If you want the story, read on. If you want to get to what I'm after, fast forward to ***

Here's a brief rundown on what occurred:
I paid a Bristol based company to find me a Bongo at auction in Japan. I paid the company £350 to find 'the best' Bongo. I had a list of things the Bongo had to have and after a few weeks, they sent me piccies of a suitable vehicle. I told them how much I had to spend and they deducted the shipping, duties, etc and came up with a figure. That figure was the max I was prepared to pay for the Bongo.
Astonishingly, the Bongo was almost exactly my max figure. I thought this was a bit odd but transferred the money as agreed. £3221 of it.
Fast forward a month or two and I'm heading to Bristol Docks to collect the Bongo, fresh off the ship. It looked good in the early morning sun and I paid the shipping company the fees, including the shipping fees, the customs duty, the terminal handling charges, customs clearance charges etc. This lot came to £1371.
When I looked inside the Bongo, it looked as though the previous owners had been fighting over a takeaway..........
I was straight on to the import company who suggested that I take it round to their garage for them to have a look.
Their garage wasn't actually their garage, but a garage who preps imported cars for the agent, as well as converting them for the UK. This garage agreed that the Bongo was rough inside but as it was nothing to do with them, suggested that I contact the agent. It turns out that the agent uses the garage as his UK address. He lives in Cyprus........
I trundled the Bongo, on my trailer, all the way back to Whitby. Once home, I looked through the paperwork and found the invoice from the auction. It was for 150,000jpy (Japanese Yen) which is a few pennies over £1000. I was back on the 'phone to the agent. He stuttered a bit and demaded to know where I had got the sales invoice as his garage should have that to register the vehicle. I explained that the shipping company had given it to me and I was registering the Bongo myself. He than decided that they 'always do that to do the customers a favour. It reduces the duty....'
I explained that it wasn't HIS invoice that was questionable, but the invoice from the auction. I then emailed the auction from the details on the invoice. An hour or so later, I got a reply stating that the Bongo was bought for 480,000jpy (about what I paid) and that the invoice must be wrong. They sent me another invoice but it was a copy of the first one with the total altered! Then I recognised the name on the returned email. It was a name I recognised from when I was sent details of the Bongo many weeks previous. The 'auction' where I bought the car was, in fact, a third(?) party company employed by my agent to buy the vehicles at auction on his/my behalf.....

So. I now need to contact the actual auction in Japan. I have used my lot number, auction date and chassis number to ascertain where the auction was and the company who runs the auction but I need to contact them.


***
The auction company is:
www.ussnet.co.jp
or the English version:
http://www.ussnet.co.jp/eng/index.html

I have found one email address but it relates to some corporate director and not the Auction side of things so I'm not suprised that I havn't heard back from him!

I need to verify that the Bongo has cost 150,000 as I'm sure it did!!
If anyone has any contacts in Japan, or even better, in Nagoya, ask them for advise!!

Cheers folks.
Owelly.

Wow, that sounds bad!!!

Im sorry i cant help but i really hope you get it sorted. Who knows how many other people they have scammed like this

Not to detract from your issue, for which you have my sympathy, but why did you need to import one of these unseen?
I don't know what the attraction is with them, but are'nt there 000's here already?

I bought one four years ago and it has been brilliant. But as I didn't get around to undersealing it, it has gone crumbly. Most of the cars that have been in the UK for a few years are suffering the same fate. I was going to buy blind from a Japanese auction and take a risk but decided to use an agent to ensure that it wasn't unseen as such. The £350 was good insurance. Or so I thought!
And finding the one I wanted already UK registered would have cost me at least £6K so I was saving money.......

my neighbour just across the street imports those bongos and other jap stuff i dont see the actraction really but there are plenty here to choose from

There are plenty to choose from but not the one I wanted at the price I could afford!! The idea was to import again to save money!! The last one cost me £2500 (+£1000otr) but the crappy ones in the UK were all £5k+. The prices have come down now as more are over here but there are also plenty that are dropping to bits!
Ask your neighbour to find out about the auction place for me and I'll send him and you some cake....

quote:

---

Originally posted by owelly
I bought one four years ago and it has been brilliant. But as I didn't get around to undersealing it, it has gone crumbly. Most of the cars that have been in the UK for a few years are suffering the same fate. I was going to buy blind from a Japanese auction and take a risk but decided to use an agent to ensure that it wasn't unseen as such. The £350 was good insurance. Or so I thought!
And finding the one I wanted already UK registered would have cost me at least £6K so I was saving money.......

---

If I was just me and not me, her and the two little ones, I would also spend my £5k on something else. But as a getaway for the weekend bus, it's excellent. It tows my plastic car or boat with ease and when you're tired, pull over, pop the roof up flop the beds out and go to sleep.

The garage in Dairsie by Cupar has loads
perhaps he can help http://www.fantasticcampervans.co.uk/

I don't want to buy another one! I have two now!!
I just want a way of finding an Email address for the auction site in Japan so I can get them to verify how much my Bongo cost!!!!

Owelly,

Sorry to hear of this.

On the bright side, it sounds like you will have something to put into your monthly PPC column!

I guess its too late to cancel to credit card payment.

What about the Japanese embassy? I think that you can be confident of the "Honorable" qualities of Japanese business, and maybe (just maybe) the embassy will be able to help.

Good luck,

Matt

Have you tried the irinfo@ussnet.co.jp
from the basic stock information contact us page?

There was a story in PPC mag a while back following the import of a Silva. Does anyone in "the office" have the contact for the English guy/agent in Japan?
Just a thought

Oooh that's going to hurt.

Not only have they stung you for £2k they've also charged you £350 for the privelage....

Ouch.

Certainly if this had happend in the UK it'd be illegal. If they've paid £1k but told you it was £3k and taken all the money it's theft.

What the situation in Japan is I don't know but I expect it's similar. I'd get on to the Japanese embassy and ask for their assistance...

Who did you send the money to? Sale of Goods act leaves the responsibility with the seller which hopefully is in the UK. You paid them to find you a car and they came up with a crap one so I reckon you could just take it back or order them to sort it out.

Long shot but do distance selling rules not apply somewhere if you have set up the deal online?

I've tried irinfo@ussnet.co.jp but had no reply. I've also tried sticking 'office', 'info' , 'manager' etc before @ussnet.co.jp but they all get a 'returned email' message.
I'll have a look to see what time would be good to phone them and see if they speak English!
Thanks for the suggestions folks.....

Sorry mate just seen this thread, have you tried Hiroshi Sakata h-sakata@ussnet.co.jp

That's the whois contact for the domain name.

Sorry if you've been done over.

Kindest regards

Rich

It's time for an update I suppose!
I managed to get a contact at USS by ringing them at 4am UK time and guessing what the automated phone system was saying! I had to call 9 times as each option resulted in the Japanese person struggling to understand my Yorkshire accent. After option 9 I managed to speak to someone who knew enough Yorkshire to be able to find someone who spoke a bit more English. It then took another 20 minutes for this lady to explain her e-mail address. It was a bit like some Fast Show sketch........
The upshot was, the auction will not disclose any information unless it's to a member of the Auction group, or a public institution. To this end, they agreed to supply the information to HMRC as I told them I needed to declare the correct costs for Customs. It seems they have sent the info to HMRC in Manchester as requested but HMRC have no record of it.......
Whilst all this was happening, the agent I used who is based in Cyprus, turned-up at my house!! He was in the UK because his Mother was ill but chose to drive up from Bristol to see what my problem was!! He was adamant that his paperwork was correct and his part of the deal was as it should be. He stated that if I'd been ripped-off, then so had he........
He agreed that a lot of the details on his website was misleading or wrong but he basicly said that if I can prove that the Bongo cost less then I paid, he'd refund me...............

jeesz, that is bloody expensive for a drum.

Argos can sell you a full drumkit for about a £ 100.


Sounds like you've been well and truly snared! (<--- see what I did there? )

(actually was gonna suggest I'd pass on details to someone on kawasaki owners site who is based in japan but you've already got in touch).,

[Edited on 11/1/10 by 02GF74]