Parts Guys??

[Duner Wi]

Correct name for part you need would be helpful. Correct name be what john deer call the part you need, Not what you and most people in the civilized world call that part you need.

 

[trackrat]

i know that many of us are not on the cutting edge as far equipment is concerned but we still buy a lot of parts and still do a lot of work with our old antique obsolete stuff ,it hurts me that the dealers do not act like they care for our business

 

[MeanGene1]

A few years ago, my Farmall 450 was leaking at the connection of the hydraulic pump and the flange for the twin hydraulic lines. I found out the hard way that the o-rings are a special size, very slightly larger than the standard ones in your o-ring kit- it leaked worse after changing them lol. Went on the online parts catalog and found them, with the part number. Went to the local CIH dealership (MUCH different than my gramps' old IH 'dealership) and found the 30-yr old counterman. Just for fun I start with, I need a couple o-rings for a Farmall 450. He says, what's a 450? OK, here's the part number. He looks it up, and starts shaking his head and says that's from like 1957! Best part was, they had them in stock, and they came in a pack of two- so we both ended the transaction happy

 

[rrlund]

i know that many of us are not on the cutting edge as far equipment is concerned but we still buy a lot of parts and still do a lot of work with our old antique obsolete stuff ,it hurts me that the dealers do not act like they care for our business

That's it right there. I can put up with a wrong part if they act like they care and don't start throwing things like a two year old and acting like it's my fault when I take it back.

 

[JOCCO]

That's it right there. I can put up with a wrong part if they act like they care and don't start throwing things like a two year old and acting like it's my fault when I take it back.

RR as much as I like you and enjoy your posts It is different on the other side of the counter. I do not do well with it over the phone or with little to no information. And most parts counter guys have never seen the item in question. SO HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO the two i recently had over the phone. My winch stopped working and is bound up, My brush cutter bogged down and quit? I myself try to get a picture part number and serial to help them as much as i can.

 

[rrlund]

RR as much as I like you and enjoy your posts It is different on the other side of the counter. I do not do well with it over the phone or with little to no information. And most parts counter guys have never seen the item in question. SO HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO the two i recently had over the phone. My winch stopped working and is bound up, My brush cutter bogged down and quit? I myself try to get a picture part number and serial to help them as much as i can.

I had one guy actually throw his pad and ask me why I didn't just keep doing what I'd been doing? I had the book right with me and showed him what I wanted. He was just an A$ $.

Another one, when I had to reorder a part because they had ordered the wrong one after I went there, gave them the tractor serial number, engine serial number, part number and told them that there were three choices and I need THIS one, When I went back to return it and pick up the right part, he slammed it down on the counter, slapped the receipt down with a slam from the flat palm of his hand, then threw two twenty dollar bills on top of it and walked away without saying a word. That kind of tantrum when it was their mistakes and I hadn't even raised my voice when I called to tell them it was wrong, was juvenile behavior that wasn't called for by ANYBODY who's job is to deal with the public.

 

[GChief]

Well there's one side of it

 

[JOCCO]

I had one guy actually throw his pad and ask me why I didn't just keep doing what I'd been doing? I had the book right with me and showed him what I wanted. He was just an A$ $.

Another one, when I had to reorder a part because they had ordered the wrong one after I went there, gave them the tractor serial number, engine serial number, part number and told them that there were three choices and I need THIS one, When I went back to return it and pick up the right part, he slammed it down on the counter, slapped the receipt down with a slam from the flat palm of his hand, then threw two twenty dollar bills on top of it and walked away without saying a word. That kind of tantrum when it was their mistakes and I hadn't even raised my voice when I called to tell them it was wrong, was juvenile behavior that wasn't called for by ANYBODY who's job is to deal with the public.

RR no doubt you can run in to some real winners, i have. I would not want to be a parts man today! THE Issue is most are not knowledgeable about the stuff, those days are gone. Also this online parts stuff says it fits when it don't. I do all the work I can before I go in it seems to help. Also parts people are taking lots of abuse like where Mrs jocco works.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

I very rarely have had a customer come back with the wrong part without a story of what a traumatic experience it was to get the part half on and find out it didn't fit, and had to drive all the way back here, miss his kids graduation, and how this counter would be a good place to open a parts department. A lot of times customers have that " I'm the only person in the world" syndrome.

A guy came in on Christmas Eve 1982 with a belt for a Super C that I did not sell him. We were standing around sipping Jameson's and getting ready to close when this guy came in. He was clearly peeved but before he could draw a breath, I told him that we were inaugurating a new policy where if the boss sells the incorrect part , you get it for free. I found the correct belt, opened the drawer and took out $13 , as my boss stood gape-jawed, handed the customer the correct belt and his money.

He hung around and drank with us for a couple hours.

This was just a little countryside IH dealer in Elyria Ohio. We weren't real high tech, but we did have a microfiche machine.

 

[DWF]

I had several Ford heavy trucks over the years. I did business for years with a Ford dealer in the Twin Cities of Mn. Around 1998 or 20000 or so, Ford sold their heavy line to Freightlinner and was now called a Sterling. Around 2011 I neede a rear wheel hub, dealer said "no longer available". Tried several places and same story. Could go to a different style hub, but then would have needed new wheels too. Called a dealer in Central Wi that had been a Ford dealer and now was a Sterling dealer. Got a woman parts person, same story, NLA, but she said she would work on it, Heard from her at the end of the day, she said she's having no luck, but wasn't giving up. Next day, she called back and said a hub was coming from Canada, new part, but a different brand (Gunite). I did business with her for several years, if it wasn't available in the normal parts chain, she found things for sure.
DWF

 

[Howard H.]

In fairness, part of the disconnect is you didn't use the best nomenclature in describing what you want. If the counter person searched for "chaffer fan drive" there is no listing. If he started by looking for the chaffer, he would have found the chaffer and nothing to do with the cleaning fan. If he was knowledgeable enough to look for "cleaning fan", he would have found the fan, and not what's on the other end of the belt.

The Cleaning Fan is driven from the Secondary Countershaft. Since you mentioned fan "drive", I guess you mean one of two bearings on the secondary countershaft: either the carrier bearing on the shaft itself (JD8593) or the thrust bearing on the sheave (AH87207).

Parts counter people cannot reasonably be expected to learn the (incorrect) lingo of each and every old-timer. Certainly, the guys you talked to should know a combine has more than one fan, but if you have access to a parts catalog, then you also have access to the correct terminology to make yourself understood.

Second guy told you he's never had a call for parts on a machine that old. That's a mere statement of fact and you shouldn't take that as a personal slam on you. You found the part number yourself. Not sure why you didn't do that in the first place.

Yes, you are getting old and grumpy. Yes, your old iron really is that far out of date. I'm glad I got out of the parts business when I did- 17 years, a hernia operation, and a 401k which was practically unheard of back then. Glad I don't have to try to keep up with the ever-increasing speed of new machines and updates, let alone remembering/learning all the old stuff. For me, digging into the old stuff was a fun challenge on a slow day, but that wasn't what kept the doors open...

I mainly just posted that story out of my own amusement at today's dealer support...

I remember when dealers would stay open late during harvest. and JD had "truck support caravans" with semi trailers of extra combine belts, filters, etc, roaming around to support farmers and wheat harvest crews as the harvest swept from south to north across the country. Maybe that was just marketing show, I don't really remember.

The reason I called them first was that it was five minutes til closing and I was in the boonies roughly an hour's driving time from any of 5 JD dealer's and I wanted to catch anyone before they left - so they could leave the part outside - and/or - find out which/if any other "local" dealer had the part. Both of them kept reminding me "they were about to close".

Back in the 90's I farmed several thousand acres of irrigation before transitioning into an 30-year IT career, so I'm acutely familiar with modern database systems, AI, and JDs part lookup system. I'm in the process of retiring (aside from some IT consulting gigs) and coming back out to the family farm where I'm going to have fun with my ancient 8820, Versatile 895s, JD 4840, 6030s, 4020s, etc, etc, and many other pieces of equipment old enough to shock the hat off any modern day part guy under the age of 40.

At my age, I'm not looking to set the world on fire by farming, like I was 30 years ago. So I am very happy with my collection of equipment for my corner of the world.

Just for kicks, I asked AI to give me the part number for the "chaffer fan drive bearing on a JD 8820" and it DID know what I was talking about and immediately popped up AH87207.

So if the parts guys answering the phone these days are simply there to check inventory for a part # hand fed to them by the customer, I'd say the John Deere IT department just needs to add inventory and location data and/or "nearest location available" to the JDParts website, give me an Amazon-like app that will let me one-click order and deliver; and then the counter "parts guys" can completely go the way of the buggy whip manufacturer and TV repairmen. ha


Howard

 

[moresmoke]

So if the parts guys answering the phone these days are simply there to check inventory for a part # hand fed to them by the customer, I'd say the John Deere IT department just needs to add inventory and location data and/or "nearest location available" to the JDParts website, give me an Amazon-like app that will let me one-click order and deliver; and then the counter "parts guys" can completely go the way of the buggy whip manufacturer and TV repairmen. ha


Howard

Once you have an account with the parts platform that is pretty much what it is. The parts guy’s primary responsibility is to stock the parts, then pull them as needed and get them to the customer, whether that is over the counter or to the farm. Most dealers will deliver to their large customers.

I worked as a tech for a Deere dealer for a while. One day when the parts manager was particularly grumpy, we got into it over how they provided service to the shop techs. Parts manager thought we could wait all day while the parts counter folks served a couple retail customers and made coffee and popcorn. I pointed out to him that I was one of his largest customers and should at least warrant reasonable service. He disagreed. I called our sister store and placed my order, they were happy to deliver $15k worth of parts 45 min later. My service manager got to looking, I moved well over a half million in parts a year.

 

[ss55]

I mainly just posted that story out of my own amusement at today's dealer support...

I remember when dealers would stay open late during harvest. and JD had "truck support caravans" with semi trailers of extra combine belts, filters, etc, roaming around to support farmers and wheat harvest crews as the harvest swept from south to north across the country. Maybe that was just marketing show, I don't really remember.

The reason I called them first was that it was five minutes til closing and I was in the boonies roughly an hour's driving time from any of 5 JD dealer's and I wanted to catch anyone before they left - so they could leave the part outside - and/or - find out which/if any other "local" dealer had the part. Both of them kept reminding me "they were about to close".

Back in the 90's I farmed several thousand acres of irrigation before transitioning into an 30-year IT career, so I'm acutely familiar with modern database systems, AI, and JDs part lookup system. I'm in the process of retiring (aside from some IT consulting gigs) and coming back out to the family farm where I'm going to have fun with my ancient 8820, Versatile 895s, JD 4840, 6030s, 4020s, etc, etc, and many other pieces of equipment old enough to shock the hat off any modern day part guy under the age of 40.

At my age, I'm not looking to set the world on fire by farming, like I was 30 years ago. So I am very happy with my collection of equipment for my corner of the world.

Just for kicks, I asked AI to give me the part number for the "chaffer fan drive bearing on a JD 8820" and it DID know what I was talking about and immediately popped up AH87207.

So if the parts guys answering the phone these days are simply there to check inventory for a part # hand fed to them by the customer, I'd say the John Deere IT department just needs to add inventory and location data and/or "nearest location available" to the JDParts website, give me an Amazon-like app that will let me one-click order and deliver; and then the counter "parts guys" can completely go the way of the buggy whip manufacturer and TV repairmen. ha


Howard

The front counter parts man job might disappear, but the online parts man taking online orders in the back room will be around for a long long time. Drop shipping to your front door is so much easier than driving back and forth to a dealership. Now-a-days a drone might even be able to deliver parts to a machine broke down in the field ( for a fee ).

The reason I called them first was that it was five minutes til closing and I was in the boonies roughly an hour's driving time from any of 5 JD dealer's and I wanted to catch anyone before they left - so they could leave the part outside - and/or - find out which/if any other "local" dealer had the part. Both of them kept reminding me "they were about to close".

Yeah, calling five minutes before closing time is not a smart move. Order online and have the parts delivered quicker instead.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Yes, because the young parts guys have nothing better to do than sit around studying the parts books of old equipment...

What do you mean these guys aren't born with this knowledge? I was!

 

[Brown David]

I had several Ford heavy trucks over the years. I did business for years with a Ford dealer in the Twin Cities of Mn. Around 1998 or 20000 or so, Ford sold their heavy line to Freightlinner and was now called a Sterling. Around 2011 I neede a rear wheel hub, dealer said "no longer available". Tried several places and same story. Could go to a different style hub, but then would have needed new wheels too. Called a dealer in Central Wi that had been a Ford dealer and now was a Sterling dealer. Got a woman parts person, same story, NLA, but she said she would work on it, Heard from her at the end of the day, she said she's having no luck, but wasn't giving up. Next day, she called back and said a hub was coming from Canada, new part, but a different brand (Gunite). I did business with her for several years, if it wasn't available in the normal parts chain, she found things for sure.
DWF

There's a guy at NAPA here like that.

He's found me stuff that no one else could.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

The last time I wanted parts for an Oliver, the parts man didn’t open any book or look on his monitor. He just told me that I’d have better luck getting my Oliver parts online instead of going to his dealership. I took his advice.

The dealer you were at was evidently an agent handling what was left of Oliver OEM, which ain't much. Reproduction parts are the only way to keep these tractors going. Whatever you wanted was probably discontinued and he knew this.

 

[ESVADuke]

I needed a long fuel hose for the farm diesel pump, all the autoparts store had were short ones. Kid there wanted to sell me a custom made hydraulic hose for fuel transfer for a measly $600, and he was dead serious. I haven't been back. Sad too, it is locally owned, not one of the chains.

 

[Ozlander]

I took a set of trailer wheel bearings to the local NAPA dealer. They looked at the bearings, got their calipers out took measurements and couldn't figure out what I had.
Took the bearings down the street to O'Rielly's and set them on the counter. Parts guy about 8 feet away says, 'Trailer bearings?'
Yep, need 4.
He turns around and goes gets me what I need.