Tri-State Forestry Equipment
- Thread starter treesandsurf
- Start date
- Location
- Hawaii
Thanks everyone for the support it means a lot. I did speak to Joe and he has sent a check in the mail and as soon as I receive I will let everyone know.
It doesn't make me feel comfortable or happy to trash anyone's business or have any negative effect on someone's livelihood, especially someone who has a family to take care of. At the same time, I really wouldn't want anyone else to have to go through this so it's good that others have been made aware of the situation.
To Joe's credit he really did listen to my issues and was surprisingly reasonable on the phone (I actually almost started liking the guy oddly enough after we talked for a while!) and said he was just frustrated and pissed and that he did want to make it right so he's sending the money back. I hope he switches up his business practices and this whole thing is just a great learning lesson for everyone. Thanks again all for the support, you guys are great.
jp
It doesn't make me feel comfortable or happy to trash anyone's business or have any negative effect on someone's livelihood, especially someone who has a family to take care of. At the same time, I really wouldn't want anyone else to have to go through this so it's good that others have been made aware of the situation.
To Joe's credit he really did listen to my issues and was surprisingly reasonable on the phone (I actually almost started liking the guy oddly enough after we talked for a while!) and said he was just frustrated and pissed and that he did want to make it right so he's sending the money back. I hope he switches up his business practices and this whole thing is just a great learning lesson for everyone. Thanks again all for the support, you guys are great.
jp
tomthetreeman
Participating member
- Location
- Rhode Island
Kumbaya!
treehumper
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Ridgefield, NJ
Yep, it isn't the satisfied customers that will destroy a business it's the disgruntled ones. Our business policies and practices must align with customer satisfaction and treating people as you'd want to be treated.
Let's see where this goes.
Let's see where this goes.
- Location
- under grace
Humper ill add this ....MANY MANY times the perceptions that we have internaly as a company vary greatly from how many clients think or say. HOW do WE KNOW how they feel? Have WE asked? We are getting ready to embark on a massive customer survey to find out for real...And what we can do to make the client experience better!! just an extra 2 cents
treehumper
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Ridgefield, NJ
Good points. Effective customer surveys are time consuming and can be pricey. What can be done is checking out online reviews, neighborhood blogs and how many customer referrals you receive and more importantly why they did.
The other thing is to actually listen objectively to the feedback you get when you ask and don't defend your company. Be rigorously honest in evaluating the answers to find those things which you can improve on to make that client experience better and keep those referrals and positive reviews rolling in.
The other thing is to actually listen objectively to the feedback you get when you ask and don't defend your company. Be rigorously honest in evaluating the answers to find those things which you can improve on to make that client experience better and keep those referrals and positive reviews rolling in.
- Location
- Northern MI
Not to bring back a blast from the past but I had bad dealing with tristate as well. Long story, but the bucket truck we purchased wasn't anything he stated it was. I wish I would have read all this a year ago before we purchased the truck because I wouldnt have drove 900 miles to this dump.
- Location
- Hawaii
Got an email from Joe at Tristate to take down this old thread, since he DID send back the deposit after he realized how much negative publicity these internet forums can be for small businesses. Anyway, I almost emailed Mark and Tom about it but then got an email from someone a few hours later about a major issue they are dealing with Tristate. I'll post here so others are made aware and hopefully can avoid this kind of headache in their search for used equipment:
Good day, gentlemen. My husband owns a tree service in Indiana and, unfortunately, I have just found TreeBuzz and, as a result, other tree sites. When I say "unfortunately," that's only because I wish I would have found y'all BEFORE we purchased a 2003 over-center International boom truck with four outriggers from Tristate Forestry Equipment, along with a promise that it would be DOT inspected and certified ready to use. We bought the truck 12/31/13 which was not delivered until May of 2014, only after NUMEROUS calls by me to Joe and numerous excuses being made, as well as Joe hanging up on me, being extremely rude, and then ignoring my calls. Only after filing a dispute with American Express and AMEX withholding 25+k because Joe had our money since 12/31/13 and we had no truck, did Joe call us for the FIRST time since our initial purchase. He promised he would have the truck sent immediately as soon as we released the funds. Well, unfortunately, we did release the funds. Within three days he had the truck delivered to us here in Indiana. But upon the truck's arrival, we tried to refuse delivery because the truck not only was dead on the delivery truck, it was not an over-center boom, had only two outriggers, was a 2001 (well, the bill of sale said 2001 and the title says 2002), had a rag wrapped around one of the hydraulic levers that was put there to stop the hydraulic fluid from leaking, but the driver from the delivery company became very angry and said he was going to drop the truck in the middle of the road. It took my husband and a neighbor about an hour and a half to get the truck started in order to even get it off the delivery truck. I immediately restarted the dispute process with AMEX but was unsuccessful in returning the truck and getting our money back. Now I've contacted the BBB and filed a complaint, the Attorney General's office in PA, as well as the DA in Chester County.
All of this to say that the Attorney General stated that until they have other complaints about Tristate, they are unable to do anything until they start to see a pattern. They told me if I could get this information to others who have had similar problems and y'all agreed to file a complaint on their website,http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/complaints.aspx?id=451, they could start to check in to Tristate's business practices. I'm only doing this so no one else has to deal with these deceptive practices of theft in the future. We are a small business and this has cause tremendous stress for us and Joe needs to be stopped from treating people this way.
Please let me know what you think or if you have any other folks you know of who have experienced these problems. Any help or insight with this matter would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you so much for your time!! Also, please go to the above website and file a formal complaint in order for the attorney general to start an investigation. He really is a crook.
Anyway, hope this thread helps give a warning to people thinking about buying from this guy. I know the headache and hardship for small businesses in buying used equipment especially sight unseen.
jp
Good day, gentlemen. My husband owns a tree service in Indiana and, unfortunately, I have just found TreeBuzz and, as a result, other tree sites. When I say "unfortunately," that's only because I wish I would have found y'all BEFORE we purchased a 2003 over-center International boom truck with four outriggers from Tristate Forestry Equipment, along with a promise that it would be DOT inspected and certified ready to use. We bought the truck 12/31/13 which was not delivered until May of 2014, only after NUMEROUS calls by me to Joe and numerous excuses being made, as well as Joe hanging up on me, being extremely rude, and then ignoring my calls. Only after filing a dispute with American Express and AMEX withholding 25+k because Joe had our money since 12/31/13 and we had no truck, did Joe call us for the FIRST time since our initial purchase. He promised he would have the truck sent immediately as soon as we released the funds. Well, unfortunately, we did release the funds. Within three days he had the truck delivered to us here in Indiana. But upon the truck's arrival, we tried to refuse delivery because the truck not only was dead on the delivery truck, it was not an over-center boom, had only two outriggers, was a 2001 (well, the bill of sale said 2001 and the title says 2002), had a rag wrapped around one of the hydraulic levers that was put there to stop the hydraulic fluid from leaking, but the driver from the delivery company became very angry and said he was going to drop the truck in the middle of the road. It took my husband and a neighbor about an hour and a half to get the truck started in order to even get it off the delivery truck. I immediately restarted the dispute process with AMEX but was unsuccessful in returning the truck and getting our money back. Now I've contacted the BBB and filed a complaint, the Attorney General's office in PA, as well as the DA in Chester County.
All of this to say that the Attorney General stated that until they have other complaints about Tristate, they are unable to do anything until they start to see a pattern. They told me if I could get this information to others who have had similar problems and y'all agreed to file a complaint on their website,http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/complaints.aspx?id=451, they could start to check in to Tristate's business practices. I'm only doing this so no one else has to deal with these deceptive practices of theft in the future. We are a small business and this has cause tremendous stress for us and Joe needs to be stopped from treating people this way.
Please let me know what you think or if you have any other folks you know of who have experienced these problems. Any help or insight with this matter would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you so much for your time!! Also, please go to the above website and file a formal complaint in order for the attorney general to start an investigation. He really is a crook.
Anyway, hope this thread helps give a warning to people thinking about buying from this guy. I know the headache and hardship for small businesses in buying used equipment especially sight unseen.
jp
JontreeHI
Branched out member
- Location
- West Michigan lakeshore
Dang what a guy.
Hey Jon where you been buddy how's tricks?
Hey Jon where you been buddy how's tricks?
TreeLogic
Branched out member
- Location
- Coastal SC
Hmmm. Wonder why he wanted this thread down? Interesting. This guy sounds like a real D Bag.
Thanks for the update.
Thanks for the update.
Merle Nelson
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- SF Bay Area, CA
Tri-State Bobcat, not at all sure that is an affiliated company but, had the disappointing opportunity to run across them recently on Craigslist. Was shopping for a Bandit chipper in case plans for a new purchase fell through.
Saw a really clean older 150XP listed by Tri-State Bobcat. Called and asked some questions including if that was it’s original paint. Yes, it needs painting he said. Well the picture I had seen looked in pristine condition, so I go back and look again and now there is a different picture up of some rode hard and put away wet chipper. Sure would hate to be caught in the middle of any of that mess.
Saw a really clean older 150XP listed by Tri-State Bobcat. Called and asked some questions including if that was it’s original paint. Yes, it needs painting he said. Well the picture I had seen looked in pristine condition, so I go back and look again and now there is a different picture up of some rode hard and put away wet chipper. Sure would hate to be caught in the middle of any of that mess.
It's funny, I am looking for a bucket truck. I asked in another thread about this company. Seamed like they had some good trucks on line. I was going to take a trip one weekend and go check them out. No way I am going to have any dealings with these people. It's to bad you guys had to deal with this.
I would leave this thread up. Let the tree world know the truth.
I would leave this thread up. Let the tree world know the truth.
welltree
New member
- Location
- Ontario Canada
I have heard similar stories about schmidys. 2 lately but a few guys up here bought trucks during ice storm and only 1 out of the 4 I know had a good experience
AmericanArborist
Participating member
- Location
- Omaha, NE
My friend drove this POS home last week and returned it today after a lot of struggle with Schmidy. Essentially the truck was built on a chassis that doesn't support the truck. It has 8,000 lbs front axles and 17,500 lbs rears. The truck was nearly bottomed out just sitting there. It was frankensteined together from an old deliver truck and who knows how many forestry trucks. I'd stay away from the guy.
- Location
- Home of the New Jersey Devils
8k front?! That's just silly. You are asking for trouble with an under spec truck like that. The pic looks nice though
AmericanArborist
Participating member
- Location
- Omaha, NE
My buddy put the truck on a scale and dry weight it had 10k on the front axle. 2k overweight with no load! Think of being boomed way over the front or a load of chips. That truck would break. His fix was "why don't you add some leaf springs?" This is from a guy who builds these things for a living! Truck would never even pass a DOT Inspection to get stickers. The guy is a schyster in my opinion. I could go on about all the things wrong with that truck but the biggest thing is it would never even be able to pass an inspection weighing more than the axles were rated for.
Gorman
Branched out member
- Location
- Rhode Island
Read a thread on another arbsite and some poor dude bought from one of these dealers I believe. A year or two after dealing with the usual breakdowns he saw the turrent was cracked and someone had filled it with caulk and whitewashed over it. Scary, scary stuff. No honor among thieves.
I myself have recently done business with TriState Forestry out of Pennsylvania. I wish I had found this thread beforehand to steer me away. Anyway I'd like to be in touch with anyone else who have also had a negative experience dealing with this company. Id greatly appreciate any feedback I can get. It will help me to straighten out the ongoing issues I'm experiencing with this company. Please email me at ArborMaster2014@yahoo.com Thanks!
AmericanArborist
Participating member
- Location
- Omaha, NE
I just saw this truck for sale again in the latest tree trader. It was a lemon and should have been disassembled. Called him on it today and he said he already sold the truck. Buyers beware of Schmiddy.
My friend drove this POS home last week and returned it today after a lot of struggle with Schmidy. Essentially the truck was built on a chassis that doesn't support the truck. It has 8,000 lbs front axles and 17,500 lbs rears. The truck was nearly bottomed out just sitting there. It was frankensteined together from an old deliver truck and who knows how many forestry trucks. I'd stay away from the guy.
