Let me start with a full disclosure.

I own both DemolitionNews.com and DiggersandDozers.com, neither of which carry advertising from JCB.

I am not employed by JCB, nor have they ever paid me as any kind of spokesperson for their company.

Furthermore, JCB is totally unaware that I have written this article; which is probably just as well given what I am about to say.

OK, so here’s the skinny.

As I have mentioned previously, I have been writing about JCB for something like 30 years.

• I had always found them to be helpful and responsive, although I was only dealing with the marketing department.
• I was generally impressed by the company’s ability to constantly renew and reinvent itself.
• I admired the company’s ability to match each change in construction fashion with a machine or multiple machines to match.
• I was impressed that the company had grown from humble beginnings here in the UK to become a major international manufacturer employing tens of thousands of people in facilities across the globe.
• And, as a journalist, I was delighted that the company’s product line was continually expanding and changing; constantly giving me something new and interesting to write about.

But it turns out I have been duped.

You see, every time I write about JCB, someone – generally on Facebook – will comment something along the lines of “it will break down before it’s delivered” or, better still “I hope it comes with a dedicated fitter – You’re going to need one”.

Now I am but a mere wordsmith.

I operate machines only sporadically - badly - so I am no judge of performance nor reliability. But this minority suggestion that JCB equipment is somehow sub-standard persists to such a degree that I have no choice but to admit that I must have been wrong all along.

But I take solace in the fact that I am not the only one that has been taken in.

• JCB customers around the world must be feeling pretty stupid right about now
• Major companies like Hewden, FM Conway, HE Services and UK Plant Hire will be unable to show their face in public having built successful businesses on apparently sub-par machines.
• And what about the British and US military which have bought JCB equipment for years. Because we all know how unimportant reliability is in a conflict situation.

Yep. Apparently, we were all wrong. Hundreds of thousands of companies and individuals – many with decades of experience – have looked at JCB equipment, compared it to the competition, and then made the wrong choice.

If only we had listened to the keyboard warriors on Facebook.

I feel such a fool.