new AM2011T price?

[dnormand25]

Anyone notice the new bellow seal price from deere? i thought they were about $14.00/each when i created the cart a few months ago. I'm Starting up again and see the current price is 147.00. Did i miss somthing?

[Lavoy]

That is what I get too, no idea what is going on there. I hope it is a mistake, otherwise we are screwed.
Lavoy

[wwattson]

I'm guessing that someone tried to raise the price in their system and got a decimal point in the wrong position. Let me see if I can find an email link to the guys in the back room and see if I can get the price verified.

If not, I'd be willing to sell the four I bought a few months ago for a package deal of $600. At the rate they're going up, they'll be about $1500 a piece by August.

[dnormand25]

If you are able to contact the back room guys let us know. This will teach me to procrastinate buying parts. At those prices , id be forced to buy the wife jewelry to ease my guilt for spending so much on a 50 year old dozer.

[wwattson]

When I hit the jdparts.com site, my price came up as $140. Dropped a note to the jdparts.com email bucket with the question about the factor of 10 difference since last month. I'll let you know what I hear.

[wwattson]

Here's the note with reply.

Dear William Wattson,


I agree. This seems like an error to me, too. I have forwarded this
issue to the Pricing Dept. at Deere & Company. The pricing analyst will
investigate and determine if there is a discrepancy. I will let you
know what I find out. Thank you for reporting this.



Karen Schrader
JDParts.deere.com
Deere & Company
e-mail. jdparts5@johndeere.com



-----Original Message-----
From: wwattson@wi.rr.com [mailto:wwattson@wi.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 10:05 PM
To: JD Parts
Subject: JDParts Web Site or on-line Parts Catalog or navigation
question - William Wattson


Please check the price of part AM2011T. This part was previously priced
at $14 but is now shown at $140 based on my dealer selection. Seems
wrong. Thanks.

[Lavoy]

I checked online, and called two dealers, and all show the same price. I talked to one and he said dealer cost went up just as substantially, so it is not an error in the list price part of it. Looks to me like we are big time screwed. Only thing I can think of is if more of us do what Bill did and e-mail Deere with a complaint about the pricing and see what they do about it, otherwise I am at a loss.
Lavoy

[wwattson]

Looks like it's winding its way through the process. Got this reply today.

From Grems Kristin <GremsKristinL@JohnDeere.com>
Sent Wednesday, June 6, 2007 10:13 am
To wwattson@wi.rr.com
Cc Schrader Karen <SchraderKarenD@JohnDeere.com>
Bcc
Subject "Parts" Price Inquiry Response (AM2011T) 11162

William Wattson,

We have received your Parts Pricing Inquiry. Someone will be responding
to this inquiry within the next few business days.

[wwattson]

This is the final word from Deere. In Lavoy's words, we're screwed. I was pursuing another source to do a run of this type seal but at $14, I couldn't improve on the price. At $140 a piece, I can do better than that.

From Grems Kristin <GremsKristinL@JohnDeere.com>
Sent Thursday, June 7, 2007 1:51 pm
To wwattson@wi.rr.com
Cc Schrader Karen <SchraderKarenD@JohnDeere.com>
Bcc
Subject "Parts" Price Inquiry Response (AM2011T) 11162

Thank you for the price inquiry on AM2011T Oil Seal. After reviewing
pricing and related information, we are unable to reduce the price of
this part at this time.

Current list price is $140.00. This price was effective 28 May 2007.

This part is used on Crawlers and Utility Tractors that have been out of
production for 22 to 47 years. Prices of parts for old machines are
higher due to higher costs and lower sales volumes of these parts.


Rich Duncan
Parts Pricing

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

I can guess what happened. They last had a vendor produce a run of these ten years ago. That run was priced at $14 and lasted a decade. Now, they're out (or very low), so they had to get more made.

So, now the usage rateis down, so the production run is lower, so the price per unit is up quite a bit. They also have to factor in the past useage curve projected into the future and add in the cost of warehouse space and other administrative costs associated with the part.

When they add it all up, and then factor in their markup percentage, the new price comes out at $140 each. It makes sense but all we see is a sudden 10x jump out of the blue.

Of course, the folks at Deere don't bother trying to explain the ins and outs of their business to us, but I know this stuff because they are not the only outfit that has to deal with getting service parts made for old products. That used to be my job at one time, so I can understand what they must have had to go through.

Still, we wind up shocked as all get out. I'm surprised that they didn't just say the heck with it, actually. They must have enough useage that they feared customer alienation more if they discontinued the part than what they'd get from the 10x price jump. Interesting. Must have been a lot of models that use the same part is all I can think of.

I wonder if we could find someone to tool up for this part and produce it so it'd cost us less than Deere gets. However, someone would need to buy a bunch and store them against future need just like Deere has to. Normally, I'd say that the cost of the effort would not be worth it, but at $140 each, I'm thinking that in this case it would be.

Stan

[wwattson]

I'm not quite done with this one yet. I'm still going to work Deere a bit on it and I had done some research late last year on alternate sources. I'd agree with you to a degree Stan, but the price has been all over the place in the last couple of years. I think they've been over $60 and as low as $14 so it could just be an order quantity issue.

As to the customer alienation angle, not sure I feel any better about about being gouged than I do about being unsupported. There's just something about taking advantage of a situation that they created and essentially saying that they still sell the part so they won't give up there source. If they give up the source and engineering data, that would be an acceptable exit strategy rather than overprice the parts.

[Lavoy]

I had someone else researching this this as well, and they got the same response as Bill. I have already contacted someone as to the feasibility of having these manufactured, and will be sending in a sample as soon as I get the chance. I can't make any promises other than I am working on it. I really thought that when Deere dropped the price from $60+ to $14 we had it made, but I guess I was wrong.
Lavoy

[JD440ICD2006]

I do not want start a riff, but, I recall the days not so long ago when said company literally ignored the antique equipment market, less parts that had been in their possession over the years. There were independent companies that had taken the steps to provide various parts for the older equipment.
Said company decided to get "in the game". They purchased at least one of the companies that I did business with. They now basically own most of that company.
Right after company was purchased, said prices shot out of the roof and have remained there. Said company forbids any direct sales and also controls the supplier base so that they do not produce any parts and sell them at reasonable prices.
I know there are two sides to it, profit and free enterprise being one of them, but it basically snuff out the reasons that said companies gives for spikes in prices.
I like for all companies to make a profit and keep the lights on, I just have a problem with them trying to make all of the profit on one sale.

That's my rant, I'll go play with my crawlers and calm down.

[DiggerLarry]

Dang! Glad I got some when they were $12!

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

What bothers me is that while mine are still good, how much longer before they aren't. I don't recall dad ever having to change any, so I bet they are all original. One day, and sooner rather than later, the old girl is going to get a complete overhaul as close to back to new as I can get her.

On the other hand, $140 each seals are a lot cheaper than what the equivalent machine costs new, and that's a machine I don't even want if it were free!

So, I have mixed emotions. At least Deere is still thinking about machines older than ten years, unlike many other things out there.

Oh, well, I will go play in the dirt, too. It always makes me feel better.

Stan