Sticker Shock

[Christos]

So, I emailed my massey dealer about a wiring harness for my tractor. Last year it was around this time a cool 54 bucks. Now a year later it's 74 dollars.

The guys that repaired my tractor last year told me a harness for my 135 is a MF only item and they couldn't get it after market.

I just about died when I saw the price, but I'm hoping with a little more tinkering I might be able to save it. If not I guess I'll be biting the bullet. I'm sorry about the rant, but I work retail and I can't seem to be able to justify that much of a jump - even if its inflation.

That increase is almost 43% of what it cost last year.

Christos

 

[RobMD]

probably taking unfair advantage of increased copper prices. Using that excuse for their additional 43% profit. Or it could be the simple fact that they KNOW they can get that price.

 

[davejoe]

One reality in the parts business is that shelf and bin space is expensive. An antique wiring harness that no way can be a fast moving item is expensive to floor plan, and expensive to inventory. Be glad you can get one. Dave

 

[super99]

I too am sometimes overcome with sticker shock at the prices of parts for the old machines. BUT!!! Even if the harness was $100, it's still cheaper than one payment on a new tractor. Go anywhere else and try to buy parts for something built 40+ years ago and see what happens. I am just happy that the parts are still available in today's throw away society. Looks like you have a couple of options.Sell the 135 for scrap and go buy a brand new tractor, pay the price and be glad the part was available, Or else you can teach them a lesson and don't buy it. Let it set on the shelf and take up space till somebody else comes along dumb enough to pay that rediculous price. my 2 cents. Chris

 

[RickB]

Next year it may not be available at all.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Chances are that it will go up even more in another year, or it will be no longer available. You better quit sitting on your hands and get it now. It will last your lifetime. Fix you tractor right. Tom

 

[Mark]

Christos,

Apparently some would have you believe you should be grateful to bend over, grab your ankles and take it dry from a very large shaft and thank the owner while he does you. And....who are you to expect to be kissed afterwards? HAR!

You are right....it is a rip-off. Example: They buy an item for $5 and mark it up to $7 last year. They expected to make $2 profit...okay, fair enough. But it doesn't sell. They check what the REPLACEMENT cost is THIS year and it is $8 wholesale. So what do they do? Scratch the $7 price tag off and glue on a $10 sticker. Suddenly their REAL mark up on the inventory on hand went from 40% to 100%! It makes no damned difference what the inventory replacement will cost. Let the next item be sold for $10 if the retailer pays $8 for it. But, it is unfair and I think unethical, to keep jacking the price up on old inventory, simply because the new replacement inventory price has gone up.

There used to be a MF dealer here (MF really stands for Massey-Ferguson) who was the world's worst for this practice. You'd go in there and ask for something and the retard nephew behind the desk who toudin't twalk pwain would rummage around in the back and return with a part in a yellowed and tattered-dogeared package, promptly flip open the latest price sheet and demand a King's ransom for something that had obviously been there for 13 years. THAT is precisely why they are no longer in business. People...like me...got sick of that and went elsewhere. In the end, I guess they took those vintage parts home and boiled them for supper. At least, I hope they had to eat them! The other dealer...the surviving dealership...is ran by a man who will go find your part, blow the dust off it and say....the damned thing has been here 20 years...it's says $16 on the box...take it and get the hell out of here! We're both happy...he finally unloaded it and I wasn't ripped off. THAT is the reason everybody likes him, why he has been there going on 50 years and is more than comfortably well off.

 

[Christos]

Well, I agree about the dealer thats how my town lost its Massey Dealership. He still had filters from the 60s next to filters that had to have been 10 years old when they stripped his franchise license.

However I guess the upside of this all is I think I had requested the wrong harness. My tractor is the later version with the Z145 engine in it, and this one was for the earlier ones. If I did make a mistake then hopefully the correct part is still around the same price if not well as Super99 was kind enough to point out I'm going to have to suck it up.

As for the dealership I go to for my parts, they're a good quality dealership. They've gone the extra mile for me and they've earned my business. I can't see how'd they try to screw me.

Christos

 

[Mike (WA)]

Reminds me of old Herb, the parts manager for John Deere locally for about a hundred years. He seemed to have memorized every JD part number, so they didn't need a computer- just ask Herb. My old JD manure spreader's bottom chain had gotten so bad I was doing more shoveling out than spreading. Went in to price a new one. Herb said "Wait a second", went upstairs and came down with a dust-covered, complete bottom chain. It was marked $83. All the young bucks dived for the price list, and one reminded Herb that the price was now 3 hundred and something. Herb, bless his heart, said, "Lucky for our customer that he didn't have to order one. That'll be $83 plus tax, please."

 

[RodinNS]

You don't know how cheap that is. I've priced them out at several hundred bucks. A bit more complicated... but way too much money.
At 50 bucks for yours, I think it would be hard to buy the wire and tape to make it for that, never mind your time.

For anyone else that thinks they ought to get 30 year old parts off the shelf for what they cost to put there 30 years ago, I say yee should inventory something for 30 years and figure out what that cost you... especially if it was done on borrowed money at the time. I don't blame a dealer one little bit for selling something at today's price. They pretty well have to if they're going to stay in business...

Rod