Chris Berube

According to Jared, you know, back in the 90s, the tractor is mostly mechanical, right?

And if you wanted to replace a part or fix something in the tractor, it was a pretty straightforward process.

You would go down to your local John Deere dealership and, you know, that was owned by a guy who lived down the road.

You know, say you have a problem with a wire or you need a replacement part, you go to Leland Deems, right?

And if you're not happy with Leland Deems, you could go to another dealership.

Or maybe you go to an independent repair person who's somewhere down the road.

Right.

They'd hook you up and then you would go about your day.

But in Jared's experience, a few times this has happened.

He received the error code, didn't get a lot of information from the operating system.

And without much to go on, he went straight to John Deere.

And at that point, John Deere holds all the cards.

Right.

Because to restart the tractor, Jared needed a technician who knows how to access the tractor's computer.

And then at that point, he had to pay that person to come and check it out.

As a farmer, it's not as easy as you go to the repair shop down the road and they fix something for you.

Because usually independent repair places, they don't have the tools that John Deere corporate has.

Because John Deere is not making that stuff available unless the repair person is paying a big fee.

So because John Deere makes it expensive for independent repair shops to fix John Deere products, as a consumer, you're stuck paying whatever John Deere is charging.

And this is a big way you get locked in.