Mebane Tractor Feed and Seed

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/07/21) */
Contact Name and Title: *** *** President
Contact Phone: XXXXXXXXXX
Contact Email: ***@mebanetractor.com
Hydraulic leak was repaired before I bought the dealership, no warranty was filed, this leads me to believe that it was only a
loose fittingNo power issues were found by the the previous dealer, the solution was to train the owner on proper use of the tractor, he was a very inexperienced operator for the functions that he was trying to use, no repairs were required, only trainingJoystick was never broken, two bolts were tightened to correct this issueThe backhoe was welded twice as a courtesy to the ownerThe owner's manual requires scheduled checks of all mounting hardware for the backhoeThe welds are not required but the dealer that sold him the tractor added the 1st weld as a courtesyI noticed while I was at the tractor owners house, doing a free oil change for him, that the weld could have been a little cleaner and had it welded again at no charge to the customer, again as a courtesyThis is the first time that I have heard of large bolts being found in the field, none have been presented to me so that I may determine if they were from the LS Tractor or notThe emergency brake was a repair that needed to be completedIt held for the most part, but did leek back very slowly on a steep gradeWe tried to repair by adjusting the brake cable the first time, and thought we had the problem solvedAt his house on a steep grade it did leek back very slowly againWe brought it back in to replace the brake cable, after replacing the brake cable I was not satisfied so I ordered a brake rod assembly that connects the cable with the final drive at the rear of the tractorThe first rod assembly that we received was the wrong part, I reordered and the correct part was on back order for a few weeksWhile we had the tractor and were waiting for the correct rod assembly we pulled the final drives on both sides and replaced both sets of brake pads, a wear item not covered by warranty, at no cost to the customerHe also mentions some other issuesI cannot comment on this because I am unaware of other issues
I have gone out of my way to be helpful with this customerI have never charged him to pick up or deliver his tractor back to himI feel that he is unhappy because he bought a Tractor with a backhoe attachment and also bought two implements that connect to the rear of the tractor that he cannot use because he underestimated what it would take to remove this backhoe to use these attachmentsI would like to add that the customer had been pricing a new LS Tractor until very recentlyHe must have been happy at some point
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/07/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
"Joystick was never broken, two bolts were tightened to correct this issue."
Really? Mr*** told me himself they found a broken pin in the joystick and it had to be replacedMy, how the story changes
I have read the owner's manualThe welds were done before I even received the tractorPrior dealer called it a "field upgrade"So, from the very beginning I'm getting a modified tractor with backhoe that the company, ** is saying I modified when in truth, I haven't done anything to modify it at all
Yes, Mr*** has picked up my tractor for repairs at no chargeHowever, why should I pay for pickup and delivery on a tractor that has had so many defects? Also, via Mr*** himself, he had used my tractor's backhoe to bury one of his dead goats
Personally, that is disrespectful of the customer's propertyAnd, I still haven't charged him for use of my tractor when it was finally up and running albeit not fully functional
I had asked Mr*** to check the tractor over for loose bolts when it was in for serviceHis reply, "they have loctite on them, they shouldn't need tightening." This is just the kind of run around I've had to put up with all along
Once the tractor was returned from the brake repairs, I noticed the failure of the dashboard indicators that had been working before it went into his shop for repairs
The tachometer no longer works, the hour meter no longer keeps time of how long the tractor is running, the glow plug indicator no longer works, the indicators for the regen features no long workI'm not sure the regen feature works at all anymore
I had filled the fuel tank with diesel before letting his shop have the tractor for repairs
It was returned with less than half a tank as you can see in the photo I submitted
So, either someone siphoned out some of the fuel, or the tractor was run with the hour meter not functioning
And it was run for a considerable time with the dashboard functions not working which may have caused even more damage
When I have pressed ** tractors for answers via e-mail, they stopped communicating with me at allAgain, this is the kind of treatment I've received from all sides of ***
I want a full refund of my money I've paid for my tractor and associated equipment plus interest I paid on my loan
Oh, Yes I was checking into an additional tractorI did so because I needed a tractor that was fully functional and could do the chores I needed to get done
Obviously this tractor - ** *** cannot accomplish those chores because of continued breakdowns

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2016/05/25) */
In response to Mrs. [redacted]'s complaint:
There are 3 separate issues we would like to address.
The first issue Mrs. [redacted] presented deals with Mebane Tractor as a stocking parts dealer for [redacted]. We are a [redacted] dealer. As...

with most other equipment dealers, we choose not to maintain a large stock of spare parts for these mowers because it is impossible to keep everything in stock and we never know what a customer will need. Instead of tying up our money with parts that may sit on the shelf for years, we choose to order spare parts as requested by customers. We keep maintenance parts (oil filters, fuel filters, etc), belts, and blades in stock as these are the most common parts needing to be replaced.
The second issue Mrs. [redacted] presented concerns pricing information. We were able to provide pricing information for the part itself (quoted $1.25), but we could only give an estimate for the shipping. The customer was given a choice between overnight shipping and standard shipping, but it was made clear that I could not guarantee delivery by the weekend if she chose standard shipping. The customer chose overnight shipping with an estimated cost of $10. Typically, when ordering parts we do not stock, we will give a quote on the part and an estimated quote on shipping, which were provided to Mrs. [redacted]. We always try to let the customer choose how they would like to proceed (re: shipping) when ordering parts we do not stock.
The third issue Mrs. [redacted] presented regards contact information for the business. Unfortunately, this incident occurred right around the time we were moving our business to a new location (our grand opening was Saturday, May 7). In a perfect world, our phone number would not have changed, but our 3.8-mile move brought us into a differently coded area. Again, in a perfect world, our phone number would have been immediately forwarded to the new number required by the phone company, but the phone company was unable to set this up in time for our opening in our new location even though we had been told it would be ready; thus, our old number went unanswered for about 3 days while we spent 12+ hours on the phone attempting to correct the situation. In regards to our correct address, when we closed at the old address we hung a banner on our front gate with the new address clearly printed so that customers could find the new location with ease. We also placed directional signs along the route to help. This was an exceptional situation that has never occurred before, and one that we don't anticipate experiencing in the future. It appears that Mrs. [redacted] attempted to contact us regarding this invoice during the unusual time when our phone was not being forwarded correctly. I can only assume that if she came to the physical address, she would have seen the signs about us moving to a new location and come to the visit us there to discuss her concerns.
As a final note, much of this complaint seems to be based on miscommunication between the employee and Mrs. [redacted]. Person-to-person contact cannot be perfect and Mebane Tractor feels that neither the store nor Mrs. [redacted] is at fault in this situation.
Upon receipt of the complaint, the employee tried to contact Mrs. [redacted] on Saturday, May 21st, in order to address it but Mrs. [redacted] was unable to talk at that time. They set up another phone conversation for the following Monday afternoon (May 23rd), but the employee was unable to initiate a phone call due to customer volume in the store. There were no messages left for the employee from Mrs. [redacted]. The employee attempted to call Mrs. [redacted] twice on Wednesday afternoon (May 25th), but the calls were not answered and the voicemail was not set up for her to leave a message.
Mebane Tractor will forgive the invoice in full due to the miscommunications and misunderstandings between the employee and Mrs. [redacted].