Power at Work: Put your concerns in writing when your equipment fails

Sunday, August 10, 2008

If your equipment starts to malfunction, keeping accurate notes and being prepared to put your complaint in writing can lead to a much earlier and much less expensive repair bill for both parties

by RALPH WINFIELD

How many of us wait until things go seriously astray and then expect others to respond positively? If you are as guilty as I am, then please pay attention.

What brought this to mind was a phone call from a Better Farming reader about a verbal understanding that somehow got badly distorted over a period of a year or two.

As a professional engineer and a farmer, I have bought many cars, trucks, tractors and other relatively sophisticated pieces of equipment over the last 50 years, hoping that the equipment will do everything that I expected of it for a long period of time – or at least until the warranty has expired!

But let's be realistic. The more sophisticated a piece of equipment is, the more likely it will have technical glitches. In dealing with these failures, it's important to keep notes of problems and dates. If you have to go up against your memory or that of another person two years down the road, you had better be prepared. So do record occurrences and dates of equipment malfunctions or unusual noises, as soon as possible. If practical, get the confirmation of another person and note it down.

If you bring sub-standard performance or unusual noises to the attention of a service representative or manager and they tend to ignore your concerns, start the first draft immediately.

Haven't we all taken a vehicle out with a service or sales person in the passenger seat and not been able to get the car or truck to make that unusual noise? Present-day computer and internet technology has provided gigantic advances in allowing company personnel to share newly-found equipment glitches with every service manager. This can be a fantastic time saver for the dealer if another dealer has advised the company service centre of a similar problem. Unfortunately, many minor warranty glitches never get to the internet. 

About seven years ago, I bought a new 55-hp utility tractor. Its purpose was not to do serious (high horsepower) field work, but it did an excellent job of pulling the fertilizer wagon, operating a rotary mower and other light duty tasks.

But, as time went on, I began to realize that, as the operating period increased, the available power tended to decrease. Yet when I consulted the service manager, he said the dealership and company had not heard of other reported cases of power loss versus operating period.

One warm summer day, I chose intentionally to use that tractor to spread fertilizer. My concern was confirmed. After a half-hour of spreading, the tractor would lose engine and power-take-off speed every time I approached a relatively gradual grade at the end of the field.

So I did what I had been waiting to try. I reached back and loosened the fuel tank cap. The tractor lurched back to full power!

Checking the fuel cap showed that it only contained an over-pressure valve – and no provision to let air in to replace fuel as used. A consultation with the dealer service manager determined that a special valve, conveniently located behind the slow-moving vehicle sign was to let air in and prevent diesel fuel from spilling out in the event of a tractor roll-over.

The good news: a new $20 valve supplied by the dealer under warranty – just before the end of the two-year warranty period – made that tractor run just like it was supposed to.
You can see that I didn't have to put pencil to paper on that problem. However, I did have to do so for another more serious unit malfunction. In this case, the remote hydraulics of a new tractor unit did not work correctly from the first day it went into service.

Service managers and represent-atives do endeavour to keep up to previously and still firmly believe, "Troubleshooting charts in service manuals are and will continue to be a work in progress".

If you have a significant concern, do put it in writing. If this is done in detail with times, dates, operating conditions, it's likely that any reputable company will provide coverage beyond the standard warranty period – but only if they have sufficient documented complaints.

Unfortunately for my Better Farming reader, the outcome was not satisfactory for either party. He had complained about tractor transmission performance well before the end of the warranty period, but neither complaints nor offers of help were put in writing. When the tractor finally started to make serious noises, finger pointing and buck passing went into a fever pitch.

Too bad that transmission fluid samples had not been tested for metallic cuttings much earlier.

A written complaint could have resulted in a much earlier and much less expensive repair bill for both parties!

Reputable farm equipment manufacturers who want to continue in business will respond to legitimate customer problems/complaints. Only happy customers are repeat customers.

Now if we could just get some of the electronic and appliance manufacturers to follow the lead of the farm equipment manufacturers and dealers. Have you tried to get simple replacement parts like drive belts for many appliances or internal batteries for computers recently? "That's obsolete" seems to be the standard response. BF

Agricultural engineer Ralph Winfield farms at Belmont in Elgin County.