Hi, I'm Tom Ray.
Most machinery dealers will tell you they are honest. It is an easy thing to say and a difficult thing to prove.
So rather than ask you to take my word for it, here is where I came from, how I work, and how you can check it for yourself before you spend a penny with me.
I ran machines for ten years before I ever sold one
I started out in 2006, setting up my own agricultural contracting business. For the best part of ten years I was out in the field with tractors and machinery every single day, in all weathers, working to other people's deadlines.
That matters more than it might sound.
When your living depends on a machine starting on a wet Monday morning, you learn very quickly what actually matters and what is just a good sales line. You learn which faults are a nuisance and which ones will cost you a fortune. You learn what wear looks like on a machine that has been looked after, and what it looks like on one that has been hammered and tidied up for sale.
I did not learn that from a trade guide. I learned it from a decade of relying on this equipment to earn a living, exactly like the people I now sell to.
Coming back to it
I stepped away from the industry for a few years. It turns out it does not really let you go.
Just before COVID I bought and sold my first few machines, more out of interest than anything else. One turned into a few, a few turned into something worth taking seriously, and that is how Tom Ray Tractors & Plant Machinery started.
We expanded into machinery hire along the way, and we still hire out a small, carefully chosen selection. But it became clear over time where our real strength lies, and that is in sourcing, preparing and selling good used machinery.
Narrowing the focus was a deliberate decision. It means every customer gets the time, the attention and the straight answer they came for, rather than being one of a hundred jobs going on at once.
What The Honest Dealer actually means
It is a claim, so it needs backing up. Here is what it means in practice.
Every machine gets a full walk-round video. Not a glamour shot with the sun behind it. A proper walk round, the machine running, showing you what is there. You can watch every one of them on our YouTube channel before you ever pick up the phone.
If there is a fault, I will tell you. Before you travel, before you commit, before any money changes hands. A tired clutch, a weeping seal, tin work that has seen better days. You will hear it from me first.
If something needs attention, I will say so. Some machines are ready to work and some need a job doing before they are. You are entitled to know which one you are looking at so you can budget for it properly.
Honest descriptions and clear photographs. What you read is what is standing in the yard.
I would far rather answer the awkward questions before a sale than deal with a disappointed customer afterwards. A machine sold on a half truth might make money once. It does not build a business that people come back to, and it does not survive the first phone call to a neighbour asking what you are like to deal with.
That is the whole of it. Trust is worth more than any single sale.
It is not always as simple as it looks
There is a perception that dealing machinery is easy money. Buy one, add a bit, sell it on.
Behind every machine on this yard there is a lot of hard work, a lot of investment and a lot of responsibility. Sourcing the right machines takes time and judgement. Preparing them properly costs money. Standing over what you have sold means answering the phone when it rings.
I am not saying that for sympathy. I am saying it because it is the reason we are selective about what we buy. If I would not put my own name behind it, it does not come through the gate.
Whether you are buying your first tractor or your fifteenth
Some of our customers are buying their first machine and want somebody to talk it through with them without being made to feel daft for asking. Others have been in the trade thirty years and want a straight answer and a fair price with no messing about.
Both get exactly the same from us. So does anyone with quality machinery to sell.
If you have seen something you like, or you are after something specific and cannot find it, get in touch. If I have not got it, I will tell you that too.
Tom Ray The Honest Dealer. Because trust is worth more than any sale.