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| OK guys I stirred up this hornets nest for one reason. This needs to be addressed. I want everyone to know I didn't do this to be disrespectful. I've been on both sides of this issue and it stinks for everyone. Let me also limit this to out of warranty equipment too. In warranty equipment, faulty installations (done by the dealer), or defective/misrepresented software are an entirely different matter. Those need to be taken care of by the dealer or manufacturer.
Farmers want support for free, and dealers can't afford to give away employees time. So how do you resolve this and let everyone survive? I tried the "give away support" routine and let me tell you how badly people will take avantage of that. If I will answer their question, then a majority will never bother to read the manual or try to figure out the quirks for themselves. I closed my GPS dealership 4 years ago, there are customers who still call me at home at any hour of the day or night and expect (almost demand) that I answer a question. Why should I do this? Yes they paid list price for the equipment 10 years ago. What does that have to do with it? Is it fair to ask someone to give away their time for as long as you want to ask? I think not.
I think it was C2gleaner that brought up the cost of 2 full time employees, 2 pickups, gas, etc,etc,etc. Who should pay for that? Is it fair for those costs to be incorportated into the price of new sales? No. Why should the third customer pay for the first customers service? If you want your price to be fair you have to expect to carry the expenses. It's no more fair for support to be free than it would be to expect all the repairs on the tractor itself to be free for life. It just can't work that way. To try to carry all the support cost on the back of new sales is building a ponzi scheme. Somewhere down the line it all falls apart and then it's a real mess. I think it's fair to ask a customer to pay for the service they consume. The only way I know to put the costs on the person consuming the product is to charge for the serivce.
So let's be productive here: How can this be done and be fair to both parties? Let's do some brainstorming, healthy, respectful debate and see if there is a middle ground that works. I'd like to see this problem resolved. | |
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GPS "Service" Contract?
