Really getting pissed with Art's Way/Miller Pro

What experiences have the other Miller Pro users here had?  I bought a Miller Pro 900 rotary rake a few months ago.  I bought it seeing it get God-like status here and I have no doubts about those at all.  It's a SOLID unit, built very sturdy.

 

But several things on it are just STUPID and I have to ask what the hell kind of an engineer did this?

 

--the spring pins that hold the tine arms on are metric; 10 mm and 6 mm.  Good luck finding those locally, I had to special order through Fastenal and getting an extra set was something to the tune of $40 with shipping just for stupid spring pins.

 

--The plug for adding oil was rounded off very well, so I thought I'd get a new one.  Well, it's 3/8" British Pipe Thread.  Once again, good luck finding that locally or even online. 

 

--The plug for the oil level is 1/4" British pipe thread--another stupidly obscure size, and has a square head instead of a hex head.  Being between two tines on the gear box makes it impossible to get any kind of wrench on there so I had to get a special set of Universal sockets that could work on a square head.

 

--I called Art's Way (the company who purchased Miller Pro about 10 years ago) to order these two new plugs and the guy on the phone was not friendly or helpful in any way.  I asked how much it was, he said 'I don't know, don't have the prices in front of me.'  And that was that.

 

 

--Today, a lady from Art's Way called me to tell me one of the plugs was discontinued and listed as an obsolete part number.  I said 'are you serious?  This is a plug.  It's not like it's a highly specific part for this machine.'  She said 'that's just what the computer says.'  I said 'do you still make the Miller Pro 900's?' She said no, so I ask 'how long ago did you stop making them?' and she said 'I don't know, we don't make them here.' And that was that. 

 

So far they're 2 for 2 grumpy, 2 for 2 utterly unhelpful.  I'm an Iowa boy so I'm disappointed at this crappy Iowa service.  Westendorf has been awesome for me and All States Ag Parts has also been good.

 

All these freaking obscure foreign parts...these were made in Wisconsin. What's wrong with an Imperial size spring pin, or NPT plug?

 

Love my rake, hate the company, rant over!

Really getting pissed with Art's Way/Miller Pro