Warranties for new and nearly new equipment sold at auction can be confusing for producers.
Just ask Brian Vigar. The producer from Eston, Sask., bid $33,000 in the summer of 2003 for a new baler that had been consigned to a retirement auction.
Vigar won the baler and with it “enough headaches to make me get out of farming.”
The baler was new, having never seen a windrow, and was a current model that had been added to the sale through an equipment trade with an east-central Alberta dealership. The unit was advertised with a warranty.
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Vigar said the machine malfunctioned on its initial bale, turning out “a 3,000 pound monster on its first try” and bending the interior of the unit into “a series of pretzels.”
The baler’s core tension control was incorrectly installed either at the dealership or the factory, as repair documents show.
The Alberta dealer who sold the unit to the retiring consignor told Vigar that he should take the broken machine to the manufacturer’s representative in Swift Current, Sask., 110 kilometres south of his farm.
After towing it to Swift Current, Vigar was told that only the original dealer could help him. He then towed it 400 km north to that Alberta dealer.
There he said he was told there would be a problem with the warranty because he was the second owner and that the baler would take some time to repair.
“(The dealer) told me the repair would be at my expense and if I wanted to sue, he had a better lawyer than I did. An individual farmer feels pretty small when stuff like that happens,” Vigar said.
Meanwhile Vigar’s 400 acre alfalfa crop remained in the field and was beginning to deteriorate.
“What could I do? I had the crop custom-baled for $4,000. I was already a week and lot of gas into this mess,” he said.
The Alberta dealer agreed to sell Vigar a new baler for $1,500 and the trade-in of his damaged machine.
“I wasn’t happy about it, but was worried I might not have a warranty as they suggested,” he said.
After Vigar got his second new baler home he decided to approach the manufacturer to refund his $1,500. The manufacturer told him the original machine’s warranty ended with the first owner.
“That wasn’t true and it had been sold as new, with a warranty,” he said.
The three prairie provinces all have farm equipment acts that require manufacturers and dealers to warranty farm equipment from the time it first goes to the field.
Vigar credits Grant Hodgins, the auctioneer from Melfort, Sask., who ran the auction where the baler was sold, for his efforts to make right the sale.
“He gave me $500 for gas and expenses and did what he could. I give him lot of credit, but (the manufacturer) and (the dealer) were of no help,” he said.
Vigar approached the Alberta government’s Farmers’ Advocate’s office for assistance. An investigator was assigned and Vigar is hopeful that he will be able to get his $1,500 back.
“I’ve been told they can’t get my baling costs back. For that I’ll have to sue the dealer and the manufacturer … but lawyers cost money too.”
Vigar has since traded his second baler for another brand and says dealers in both provinces and the manufacturer have refused to take any responsibility in the matter.
He said the baler issue “was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’re out of farming. If this is what it’s come to, that you can’t even trust (a major equipment manufacturer) when they build something wrong, maybe it’s time to get out of this business.”
For this season Vigar and his wife rented out their land and sold their cattle.
“My advice to other farmers in dealing with equipment companies: don’t be bullied. I made that mistake and my wife and I are paying for it,” he said.
