I was dealing with Ryan Stahl, owner of RSE Fabrication in Braddyville Iowa. They manufacture skidsteer attachments amoung other aspects of CNC Machinery. This report is provided to help other consumer avoid my mistakes.
The typical scam as I see it, is that accept you make credit card payment and they don't ship the item(s) immediately or in my case, not at all. As in my case, that charged two items, a single bale pitch fork, and a rock picker totally $4975. They didn't ship either at first, claiming it was lost in shipment. Mr. Stahl could not produce a shipping number to prove it was shipped. Because this is general freight weighting 1350 lbs a trucking company must pickup and deliver the merchandise. If they do pick up something, they have to put a PRO number on the merchandise, so that it can be tracked from pickup to delivery. This number is unique to the pickup. He didn't have one for either item.
He finally admitted that he didn't ship the Single Bale fork and issued a refund after I charged it back. About the same time as the charge back he shipped a defective rock picker. He new it was defective, as upon recieving it started breaking immediately upon use. He did said some replacement parts but would not take back and fix the mis-aligned teeth, along with the other defective and bowed swing arm that scoops the rocks into the bucket. So, in the next paragraphs, here is a summary of defects and false advertising of a Full Three Year Warranty.
From reading the complaints off the BBB, that seem to show up and disappear as fast as they show up, the typical MO of Ryan Stahl is to accept cc payment, either ship the wrong item, or a sub-standard product, and then promise you some from of help, In the cases that I was able to read, everyone was asking for either a replacement product, or credit/refund. I have done the same, and now the cc company is charging back the item. As a side note here, if you think something is wrong, charge it back immediately. Do not let this guy stall you out, it only prolongs the issue.
RSE Frabication: 70" Rock Picker:
Defect 1): If you look at picture 1 this is a picture of the pick up teeth on the rock picker. I am only showing you the teeth that are approximately 1” out of alignment with the rest of the bottom teeth (4 pictured). Notice that the teeth were welded incorrectly and are approximately 1” inch higher than they are suppose to be. This causes the rock picker to jam while the pickup arm up attempts to scoop up the small rock (say 2” to 8” odd shapes ). Advertised maximum size is 28”. Please note that these are the worse of all the bottom teeth. There are several out of alignment. I believe that this may have lead to the twisted spline shaft that I refer to in picture 2 in a email dated June 10, 2017. The improper alignment of the bottom teeth did not allow an even pickup of the rocks so that the swing arm (not pictured) can loop around and push the rocks into the rock bucket section.
Defect 2): The unit was missing two of the four major and important set screws that hold the spline, drive sprocket , tension sprocket and hydraulic motor sprocket in alignment. In short, I had communications with Mr. Stahl of the defects, he sent me the set screws and spline to replace the defective parts. However, he still would not take the unit back and fix the teeth. Since I was unable to remove the spline that was damaged from the original defect missing set screws and improperly welded bottom teeth, the problem will continue to exist making the product not only defective but not completely usable. It will not pickup the rocks as expected. I believe that this should have been covered immediately by his full three year warranty (as advertised). Adding the rod to the bottom teeth so they would not continue to bend was approved by Mr. Stahl in a phone conversation.
Defect 3): The swing or pickup arm is warped causing an uneven reach across the entire 70 inches of pickup causing the smaller rocks to get stuck; thereby, stopping the entire pickup process. The warped arm is caused by improper welding techniques.I am a retired automotive engineer and familiar with processes. Mr. Stahl would not fix this under warranty either.
False Advertising Claim: The attached picture 3 (which was at the time a link to YouTube directed from RSE Fabrication website to YouTube) states a FULL THREE YEAR WARRANTY.
In Summary, originally, the problem started with the teeth improperly welded and out of alignment, and the missing set screws, then lead to other parts to fail. Mr Stahl and RSE Fabrication refused to fix the defective teeth, warped pickup arm, and spline removal, or the other option was to take rock picker back.