I went in yesterday to get a price on my 3 pallets of Dimension, and the rep said my PG Ultra was in. I told him I had gotten one straight from the company last week, since they'd been telling me for 6 weeks that the unit was on order, that it should be here any day, but that they couldn't tell me exactly since they could only look up that an order had been placed. The rep then continued to tell me that "yeah, it was probably a good thing that I went through the company, because Lesco can't get parts anymore since they've brought out their own brand of ride-on spreader". He was telling me about a PG unit that had been in the shop since last October waiting for a new transaxle, that he could see that PermaGreen had not filled the order. He said that PermaGreen was using all the parts to build new machines and fix ones that had been bought direct. In my head, I was trying to figure out why he'd say all this to me??? Was he trying to bash PG? Was he backhandedly saying that Lesco's parts order system is bogus? (Had to wait 3 weeks last year for a air filter cover for a Kawi trimmer that was 1 day old) I guess I just don't get it.
It's called passing the buck and I think it largely boils down to the individual reps. The Lesco here was jam-up until Rob left to open a new store down by Charleston. The new guys are a piece of work ... the stuff that we normally bought is all of a sudden unavailable because "well, they never sent it to us." I guess it helps to place the order ...
As a former manager very familiar with parts (one of the only stores within 100 miles with a mechanic) we had a problem getting in Lesco parts, let alone outside manufactorers. Some of their equipment kicks as.. and some questionable, but none of it is supported like other venders. Our mechanics were never schooled on new equipment and when a new piece went down, they had to wait for tech support to get to them and then wait weeks for the parts.
