Deere & Company World Headquarters — Local services in Silvis

I have had very bad experiences with John Deere to say the least. I originally purchased a John Deere 2038 at our local business in town. Randomly one day they decided to up and leave town, leaving the town with having to deal with a business now 50 miles away.

My latest experience with John Deere is one that’s to be less than desired. I recently was snow blowing my driveway and heard a clunk. I got off my tractor and found a shaft on the ground and noticed my front axle was completely unhooked, and my tractor was laying on the frame. I found a full bolt laying on the ground. I was missing all four bolts holding the axle on. As this had came out it grabbed the housing above it and took those bolts out of that housing on the frame. So all in all 7 of 8 bolts were missing off my frame. I called John Deere in Presque Isle, Maine and they came to get it. The diagnosis came almost a week later.

They’re claiming my front axle was not maintained properly and was not greased and caused the axle bolts to sheer off. I asked them asked them how many times this has occurred and they told me they’d never heard of it. They then went on to say they’ve only heard of 3 other cases ever. And that may be nation wide or even worldwide. I take my tractor twice a year to a local business man who had actually been a head mechanic at the prior John Deere business in town. He maintains my tractor twice a year and maintains all aspects of the tractor. Basically John Deere claims that I am one of 3 cases they’ve ever heard of not greasing the front end properly. I find that very hard to believe.

So $2200 later, John Deere is failing to back their product. I also failed to mention my basic warranty expired a little over a month ago. This issue may have started before my warranty expired. But overall, John Deere is pushing a customer to the side and not backing their product. At what point should a landowner have to worry about their bolts falling out of their tractor. No locktite was found on any of the bolts either. So I will be selling my tractor and moving on to KIOTI or Kabota, with little care from John Deere themselves. A true shame. I will be done with John Deere as will many in my community bc of this. It’s too bad that John Deere can not take care of their customers. I look forward to moving on to a new tractor and better service. It will...

Not very pleased that John Deere uses a system of dual plastic pulleys bolted to heavy mild steel to manage tension for the main drive belt on the X350. At 174 hours one plastic pulley shredded and partially melted from friction. As a result, the new unbalanced tension from the spring pulled the other plastic pulley in a direction it is not supposed to be and started shaving away against the control rod that sits under the frame rail and connects the main pedals to the transaxle. Luckily my nose alerted me as I started to detect what smelled like burnt rubber as the machine continued to operate. The lawn tractor has been used normally and never abused. Both pulleys were not cheap. I expect way more quality and engineering of John Deere and particularly their "X" series for the high price they command. A more reliable solution might be changing these pulleys to traditional steel or alloy.

Additional suggestions for improvement:

1. Study the competition. Husqvarna offers a very competitive garden/lawn tractor the TS354XD for about $3,000+ less money with the Kawasaki engine and T66 Tuff Torq transaxle. For this model, the Husqvarna seat is 21-inch and has the armrests included. The JDX570 should come standard with the 21-inch seat that is more comfortable and resilient over the basic seat considering the price tag.

2. Educate your dealers of the importance of every customer no matter how much or little the sale. An enthusiastic and welcoming "can do" attitude would be appreciated. Effective employees are responsive, communicate clearly, and exceed customer expectations. Customers like me already trust the brand and willing to pay more for a better product. Customer satisfaction and confidence in the dealer should be paramount. I have often observed and experienced an over relaxed or even complacent attitude and unacceptable slow response times and mixed low engagement. This can lead to negative perceptions and potentially drive customers...

Before you buy a John Deere Tractor consider these additional issues & costs.

I have a John Deere X300 Tractor: • Has 203 hours of use • Always stored in my garage • Only used to cut my lawn • Nothing ever placed on the hood • Taken excellent care of the tractor Yesterday after cutting my lawn and then cleaning my tractors as usual, I was backing the X300 into my garage and noticed the hood was split 2/3 of the way down the center of the hood.

Considering the cost to purchase my John Deere Tractor of $3,700, I assumed this must be a one-off issue and John Deere will help with a replacement. I called John Deere twice, the first time I knew nothing of a known hood issue with John Deere Tractors, and the only help John Deere’s customer service would officer is to “document the issue”. After which I looked online and found several YouTube videos of how to “patch” the cracked hoods with tape, etc. I then called around to repair shops, this is a prevalent problem. Go to a John Deere dealer and the cost to replace the hood is $572.00!!! I called John Deere back after discovering this is a manufacturing and product in integrity issue. Again, no help. As I told the customer service person, John Deere has a defective product issue and is expecting its customer base to foot the bill. This is absurd. It was very sad to watch the YouTube videos of people attempting to show others how to “patch” the crack. I purchased my John Deere Tractor believing it was a quality product with excellent customer service. With John Deere abandoning its customer base, knowing full well that numerous customers are dealing with a defect, is NOT excellent customer service NOR is it a sign that they stand behind their product. John Deere… wake up and do what’s right before there is yet another lawsuit filed on behalf of your lawn...