Help I being Screwed!!

[nediver]

Where would I find some experts to give there opinion on what could have caused this problem?

 

[JoelD]

Be sure to cancel your payment of the rental if not too late.

Tell them to pound sand and let them sue you.

Don't forget to remind everyone and anyone you know to never do business with this rental house.

Oh yeh, does this mean if my tractor breaks I can make a claim on my homeowner's insurance?

Sorry to repeat myself, but no point in renting equipment if you need to pay for what someone else may have broken.

Joel

 

[J_J]

Where would I find some experts to give there opinion on what could have caused this problem?

Where is the backhoe now? I would find a hydraulic shop, and hire the hydraulic tech to go look at the cylinder and write up his estimation of why the cylinder broke. He might just take a case of beer for the write up. but only if it is in your favor, cash is good. . The words you want to hear from him is stress, normal wear and tear. maybe some rust around the neck of the cylinder. Hoverer, if he gives you an honest appraisal, not in your favor, you should not fault him, because you ask for an honest evaluation.

How long did you use it before it broke?

 

[nediver]

How long did you use it before it broke?

less than 2 min

 

[nediver]

Be sure to cancel your payment of the rental if not too late.

Tell them to pound sand and let them sue you.

Don't forget to remind everyone and anyone you know to never do business with this rental house.

Oh yeh, does this mean if my tractor breaks I can make a claim on my homeowner's insurance?

Sorry to repeat myself, but no point in renting equipment if you need to pay for what someone else may have broken.

Joel

I have taken a lot of this advice. thanks

 

[J_J]

less than 2 min

So you returned it with the same hours on it. just 2 min. That is definitely in your favor. You should have taken a picture of the hour meter, in case they run it up to some more hours.

 

[CHDinCT]

So you returned it with the same hours on it. just 2 min. That is definitely in your favor. You should have taken a picture of the hour meter, in case they run it up to some more hours.

I don't think so since he stated he ended up using the FEL to dig up and move the rock. Maybe that wasn't a good move, but who knows.

I agree with all the others that most likely the cylinder broke from accumulated use. He just happened to be the one it broke on, or maybe it was already broken and the rental yard either didn't inspect it first or intentionally let him take the machine so they could try to get him to pay for it. I mean it broke within 2 minutes of being used !

 

[banjodunn]

G'day plain and simple fatigue. I worked for two years in a national comany that hired out everything from a chainsaw to a D9 dozer and there is no way we would have charged you for the repair it is simply a case of normal wear and tear, as far as instructing he operator on use we would have to spend at least 1/2 hour with the hirer even if the person had operated the same machine all their life, this was the company policy and at the end of it they had a A4 sheet showing all the operations of the machine that they had been shown and they had initialled every section and signed the bottom of the sheet. I would be telling them to go jump if you do have the cyl inspected independently tell them you are doing this and that if the report says it is not your fault then you will be passing them the inspection invoice for them to pay. Good luck with it all


Jon

 

[Cat_Driver]

I'm not a lawyer, I just play one on TV, but you have a case because of a term called merchantability:


The following information is for entertainment purposes ONLY.

Merchantable adj. a product of a high enough quality to make it fit for sale/rental. To be merchantable an article for sale/rent must be usable for the purpose it is made. It must be of average worth (not necessarily special) in the marketplace and must not be broken, unworkable, damaged, contaminated or flawed.

The rental product was FLAWED for the intended use. Being flawed can be determined by looking at all the service logs and rental contracts for that piece of equipment.

An item is deemed merchantable if it is reasonably fit for the ordinary purposes for which such products are manufactured and sold. For example, soap is merchantable if it cleans. In general, a seller or manufacturer is required by law to make products of merchantable quality. In the event that the items do not meet with the proper standards, a suit can be brought against the seller or manufacturer by anyone who is injured as a result.

Ask the rental agency if they can supply your lawyer with all the logs and service contracts along with all the customers that rented that equipment so you can contact them all...since day one. Chances are the product outlived it's merchantability years ago.

OH and ask him when the last time he has all the welds x-ray'd and the tests for the metallurgy reports.

Do you think he will want to do that?

 

[sld]

What is the latest here?

 

[Travelover]

What is the latest here?

Yea! A lot of us are standing around with torches and pitchforks and the dogs are getting restless.........

 

[nediver]

Just to clear some stuff up. I had the rental for 1 hour when I began to use the BH. I used it for less than 1-2 min and it broke. I did not abuse it. I had a project I needed to finish and had limited time off work. The rental place encouraged me to continue to use the FEL to finish my job. I ended up returning the tractor after using it for most of the day.

No one is disputing how long I used the BH. Just how it was broken.

I have a claim into my homeowners and he has one into his rental insurance company.

I know the damages are large so far, at least over $500 in labor already and that was before cylinder was sent out.

I will keep you all posted and thanks for the kind words.

 

[Scooby074]

$500 in labour for a blown cylinder?? Whose labour? If thats the rental company's im going to say somethings up. Removing and reinstalling a cylinder that size should take under 3 hours. Maybe a little more if you run into problems.

NO WAY i would put this through my insurance.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

$500 in labour for a blown cylinder?? Whose labour? If thats the rental company's im going to say somethings up. Removing and reinstalling a cylinder that size should take under 3 hours. Maybe a little more if you run into problems.

NO WAY i would put this through my insurance.

$500 and the cylinder isn't repaired yet? I own a cylinder shop. He could have brought the machine to me and if there were no rod or cylinder bore damage, the whole bill for the entire repair would not have been $500. If you give me machine make and model and cylinder function, I will write you an estimate for repairs.

Andy

 

[Coyote machine]

You're only being screwed if you allow them to screw you into believing the broken cylinder is your fault.
One of your pics shows parts of the hoe that are clearly showing signs of advanced age, lack of paint or any kind of maintenance.
Tell them to pick it up and move on to a place that will stand behind their equipment.
DO NOT speak to your insurance company about the broken hoe. That will get you a higher premium and will not solve anything.
If they won't pick it up have someone deliver it to their lot during business hours, take a witness and pics of it being delivered back to them, and if necessary call in the local sheriff to assist in the verification of delivery.
Do not argue with them or allow the situation to become heated.
That hoe is a rental piece of junk with an excessive amount of hours and little to no maintenance.
Post back results.

 

[radioman]

You're only being screwed if you allow them to screw you into believing the broken cylinder is your fault.
One of your pics shows parts of the hoe that are clearly showing signs of advanced age, lack of paint or any kind of maintenance.
Tell them to pick it up and move on to a place that will stand behind their equipment.
DO NOT speak to your insurance company about the broken hoe. That will get you a higher premium and will not solve anything.
If they won't pick it up have someone deliver it to their lot during business hours, take a witness and pics of it being delivered back to them, and if necessary call in the local sheriff to assist in the verification of delivery.
Do not argue with them or allow the situation to become heated.
That hoe is a rental piece of junk with an excessive amount of hours and little to no maintenance.
Post back results.

agreeing however nediver as per his post above he already put in a claim in his insurance. Wonder if he can back peddle on that or put on hold? Wayne county seems to believe the same as the rest of us suspected-cant cost that much and a independant hydralic expert would provide a better opinion. it cant break that easily after 2 minutes of use with BH.

 

[WWR]

One to two minutes with a cylinder that size? It had to be ready to crumble when it first moved. The fatique and weakening which lead to the failure had to be present before he used it. Even with abuse, one would have to be very lucky to break it this way in such a short time if the machine was in sound condition

They are chasing him and hounding him because they have intimidated him to co operating in this scam. He needs to see a lawyer.


JPM

 

[radman1]

My rental place for equipment has mandatory damage insurance. Also includes hail, tornado, wind etc. I recently had a 3" cylinder modified with new machined ends, shortened rod, put in cylinder spacers, new ports, shorted the barrel, grease zerks, holes tapped in the ends for bolts and a custom made plate on one end to hold my flat faced hydraulic outlets. The total cost was $450. Lots of work. However, a different cylinder place in my town would have cost at least 50% more.

Went to pick up my cylinder 2 days ago. It was sitting next to another cylinder that probably had a 12-14" barrel, 8' long and 4" pin ends. My little cylinder was embarrassed.

 

[Scooby074]

nediver: Any Updates??????

 

[thatguy]

This seems very simple to me.

You rented machine, it broke, they come and fix machine or bring you another one and you finish your rental use and return machine.

They either owe you money back for hours not used or a free rental for hours not used.

Period, the end.

They either give you money back or make up rental hours or your bring them to court to get your money or rental time.

This is silly.

Joel

I understand what you are saying BUT the rental company could consider that 'abuse' and not normal wear and tear. I would bet abuse is not covered by the contract or possibly not even the damage waiver/insurance that they offer to sell you..

I worked at a large, regional truck rental company and we would have similar things happen that the customer would say 'it broke' and we upon examination we would say 'no, you abused it and broke it and we will have to bill you".. We usually ended up having a third party 'expert' evaluate the breakage and make a call. (for an example - customer calls in saying the truck stopped running. Bring it in, tear down the engine and find out the customer down shifted and instead of going from 5th gear to 4th, actually went into 2nd gear and over sped the engine. ) If it was truly 'wear and tear' we ate the cost, but if it was evaluated and came back abuse we billed. We didnt loose many cases in court if it was ruled abuse..

So with that in mind I would have a third party (someone from the insurance company??) evaluate the breakage and go from there.

Brian