Wise Forklift Inc has succeeded in getting back a deposit from Omega Lift Distributors Inc of Bolton, Ontario, Canada. A 10 December news report about a resolution was premature.

On 26 February, a Dothan branch of PeoplesSouth Bank cleared the reimbursement, according to Larry L Wise, president of the dealership.

The development concludes an acrimonious 18-month saga between the dealership and the equipment manufacturer. Wise Forklift received and deposited the cheque on 12 February but needed to wait for clearance of the funds through international banking channels.

"I greatly appreciate Forkliftaction getting involved with this as I truly believe that I would have NEVER gotten my money back had you not," writes Larry L Wise, president of the dealership.

The Dothan dealership placed an order on 29 August 2013 for an Omega Lift 4DML-series multidirectional forklift and sent the deposit of USD10,223.80 via wire transfer. Delivery was promised in four to five weeks.

"As of December 2013, Omega Lift had not or could not deliver, and it was mutually agreed that the order would be cancelled and money refunded," Wise says. "I did finally receive a cheque in November 2014 for USD10,000" rather than the deposit of USD10,223.80. "I took it to my bank and they sent it to the bank it was drawn on requesting certified funds. We never heard anything back."

Omega Lift sought to utilise the standard Swift Code format to transfer funds between banks, but apparently PeoplesSouth Bank does not utilise a unique identifier.

Wise contradicts a comment from Greg Pannia, Omega Lift chief executive officer, about Omega doing a conversion. Wise notes, "Omega did not do a conversion from LP to diesel for us. They never did anything. I ordered a new unit from them, and they offered to take my unit in on trade. They never delivered the new unit nor did I allow them to take possession of my unit as they wanted to do in December." Wise Forklift had purchased a 2011 Omega unit with 411 hours on it from a wholesaler but learned belatedly that the Wise customer could not use the LPG powertrain.

Pannia maintains he and Omega have acted in good faith. "This is not his fault, and it is most definitely not our fault," Pannia says.

Wise Forklift represents the Komatsu, Linde and Master Craft forklift brands and, in addition to its Dothan headquarters, has operations in Panama City, Florida and Montgomery, Alabama.