Beware of Schmidy's Machinery

[arboraesthetics]

I wanted to share an experience I had with Schmidy's Machinery in Clinton, IL.

I purchased a $57,000 bucket truck from him in September 2014. I flew from Omaha, NE to Clinton to drive it home. On the drive home the truck’s suspension was bottoming out over bridges making it difficult to maintain control of the vehicle.

Once home, I had the truck weighed: the front axis is rated for 8,000 lbs, but it weighed nearly 10,000 lbs. Without chips in the box, it was 2,000 lbs over what it was rated to support. Further, when fully loaded with chips, the truck would have been 7,000 lbs over weight.

I took the truck to the International dealer: they said they could not retrofit the truck. The problem is fundamental and could not be fixed. To the best of my knowledge, the truck was not legal to drive. I had spent $57,000 on a truck that I was not going to be able to legally nor safely use.

Long story short, after two weeks of extraordinary anxiety and threats of legal action, Jesse Schmid, the owner, agreed to take the truck back. Even after I returned the truck to him it took him a week to wire the money back to my lender.

I got a call on Monday from the new owner of the truck who is having the same problems I was. Jesse beefed up the suspension and sold the lemon to someone else. The new owner is having trouble getting the truck insured.

My experience with Schmidy's Machinery was truly awful and would have been extremely detrimental to my business had I not been able to return the truck.

 

[ROYCE]

Well lets pass the word on. Now I know of TWO companies I won't buy used equipment from. Tri-State and Schmidy's. Maybe we need to start a thread of where you SHOULD buy from. I am looking at purchasing a bigger chip truck and I don't want to make a wrong decision.

 

[treehumper]

Royce, a bigger service would to be filing a complaint with Attorney General's Consumer Fraud Bureau and advise the other guy to as well. If they see enough complaints they will be able to go after him.

 

[Gorman]

Is this the same truck I heard about a little while age on here or is this a new jalopy they put together?

 

[rockettree]

Schmidys sold a lemon to my first tree care employer. The cam shaft sheared and it (thankfully very slowly) lost hydraulic pressure causing the boom to collapse inside the first week.

 

[Merle Nelson]

We are coming to the end of an era. Customers can now share information. Thanks to TreeBuzz and Goggle a lot of people will be saved from this.

 

[marquisandrew1]

Guys, same issues. Bought a truck from Schmidtys 3 years ago. Boom has been good but had nothing but trouble with the chassis part of it. Put almost $8k into in 3 months. New clutch, head gaskets, springs! Blowing break lines left and right! So I checked his site for something newer and he wouldn't even take his old truck on trade!! So I found a 4x4 freightliner chassis from the south and remounted it. Moved my boom, chip box, everything to the other chassis. Been great since!

 

[welltree]

I know of at least 3 different companies that have been taken by schmidys from up here in canada and to my knowledge he didnt want to do anything to help . myself I bought a bucket about 5 years ago from him and he was a great guys all along ... Till I drove down to pick it up I drive the 10hrs to get there and he wouldn't even go outside with me to look at truck. 4 hrs into my drive blow oil line so I call and ask if he knew anywhere I could call as I was from out of country and he said he sold trucks everywhere so I thought he may have a contact I could use , instead was told trucks don't come with warranty and my cheque had already cleared. What a huge piece of s__t he was. Even thought he has the selection he puts a little makeup on them and ships them with no concience

 

[arboraesthetics]

I left a similar review to the one above on Yelp a couple of days ago.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/schmidys-machinery-clinton

Jesse Schmid, the owner of Schmidy's Machinery, just called me threatening to sue me for slander if I did not remove the review in 3 days.

 

[Gorman]

First of all, it would be libel since I'd say it would be closer to print than talking. Second, if the facts are true then he has no case and u can countersue for costs times two or three.

 

[treehumper]

While the online reviews are great for getting the word out, it won't put him out of business. File a complaint with the Consumer Fraud Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General's office.

 

[AmericanArborist]

Jeff who started this post is a good buddy of mine. I posted a month or two ago about this under the tri state forestry thread. Another lady in town here bought a truck from Schmidy this year and has poured money into it. It was probably $55,000 purchase price so it shouldn't have been such a turd. Looks nice from 100ft because of bright white paint but get closer and its just a turd painted white.

 

[bushwackertree]

Thing is guys like Tri State and Schmidy is they go to auctions and buy all the trucks they can, bring them home put some lipstick on the pig and then ask premo dollars. If you watch the JJ Kane website just about 3/4 of their trucks in there inventory are from there. There's always a reason why these trucks go to auction, bad motors, bad booms, underrated chassis, the list goes on.

 

[cedar]

Has anyone bought a bucket truck from BTS Equipment in Michigan? I am looking for a reconditioned rear mount and they have a few available. Michigan is a ways from where I live in Virginia so it's hard to inspect the trucks before making a purchase.

 

[treehead32]

We are currently looking to purchase a bucket truck and I called Schmidys a few hours ago and they are supposed to call me back. I was just looking at another truck on treetrader and it is from Tri-State...

So where is a GOOD place to find a bucket/chip combo? Feeling discouraged

 

[AxeTree]

Private sale! Or ex city trucks are your best bet

 

[ROYCE]

private sale!!

 

[Keeth]

We are currently looking to purchase a bucket truck and I called Schmidys a few hours ago and they are supposed to call me back. I was just looking at another truck on treetrader and it is from Tri-State...

So where is a GOOD place to find a bucket/chip combo? Feeling discouraged

http://www.truecoinc.com/

They have a good reputation here in NC and know what they are doing.

 

[tomthetreeman]

We are currently looking to purchase a bucket truck and I called Schmidys a few hours ago and they are supposed to call me back. I was just looking at another truck on treetrader and it is from Tri-State...

So where is a GOOD place to find a bucket/chip combo? Feeling discouraged

I am selling a very reliable truck. 99 GMC 6500 with Altec LRIV50. See my post in TreeBay.

-Tom

 

[California Tree Equipment]

This sure sounds like the same issues from another post a few months back.