[slipshod]

Today I ran my dump truck. Hauled several loads of stone for a contractor that I do a lot of work for. The route took me by the John Deere dealer where I ordered my stump grinder from. Seeing as I have not heard from them, I decided to stop and find out what the hold-up is. Paul who is the sales manager that I deal with called the distributor to find out. It seems that S.S. Woodhouse dropped the ball. The ship direct order never went anywhere. Paul did some research and got through to the president of the company. To put a cherry on it all, I will not have my machine until perhaps May 27th. Never in my life have I had so much trouble giving my money away. I am glad that I got impatient or who knows how long it would be. Paul insisted that he would make it up to me, and he got a promise of free shipping.
My major concern now is getting hold of my customers and let them know that I will be delayed getting to their stumps.This is not the way I like to run my business, prompt professional service is the way I try to keep it.

 

[Live Oak]

I agree with you totally Slip. At least you caught things when you did. Seems like that is the way of the world lately.

 

[Argee]

Good thing you stopped by! At least you'll save the freight money.

 

[jodyand]

Yea at least you get free shipping and like the old saying goes sh!t happens. Good thing you stopped and checked on it.

 

[MowHoward2210]

My wife says I expect too much from people. Well I do my job right everyday, so expect others to do the same. I know mistakes happen, but it seems that laziness, half-assedness, and not following up on things is the norm these days.

 

[bear]

good thing you checked. but it is hard to stay on a schedule when your equipment doesn't show up on time. makes keeping the customers happy a little hard to do at times

 

[Live Oak]

New word????? "half-assedness" Or maybe "halfassery"??????:furious: :lmao: :lmao: :spinsmile

 

[MowHoward2210]

Originally posted by Chief
New word????? "half-assedness" Or maybe "halfassery"??????:furious: :lmao: :lmao: :spinsmile

That thought crossed my mind when I typed it!

 

[Argee]

Half-assedness has to be a word. I know a lot of people to whom it "fits":furious:

 

[Stewart]

I hope your customers understand, tell them by waiting they are getting better service with state of the art tools and are lucky you aren't going to charge them more!!!!!

Hows that?:smoking:

 

[Live Oak]

Hey Slip, I realize this is HIGHLY unlikely to happen but it never hurts to ask. Do you think you can make a suggestion that perhaps they could rent you a stump grinder at a reduced rate or knock off a certain amount of the sale price based on how much you spent to rent one. At least you could get started on time and not loose your ass in rental fees. Just a thought. If nothing else it is a good rhetorical point to make. On the other hand it seems like your dealer is doing his best and feels pretty bad about it and sometimes it is best not to push things too far.

 

[P71]

You can allway SUE ...for Emotional Distress, Of which you will NEVER recover:furious:

 

[slipshod]

Good things Come To Those Who Are Made To Wait

Well I ordered my Stump Grinder way way back at the end of April. Guess what? I am the proud owner of a Shaver Model 50 at long last. It came in today at the dealer after being shipped from Iowa last tuesday. I was there when it hit the ground. Since then I have lost some customers and some credibility and that hurts.
When I got to the dealer I had my 4600 on the trailer all plumbed up and ready to rock. We had to put the snap fittings on the grinder for the hydraulics,mount it up and I was down the road. The salesman Paul has become my friend over the years and he did his level best to make it up to me. Shipping was on S.S. Woodhouse because they are the ones that screwed up the order in the first place and Paul talked the owner into giving me the plumbing I needed on my tractor for free. So overall I saved over $1,000 from when we made the original deal. Now I have to go back to some of my customers and made things right. Stump grinding was going to be a spring thing when the rain stops much of my other business,but now it is a summer thing, at least this year it is.

 

[jodyand]

Thats great slip have you tried it yet. Now you can bring it down here i have four stumps you can try it out on

 

[slipshod]

I had a go at it

As soon as I left the dealers I went to my farm and ground the biggest fresh cut hard maple stump I had. No pictures I forgot ,too excited about finally getting the machine. There are 70 stumps of my own I have to grind. It made short work of it maybe 20 minutes total.

 

[Live Oak]

Glad you finally got the piece of equipment in Slip and they did right by you in the process. You gotta post some pics of it at work taking out some stumps! :thumbsup:

 

[slipshod]

I am playing catch-up

Originally posted by Chief
Glad you finally got the piece of equipment in Slip and they did right by you in the process. You gotta post some pics of it at work taking out some stumps! :thumbsup:

Starting in the morning I will be doing a lot of grinding. I have a list of 29 customers that want stumps ground, so I figure by next week I should be fairly good at it.

 

[memmurphy]

Looks good Slip!:thumbsup:

Do you collect the wood chips for mulch and fill the hole with dirt or just push the chips back in?

Mark

 

[Argee]

Hard to tell from the picture...but it looks like it has some serious teeth on it. What RPM does the grinder turn?

 

[Chris]

Originally posted by jodyand
Thats great slip have you tried it yet. Now you can bring it down here i have four stumps you can try it out on

Heck let him burn in his machine, I have 22 to get rid of.

Seriously, Slippy --- What do you think you will charge for the stump grinding work? Minimum + # of stumps? Just curious.
Congrats on getting everything finally!

Andy