Jeffersonville, OH | brudno - 7/30/2024 11:38
I don’t necessarily share the same feelings on the subject when AGCO pulled the Challenger brand. But thanks for the other insight seems it should be more onAGCO to lift said ordering restrictions if they’re the ones that have them in place to begin with. Crap deal feel jerked around by AGCO creating a poor climate to begin with, disappointed in Ziegler closing up shop. Something as simple as parts shouldn’t be an issue but it’s being made to be one I guess.
If a dealer has to jump thru hoops to get up up to service Challengers when they never sold them to begin with I can’t hold on to much hope they’ll go thru it just be able to sell parts, are their dealers such as yourself going to spend the money to tool up just to sell parts to the guys with MTs and Rogator?
ABSOLUTELY I will, and have been for 2 months...this is not about jumping through hoops, it's about taking care of customers when no one else will.
A contract is a contract, the dealer must hold the contract to work with AGCO on certain products. So, if they want to sell the parts, and take care of customers, they'll need to put forth a little effort. If they aren't willing to put forth a little effort, then why would AGCO think they would put forth any other efforts to support more customers?
See my point....we can point fingers at who is hanging who out to dry all we want, but at the end of the day, this is a big machine, lots of moving parts, and the dealers AND AGCO each have responsibilities to customers and each other. To place blame all on one party is impossible...and trust me, I get it, as a customer, it sucks not knowing where to go find things. You might all forget us dealers also buy parts, pay for service work, and have to try and locate solutions for our own machinery and trucks...we work both sides of the counter so to speak just like a farmer.
AGCO dropped the Challenger brand because other than Track and Application, the dealers weren't moving it. The Challenger dealers, as a whole, have been cherry picking the product line since inception. They tried expanding it overseas, and it flopped...so they painted them FENDT Nature Green, and it exploded...funny. Challenger dealers wouldn't sell the Challenger combine, typically when they did sell the wheel tractors they went to rental fleets or cheap leases, and saddled AGCO Finance with a boatload 3 years later, and so it just wasn't working. So, what do you do when things aren't working...
Again, I'm not trying to speak for AGCO or Ziegler, just lending my experience and knowledge from being an AGCO dealer partner. You talk to Ziegler, you'll get their side of the story...and some of it will be true, some won't. The problem is, you can't talk to the owner or the people who made the decision...you talk to the employees who learn from the rumor mill, from what they are told, and what they interpret...and that's OK, it's just always the whole story, though.
Chris |
Ziegler Closing Our Missouri Stores
