I love talking with other people in our industry. Everyone has a different “take” on what is going on. A conversation that I had this morning gave me hope.

We were discussing a sort of ‘after the money crunch’ situation; how will the deck shuffle out?

Concrete pumpers, as a group, are illogically loyal when it comes to brand loyalty. I understand how and why a dealer might feel brand loyalty; as they say in Texas… I have money involved. But what is up with the end user? Why do some of them stick to a brand?

One theory is that like most people you get a familiarity with the machine and it feels comfortable, so you stick. One theory is that ‘no one else could get me into a machine, and you stick. Another is that they have a good dealer, or that the factory has taken good care of them; now THAT is a good reason.

After the crunch, will service sell? Will the auction results and the decline in valuation wake everyone up to the fact that, for the most part, a pump is a pump? Will they feel abused by the horrible ass-whipping their resale value has taken? Will they stop shopping for a pump like they do for a car?

I sure don’t have any answers, just more questions.

I do know a couple of things. One is that you can’t make any money if it is broken. One is that when it is on a job the only thing the customer cares about is “is it working and how long is the boom?” And the last truth is that it is very hard to compete, head to head, with a guy that paid one hell of a lot less for the same sized pump! ;~)

have to disagree with you bob ,when things went quiet over here the one thing that kept us going was our reliability and service ,because we had so much trouble with other unreliable and may i say cheap brands (the knock offs) we went back to buying quality gear and charged more for it  and now its what people rely on most with us is our quality gear that just goes and goes ,you know the big 2 i mean and they are the only two we buy anymore and we get work based on our quality of equipment

There are a lot of places that the "big 2" are selling the best service. In those cases it would be foolish to use anything else.

I remember when the JunJin machines showed up in the states. Lots of folks had a good time throwing rocks at them. The problem is that those same machines are still out there pumping every day. I don't know your location; but here in the USA the reality is that there are the

Big three!

And more very good choices after that. Everyone is going to do whatever they think is right; I am all for that. Just don't make it an emotional decision.

Plenty of "Rock dents" in the 01' Jun-Jin/Concord I ran brand-new Bob. That pump is still out every day, Infact that guy has 9 of 'em now...for now? 

Everyone learns eventually that "You get what you pay for." ESPECIALLY when it comes to service! (Which happens to be what most of us are selling.)