Help! Money Might Be Lost

[fLipKnot]

Hi people,

have anybody lost any money through this import process? Has any agent in japan ran away with your money? Can anyone please advice what to do when such shit happens?

Rgds

[foznice]

If someone does a runner with your money in japan then I don't think there is a huge amount of stuff you can do. Unless you want to personally go over there and chase it up yourself.

When you say lost money.. I assume you mean to dodgy reasons - eg someone running with it.. The other ways that you can lose your money are things that can be unexpected - such as if you miss your ship you might have to pay storage or if you can't get your car on the boat they might charge you a fee to get a mechanic so that it can be driven onto the boat.. or inreases and decreases in the exchange rate can effect how much you pay too...

[fLipKnot]

*CLOSE*

Edited August 16, 2005 by fLipKnot

[foznice]

holy crap... so all this friends friend stuff means that its not really going through a business or anything? One of the advantages of having a busniess front here doing the work for you is that you at least have someone to point the finger at if something goes to shit.

So let me get this straight.. you paid $9000 for them to find you a car (and buy one with that 9k I'm assuming), they find you a car, but you aren't happy with it.. so now they want to charge a 4000 service fee...

well that definatly sucks.. do you have any of this deal in writing? You might have a chance to reclaim your money if you threaten or even take legal action...

Alternatively, can't you get them to keep looking for another car until you find something that you are happy with?

hope this all works out for you.

[Chainfire]

[fLipKnot]

the car is more than $9,000... i have receipts stating money was transferred and i have emails stating they are supposed to use the money to buy the car and pay the deposit ONLY when i say OK.

[Al]

Never mix business with "friends" you have not even met. You'll be lucky to get $8k back if anything at all.

What is your "friend", that introduced you to this guy, doing about helping you retrieve the cash?

[foznice]

sounds like the friend is on the side of the friend in japan.. Dosn't sound good at all.. so what actually happened? What was wrong with the car that they found you.. Howecome there was such a large for the car?

sorry don't mean to sound like im interogating you.

[fLipKnot]

*CLOSE*

Edited August 16, 2005 by fLipKnot

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Is there any legal service or agents that can help me in this?? i've heard many Aussies have been ripped off as well..i think it's really time to stop...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd like to know if you can actually prove that many people have been ripped off.

The established brokers (J-Spec, Prestige, etc) have terms and conditions which you need to agree to and sign off before they will look for a car for you - which would also state the refunds you are entitled if you change your mind.

Anyway, sounds like you need to speak to a solicitor.

[fLipKnot]

What are the terms and conditions if you want to cancel your offer to look for a car?? I know they charge around $1,000 for service charge..

[raz0r$harP.UK]

It would be at the discretion of your broker. What one broker charges has no relation to another one. So if you didn't sign anything, I don't know what you can do apart from seeking out some legal advice.

[foznice]

hmmm well if you can't find a way to get your money back.. maybe it's worth just buying the s15 going through the importing process (pain in the ass) and then selling it here.. I don't know how much the market value is in aus relative to the Jap s15's so this may or may not be worth doing, but it might be worthwhile thinking about....

[noise]

He spent your cash, thats the real reason he wont give it back.

He doesnt have it.

Next time use a jap exporter, dont use any brokers and dont pay any broker fees.

[Beer Baron]

i don't know of anyone who has been ripped in this fashion. then again i don't know of anyone trying to circumvent the rules by doing the dodge through a mates cousins sisters friend. did he tell you that for it to be imported as a personal import he would need to own the car in japan for 12 months, then bring the car here?

I honestly can't see how you will get your money back which really sucks. my advice is get whatever you can now. once it's in your hands then you can try to get the rest, but i doubt you will get it.

[Chainfire]

Fly to Japan and kick his ass?? just an idea

[fLipKnot]

Fly to Japan and kick his ass?? just an idea

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dude, i will stuff a sushi handroll up his hairy jap ass man...

[Links]

Not good fLip.. are both of them over in japan? or is one of them here and the other in japan?

You could always import it here than sell it off?

$4,000 is a huge amount.. I say get $6,000 off.. use it to fly over there and extract the other $2,000 from him for being a fusker.. leave him with $1,000 - which might cover the medical bills..

[foznice]

yeah the only problem is the personal importing buso, you have to own the car for at least 12 months, so if you just bought it then you will have a lot of waiting to do before you can import it. Unless there is some way you can get around it by getting the previous owner to import for you and then you buy it locally or something like that.. probably won't work. I don't know what else you can do except kick the ass of your 'friend'...

[sigsputnik]

so hang on, this guy said he could break the rules for you, and now that you decided you don't want the car, you want to use the rules to get your money back, and he won't play by the rules?

this may sound harsh, but if you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.

why didn't you check the s15 before you committed? why didn't you assess insurance before you paid your deposit?

sorry i have very little sympathy. the more people try to break the import rules, the more the rest of us look bad. i hope you get your money back, but i also hope you have learned some lessons from this.