Quote: "I think the MDNA has a code of ethics....something to your benefit regarding money back within 30 days."
LOL...ever try to collect on that promise?"
Actually, I did. and was fairly impressed with the action and results.
A customer of mine was looking for a Porter or Oliver facer. His requirements were that it be the smaller, and somewhat uncommon 24" wide version (most are 30" or 36" wide). Price was not the biggest factor. We put out an RFQ on several machinery dealer FAX lists (this was back when Fax machines were just starting to become common, forget about the net). It was an MDNA dealer with a fairly good rep, several states away. Over several days of negotiations the salesperson told a very good story, everything was as required.
I am always leery of somewhat complex machines like that in used condition and proposed flying out to look at it before cutting any checks. Offered to do it merely for meals and fuel. (will fly for food
) But my customer said he trusted the salesperson, it was the size machine he needed, and the price was under market but fair.
The customer made the arrangements, had a crane ready, and offloaded the machine before calling me to come set it up. Upon inspection, it turned out to be a junk machine that had been wrecked. It was not a 24" machine, but a 30" machine that had the fence moved in and restrictor plates to limit it to 24" wide capacity, due to severe table damage from the feed works dragging on it, shortened knives in a damaged cylinder, and an incomplete and wrecked feed works.
The story is long and convoluted, but apparently there are (or were) sales persons who make a business of showing up at a dealers, and offering to move their old, slow moving, or non-normal machines for a good commission, sometimes 50- 50 split. The dealer gives them an office, they set up shop & burn up the phone & FAX lines to sell everything they can that the dealer has not been able, or not got around to making time, to sell off. It can work for both. However, the salesperson has no downside to what he sells, he's gone in a month or 2. Of course, the dealer is somewhat complicit in the arrangement, he does not necessarily need to know the details of how his "distressed" inventory is being rapidly moved out of the shop and perfectly good checks are coming in.
In this case, I had full documentation of our questions, qualifiers, and their representations. The check had been made to the dealer not the salesperson, and i we had good documentation & pricing of the issues with the machine. The dealer was "helpful) but still reluctant over a couple weeks to make any settlement. Finally I let him know that the only reason we had accepted the machine as represented, was because they were a listed MDNA member who used that fact in their advertising, and that it was time to take it to the next step (their arbitration) if he could not come to terms with my customer.
The dealer was on the line with my customer the next day, they agreed to a price based on my estimated repairs costs rather than returning the machine (my reccommendation was to return the machine), and a check was in the customers hands within a week. It did give me a lot of respect for the power of the MDNA name.
But the best situation is to do due diligence, and not have to get into the situation of needing to use it. Just regular detailing and documentation to make it effective is a very tedious time consuming enterprise.
smt
[ 05-12-2007, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: stephen thomas ]
