Counting down the days

When left the family business in 97 I thought I would learn a lot more than if I would have stayed in our shop. I've had 15 years to see how this works from the dealership's side of things. I don't have much of a point to this post other than stating my curiosity to why they are so greedy. Today I was sent on a service call knowing that we did not have the required part in stock. It was an extremely common problem that we have encountered many times in the past and it's the same thing at fault every time. So I went out to the farm and diagnoses it and sure enough, it was the same thing we've seen dozens of times. When it's all said and done this guy now has to pay for 2 service call charges and the full labor rate for my drive time on 2 trips. The funny part is the failed parts were 67 cent electrical terminals and only 12 of them. I know we shouldn't guess at our job but if it is common shouldn't we at least take the proper parts along on the diagnostic trip, one trip, one charge. Soon I will be going back to the family business and I don't think I'm goin to miss having to explain the high bill for a small repair anymore

I used to deal with machinery vendor's like that all the time. Often I would find techs that had never worked on, or been trained on our equipment. Once, they sent out a guy it was his 1st day on the job, a trainee with zero experience. But they still billed him out @ $130 per hour. Sad thing, they only paid their techs about $20 per hour.

I used to deal with machinery vendor's like that all the time. Often I would find techs that had never worked on, or been trained on our equipment. Once, they sent out a guy it was his 1st day on the job, a trainee with zero experience. But they still billed him out @ $130 per hour. Sad thing, they only paid their techs about $20 per hour.

I do not have the heart to bill someone like that.

I know exactly what you mean. I've got one customer that I tend to work so much for that I do my best to keep at least one of certain parts on hand all the time. I do this because, like today, I get calls saying the machine is broken down on a power line right of way about 3 hours away from me, up in the mountains. Knowing the major problem I will, of course, make 100% sure I've got what I need to repair it. Thing is you never know when one major problem will breed several smaller ones. That's where having truck stock on common, small parts comes in handy.

I understand that dealerships don't usually extend their services out as far as I do, as an independent, but not keeping, or taking common parts out to the job, like your talking about, is just plain ignorant. Just about as bad, and I've heard Dad talk about it from his years at two different dealerships, is simply not keeping common parts on hand at the dealership itself. Even worse is when it's something like an injector for one particular 6 cylinder engine, and the stock on the item is always just 5 pieces and not a full set of 6.

While I can understand nobody can keep everything on hand, all the time, especially nowdays, both not keeping really common items on hand, or not keeping full sets of really common items that all get replaced together is just plain stupid.

The other thing that really gets me is when I've been in a parts house (be it a equipment dealerships or an aftermarket outfit) several times looking for the same part, and get told each time they don't stock it because no one needs it. I reply is usually to the effect that, "I've needed 6 of them in the past 2 months. I gave you a chance each time, and you never had them so I finally got them somewhere else. I hated to do it, but I even paid a higher price, simply because you do not have them....and you can not sell something you do not have."

I often wonder how the dealerships stay in business, and make money like they do, but it's things like your describing that are gold lining their pockets at the customer's expense. Personally I have to be able to love with myself and sleep at night. I guess that's why I'll never be filthy rich.....

I know what you mean....I service crop dryers in the southwestern ohio southeastern indiana area. i try to keep stocked up on commmon items, but that can be tough to do at harvest time. I rarley charge a second service call for parts I did not have the first time.....unless it is a odd one that i dont stock.....guess thats why I am still working....i dont have it in me to rip people off!!!!

A stocked truck would be nice, for that matter a truck with an air compressor would be nice. Our service trucks are just regular pick ups. The only thing that goes in the truck is what we put in it before we head out. They are not assigned trucks either so we bill the customer for loading and unloading our road tools every time. And I know all to well about the trainees. Last week we sent one to install a park switch in a 6410, an hour and a half away, and he couldn't complete the job. I then got to drive up there and finish it. So the customer had to pay 9 hours of drive time and three service call charges. One for me to diagnose it, one for the trainee to replace the failed part and one for me to calibrate it, 3 separate trips.

That part doesn't bother me as much as it does paying somebody that doesn't have a clue 75 bucks an hour to learn on my dime. I realize a dealership have their overhead cost and need to charge a high rate for their labor. But give me somebody that knows what they are doing.

You don't by chance work for TriGreen equipment in TN or AL do you? Sounds exactly like them. I used to work there and went through the same things.

You are just seeing the way MBAs want a company to be run. It shows a BIG profit on paper. The real problem is there is no column to account for lost business or sales if you never had the part to start with. A part in inventory shows stocking cost. One that they order over and over an never stock, shows a higher profit margin. Plus they get to charge the customer for special shipping and ordering cost. Plus the extra service calls.

The parts person in many businesses is supposed to put in a lost sale note about the non-stock part. Then after you have a history of that part being a lost sale then you start to stock the part. The trouble is most parts guys don't ever do a lost sale report. They may not have the time or they may not even know why they need to do one.

The one that really PO me off is when a company like JD has a stocking level for certain parts nation wide. If your parts manager does not set the dealer's computer to keep his stocking quantities, the computer system defaults to the nation wide minimums.

So in a livestock area where just about every farm has a JD 4020 or JD 3020 the minimums are set by the grain guys that don't have any tractors over five years old in the shed. One of the local dealers got so bad we just told everyone he just had a telephone and an order pad.

Here a few years ago I had to go to three different dealers just to get the parts to change a clutch on a JD 4020. Non of them had all of the parts: clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and pilot bearing. When I was in a dealer's shop full time, twenty years ago, we always had complete set on hand.