When these companies put out bids on components, they always go with the cheapest supplier, maybe there's a reason why someone bid components so cheap in the first place, no lube in the front idlers?? do you suppose Deere forgot to put in their bid specs that idlers required oil in them??
A friend of mine bought a new firewood processor, high priced and with only a few hours on it, the hydraulic system failed big time, upon inspection, nobody cleaned out the oil tank when it was built and was so full of metal shavings it plugged up the filter and then bypassed that and sucked all the filings into the pump and when that ate all it could, that blew parts to every component on the machine, nothing was left working or fixable, long story short, warranty wouldn't cover it, they claimed the owner did it not a screw up at the factory, and then the fight started over who was to blame.
A neighbor bought a new tractor a few years back, the PTO wouldn't shut off, so after every attempt to fix by the dealer, the company sent out a tech, who also gave up, so the company issued a new tractor to the owner, took the new tractor that's pto didn't shut off to auction, voided the warranty and sold it as is, problem solved I guess. Same company did the same thing for a new field chopper, the metal alert didn't work and they gave up trying to fix it, issued another unit to the owner and sold the unfixed one on auction and voided the warranty, brand new never used even an hour, no warranty what so ever on it to anyone who'd buy it.
Exact same company sold a new large front wheel assist tractor to a local guy, once the tractor heated up a certain engine temp, it would shut off where it was, would not restart under any circumstance until exactly 24 hours from the time of shut down, then miraculously would start up, to repeat this same thing each time, long story short, the company couldn't figure out why, so they jerked the owner around till his warranty was up and then refused to do anything with the tractor, then put a blocker on his serial number so nobody could get any information on the tractor if they ever contacted the company again about it, no matter who owned it, so after that once the serial number was given on a question about the tractor, the phone line would go dead, the company would just hang up on whoever asked about it.
A neighbor bought a brand new tractor, to the tune of 300k, while driving it at any speed, it would automatically shift into park for no reason, so while pulling two 740 bushel gravity boxes down the road in road gear, it would randomly shift into park and lock up all the wheels, the company had no clue why it did it, needless to say, the owner wasn't happy.
Same owner second tractor, same year, hooked it up to his also new round baler and the baler wouldn't tie, so the dealer went to work fixing it, they replaced everything they could think of only in the end did they find the culprit, a battery in the tractor had a weak cell in it, batteries are not covered, so they sent a bill to the owner for over 25k in parts and labor, no electrical part can be returned and none were under warranty and no part they put on was broken or needed replaced at all.
Another neighbor bought a new combine, while combing corn the head would stop running and he couldn't raise or lower the head, a dozen trips from the dealer later and after replacing about everything electrical on it, they figured out what was wrong, a loose ground wire, so the farmer was billed nearly 20k for electrical parts he didn't need and were not covered and it delayed his harvest by a month.
Do you want to discuss continuity sensitive wires on machine's?? and what a joke they are and what happens when you cut one and are required to replace the entire wiring harness and what that costs??
How about sensors they bury inside the transmissions and you have to dismantle the machine to get at them and the fact they are not warranted even new, and how much it costs to replace the same sensor three days in a row on the same machine due to bad sensors, yea we need more of those to tell us when our pocket books are too full of cash and in need of depletion is about all they do.
We could start in on new pickups, several customers have them and one brand had an issue with dash fires, to the tune of three new pickups in one year for him, the first one went up hooked to his livestock trailer he was pulling, he got his kids out before it engulfed the cab and also the trailer, second one went up sitting in the yard and the third one burned his garage down along with his new pickup, yet the company claims it was his fault, took him two years to deal with insurance and the fire marshal to make the determination he had nothing to do with it, it was a wiring issue with the truck.
How about combines that burst into flames due to faulty wiring harness's, one farmer lost an entire machine shed full of machinery when it lit up, fire marshal hadn't been there to determine the cause, so he bought the second one, which lit up in his yard overnight since his shed was still smoking from the first fire and had no place to park it, the third combine in the same week as the first two, the dealer dropped off and was never used, and caught fire sitting in his yard as he ate dinner, so the third one he never even sat in, none even had 20 hours on them, there might be a reason why the farmer was somewhat upset that week.
I could keep going for weeks on all the examples of poor quality equipment I know about locally and have seen and been around, every week I hear or talk to someone who's upset over something they own that either won't run or can't be fixed or takes many attempts to try to fix and usually in the end, they give up and trade machines to try to solve the issue.
Quality control, doesn't exist by any company in any industry today.
Parts..................boy that's a hot topic with most in my area, what don't exist anywhere on any dealers shelves, most companies don't even stock, the dealer can't get from the company that doesn't exist in the first place, its a mail order society today, once you place the order at the dealer, the dealer orders it from the company, then and only then does the company buy from the cheapest dollar supplier they get components from and you wait.
