chinband - 1/28/2025 02:56 In 1965, I took a job with a small town John Deere Dealership, I loved the job, had a great boss, but I see today on the midnight news that Heritage tractor company has now got 42 John Deere dealerships under their ownership in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois. I starting out at a small town dealership in Mendota Illinois back in 1965 making $90/wk. andi thought this was called progress. The labor charged to the customer was $6.00/ hr. It was a sign of the times, I’ve always stated since the first dealership, where I worked, I had a very personal relationship with our customers. Then the dealership was purchased by another, then another, it expended to 3 to 4 to 8, dealerships. Back in the day, I seen it happen that the bigger the dealership the poor of the service. Personal interaction with the customers refused to exist anymore , I took a lot of pride in helping the customers and doing know what I thought was the best for them. Every year for probably 38 years or more I put on clinics for combines, tractors, and planters, after hours, to explain to the customer how the machine worked and how to operate the machine efficiently, just this past fall, before the season, The dealership that I worked at for 38 years had a combine clinic, so I thought I’d go see how the new combines operate. They explain nothing about the new combines. It was strictly sales pitch and a free meal for the people that had bought a new combine. I was amazed how times have changed. I always believe that when a customer spent a large amount of money on any piece of equipment that he deserves a free education and a demonstration of how to set it and how to operate it, but that’s what I thought. This lack of communication and education about a machine is creating many more service calls for the company, causing the customer even more money, and aggravating them, because of useless trips from the dealership to the fields. I’ve always stated that, the bigger the dealership, the poor, the service and I will continue to maintain that till this day. The dealership administrator refused to talk to me about any problems in the shop, so that’s why I walked out that shop, amazingly it’s been 20 years since left that dealership. I really missed dealing with the customers and helping customers solve some of their problems. I did not merrily just fix the problem, I tried to determine what caused the problem so it didn’t happen again. I still talk and occasional give advice or suggestion on AgTalk, even though I’m 83 years old, I just enjoy help good people. I was forced to quit the dealership when I was 62 years, old intended to work until I was 72, so you can see how much money I lost, because I cared about the customer and I still do this day, why the boss would not tell me his reason for not discussing the problem that was happening in the shop. The boss would not speak to me, for 3 weeks, I guess the boss thought I was easy money for five or six mechanics to punch in and then stand in visit for 15- 20 minutes while charging the customer $60 an hour, for not doing any work. That is the main cause of my problems. Please don’t be afraid to discuss your problems with me. I will try and help you with Best can Hopefully everyone has a safe, good weather spring to get the crop in the ground and get off to a good start on the year. Best wishes Rich BIGGER IS NOT BETTER