Bad Experience Bucket Truck

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RobOnBusiness

ArboristSite Lurker
Joined
Nov 19, 2014
Messages
8
Reaction score
4
I've been waiting a long time to post this! I'm not going to name names, but if anyone wants to know, just ask. Anyway, I'm from Alberta, Canada, and bought my first bucket truck this last Spring stateside, to complement my other chip truck, in my tree removal business. In March I flew to West Chester, PA, and bought a truck I'd seen at an online used equipment dealer, and toward which I'd made a non-refundable $5k deposit, based on the pictures, details, and seller's phone promise that it was fully inspected and "work ready". The total price was $40k USD. To be fair, the seller did pay my airfare from Alberta to PA, as he promised. Firstly, when I arrived from the airport, the seller didn't even make eye contact with me as he shook my hand. His yard looked like a scrap yard. Then I saw the truck, and my fears were confirmed. As it turned out, nothing except the emergency brake and heater worked properly (according to mine and Alberta commercial vehicle inspection specifications). It looked and acted sorely neglected, and I was sorely disappointed. It felt as if it had come on a flatbed straight after an auction (since it had all the rusty spots spray bombed over), and was flipped for a profit. So, it was a choice between forfeiting the $5k, or repairing it when I got it home. It never made it out of the state before the engine lost so much power, I had to pull off the highway. I limped it to North Dakota where it finally failed completely, and I had to have it towed to the border, then to Regina, Saskatchewan to the nearest dealer. It sat there for 3 months while it was repaired to make it roadworthy, to the tune of an extra $20k CAD. My season got real busy after that, with an early snowstorm in September, breaking about half the trees here, still sporting full leaf canopies. Finally, after I had a chance to sit down and call the seller about my adventure, he replied he had made an honest deal, and I had bought a truck at fair value that was indeed work ready at the time of purchase. I told him at the beginning of the conversation that I was going to post my experience, as a warning to others following me, about purchasing a bucket truck, because, here in Canada, $40k USD will buy a lot more bucket truck than I received there. He replied that he would set his lawyers onto me for defamation of character. So, I then called a lawyer's office in PA, asking them what constitutes defamation there, and the upshot is that the offending party would have had to not be served notice, being "privileged" about the situation, plus that the content be false. So, I come clean, and I have all the bills and old parts here to back up my story. I'm not interested in defaming anyone, and it's not overly important to me to even post the seller's name and company - I just want to warn others ahead of me to beware of what you're purchasing for the money you're expecting will buy you a certain amount of quality, before you commit yourselves.
 
I've been waiting a long time to post this! I'm not going to name names, but if anyone wants to know, just ask. Anyway, I'm from Alberta, Canada, and bought my first bucket truck this last Spring stateside, to complement my other chip truck, in my tree removal business. In March I flew to West Chester, PA, and bought a truck I'd seen at an online used equipment dealer, and toward which I'd made a non-refundable $5k deposit, based on the pictures, details, and seller's phone promise that it was fully inspected and "work ready". The total price was $40k USD. To be fair, the seller did pay my airfare from Alberta to PA, as he promised. Firstly, when I arrived from the airport, the seller didn't even make eye contact with me as he shook my hand. His yard looked like a scrap yard. Then I saw the truck, and my fears were confirmed. As it turned out, nothing except the emergency brake and heater worked properly (according to mine and Alberta commercial vehicle inspection specifications). It looked and acted sorely neglected, and I was sorely disappointed. It felt as if it had come on a flatbed straight after an auction (since it had all the rusty spots spray bombed over), and was flipped for a profit. So, it was a choice between forfeiting the $5k, or repairing it when I got it home. It never made it out of the state before the engine lost so much power, I had to pull off the highway. I limped it to North Dakota where it finally failed completely, and I had to have it towed to the border, then to Regina, Saskatchewan to the nearest dealer. It sat there for 3 months while it was repaired to make it roadworthy, to the tune of an extra $20k CAD. My season got real busy after that, with an early snowstorm in September, breaking about half the trees here, still sporting full leaf canopies. Finally, after I had a chance to sit down and call the seller about my adventure, he replied he had made an honest deal, and I had bought a truck at fair value that was indeed work ready at the time of purchase. I told him at the beginning of the conversation that I was going to post my experience, as a warning to others following me, about purchasing a bucket truck, because, here in Canada, $40k USD will buy a lot more bucket truck than I received there. He replied that he would set his lawyers onto me for defamation of character. So, I then called a lawyer's office in PA, asking them what constitutes defamation there, and the upshot is that the offending party would have had to not be served notice, being "privileged" about the situation, plus that the content be false. So, I come clean, and I have all the bills and old parts here to back up my story. I'm not interested in defaming anyone, and it's not overly important to me to even post the seller's name and company - I just want to warn others ahead of me to beware of what you're purchasing for the money you're expecting will buy you a certain amount of quality, before you commit yourselves.
I had the same type of thing happen they sold me one with Jb weld over a big hole in the diesel block, I lost 5 grand sending the POS back to them! So I bought a new one. You really cant trust many people.
 
Called that place last spring about a SP7015 they had for sale,salesman said he was in the field and would call me right back,never did,looks like did me a favor.
 
Called that place last spring about a SP7015 they had for sale,salesman said he was in the field and would call me right back,never did,looks like did me a favor.
Well, I honestly think two things: 1) $40k USD doesn't buy as much truck as I thought, and 2) I shouldn't trust someone's word to the tune of $5k, especially if I have a bad gut feeling about it, which I did from the beginning, mainly because the seller seemed evasive about my questions on the phone.
 
I feel like the slimebag owners of "dealers" like this should be arrested and hung in the street. Just my opinion...
I know how you feel - I just wish there was a better way to get them a conscience! I mean, if I knew someone was coming from another country to drive this home, I'd be certainly taking an interest in whether it would perform for them or not. If I didn't, I hope someone would do me a favour and wake me up to my lack of humanity!
 
I had the same type of thing happen they sold me one with Jb weld over a big hole in the diesel block, I lost 5 grand sending the POS back to them! So I bought a new one. You really cant trust many people.
Well, that's basically what the seller told me to do if I didn't like all the things wrong with it - buy a new one! You probably took the shortest route to satisfaction by doing that! I just didn't have the money, and really thought there'd be more truck there for that price.
 
Well, that's basically what the seller told me to do if I didn't like all the things wrong with it - buy a new one! You probably took the shortest route to satisfaction by doing that! I just didn't have the money, and really thought there'd be more truck there for that price.
They are the worst.
 
I am looking at trucks over toward the east coast, as we do not have much in the way of used, available around here. What dealer are we talking about in this post??? You can message me if you don't want to post it on the forum. I don't want to make an expensive mistake.
Thanks,
Jeff
 
I am looking at trucks over toward the east coast, as we do not have much in the way of used, available around here. What dealer are we talking about in this post??? You can message me if you don't want to post it on the forum. I don't want to make an expensive mistake.
Thanks,
Jeff
We all know who it is.
 
Tri-State is in West Chester, PA and they do require deposits.
Why you would send anyone $5k as a non-refundalbe deposit is just beyond me.
Reputable dealers don't do that. They are generally willing to hold a truck if you'r flying in provided you keep your word.
Secondly, once you saw the truck was not what was promised you should have demanded a refund. It's probably not even legal for him to keep the deposit. He was not acting in good faith.
Third, once the truck broke down you should have called him to return it. The fact that it didn't make it home is pretty good evidence that is wasn't "work ready".
So next time, don't send a deposit to anyone. Check them out online, looking for forums like this. Check out their website. If its cheesy and cheap with little information then their whole business is probably the same. And go ahead and name names. That how this whole search engine thing works.
 
Not sure if it was Tri-State or not but a member here (Sgreanbeans) bought a bucket truck that had a huge crack on the boom that was filled in with JB Weld. He was using it before he noticed it. Lucky he didn't die.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Latest posts

Back
Top