Those parts distributors have us coming and going..

[hanz63]

Whatever that really means. Holy crap, Gardner has apparently decided to increase exec bonuses this year by the look of their latest pricing. Stens emailed and said stuff your freight discount. I'll have to charge like a crazy person. Parts pretty much are up 20% plus since the plague.

[bgsengine]

And you're surprised? I knew it was coming ages ago, just a matter of "when" - just one of the many reasons I quit the business. I suspect eventually the old-fashioned ways (Factory - to Distributor - to Dealer) will go the way of the DoDo Bird... Soon it'll be only the Mega-Dealers and they'll be buying factory-direct without a middleman, warranties more likely to be denied or "just give em a whole new one" (And let them pay to ship it to warranty center, and pay to ship the new one back, and most folks will look at retail rates on shipping and say "fuhgeddaboudit" and buy something else, ship the broken unit to the boneyard) Upshot of it being, smaller indie shops will be sourcing parts from Amazon/eBay (and getting OEM parts used but good from Ebay or independent scrappers) Along with those with a certain political mindset following in the footsteps of California and banning more and more gas powered equipment (and regulating cattle farms to death - Cow Farts are causing global warming, after all.. right? right? what about elk and moose and bison though? how ya gonna regulate them? Since the same loonies wanting to ban Cow Farts are also Vegan or Anti-Hunting nuts, no way to control wild populations, right? Just a matter of time before you have to buy a state DEP Permit if you want to fart in public... )

[KE4AVB]

And Gardner will over charge on shipping and flat will not explain why either. Gardner also install a new system that demands you to accepts Microsoft cookie that allow Microsoft free access to your local system so they dig around looking for bootleg software and anything they can find. Its their way or the highway attitude. I have ordered from since they are refusing to explain charged nearly $20 to ship a $6 part that they split the order and it should only a small additional charge.

And my RBI salesperson lied to me last Fall about the cost to ship a short block. I was told $50 and then I got billed $200. So I end eating the profit on the short block as the customer had already paid for it.

Stens upped their minimum free shipping level to $180 and they are now using FedEx which has terrible tracking and deliveries here. Just as bad as USPS now.

And BGS what about people farts? Some of them you better not light a match.

[hanz63]

Been trying to order anything from Gardiner by you? They must roller skate in the warehouse, sing campfire songs here. They have no parts, so...

[KE4AVB]

Been trying to order anything from Gardiner by you? They must roller skate in the warehouse, sing campfire songs here. They have no parts, so...

Heck I have been unable to even use the Gardner website since December so I had tryto get my orders entered by the sales rep.

Well that don't even work very well as most of the orders just disappears after it is entered. And the parts I got were three line items and they charged full rate on each line item. I manage to get that straighten out. Then I need a couple new engines. They couldn't even tell if they could get them or not. I actually those two sales because of them. And one Cub Cadet part I finally had to get off eBay because they kept deleting the order; even the one their management pout on the system.

And now I having problem with RBI system not having parts list that they are sending me prices for.

[hanz63]

Yeah, I don't think they will ship a non listed dealer Cub parts. Just another way they shoot themselves in foot and lose sales. They have to know that dealers are going to camp just so long and source parts where they can.

[KE4AVB]

Yeah, I don't think they will ship a non listed dealer Cub parts. Just another way they shoot themselves in foot and lose sales. They have to know that dealers are going to camp just so long and source parts where they can.

It quite easy. All they to do so is to say that they won't ship a part that is considered dealer only instead giving you the ran around for three weeks. I have to order Cub Cadet only parts before from Cub Cadet but I knew that I had to and Cub Cadet had no problem sending me the parts; just cost more.

But with my procurement resources I can usually find the parts otherwise at a reasonable price. And having a good cross reference setup each time find the same parts under other OEM PNs helps too.

As I said Gardner only got one order this year and it was so screwed up that it is a miracle that I got most of it. Part it actually got cancelled by me due to the run around. They have lost a good part of their sales to RBI, Amazon, and eBay (OEM parts) because of the problems.

I got enough headaches without a vendor showing their behinds. I had to turn away repairs because of them.

[hanz63]

Last couple of years I've grabbed "OEM" belts off of Ebay, now I've decided they are not. Salt and pepper belts with the OEM part number on it? Nope. Not like it used to be. Gardiner was out of HOP 4 hole spindles. Ooh look, I can get OEM spindles on BIG A. Nope, come in as the SSDD from the other Chinese vendors. Says OEM all over the add. Left a review, Big A cancelled my review. Then looked at the seller profile, and the fact there were no current reviews. Seller profile if anyone bothers to look at shows some discomfort from buyers. Bastages just can't change their ad to be correct. HOP idler pulleys for the traction belts that we put on by the bucket full have gone up like a 150%. Grrr.

[bgsengine]

Last couple of years I've grabbed "OEM" belts off of Ebay, now I've decided they are not. Salt and pepper belts with the OEM part number on it? Nope. Not like it used to be.

LOL! I have actually been shipped such a belt (typically Sunbelt aftermarket) by GARDNER when ordering OEM belt! You can bet they got an earful. But this was back in the 2010's when Gardner was a tad bit better than they are now...