there again. Now they loose even more.

 

[docmark]

Any dealer should be able to do the warranty work, but unless you have a real good story to explain why you didn't buy it from them--and they are convinced you will buy your next one from them--expect them to not really fight for you.
They will be reimbursed from kabota that same no matter where it is bought, but when my tiller snapped in two the first time I used it, kubota said they wouldn't cover it and my local dealer wouldn't even spend time on the phone trying to convince them otherwise. He said he didn't want to spend his money paying his employees to talk on the phone and send pictures to kubota.
I had made the mistake of letting them give me a quote on the tractor. They were high by a few thousand, and thereafter not in the mood to be helpful. So, yes you are suppossed to be covered, but I would have the trailer available if need be.

 

[N1ST]

What is Kubota Corporation's position on this? In my opinion it makes the corporation look bad if they tolerate dealers not willingly performing work on any Kubota regardless of where it was purchased.

 

[john_bud]

Kubota's need dealer repair very rarely, why not buy from out of state?


What happens after you buy a tractor and then move? If a dealer was being a hole about it, I would talk to corporate. A dealer should WANT the business. Heck, our local guys will work on any color as long as someone provides the green.

jb

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

What is Kubota Corporation's position on this? In my opinion it makes the corporation look bad if they tolerate dealers not willingly performing work on any Kubota regardless of where it was purchased.

Their position is that the dealer needs to work on it, and they will make phone calls and see that it happens. The issue comes in that warrenty work is a money LOOSING proposition for dealers, so another dealer can low ball a price on a machine going far away knowing that it won't be comming back to him and adding expense to his bottom line. It is hard to enforce.

Another risk (and we just had this happen, yes... we get low balled on sales somtimes as well) is that if Kubota issues a recall or product update that information is sent to the selling dealer so that it can be addressed. If that dealer is not willing to put a mechanic on the road out to take care of the changes that need made... then they don't happen. In the case of a local ZD331 that had some engine mount changes that the dealer three hours from us did not come to correct... the customer had an engine that slid up into the radiator. You can imagine how that went.

 

[teg]

There are many things that the local dealer can do to make it near impossible to get "warranty" work done. Also, don't expect the cheaper out of state dealer to do much better...

Not done under "warranty", instead Product Improvement Bullcrap, I was able to get my jerky 3ph valves replaced with the original dealer ($80/gas & 6 hour drive). It was the worst experience of my life... IMHO, I do not feel like kubota offers a "warranty", but a good dealer can fight to make you happy when something goes wrong.

 

[LBrown59]

Kubota's need dealer repair very rarely, why not buy from out of state?


What happens after you buy a tractor and then move?
jb

No differen than buying from a different dealer.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Here is the bottom line... if you are a descent, fair, nice person... then you won't have trouble. If you go into a dealer and act like a huge jerk, threaten to drive 4 hours to save $50, etc,etc... you'll be remebered and they may take an oppertinuity to throw that back in your face. Not saying its right, but thats often what happens.

 

[john_bud]

Good point, jerks deserve to loose.

jb

 

[LBrown59]

Hello I am in the process of purchasing a BX-24. It is coming from a different state.Usually I dont do this sort of thing, but there is a big price difference.Has anybody had trouble getting warranty work done from a non selling dealer.

What State ?

 

[mattman]

How is warranty work costing a dealership money?? The dealership gets paid for the labor and a small amount for the parts they put on. Also there is the chance to win the owner of the tractor over by doing them a good job on the warranty work in a timely manner. If the dealership treats the owner poorly and slowly they will probably not come back and will tell others of the poor service they received. I would think any dealership would go out of their way to acquire customers. The word of mouth is a very powerful form of advertising. It does not take alot of bad press in smaller towns to eat away at a dealerships good name. my 2 cents

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

How is warranty work costing a dealership money?? The dealership gets paid for the labor and a small amount for the parts they put on. Also there is the chance to win the owner of the tractor over by doing them a good job on the warranty work in a timely manner. If the dealership treats the owner poorly and slowly they will probably not come back and will tell others of the poor service they received. I would think any dealership would go out of their way to acquire customers. The word of mouth is a very powerful form of advertising. It does not take alot of bad press in smaller towns to eat away at a dealerships good name. my 2 cents

We get paid a flat rate for warranty repairs. If the vendor decides something takes 20 minutes and it takes you two hours... you get paid for 20 minutes. The problem is that most of the flat rate times assume you know exactly what the problem is and are standing there with the tools in hand ready to go. Most of the time its nearly impossible. This is kinda the norm in our industry. There are machines that we end up loosing money on simply because of unpaid expenses of warranty repairs.

This is not my personal opinion, or our business practices... but I can explain the outlook of some of my peers. You would think that dealers would buck up and try to prove themselves, but the prevailing attitude would be that if this person screwed you once, they'll do it again. From their perspective not only did you take your business elsewhere, now your back and expecting them to provide costly service to you. Good service and good people are not a cheap commodity. So to the business your warranty repair could cost them a substantial amount of money, way more than the $30 they are going to make selling you filters, or the $150 they'll make on a 3pt implement, which since you've now tagged yourself as someone who buys on price the opinion will be that you'll probably end up going to tractor supply anyway to buy the chinese junk they sell for $75 less than your quality brand... again, not our practice... but I understand where the dealers who do this are coming from.

Again, the persons attitude really goes a long way towards forging a good business relationship. Even from the service aspect, if your kind and express yourself calmly rather than make a scene your alot more likely to get people to want to help you out. You'll be remebered as someone they want to take care of, rather than that guy with the broken tractor. As a customer, it never pays to be ugly. You can be forceful and persistant... but being a jerk does not ever help your cause in sales or service.

 

[mattman]

Does the vendor allow any extra time for diagnostic time? I would think they would rather have the tech check out the problem very carefully to be sure the problem was fixed right the first time. Is all the labor times one sided toward being fixed quicker than what is actually possible?

I will probably buy out of state to keep from having to pay sales tax. Arkansas will eat you alive on sales tax.

 

[LBrown59]

I will probably buy out of state to keep from having to pay sales tax. Arkansas will eat you alive on sales tax.

Buying out of state don't void the sales tax,
I'ts still due.