More dealer support complaints .....its getting to epidemic propertions

It's not just equipment dealers. The place I worked for was the largest industrial supplies outfit in Canada. They are owned by an American company. Their new operating model is not to have stores where customers can just walk in and buy what they need. They want customers to contact a call center (talk to someone different every time) and items will be shipped direct to them. Sometimes the customer just wants to get what they need and be on their way without having to wait till the next day or even 4 hours later. Also gets rid of walk in customers. They're too busy trying to help out larger accounts to realize how much money they could be making off walk in sales. Customers can go in a branch but even if the branch has what they need they have to come back in 2 hours to pick it up. Who's going to do that when they can drive a few blocks to somewhere else and buy it. In Alberta one of their competitors was a couple blocks away from where I worked. They had lots of stock and always a line up of 10 customers or more. They had to have at least a dozen counter sales staff and they had trouble keeping up sometimes.

We are dealing with Case IH at the moment and it is terrible. We got a new maxxum 150 last fall and it has been nothing but trouble. Every time the dealership comes out it is a joke problems not solved and no one there cares. In the end they told me the machine is designed to do what it is doing and when i ask why the owner's manual says otherwise i get no answer.

92U 3406 said:

My father was shopping around for a skid steer and out of all the dealers he went to, only 1 would give him the time of day. I guess unless you're buying $1 mill/year worth of equipment you can GFY is the new attitude these days.

Click to expand...

I know at our dealership when things slow down and the going gets tough, it is the little guy who keeps us going, not the mega contractors. Fortunately we have a service manager who treats the little guy the same as the big guys. If a little guy comes in with a repair then a big guy comes in, the big guy has to wait his turn. Our theory is you never know when that "little guy" will become the next "big guy" and that turns into machinery sales because of the way he was treated as a little guy.

mg2361 said:

I know at our dealership when things slow down and the going gets tough, it is the little guy who keeps us going, not the mega contractors. Fortunately we have a service manager who treats the little guy the same as the big guys. If a little guy comes in with a repair then a big guy comes in, the big guy has to wait his turn. Our theory is you never know when that "little guy" will become the next "big guy" and that turns into machinery sales because of the way he was treated as a little guy.

Click to expand...

We had one of our “little guys” just do that went from a few pieces of older equipment to placing their first order buying several new machines at once this year.

mg2361 said:

I know at our dealership when things slow down and the going gets tough, it is the little guy who keeps us going, not the mega contractors. Fortunately we have a service manager who treats the little guy the same as the big guys. If a little guy comes in with a repair then a big guy comes in, the big guy has to wait his turn. Our theory is you never know when that "little guy" will become the next "big guy" and that turns into machinery sales because of the way he was treated as a little guy.

Click to expand...

That's the mindset I have. Treat me like **** now, expect me to tell you to screw off if you come asking for my business later.

Welder Dave said:

It's not just equipment dealers. The place I worked for was the largest industrial supplies outfit in Canada. They are owned by an American company. Their new operating model is not to have stores where customers can just walk in and buy what they need. They want customers to contact a call center (talk to someone different every time) and items will be shipped direct to them. Sometimes the customer just wants to get what they need and be on their way without having to wait till the next day or even 4 hours later. Also gets rid of walk in customers. They're too busy trying to help out larger accounts to realize how much money they could be making off walk in sales. Customers can go in a branch but even if the branch has what they need they have to come back in 2 hours to pick it up. Who's going to do that when they can drive a few blocks to somewhere else and buy it. In Alberta one of their competitors was a couple blocks away from where I worked. They had lots of stock and always a line up of 10 customers or more. They had to have at least a dozen counter sales staff and they had trouble keeping up sometimes.

Click to expand...

Oh I hear ya Dave.
We had a large industrial supply store in town.
They closed the doors and left so we had to deal with one 100 miles away, but it was not too bad since they had the traveling sales guy that would come by and deal with stock orders and issues.
They got rid of him and now they want nothing but online sales.
The warehouse guys do not have time to deal with this, sit at the computer and page through their immense online catalog to find what they need. And if you have a return, just forget it.
So the warehouse manager made it real easy for the supplier, told them to get the sales guy to stop by every week and deal with his issues, when they said there was no sales guy, he told them to get stuffed.
Picked up the phone and called the competition, they were there within the hour.

Welder Dave, Sounds like what Fastenal did here.

I worked with a guy who was a manager at a Fastenal here. On his Linkedin he says he never realised he was a magician... Always having to pull rabbits out of a hat.

I worked at AGI which I would guess is who wornout wrench is referring to. They were a billion in sales a few years ago with around 175 stores. Now they're down to 31 will call locations. Wouldn't be surprised if the name gets changed to just Grainger. One of the long time branch managers, who was forced out, said the question was asked about the name change. I know a guy who's family owned a chemical company that was their largest supplier of private label products. He said they are so far down the list now they aren't even in the top 15. Another big problem they have is stock or should I say lack of stock. If you have to order something from an approved vendor that isn't in the system it takes a minimum of 90 days! Even items that are in the system take way too long if they're out of stock.

The little guy goes into a shop or a store and gets good service, he's going to be telling his friends and others he knows in the business and that's the best advertising there is. Another scenario is the employee's from the big outfit come in to buy something because that's where their employer buys from. They stop by a store and are told they can't just pick it up and have to come back in a couple hours. What happens when the employee tells the boss and the boss isn't happy. The boss has the power to drop them as a vendor! I've seen that happen. Guys are working on a job close by, need something so go the store to pick it up and then told they have to come back. Go down the street a couple blocks to a competitor and get what they need. Boss isn't happy so switches to the vendor that does walk in sales and allowed his crew to keep working.

Ronsii said:

Here again the manufacturers are driving towards the 'parts changer' tech... make everything modular more or less that a simple part change will fix it.... most of the time I started running into parts changers many years ago... they didn't know how something worked but by god they knew they could fix it if they changed enough parts

Click to expand...

Parts changers have been the norm for a long time now sadly.
I bought a Ford Excursion with inoperable four wheel drive. Ford dealer had replaced transfer case and shift motor for several thousand - not fixed.
I checked electrical, working correctly. I pulled out my vacuum gauge, found none making it down to the axle. Followed vacuum line to a mouse eaten section inside the fender. Fixed...
I've done similar easy diagnostics countless times after parts changers failed to fix problems.

Ah, parts changing! I keep waiting for it to become the next great Olympic event.

Blocker in MS said:

Ah, parts changing! I keep waiting for it to become the next great Olympic event.

Click to expand...

Hahahaha!!!

I don't understand how customers put up with parts changing. They paid the mechanic to fix it, not to change any particular part. Change a bunch of parts and hand them the bill. Those parts better be either the cause of failure or affected by the failure. So many stories sound like "mechanic came and changed x, y, and z and charged $x,xxx to do it and it is still not fixed." Why even pay the bill?

Birken Vogt said:

I don't understand how customers put up with parts changing. They paid the mechanic to fix it, not to change any particular part. Change a bunch of parts and hand them the bill. Those parts better be either the cause of failure or affected by the failure. So many stories sound like "mechanic came and changed x, y, and z and charged $x,xxx to do it and it is still not fixed." Why even pay the bill?

Click to expand...

I know.. hear it all the time for the most part people don't have a clue when it comes to mechanical things... or anything but their smartphone... and even with that all they really know how to do is input preprogrammed responses like a trained monkey...

Parts changers get away with it because knowledgeable owners and managers are also in short supply. As long as owners and managers don't educate themselves, they will get the kind of workers that take advantage of them. The repair companies are not going to do anything about the problem because the parts changer brings in revenue. The economy in the current state also plays a roll. If the machine is down and there are few options other than the dealer, what are you going to do? Lately I've been trying to get a list of independents that might be available. Most pickup a single customer that pays well and they end up kind of captive and have no reason to look elsewhere for work. The expectation of guaranteed fast top quality service is a thing of the past. Now you take your chances and put up with what you get.

John C, you are definitely right. I know of three good independent mechanics in one small town. They are all skilled. They all do not take on any new work that they do not want to. None advertise. None have to. One is quite young. It amazes me.

Not too far up the road is a small independent shop. Used to do service calls. They do not need to now.

A good mechanic ought to make a fine living a lot of places. The main obstacle is technology once a little experience has been gained.

I’m an independent mechanic and I can tell you there’s no shortage of work in my area. There is a few other independents around here that mainly work on trucks and I mainly work on equipment. The only advertising I’ve done was ride around and hand out business cards when I first started. I’ve got a couple dozen customers but like John C mentioned I’ve got a couple large customers who keep me busy and I don’t have to chase money so I cater to them and fill my time in with smaller customers.

I am just ending my 28th year of self employment. I have never had to advertise as word of mouth has always done it for me. I have lots of customers over the years, from the large companies to the farmer down the road with 1 tractor. Some things I have learned over the years, good and bad are listed below.....
1. Every customer is important to your business. Too many times in a economic slump, my large customers slump with it. The "little guy" has kept me operating on more occasions than I can even remember. Their loyalty also is second to none.
2. Don't let customers do your troubleshooting. I have chased my tail for hours by listening to "I changed those filters already" or "We already checked that." Just DONT do it.
3. Do GREAT work, don't be sloppy and dirty with what you do. Especially with new first time customers...…...The first impression is always what they remember most.
4. Be Johnny on the spot as best you can. Keep your customer informed of what's happening with their machine and do your best to be timely with their repair. Being a one man show this can be tough and I have to balance this quite often. I cant be 5 places at one time. If I tear down a customers machine for a repair and have to wait on parts, I inform them of this and give them a possible day I will be back to make that repair for them. If something happens and I cant make that particular day for whatever reason, I notify them of the change. They understand you have other customers to take care of and sometimes emergency breakdowns occur that need immediate attention...….but they need to know where you stand with THEIR repair and know that you are on top of it.
5. Return calls! That is the most irritating things to a customer.
6. Be friendly REGARDLESS of how a customers attitude is. We all have bad days and your customer does too. It may or may not be directed at you, even though it may seem that way.
7. Beware of parts people. They know part numbers. There is a good chance that if you order a part by phone, with them having to look it up themselves...….its more than likely going to be WRONG.
8. Leave the job better than when you left it. I carry a small trash can in my truck. If I see trash around the machine, even though its not mine, I will pick it up. If it is in the cab of the machine I worked on then I will clean that up also.
9. Inform your customer when you have their machine ready, If you noticed other potential problems that may or may not need immediate attention....INFORM them of these items. I would say 30% of my work is due to this alone.
10. Can you tell I'm OCD with some things?

Nothing wrong with OCD - I have it too. A former boss once quoted thusly - "It's not OCD, I prefer to call it attention to detail."

I only have three years to go then no more attention to detail. These companies built this crap and these business owners ran out and bought it right along with the song and dance,
I don't really give a Sh!t what takes place in my field anymore, There's nothing I can do about and no one wants to hear the truth anyhow. So let'em cry.

While I'm not a wrench, being a designer I have to get along with every customer, it gets hard because many customers are not from the USA, the language barrier can be a pita. Work ethic is a biggie, the canuk thats sending me texts at midnight, the chinese guy that works 7 days....The brit that had no sense of humor and couldn't get along with anyone but me. Throw in a few stuck-up ass kissers, oh boy, ain't we got fun.

And everyones job is the most important!!

People wonder why I drink....

Ed