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Now that most everyone else has had their say I'd
like to offer one (hopefully) last perspective on Bill Gunn leaving the
business.
First, the only parts I am worried about being able
to purchase are brushes for the motors, circuit breakers, hubs and fiber
"clutch" discs for the mower blades, and brake parts. I had the foresight
to buy a few parts tractors when I bought my E15. My E15 is a working
tractor, so through things like home made sheet metal and aftermarket electrical
parts are OK by me.
Second, I really think anyone buying obsolete
machines, our ETs included, needs to be technically competant. Face it,
there are folks owning ETs that really shouldn't unless they have a support
network other than Bill Gunn. Bill helped them out, and spent a lot of
time doing so, when they would have been better served by getting themselves
educated about DC motors. Bill could have, and maybe should have, denied
help unless someone owned an owner's shop manual first. Imagine going into
a John Deere dealer and asking for free advice on rebuilding a hydrostatic drive
when you didn't have a shop or parts manual.
Here's my perspective with a little history.
When I bought my first E15, 10+ years ago, I found Bill Gunn to be charming,
helpful to the extreme, and very fair. I even went so far as to write one
of those "I love your service" letters you occaisionally see posted in car
repair shops. I ended up buying a plow with all attachments from him, and
later a tractor mounted bagger with vacuum blower assist.
It is in these larger purchases that I first became
a little disenchanted with Bill, but still tried to support him. The plow
was missing the mounting bracket. No big deal because I already had one
from a locally purchased snow blower. Then I purchased the bagger as
a working unit. First, it didn't fit my tractor and I had to have home
made brackets welded to its frame. The when I went to run it I found that
the bearings in the blower motor were shot. I had to immediately rebuild
the motor. Bill had shipped a "working" unit without testing it
first.
A few years later I went to buy a new bag for the
bagger. Bill's price was $300 plus shipping. I'm sorry, I must be
one of the cheapskates that Bill was mentioning, but I didn't buy the bag.
I made my own.
Next I bought brushes for 3 mower deck motors
and an E15 traction motor, and hubs with the fiber clutch discs
for the same 3 mower motors. Great purchase, faith is
restored.
My last purchase, a little more than a year ago,
was for 2 sets of the mower deck rollers. My shipment came up missing
one. I called and had to ask for a replacement.
In all of these purchase I had to do the call, get
a price, write a letter, mail the letter, and then get my parts several days
later than I would have with a credit card. I would have paid the 8-15%
extra for faster shipping.
I got tired of the hassle, so I bought everything I
could locally because it was cheaper, and more importantly, faster. I
bought from Bill those things that were ET specific.
I think Bill got tired of the hassle, owners want
free help, not ordering anything because they had to write a letter with a
check, or skipping the order once they got their free advice. It is real
easy to change your mind about ordering parts when you call first and write a
letter later.
My feeling is that Bill put himself in a position
to tire of the business. His desire to help everyone, even those who had
no business owning an ET, wore him out. His purchasing set up with the
"call for a price" followed by "mail a check with a letter" approach made more
work for him and us. His refusal to embrace the internet hurt his ability
to add support for the tractor without his personal involvement.
I think that anyone deciding to take this on would
have to have some very different business practices. Minimum dollar
amounts, credit card only, no tech support (Thats our job.) except as necessary
to help people buy the right parts (On line expolded parts drawings?), and no
returns except for defective parts. I toyed with this in the past, and
have largely decided not to do it. I am not retired and need a full size
income, I don't think I could afford to buy the intellectual property from Bill
based on what the business would support. And there too many buyers like
me.
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