If a user faces a novel problem with how a machine works, it would still take time for that issue to get back to John Deere, which would verify it, then issue a PIP in Pro Service. In the meantime, the person dealing with the broken tractor won’t have the needed information to figure out exactly what is going on. Ideally, many of them would like to be able to troubleshoot the problem themselves, without having to use the company’s proprietary software.
“They’re still not giving us access to that next level that we have to have for some of the most difficult problems that we encounter,” Wilson says.
Willie Cade, a board member of the advocacy group Repair.org and frequent critic of John Deere, takes that a step further.
“They’re just monopolists that want to make money and as much as they possibly can,” Cade says. “Their real customer is not the farmer. Their real customer is Wall Street.”
At the demo, I ask about the repair advocates and what they get wrong about John Deere. Hindman says he doesn’t mind the pressure.
“We have the best intentions of making sure that we have the ability to give customers the tools that they need to keep their equipment up and running,” Hindman says. “We share that goal in common. Are there things that we need to continue to work on? I’m sure that there are. But let’s not forget that we are a long way towards moving the needle to a much better state.”
The repair advocates are still pushing on John Deere. Agricultural equipment like tractors are some of the most durable goods, built to last for years and even decades of hard manual labor. If society isn’t able to establish a precedent to let people fix these machines, advocates argue, it becomes harder to pass legislation or judicial rulings that would solidify people’s rights to fix their own personal devices.
“This is an issue that’s concerning agricultural equipment,” Wilson says. “But it’s really the vanguard of a much bigger and persistent problem that affects every aspect of our society.”
This story originally appeared at wired.com.