poor dealer service

[trackrat]

powerstar75 under warranty pto will not engage dealer says they no longer have techs to come out and check out tractor problems WHAT IS THIS BULL they want to sell them but not fix them when they break

 

[601Al]

The old model of flat-rate to pay techs may have been fine before cars and machinery became highly computerized, but diagnosing highly complex computer-electrical systems and getting ripped by manufactures cutting warranty pay caused many if not most to find new careers back around 2008. I’m not going back and neither are tens of thousands of others. Until manufactures pay a salary or a reasonable commission time to fix the junk many are producing, other trades are much more attractive. If dealers want the good mechanics left in the field, they better get their pocketbooks open. I’d contact New Holland directly.

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

powerstar75 under warranty pto will not engage dealer says they no longer have techs to come out and check out tractor problems WHAT IS THIS BULL they want to sell them but not fix them when they break

I walked a local NH dealer lot a month or so back, and noticed a 1" inch or so round red decal stating that tractor transport to and from the dealership isn't covered under warranty. If there not sending techs out then they just created a "billable" dealer service the customer has to pay. I noticed a lot of tractors on trailers that looked like farmer owned going in and out. Must be CNH's new business model.

 

[trackrat]

the problem was not the charge for service it was that they did not have a tech even to send out at all

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

the problem was not the charge for service it was that they did not have a tech even to send out at all

Understand, but what I am guessing is my local NH dealers don't seem to have mobile techs either. This dealership location seems like everything is hauled in.....by keeping their techs at the shop they don't have the cost of the vehicle, liability, and can "manage" productivity better. Check with another New Holland dealer. Maybe your current dealer is short staffed, and not doing on site repairs due to lack of talent.

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

the problem was not the charge for service it was that they did not have a tech even to send out at all

New Holland may not want to pay warranty claims so dealers are doing bare minimum now. It's an eye opener, hope New Holland makes it right for you.May have to consider changing brands if New Holland isn't doing on site.

 

[trackrat]

what do you d if you have a hay baler, haul loose hay for them to trouble shoot with

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

Man I don't know...I had a neighbor looking at brand new tractors, not these blue ones- and the salesman had to get approval from the dealer manager to deliver based on sale price. That's just terrible service. So it may not just be a problem in New Hollands dealership attitudes. Do like 601AI mentions contact corporate, it's just not right!

 

[trackrat]

dealer picked it up this morn. we will see what happens fingers crossed

 

[Non-farmer]

I once saw a discussion about another brand (I won't name it, don't want to start anything) whose dealer network was widely detested by owners of that brand. This reminds me of the motto one unhappy owner attributed to them.

We're not happy 'till you're not happy.

Fingers crossed for you, I hope you have better luck with them than that.

 

[trackrat]

dealer returned it Thursday wasn't home don't know what they did works now

 

[ss55]

dealer returned it Thursday wasn't home don't know what they did works now

Care to tell us the details?

 

[DanielW]

I can't say I'm overly impressed with NH techs from something I encountered a couple of weeks ago: A couple couldn't get their Ford 530 baler to knot correctly. They were new to square baling (and pretty new to farming in general) but were certainly nice enough. They didn't know who to call, so they called the NH dealer just up the road. If the dealer hadn't tried to help at all, I could perhaps understand: I could understood if the dealer said they don't want to work on old/outdated equipment, or didn't have time to work on a small/pokey problem in the middle of haying and wheat season. But that wasn't what happened. They sent out a tech, who worked with them for half a day (and charged accordingly), and couldn't figure it out. The tech told them before he left that there was no one who worked on that kind of old equipment, and the baler was best sent to the scrapyard.

They called me shortly thereafter to get a second opinion and I went out to have a look. The baler (though old), was in top-notch shape. And the knotters on those Ford 500 series are Rasspe-style knotters, pretty much identical to every New Holland baler from 1950 until the present day. Diagnosis and repair is the same as any NH square baler knotter. The problems with their knotter were all very basic, textbook knotter problems that could apply to a brand new NH baler (twine disc timing, stripper to bill hook clearance, twine routing).

For the service tech to spend hours out there and not be able to figure it out seemed pretty unacceptable to me.

 

[B. White]

I have one five years old at a dealer now. Dealer has no mobile service and the code will require the proprietary software to confirm the fix. In some parts of the country I don't think it is brand specific. Talked to somebody a few weeks ago that used to sell JD, but said it was the same problem and he couldn't take dealing with it anymore and went into another business instead of selling stuff folks can't fix themselves.

I'm also not happy with MF at the moment. I have a new-to-me 135 and the hours are so low I was going to use higher OEM parts and hyd. oil for what I needed to do. One dealer is 55 mins away and the other 20mins further. Tried the closest and I think the only thing I was looking for that they had in stock was the fuel and air filter. The PTO seal, oring, hyd filter and oil filter had to be ordered. He said there was a pack quantity of 6 for the oil filter and I would have to buy that many to order. Told him to forget it. At least the NH dealer keeps common parts for the old Fords on the shelf and while they have a min order qty from CNH, they do not pass it on to customers unless something cheap like a pack of 5 orings.

 

[trackrat]

they never told me what they did to the tractor but it works now who knows

 

[ss55]

I can't say I'm overly impressed with NH techs from something I encountered a couple of weeks ago: A couple couldn't get their Ford 530 baler to knot correctly. They were new to square baling (and pretty new to farming in general) but were certainly nice enough. They didn't know who to call, so they called the NH dealer just up the road. If the dealer hadn't tried to help at all, I could perhaps understand: I could understood if the dealer said they don't want to work on old/outdated equipment, or didn't have time to work on a small/pokey problem in the middle of haying and wheat season. But that wasn't what happened. They sent out a tech, who worked with them for half a day (and charged accordingly), and couldn't figure it out. The tech told them before he left that there was no one who worked on that kind of old equipment, and the baler was best sent to the scrapyard.

They called me shortly thereafter to get a second opinion and I went out to have a look. The baler (though old), was in top-notch shape. And the knotters on those Ford 500 series are Rasspe-style knotters, pretty much identical to every New Holland baler from 1950 until the present day. Diagnosis and repair is the same as any NH square baler knotter. The problems with their knotter were all very basic, textbook knotter problems that could apply to a brand new NH baler (twine disc timing, stripper to bill hook clearance, twine routing).

For the service tech to spend hours out there and not be able to figure it out seemed pretty unacceptable to me.

The Ford 530 series hay baler was produced between 1967 and 1974. The even the newest ones are now over 50 years old. Are twine knotter parts still available for a Ford 530 baler? NH may have built the 530 balers for Ford, but to Ford's specs, the parts may not be interchangeable with NH products. It could be that the tech could not find bolt-in parts to make the repair. To take the time to modify parts from another brand to fit an orphaned 50 year old machine might be every restorer's dream, but it would be a repair tech's nightmare. At what point do you quit while you are ahead and stop wasting the customer's money?

 

[DanielW]

The Ford 530 series hay baler was produced between 1967 and 1974. The even the newest ones are now over 50 years old. Are twine knotter parts still available for a Ford 530 baler? NH may have built the 530 balers for Ford, but to Ford's specs, the parts may not be interchangeable with NH products. It could be that the tech could not find bolt-in parts to make the repair. To take the time to modify parts from another brand to fit an orphaned 50 year old machine might be every restorer's dream, but it would be a repair tech's nightmare. At what point do you quit while you are ahead and stop wasting the customer's money?

The knotters for the 530 are indeed Ford-specific and not built by Rasspe like the Deere's/NH's. But in this case there were no new (nor modified) parts required: The problems were the twine missing one of the thimble eyes, the twine disc on one side out of time, the bill-hook stripper arm needing to be adjusted closer to the bill hook, and the twine knives needing to be sharpened. All requiring no parts and only basic tools. And all standard knotter adjustments and maintenance, identical to any Rasspe knotter on any NH baler from the oldest two-digit hayliners to the newest 500 series. And only requiring about 20 minutes of work. And it's not like it's an unusual-looking knotter that would have been hard for a tech to figure out: Although they weren't Rasspe-built knotters, they're modelled after the Rasspe pattern and look (and function) exactly the same. If you looked at the knotter on an old Ford 530 baler and a new NH 575, you'd hardly be able to tell any difference. And diagnostic/repair procedures would be exactly the same.

 

[NY 986]

The knotters for the 530 are indeed Ford-specific and not built by Rasspe like the Deere's/NH's. But in this case there were no new (nor modified) parts required: The problems were the twine missing one of the thimble eyes, the twine disc on one side out of time, the bill-hook stripper arm needing to be adjusted closer to the bill hook, and the twine knives needing to be sharpened. All requiring no parts and only basic tools. And all standard knotter adjustments and maintenance, identical to any Rasspe knotter on any NH baler from the oldest two-digit hayliners to the newest 500 series. And only requiring about 20 minutes of work. And it's not like it's an unusual-looking knotter that would have been hard for a tech to figure out: Although they weren't Rasspe-built knotters, they're modelled after the Rasspe pattern and look (and function) exactly the same. If you looked at the knotter on an old Ford 530 baler and a new NH 575, you'd hardly be able to tell any difference. And diagnostic/repair procedures would be exactly the same.

A person would be very lucky around here to get a dealer to send a technician out to troubleshoot a 55 year old piece of farm equipment. Also, the technician most likely has no training to repair such equipment as a small square baler. When they hired on it was most likely more important for them to know how to troubleshoot electronic systems on things such as tractors, combines, planters, etc.. Decades old mechanical devices not so much. The tech most likely got stuck to do a job he has no experience in as going out to look at the Ford baler was simply the result of checking his inbox one morning. Further, since dealerships like to sell parts and those Ford balers have very little in the way of manufacturer made parts available the tech probably got told "not to waste a lot of time on it as there were other more important customers to the dealer to take care of.

 

[trackrat]

have talked to several dealerships most say they don't have techs that go out to work on equipment anymore. To my mind that is a sorry state for all of us in the industry also when did they become techs not mechanics a little too full of themselves maybe

 

[trackrat]

Talked to really big new holland dealer they said they don't have anyone to come out and work on equipment, I asked what do you do about hay balers and such, they said that could suggest several local farmers who worked on hay equipment. Again I asked what about warranty work they said that was how they handled it