Complaint Review: Twin States Equipment

My company (I am the owner) purchased a tymco 435 from Mike back in October. Since then he has not been able to provide us with the title. Prior to purchasing the sweeper we were emailed a copy of the Title signed off by Twin States showing they owned the sweeper and they were signing it off to us. Over the last 2 and 1/2 months they have been unable to produce the title. Finally I contacted the previous owners and they advised me that they were never paid for the sweeper. In fact Mike told him that day he had yet to sell it!!!!!! Mike was paid for the sweeper in October. Mike has admitted he no longer has the money that we paid him to pay the original owners. He has also admitted that he never had the title. He signed off the title release on a copy he had and then sent it to us over email as if it was the original. Please see the letter below that was written by Mike admitting he took our money and did not pay the owner and no longer has the money:
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"In a message dated 12/26/2008 2:54:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, MThomas444 writes:

I would like to take a moment to communicate with you exactly what is going on here at Twin States Equipment and our debt to Steel Truck Center.

Twin States Equipment has been through three recessions in our 25 years. We have always paid our debts. This recession has hit us very hard and slowed down our sales. We are confident that this will pick up soon. We are asking for your patience. Would it be possible to set up a partial payment in the interim.
We can also send a 30 day tag to A&T Sweeping also if needed.

We will pay all that we owe to Steel Truck Center.

However, we will not have a zero balance tomorrow. This will take time.

We have the best business plan the company has ever had thanks to C12 [a group of business owners that I meet with once a month for advice and counsel]. We have made a lot of improvements at Twin States with the advice of C12. We have invested in expensive sales training with the Hendricks Corporation which is supposed to be the best sales training/coach on the East Coast per his references. We have invested in inventory. We are buying used Tymco 210s and refurbishing them to like new using all OEM Tymco parts including new OEM Tymco hoppers and new OEM Tymco pick-up heads. We have several used sweepers ready to sell. We have customers hovering around these used sweepers that will buy very soon with a profit for the company. Several of these customers are having trouble getting financing right now on the equipment. Until these prospects actually buy the used sweepers, a cash flow bump in the road has resulted, but we are confident that the plan will work.

I would like to offer at this time to email you every two weeks with an update on how Twin States will make paying Steel Truck Center a priority. According to the news media Twin States Equipment is not the only company struggling in this economy. Please remember that for more than 25 years Twin States Equipment has always paid it's debts. With your patience Twin States will make it over this cash flow bump in the road.

As I stated before, to be completely honest, we will not have a zero balance tomorrow. This will take time.

MIKE THOMAS
TWIN STATES EQUIPMENT
1-800-222-3686
www.2sei.com"
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Again Mike was paid in full back in October for this machine. So we are paying on a machine that he did not have the legal right to sell us until he paid for it, which he has yet to do and is unable to do. He also forged signatures on a copy of the title. We also paid 3k to have the sweep shipped to us on a truck and they DROVE the vehicle out here instead (2000 miles). Upon arrival we noticed an unusual smell in the truck. We then found drug paraphernalia in the truck. When we tried to address this with Mike he had no comment! We want our money back so we can pay the owner of the vehicle so we can make this purchase legal. We have lost a lot of money and been victimized by a very very dishonest man; Mike Thomas. He claims to be an honest Christian man! This could not be further from the truth; even his own employees have said they will be willing to help us by telling the truth b/c Mike has not. I would not advise that anyone purchase anything from this man!!!!!!!!!!! We have an incredible amount of evidence in this case and the testmony of the orginal owner, our lending company and his own employees!

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Tucson, Arizona
U.S.A.

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