What I hate is when dealers change their policy but don't tell their customers. When I first got my skid steer the service was great and I really liked the salesman. I took it in for the free 500 hour service and a minor warranty issue and they completely washed the machine both times. It wasn't very dirty and I mentioned they even washed it. The shop foreman said it was just an extra value service they provide as long as the machine isn't caked in mud. The next time I took it in to have an anti-chatter damper put on the lift spool under warranty, they charged me 1-1/2 hours for washing it. Again it wasn't dirty from mostly spreading dry top soil and gravel. I questioned the shop foreman why I was all of a sudden being charged for washing it. He beat around the bush and said well it's something we sometimes do but not always. Tell the customer then or have it listed on the work order. It would have been about $6 at the car wash had I known. I figured they charged me for all 3 times they washed it.
The more successful they got the more their service went downhill. All of a sudden the salesman I liked was no longer servicing my territory and I had to deal with some new guy. I went to rent a backhoe attachment and asked for the biggest bucket they had. The shop helper (who was a jerk) says, I should have told them that when I reserved the backhoe and said they didn't have a bigger bucket than what was on it. I saw a bigger bucket sitting on their rental rack. This was a hoe attachment for a skid steer. My machine was there to hook it up and it's too much trouble to take 5 minutes to change a 100lb. bucket.
Later when they were going under I ran into one of the mechanics I liked at their auction. He said several employee's were cheated out of 3 month's salary. Even worse was he said the owner came in the lunch room and said that employee's are going to be docked pay for the last 6 month's because they were taking 15 minute coffee breaks (pretty much standard everywhere) but employment standards says only 10 minutes is mandatory! After hearing that, he quit the next day. He tried to get the 3 month's pay owning to him but figured it might cost as much as it's worth with no guarantee he'd get anything. I couldn't believe it. This place snagged the exclusive Kubota AG and construction dealership in a million+ territory a few years earlier when another shop closed and they ran it into the ground. There's poor management and then there's not having a clue what you're doing.
