We purchased a 1980 John Deere 950 tractor from Larry Twist. He assured us that it was a good tractor and made us feel comfortable about the purchase. 1/2 hour after we got it home, the engine froze up on us to the point where the engine was no good anymore.
We took the tractor back to him and asked if he would help us. He said he would pay for the labor if we purchased the parts. We agreed to this, after all, it was used. After a couple of weeks, he finally gave us a list of parts needed and we agreed upon a $2000 price tag. He then wanted the money up front, which I would not do. I offered 1/2 down with 1/2 on delivery. I also wanted a warranty on the work he was going to do, which, again he would not do. He ended up hanging up the phone on me because I was so "unreasonable".
He also stated that no dealer in his right mind would fix the tractor without money up front and then give a warranty to boot. Well, call any John Deere dealership around. They do! You don't pay for it until it is done (yes, that's right, NO money down) and they give a 90 day warranty.
At this point I decided to cut our loses and take the tractor to a REAL dealership. I called him back to tell him that and he proceeded to tell me that he already ordered the parts and that he HAD to fix it now. I decided to let him fix it (wrong move on my part AGAIN!).
While he was fixing it, he noticed that the head was cracked. Tack on another $800 for that, although he said $875 because of rush shipping which I did not authorize and then he tacked on another $40 for shipping when the final bill came along with another $200 of other "missed" equipment. My total bill came to over $3000!!
He kept on telling me that he was losing $2700 in labor, which he probably already made on the tractor to begin with along with all the money he made on the parts that we had to buy. Plus, the mechanic was a "friend" of his, so I'm sure it didn't cost him that much.
We ended up losing business on this tractor to the amount of about $1000, because we didn't have the tractor to use for about 8 weeks (Yes, it took him that long to fix it). And now we are losing more money everyday because we STILL can't use it. It constantly overheats and has more problems with it. As soon as we got it home the 2nd time, we found that the head wasn't put on right and it was leaking oil. We got it fixed again, but this time by a real dealer. But we are still having problems. All in all, this was a lemon of a tractor that we spent good money on.
Larry Twist argued with me often and did not treat me well. He made it sound like he was getting ripped off. I have been speaking to a lawyer that believes we might be able to get some of the money back, since we may be able to prove that the tractor was faulty to begin with.
I do NOT recommend that anyone do business with this man. He is shady, to say the least!
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