Combines To AGCO managment We know you read this stuff

I agree! When you have a quality product, why not try to tweek amd make it better, never give up on it when your customers like it. If an individual came up with a better idea, embrace it, make him a partner, this is how America was built for decades. It is nothing to be ashamed of. My piece of advice, Never loose sight of your customer base because of their size and how much money they have, all they ask is to be remembered and cared about and they will come back. If you cutt off three of your fingers and swing a bigger hammer, will you get as much work doneIJ Maybe for a while..... There will always be a need for smaller quality machines to be available. Some company out there will be rich with customers if they listen. Happy Holidays

"ACGO needs to work on their spare prices some and backing their dealers better here down under." Same goes for here in the U.S. Parts pricing is one thing...AVAIlABIlITY is another. I understand the pricing situation and for the most part, even though a lot of parts seem high, and once in awhile ridicously high, I know it costs a lot to keep inventory. I can live with the pricing as long as they are AVAIlABlE when I need them. Just had a breakdown last week...Wednesday morning, I just got put back together last evening...Monday. Parts were not available, had to order. Of course it was over the weekend and etc. but I can't afford to be down FIVE days during harvest! A year ago a similar situation occured and I was down a week. That's not acceptable. I don't think the other colors have quite that much of an issue. I don't know how to fix it. That is AGCOs job but I should be and MUST be able to get any part within 24 hrs. If machinery companies want to rely on smaller inventories and ship them overnight then let's do it. So many times overnight becomes 2-3 days. I like running the Gleaners over anything else. Great design and etc. Easy to work on and I really don't need a lot of repair. I feel they are cheaper to run than anything else I see but when I do need parts, they must be available. Parts availability will determine what I drive next.

Ditto on parts availability. It's not just kinda bad, it is industry leading crappy performance. A number of years ago I had an 8070. It was probably the the last tractor series that sold well in the US. We had a front axle drive shaft that was servicable, but really should have been replaced while we were repairing the power director. We ordered in May and it arrived in September. Then they had the balls to want to charge me full price. Territory rep basically said too bad, her boss was too big of a wus to even respond to my letter. Needless to say the tractor is gone, so is the Sunflower disc and landfinisher as is the 8000 series White planter. I still have my Gleaner which love and will run one more year and look at my options then.

I can't comment on your situation but my local dealer who is a smaller family run business has VERY RARElY let us down with parts availability. We run other color tractors from a large dealer and network and they are the ones who usually leave you waiting on parts.My guess is since 95 when they became our dealer they have maybe 3 times not had the part in stock (in season)and once they made arangements for us to cross over to the US to get it and got the trip reimbused. the other times it was next day, only reason not in stock was sold last one late yesterday or today. Our biggest issue is Agco does not have any Cummins parts such as rad fan, or fan drive pulley in their system, its up to dealer to do it themselves. I can see pistons and internal engine parts not being there, but parts ouside of block that are in a wear situation should be available.

Same here. Our AGCO dealer does a great job of keeping parts on hand. Their policy is to have on inventory all combine parts that sell at least one_year. Anytime they havn't had something seems that next day delivery had it there.

there are issues on the FWA 8000 series parts, the kicker is a lot of those parts came from and through Case companies. Case discontinued them, now agco is trying to come up with vendors. i.e. the solenoid valve, bought and sourced from case, then parker then about 4 other companies. Agco is at least trying to fill the need, the other company said simply NlA. Many companies used the same FWA - the driveshaft was unique in length to the 8000's. I will be the first to admit Agco makes a lot of mistakes in the parts area, the difference is they have folks who troubleshoot parts problem areas and one cannot believe the ends they go to keep units running. One can trade off any old product , but unless a less than 10 year old unit is the replacement , the same problems will surface shortly. If you will give me your phone n I think I can get the head of Agco parts division to give you a call and explain the reason for your problem from the company standpoint. I also would like for you to go into a deere or case dealership and after a part is backordered - it does happen, I know first hand, ask for a discount because it was late - the dealer might, but I would have to see the company invoice that was discounted. I know you have had problems and you have a right to your choice of equipment brands and the right to express your displeasure - all may be justified. However getting rid of the Sunflower Equipment was just plain, well highly questionable. The last 10 pieces of big Sunflower tillage equipment we deliverd was to farmsteads with stables FUll of non Agco equipment. Reason THEY gave me - Sunflower's parts availablility, personal subjective service, they hold up where the others fail, and twice the service life - all plus Sunflower products are higher than Deere and Case. Just a ramblin post.

We had a shaft go in the clean grain auger in the bin this fall, we got lucky that one dealer here in Ontario Canada had one, the parts warehouse should have had one spare but didn't and then found out they were back ordered till Nov 20th, a good 2 weeks wait, this should never ever have happened in my opinion and like the others say Agco really needs to wake up. Agco has been out and looked at some header mods that we had done and were very impressed, took pictures and that was 5 years ago, still waiting for the pictures to develop i guess. Agco makes and has some fine products but there marketing sucks, ever look at combine literature, so far behind its a joke and the real kicker is the combine video they send along with a new machine, our last combine is a 2006 R65 and the combine in the video was so old and outdated it still had the adjustable feeder house tilt and this video could have been better done by a highschool kid. Agco needs to wake up on many many more issues, BUT with all this being said i still think they have some good products.

All companies will have problems supplying parts at on time or another, I think as customers we all understand that. I've waited on backordered parts before, but never for months on end for a 20 year old unit. The problem stemmed from the way it was handled. When you have a problem supplying a product to a customer you better remember who is spending the dollars. That is where AGCo went wrong with me so I spent my dollars elsewhere. My dealer was as good as could be expected through the whole ordeal and it was no fault of theirs. Sunflower equipment is very good, some of the best built and quite frankly most parts can bve purchased aftermarket. In our area of Illinois Sunflower in the 80's and 90's was sold mostly by 2 large non AGCO dealers and on AGCO dealer. In AGCOs wisdom they pulled the lines from the two non AGCo dealers and shut down the one AGCO dealer leaving one new dealer to service these customers who had never dealt with Sunflower tillage tools before. There is still some red iron around, but not like 10 years ago. My concern is that since it was purchased by AGCO you have seen virtually no improvements and a good numbver of old Sunflower guys are working in the engineering offices of some yellow_blue manufacturer in Kansas.

I agrees as to the mismanagement of a lot of things - company to dealer and dealer selection , field reps do as well but they can't say anything in a public forum. The problem is Agco wants to protect and build the dealers who sell the whole lineup of Agco products. I guess their idea is closing those dealers who 'cherry pick' the line will leave enough room to grow a real dealer. My philosophy is half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. The major problem of all lines is that of an ageing dealer population. If you have a young agressive dealer - stick with him by all means if he is the owner and younger than you. That is kind of cruel, but the fact is there just aren't many turnip trucks that have farm implement dealers fall off them on a regular basis. I would say I know of over a hundred dealers of all brands and only a handfull -less than 10% - have children who want to or can sustain a dealership. Many dealers do not want their kids to be straped in the saddle of one. It is a bumpier ride than farming. In a car dealership one sells to 98% of the population directly or indirectly. In a farm implement dealership one had to make a living selling to less than 2% of the population. Everytime the drivers license office is open new prospects are created for cars and trucks. Every month the funeral homes are open the farm community looses a customer_farmer. Anyway , do I like being in the farm implement busisnessIJ it is my life, and yes I love it and the customers or I would not put up with the horrible side of the business. On the other hand seeing a customer make that first round with a heavy sunflower disc, CVT tractor, or R75 combine ect and see the smile on his face and hopefully make a few bucks (sometimes very few) in the process,,, it makes is all worthwhile. Kind of like farming, you handle millions of buck, but keep very few, and then when the tax bill comes - everyone says - where is the money we were supposed to have made - ever had THAT happenIJ

Great post guys, I m hoping that theres good discussion about us at the boardroom drinks breakIJ Funny how two intrelated occupations can run along similar line! One point I want to make is I'm still young enough to be a little optimistic about this farming game! with 6 billion people to feed, there is going to be a point somewhere in time for us farmers_dealers that we can not supply enough grains to feed the Marjory of them, (very much like current conditions but more permanent under supply!) When that does happen hang on to your hats as the movers and shakers of our respected country's will move heaven and earth to help us to grow food, and lots of it! My predictions that I have had for along time is, The next major war in the world, will be over Water first, then food!!! not oil or resources. Hope AGCO can position them selves to be in the drivers seat to take advantage of it and support us farmers_dealers that have been there and promoted their products in the past! Rolf