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IncomeStatementGuy OP t1_j8wii81 wrote

Reply to comment by cmde44 in [OC] How John Deere makes money: Agriculture, construction, and forestry equipment by IncomeStatementGuy

Oh wow, that sucks! Are they mostly selling yearly maintenance contracts or is it pay as you have an incidence?

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cmde44 t1_j8wjquv wrote

Nope! They just put the diagnostic equipment behind programming paywalls that's only accessible to JD techs. Even if you could diagnose the problem without hooking to the machine electronically, you wouldn't be able to reprogram or finalize the fix once it was completed.

All of this was to make sure John Deere made the money on repairs using their techs and their parts. My company uses older series JD tractors (80's and 90's) and they are very easy to work on and not very electronic component heavy. A fuel pump goes out, we know what that looks like and we just fix it ourselves. Something simple like this might cost me $2,000 to do on my own but would cost $5,000 to have done by the dealership (these aren't real numbers of course).

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IncomeStatementGuy OP t1_j8wk4pq wrote

Wow... that just sounds like a stupid business practice that disgruntles their customers.

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Wise_Mongoose_3930 t1_j8x577h wrote

They're taking advantage of their market dominance, but it's certainly a risky play that has lost them tons of goodwill.

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