OT: To make or not to make my mechanic mad at me.

I am usually pleased with my independent mechanic (used to work for the local green dealer until it closed, now on his own for years.)when he works on my big green stuff. Since May 2011 (!!!!) he has had a little F3000 gasser and he finished it last December. When he wanted to drive it out of the shop, the power steering did not work at all. Had put aftermarket hydraulic steering cylinders from Alexander's on but to the best of my knowledge nothing else done to the hydraulic system. PS worked when I first took it to him. Every time I stop in, he tells me that he needs to hook the gauge up to see about pressure and go from there. Telling me that about once a week since December 2012! Am tired of it and would like a friend who works on small tractors take a look at it. He needs the money and I need the "=@/&* tractor!!!! I also have a 70 LP with him which I can get anytime, but the parts are in the shop. Thinking about just getting the 70 after hours and stop by during business to get the 3000 could tell him I am low on money... (taxes ..LOL) and rather stick it into the barn at home....
Your thoughts?????
Frustrated in OK.

Ralph,

Whatever you have to do, you have to do. I am 100% convinced however, that telling a lie is never a good thing. Be calm. Be level-headed. Be truthful.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we purpose to deceive."

At least, that's how I see it from 1000 miles away from you.

Good luck,

Tom in TN

I'd flat out ask him as nice as you can. What's the hold up ?
If he has been good up until now don't make him mad on purpose.
Maybe it's as simple as a misunderstanding as to how big of hurry you are in for it back. Many times people drop stuff off and say "no hurry" and get ends up WAY BACK on the back burner.

As Tom says,tell the truth.Tell you NEED the tractor.He's had it a long time.If he cant get to it,you can take it to someoneelse.Be calm,levelheaded.be honest,but let him know you're frustrated.Steve

I'd tell him, without getting a raised voice or huffy, that you need it.
There is a guy about 30 minutes from me who rebuilds alternators and starters. He does excellent work, if you live in the city limits and are a regular. In my case, I am not a regular and I do not live in the city limits. I had dropped off a starter and a generator about 10 months ago. Since I never got his phone call, I'd stop in about every month or month and a half just to check up on my stuff. I'd get the same answer every time: "I'm so busy, but I'll get to it this weekend." And I know the guy always IS busy. But a week ago, I stopped in and he was just shooting the sheet with a guy for about 30 minutes while I patiently waited. When he finally got to me, I said that I need to pickup my generator and starter, one way or another. He said that they weren't done, but again, he would get to them this coming weekend. I told him that I needed to take them home. I picked up the same box that I had brought them in and I kept hearing that he would get to them this weekend, even as he followed me to the truck. As I loaded them up, he told me "Thanks!". I then told him in a low, polite voice "Thanks for not charging me rent." Hopefully, no feelings were hurt, but since I'm not one of his regulars, I guess it doesn't really matter. I just didn't want the guy to someday die and me having to persuade some executor of the state that the stuff in the box actually was mine.

Having been on the opposite side of this just a little... I would suggest going to the guy, Explaining to him that you need your tractors, and if he dosen't have time for them, you'll get them fixed on your own. Nothing ornery or personal, (although at this time it is somewhat personal.)

I work on older tractors, lawnmowers, etc for neighbors and friends as time allows, ( I work full time, just like most everybody else!) in addition to my own junk. I have an IH M sitting in my shop since September. It's a 3rd tractor for him, he's in no hurry for it, just wants to get it running and working properly. Well, fall and farming hit. Then this winter's been fairly cold. I have no heat in my shop And, every time I've thought about working on the M, my truck has had a problem. I know, excuses, excuses. I feel bad about having it so long at this point in time, and it's definetly a priority of mine to have it back to him in early spring.

Just saying, there's 2 sides to every story, the 2 of you need to get on the same page soon...
-Andy

Thanks for the valuable feed back so far. Just wanted to explain a little further. I have been telling him I need the tractor, depending on the season for almost a year and a half. Brush hogging, raking, moving stuff around, etc. When it was apparent last November that he wanted to go to the races in Ft. Worth (TX SPEEDWAY), he got her done and even called me with the bill. As I said, pulling her out, he discovered that the hydraulic steering was not working. ...So far, I am paid up.
Sorry guys, I usually am pretty patient, but it bugs the H... out of me! I can get by and change tractors, but that's exactly why I got the little one, so I don't have too!!!! All I got is $$ in it to get it running and no use! Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Thanks for letting me went, guys!!
Ralph.

As a mechanic I tend to stay on the other side of the story, so I can speak from experience here. Heck I just got a 3000 Ford in the shop that has been setting here since around November of 2012, and just went on another call this morning for a guy that has been waiting since around the same time, and I've still got a tiller sitting there from last summer.

With my business I do mainly field work on heavy equipment but I'll take on smaller stuff as rainy day projects to work on at a little cheaper rate. For me, regardless of wether it's a rainy day project of not, I have to look at multiple things as to how I get everything worked into my schedule. Like any business my long time customers tend to get pushed to the front of the line the majority of the time. At the same time these same guys also understand that when anyone, them included, has an emergency that it becomes the number one priority, and everything else drops back a notch, at least temporarily. On top of that I also have to look at things like customer A has one tractor down but has 4 other tractors and is still working while customer B only has one tractor and it's broke, so he's not able to work at all.

In the end trying to keep ALL of your customers happy isn't as easy as it may sound. As a result sometimes the decision as to what gets done all comes down to the old saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". The guy I went to work for this morning has a few minor issues, but wasn't broken down, and had asked me to get to it when I had a chance. Unfortunately for him, fortunately for me, I've been busy as heck and simply hadn't had time to get over his way. But, when he called me yesterday afternoon and said he had some free time today, if I was available, I decided to go ahead and get him knocked out this morning vs working on the machine I've got in the shop. Both jobs were inside (it's raining today), both have been waiting awhile for me to get to their equipment, so doing it this way I got one taken care of and I can start back on the other one here in a little bit, and work on it this evening now that I'm back at the shop.

With all of that said, I've been on both sides of the equation so I do know both sides. For me, it would never hurt my feelings if someone came to me and said, "Hey, I really need my machine back by (whenever), if you can get it done fine, if not I'll have to take it somewhere else." As far as I'm concerned if I say I can do it I will do it, if I can't I'd be more than happy to help the customer load it and do my best to recommend someone else that could get it done for them in time to meet their needs. The way I see it if I don't do either one or the other I'm not providing my customer with true customer service, as insuring they are taken care of, wether it's me or someone else doing it, is what true customer service is all about. Over the yars there have been a few occasions when someone wanted something done that I simply could not get done in the time frame they required and I told them so. In every case I lost out on that one job, but still maintained a satisfied customer who continues to bring me all of their other work.

In the end honesty is the best policy, and it should either get him motivated to get the job done for you, or show you his true deemener. If he gets pi$$ed off, etc then low priced or not I'd be taking my stuff to someone else next time just because of his attitude. Just my .02 for what it's worth........

Don't be so hard on Tim S

LOL

...tell me how to get a hold of him .....LOL

Ralph

Funny story (at least I can laugh now). Had cut 200 bushel of wheat May 19, then got rained out. Next thing was the fuel injector pump quit on the F2. Don't know anything about them or timing them, so I went to my secretary's son, who is a trained diesel mechanic who said he would go look at it. Asked me where it was. I told him whose place it was on and he said to get a chain and drag it across the road and he would go work on it, but he would not work on it on that guys place. He never did. Had to beg another guy to do it for me.

By the time I got the rest of the wheat out, it had more than 40 percent sprout damage.