In defense of the John Deere dealers I've had contact with, which is two of them in my area. Both deal in lawn and turf equipment, not agricultural equipment. The one nearest me is primarily in the golf and commercial equipment line, and though there is a huge leaping Deere sign on the front of the building, once inside, there is very little to indicate that they are a John Deere dealer. They have a very small show room area, and the last time I was there it was dominated by Stihl at one end, Honda at the other, and Ariens snowblowers in the middle. They were extremely helpful in locating and offering assistance in obtaining parts for a John Deere mower I was reconditioning at the time, and admitted that they were a bit short on knowledge at this point on the Honda line, but were learning. They said they would be happy to order parts for Honda equipment for me as I had told them that I worked on my own machines.
I am going to give the salesman I spoke with at the other dealer the benefit of the doubt, and think that he may have been relatively new to the job. He had a lot of enthusiasm, but sadly not a lot of specific knowledge about the two products I talked to him about. Maybe I didn't talk to him about the right things. There might have been other articles on the showroom floor that he could have talked my leg off about.
Now, I'll go on to the "big box" store experience I had, and I'll name the store. It's Farm and Fleet in Moline, IL. Yet another store located on John Deere Road. I went there hoping to find parts for a Husqvarna walk behind I was working on for a friend since they sell Husqvarnas. I even had the part numbers of what I was looking for as well as the model and serial of the mower. After some time of poking around on his computer, the fellow in their small engine department told me that those parts were no longer available. This was odd because another small engine repair shop had told me that he could get them delivered the next day if I placed the order before 12:00, and he did.
Anyway, another customer came up while I was still there and was wanting to order a diaphragm for a Walbro carb, and somehow the name Honda was brought up. I chuckled and said that compared to the mower I was working on, Hondas seem to practically fix themselves, to which the employee said that they could fix themselves right out by the dumpster. With this I asked if they had any that had been left by customers that they were not going to fix, or trade ins that might be available for purchase. His expression changed and he looked at me as if I might be a Honda company rep and said, no, we have new ones we would gladly sell you, but we do not have any used ones for sale. With that experience, I will not be doing business with them when it comes to small engine or mower parts unless I can find what I need hanging on display in their inventory myself without their expert assistance.
I will continue to do business with my current Honda dealer. He has been selling and repairing Honda outdoor equipment since Honda first started selling outdoor equipment here in the U.S. and knows the line like back of his hand. I've stood off to the side and watched and listened as he explained the features and benefits of a piece of equipment to a potential customer. I've watched and listened as he wheeled out a mower that he repaired and thoroughly explained what he had done, and delivered the parts he replaced to the customer. I will also say, that I am looking forward to working with the John Deere/Honda dealers as they acquire more knowledge about the Honda line. I have to say, though, I doubt they will ever know the in and outs of the Honda products from the 80s and 90s like my Honda dealer does.
