Pacific Coast JDM & JPC Trade Fraud Review Complaint

[jdmvip]

Before I start this review and lay everything out, I want to say I'm disappointed in my experience and how I was treated as a customer when I wouldn't take no for an answer to proving the sale price of my vehicle, and that it is alarming because if it happened to me, it could have happened to anyone who had a negotiated sale. Further, Pacific Coast JDM built their business off our members and its alarming and more disappointing that a Sponsor, let alone a community member would behave this way and commit fraud in what is almost the perfect crime (for those without any inside sources). The other aspect that disappoints me but is somewhat understandable, is human nature, people often look at face-value rather than facts and don't report issues with their Exporter due to a perceived friendship or fear of a backlash, especially if a company is considered reputable and honest.

This review has been a long-time in the making as I've waited months for them to verify and prove the sale price is correct, which it is not. I have given Derek and his Agent many opportunities to come clean, prove the price and explain what really happened. After waiting for 3 months all I received was a poor quality forgery and when I asked for the original they refused to provide it for obvious reasons. Unfortunately my chances and final confrontation were interpreted as threats and resulted in a hostile and aggressive response, and ultimately contact being broken off. I have been warned that it is "unwise" to post this, that there will be "consequences" and that my story is "not believable". With that said, my response to those comments were that it is best to prove me wrong by proving the price so I don't have to post that the price was wrong, which resulted in contact being broken off.

I apologize that what I have below is long but I prefer to keep things thorough and detailed, but essentially it's proof that my vehicle did not go for the price I was told and that fraud has taken place. With that aside, just the things they claimed are impossible to have happened and the behavior and attitude are not consistent with someone who is innocent.

Before you read this, you have to understand what you're reading, the facts and apply those first to see what a big fraud this is. It cannot be limited to me, and further, it would likely apply to his agent and any other company they deal with.

*Each portion of my report will be a separate post for easy reading.
PS please refrain from commenting for at least 30 minutes while I post everything, after that point feel free.

2013-2017 Update

Derek Weldon of Pacific Coast Auto Imports/Exports Japan finally admitted privately in a recorded phone call that the auction invoice is a forgery and that the price was fraudulently marked up by 100,000JPY as I've posted here despite recruiting people to post false information about this situation when he knew what I posted was true. Derek and friends were asked to remove their false comments and fake accounts from around the web and ultimately ignored a Cease & Desist Order and a lawsuit has been filed (while most of them have been evading service including Derek Weldon). In another lawsuit for damages caused to the vehicle Derek Weldon has also ignored a judgement against him.

Cease & Desist Order that has never been replied to









Lawsuit filed in Supreme Court after Derek Weldon and friends failed to reply or comply with the Cease & Desist.
To this day none of them have replied to the lawsuit and Derek Weldon and others have taken great lengths to evade service.

[jdmvip]

Statement of Facts:


1) Contacted Derek to purchase a car through auction, Jan 18th 2013, max bid 550,000YEN
a ) Was told bid time too late, car went into negotiation, price started at 225,000YEN
b) Was told car bought by negotiation for 520,000
2) Asked Derek for Auction Invoice from USS Nagoya
a) Derek said yes
3) Derek sends a JPC invoice for 520,00YEN, which is not what we asked for.
4) Ask Derek again to send the actual USS Auction Invoice.
5) We ask Derek a set of questions from the start, and Derek is vague or doesn’t answer them.
a) One of the questions is about how the negotiations went, at what increments and how many times back and fourth
b) Derek doesn’t answer
6) We press Derek for weeks on the matter of the Invoice, Derek states that JPC has it and won’t give it to him or us.
7) JPC confirms on a phone conversation that car was purchased at 520,000YEN
8) Derek stresses that JPC would not lie and is very slow on the matter even though we tell him we have reason and evidence that states otherwise.
9) We ask him for details of the car purchase
a) In a picture of our car at port, there is a paper on the passenger side seat, one is ripped under a another paper. Derek says 4 months later that this is the auction sheet and may have had the price on it, but then Derek states that he doesn’t remember if the auction sheet was on the seat or where it went (despite the picture he took of it).
b) We were asking for proof of the negotiated car price from the start, and he had this auction sheet from my car, and yet he never bothered to tell me about this auction sheet.
10) Derek says many things that are contradictory and inconsistent with the truth.
11) Derek insists that nothing fishy happened and demands we give him the evidence in order to do something about it and breaks off contact after I confront him for the last time.
12) Later in his final email to us, he makes the statement that even if there was evidence showing JPC Trade lied, he wouldn’t change how he handled the situation.




Summary:


I placed a bid with Derek Weldon for an Aristo on Jan 18th 2013 with a max bid price of 550,000YEN. The bid time was apparently missed so the car went into negotiations, he stated the negotiation start price was 225,000YEN. He confirmed twice that was the starting price. Derek has the ability to see what the starting price was on his system but he claimed that he was not watching it even though he claims JPC Trade was new to him. There was a reserve on the car for 400,000 YEN. There is no way they can enter a bid of 225,000Yen when the minimum starting negotiation price of 400,000 is already set. They claimed the car was sold by negotiated sale for 520,000Yen.


I asked Derek that day for the USS Auction Invoice, he agreed, but later only sent a JPC invoice. Which proves nothing. The actual Auction Invoice is a official document that says what the selling price was. When I pressed the matter with Derek, he came up with excuses that JPC would not give it to him and that it was not common to give this to the customer. Even though the exporters I spoke to all said that if a customer asked for it, they would provide it. I stated to Derek that I had reason to believe that JPC was not being honest and that the car did not go for 520,000YEN, Derek said on many occasions that he had no reason to believe me over JPC.


When I pressed him further stating that I had proof that the car could not have gone for 520,000Yen he kept demanding it from me but would not answer any of my specific questions, such as what were the increments of the bidding and how many times did it go back and fourth.


He wouldn’t answer my questions, he delayed the process of getting the invoice and when I became more aggressive on the matter since Derek was more than happily implicating himself, he sent me a forged copy of a Auction invoice. He thought he could lie to me since he figured I could not read this invoice and would not know any better. He mentioned that the recycling fee was there so the invoice was legit. However, he didn’t mention why there was no tax from the Auction House which every transaction has and JPC confirmed they supposedly paid and failed to notice many other tell-tale signs that the invoice was not authentic.


There was even another lot number from another car on my line for my car. That would never happen. It was clearly a botched Photoshop job. When I demanded a proper copy and answers from both Derek and JPC, he sent me a final response stating aggressively he would not answer any more of my questions which he dodged for 5 months at this point, many of which were vague (eg I don't know/they don't know/they forgot/don't remember) or straight out lies.


I gave Derek many chances over a span of 5 months. At the end, he didn’t meet any of his deadlines to contact me with proper replies and I would often have to chase him. It was clearly the opposite of the kind Derek I’ve seen on the forums. But he would not answer my calls or return my call, and nor would JPC say anything about what happened in this transaction.


Derek is not new to negotiated sales and knows very well that the original copy of the invoice is given to the customer (he is JPC’s customer and therefore I am entitled to this invoice). After he replied with inconsistencies in his statements, he never once sounded like the Derek I know on the forums when it came to dealing with this invoice situation.


In his last email to me he claimed he spoke to experts from this industry and after speaking to them saw no reason to believe I had any evidence or that money was stolen. He would call me unethical for asking him to ask JPC to give me the auction invoice. It seemed very clear that he was not going to help me and was stalling as much as he could, by ignoring my questions and for not giving me the invoice for months even though I asked for it on day one.


Derek did a lot of things out of the character we all know him for, after I demanded over and over again for the invoice and that he prove the sale price.


I pieced it altogether through multiple sources to verify the information I had was correct, including contacting different Exporters, and workers at USS Nagoya, and learning about the process from the inside out, and after getting 2 pieces of key evidence, I have come to the conclusion that Derek Weldon has stolen roughly $1000- $1200CAD (100,000 JPY- 120,000JPY) from me for the negotiated sale of my car. It’s not a lot, but it’s still a considerable theft, and this was just for my car.


It is hard to believe and for the first few months I believed that it was strictly JPC’s doing, but after many emails I figured out slowly that at best this was a partnership job between JPC and Derek because of his inexpiable actions and behavior towards the situation. His actions and behavior with me aren't consistent of someone who is innocent or unaware that fraud has taken place, considering he sent me a forged invoice and vouched for it and then became hostile and aggressive when I confronted him.


Breakdown of this Report:
In this report, you will find the following


1) 2 documents
a) A live screenshot of the negotiation starting at 400,000yen which proves that the negotiations did not start from anywhere near 225,000yen and that JPC and Derek lied about the starting price. I've confirmed the price with another insider that the reserve was also 400,000JPY.
b) The forged Auction Invoice, with no tax charged, another car’s lot number on my line and other obvious issues that proves it is forged.


2) How negotiations work


3) Questions and Answers


4) A table of events.
5) A photo of the auction sheet ripped and in my car, that Derek admits had a 50% chance of having the price on it (he claims he doesn't know if he saw it, got it or where it went despite the fact he took the picture of it himself) and despite the fact that I asked for the proof of the car price the day I won the car.


It is a lot to take in, and urge members to strongly re-consider if they should do business with him, simply for the reason that I do not know how many of the members here were cheated and it might not necessarily be with only negotiated sale.


1) See “Forged Invoice”, and read and see “USS documented evidence”)


2) How negotiated Sale works
a) The process of negotiation


In negotiated Sales the buyer only gets 2 chances to either accept the sellers’ reserve price or counter offer. In my case, the reserve price and starting negotiation price was 400,000YEN which contradicts Derek and JPC’s insistence that it started at 225,000Yen.


The seller at this point can either accept the 400,000Yen, or if the seller by chance decides to up the price, they normally go up 20,000yen to 30,000yen. JPC can accept or counter. If the seller does not agree, that’s it, JPC is no longer given any more chances to negotiate and the bid goes to the next in line. JPC would not say no to the seller asking for 420,000yen or even 450,000 yen and up the price further to 520,000yen. Which is why, I, and the exporters who have helped me report that the car either went for 400,000yen or 420,000yen. Far from the miraculous 520,000Yen and (just 30,000JPY less than my max bid price).


There is no going back and fourth multiple times and in most negotiated sales, the reserve price is often the price the car goes for (in this case I confirmed the reserve price is the same and one as the starting price). Derek suggested negotiations can go through multiple rounds but it doesn’t. He claimed he spoke to experts from the industry and still even after knowing all this he didn’t flinch in denying anything was wrong which ultimately solidifies Derek’s position and involvement.




b) The Auction Invoice (not to be confused with the Auction Sheet)


After a car is sold by negotiations the buyer (JPC) is given an Auction invoice by fax and shortly after a mailed original copy, which states/proves the price that the car was sold for. I asked for this invoice on the same day I placed the bid with Derek. Another copy often has the price on it as well(at least with USS), and that is the Auction Sheet which is left on the passenger side of my car. I have a photo of this paper, which Derek took. There is a paper with what appears to be another paper ripped underneath it in the picture. Derek finally answered that it was the Auction sheet and admits that sometimes it has the price, but in my case he doesn’t remember if the auction sheet was there- even though it’s in the picture. This certainly implicates him, that he knew what the price was otherwise it wouldn't have gone missing and he wouldn't have "forgotten" about it.


c) There is NO other way of knowing what the sale price was, only the invoice has this.
Only the seller (who was Honda in Japan and I tracked down) and the buyers (JPC and Derek Weldon). The Auction House keeps no record of this transaction other than the invoice which is given the buyer, and the Auction sheet which Derek saw on my car seat.


d) In every transaction whether by negotiated sale or not, there are 2 taxes that are charged. The Recycling fee (if applicable as it was in my case) and the tax from the Auction House.


e) There is no misunderstanding the car price from the other fees that appears on Derek’s invoice. Derek and JPC both insisted that the car sold by negotiations for 520,000yen (30,000 yen under my maximum).




The evidence shows that the reserve price was 400,000YEN. The buyer would have to either agree or do a counter offer. With a budget of 550,000YEN, JPC had to only agree to the price of 400,000YEN. If by miracle chance the seller decides he wants more, they normally only go up to max 430,000YEN at the highest, at that point the buyer would agree or disagree. If the buyer disagrees, that’s it. He gets no more chances and it moves to the next buyer.


Even if the seller changed his mind and came back with a higher amount, it wouldn't be 520,000YEN and this is per the experience of multiple sources and Exporters.

[jdmvip]

“Forged USS Auction Invoice”
The 9 Key pieces


1.) The tax is missing, it should be above the “520,000YEN” but it's not, the real invoice would have this. The lines do extend up but the tax is not there, this means that it was not something that was covered, but just wasn’t there to begin with.


2.) The auction fee is missing, the real invoice will have this charge, and it was not covered up, it is simply missing.


3.) Look at the boxes on the bottom right, they are empty but a real invoice would have them filled in with different totals. There is clearly no paper covering it, unlike other parts so this invoice is not genuine, it would be safe to say that this was literally a blank paper they tried to make into an invoice.


4.) The 20451 written on the sheet is not meaningless. It's actually the lot number of another vehicle, there's no way this would ever happen with a real invoice (having the number of another car's lot written).
20451 was also won that day and was a Mustang sold for 150K JPY


5.) Look at the top left where it says J P C, company names are ALWAYS written in Japanese on these invoices, not English and JPC is not even their full company name.


6.) Look at the numbers on the line of my car, the 5's are not all the same and some numbers differ in height. Look at the first 00s in the 520, why are they connected? It has hard to say which ‘5’ or ‘0’ they used to copy and paste.


7.) All the info for USS contact info is not there- this is impossible for a real Auction Invoice.


8.) The membership number is missing, it was not an area they covered, and yet it is not there (why not cover it with paper like they apparently did for other parts?)


9. Why can't we see the beginning of other lot numbers above?

[jdmvip]

Where is the original auction invoice still?


I asked for the invoice since January 18th, 2013 and have still not received it. What I have received is a forged a poor quality copy as shown above. Derek has still not explained why he won't provide the original, his last reply on this is literally he never finished...literally he stopped before finishing the sentence.


If Derek/JPC can prove that I'm wrong about the price, why not do it after 5 months if I'm so wrong and my concerns are untrue and unfounded?


The answer is simple, it takes 5 minutes to scan it, yet after 5 months they have refused to provide it. Ask any reputable Exporter what they think or what they would do if asked for it and what it means when a company does not provide it?


The only proof we do have is a poor quality and attempt to forge an auction invoice, so clearly the price is not correct.




They lied about the true starting price of negotiations (it started at 400K and not 225K)


Aside from this screenshot, multiple independent sources confirmed the same number, that the negotiations started at 400K JPY.


Another very damning fact is, any Exporter who has any experience with negotiations and knows the process would know that it's a miracle if not impossible for a car to go from 225K to 520K in negotiations.


You will see time and time again that I am told the Starting Negotiation Price is 225K JPY (this is far different and irrelevant from the final bid/unsold price at auction). As you can see in the screenshot below that USS Members have (which would be Derek's agent), there is no mistaking that negotiations start at 400K JPY. Incidentally the reserve price (this is the price had the car been bidded on that it would have gone for is almost certain or close to what the actual sale price was). This is for a few reasons, the mileage is higher, the max bid of 550K, the seller would likely have accepted 400K or maybe would have asked for a little more (eg. 20 or 30K). This may not be obvious to the casual reader but anyone who knows the business and negotiation process, knows from experience that the supposed sale price is almost impossible to be true, based on the situation alone.


Why would Derek and his agent lie about the true starting price and not answer (other than we forgot or don't know) how the negotiations went? I think it's quite simple, because mentally you wouldn't want to talk about the 400K.



See the screenshot below (from a source with direct USS access), proving the car started negotiations at 400K JPY

[jdmvip]

Break Down of Events


This is getting to the nitty gritty of details. Its’ a break down of when and what happened.

*Sorry I have to upload the PDF (the formatting makes it impossible to paste here).

Click here for the PDF

[jdmvip]

Questions you might have?


What does it mean to buy a car from a negotiated sale?
Answer:


(See “How Negotiation’s work” for more details)


When a car goes to a negotiated sale, it's because the seller put a reserve amount on the car and that amount was not met in the bidding process (otherwise it would have sold for that price automatically). The final bid price during the auction is not the starting price for negotiations. In my car’s case, the reserve was 400k and so was the starting negotiation price. This means that he is looking for the minimum of 400k for his car. Because Derek never answered exactly in what increments the negotiations went, we have to assume a lot about what the initial offer and the counter offer were (aside from the fact we know it started for 400K which likely would have been accepted and if not, a slightly higher counter-offer).


The only question Derek answered properly early on was the ending bid price (this is not the sale price nor is it the starting negotiation price), Derek says it’s 225k (as explained and proven, it was 400K and that also happened to be the reserve price the seller wanted). I asked for details of the negotiation, I asked for this numerous times. I realized later why he didn’t want to answer these questions, because it would make it obvious that fraud had taken place and that he was a part of it.


Derek already knows how negotiated car sales go, so if the buyer only gets 2 chances to make an offer, that means if the car did start at 225, the seller had to have ignored JPC’s offer and went up extremely quickly (it's not possible or likely) and would be more than a miracle even from a start of 400K. No seller would do this because they risk the buyer saying no, and if he says no; the negotiation stops there. This is impossible.


Counter offers are usually in lower increments such as 20K on a car like mine, so if the reserve price is 400k then the most it went up (if it did) was 420k. Of course, if Derek had answered my questions at this point, he would be revealing this truth, which is why he didn’t answer them until 4 months later; where his only answer was ‘I don’t know, they don’t remember’.


Derek’s agent JPC entered the negotiated sale most likely agreeing to the 400k. The seller can counter offer at this point. The seller might have said 420k. The buyer (JPC) most likely accepted the counter offer. Because if they countered and the seller said no, the negotiations would end.


After the car is won, in my case most likely 400k, the Auction House prepares the only piece of real evidence of the sale price- the Auction Invoice. Which is then faxed and mailed to the buyer (JPC). Derek has done negotiated sales before, and has received the Auction Invoice in these cases (he even provided me a copy of one he had from before) but he asserts later in his emails that companies don’t normally like to give these out- which isn’t true, since in his early emails he states that he will get the Invoice and he will send it to me.




Doesn’t Derek stating early that he will send the Auction Invoice and then later saying that he can’t get it be a good indicator that he’s not at fault and had nothing to do with this?


Answer:
In the beginning I did not suspect Derek would be a part of this because he seemed genuine when he told me in his early emails that he was asking JPC Trade for the Auction Invoice, but from the start Derek was exhibiting inconsistencies. What he was saying was not matching with what I knew he had knowledge on. Derek not treating the price issue going from 225k to 520k was a huge problem for me. Even though he states that he will stop using JPC Trade if they don’t send the invoice made me feel like he was to be trusted but the fact that he was so slow about contacting JPC and demanding it more firmly, made me very nervous. His complacency with JPC’s excuses and his lack of action was why I doubted him more and more through our interaction.


I felt through the entire time I was dealing with him, he was more in contact with me about the smaller issues (like getting my tires, selling some parts etc) than the Auction Invoice. His lack of response/ updates and action on the Auction Invoice really did alarm me . As I pressed on, I think Derek most likely thought that the JPC Trade invoice would be enough, even though he must have known that nothing can replace that Auction Invoice. Even knowing that, he still tried to pass this JPC invoice as ‘proof enough’.


The biggest indicator for me that he was a part of the fraud with JPC Trade, was when he firmly suggested that accusing JPC Trade of wrongdoing was unethical to do, when it should have been the other way around. It is extremely unethical for JPC Trade to not provide the Auction Invoice to the customer. When Derek changed his position, I essentially confirmed he was involved and was glad that I did not provide him with any of my evidence early on.


I knew that he was 100% involved when Derek sent me the forged copy of the Auction invoice passing it off as authentic and vouching for its validity.




Could Derek have not known what was happening with the car during negotiated sale and just believed JPC?


Answer:
Derek is familiar with Negotiated sales since he has done them before. He claimed that he had only been using JPC for a month. Derek said that they would be entering the negotiations starting at 225k, he never once mentioned anything about the starting price which he would know about since he has done this before and because he claims he has ASNET access.


He emailed me back stating that the car was won for 520k.


We know that negotiated sales only give you 2 chances to agree to an offer. If JPC had entered the bid at 225k, whatever the seller said back would not have been a jump to 500k. And of course Derek would know this. He knew that it is very unlikely that a bid price of 225k would jump all the way to 520k. This should have been enough to make Derek question JPC more harshly then he had. He also did not bother to watch the car and see if there was a reserve price which he could see himself. He knows what a black hole negotiated sales are, and yet he didn’t think to keep an eye on things. I don’t believe this claim of course, since it would prove to show how irresponsible Derek is when managing his customer’s cars.


When Derek learned that the starting price for negotiations was 225k and yet the car was bought for 520k, he should have been more than suspicious. He did do a good share of acting like he was also concerned, but yet was not jumping on JPC’s case to get answers and demand himself without me asking for the Auction Invoice.


But in his emails you can see he is trying to help, right?


Answer:
In the beginning when the car was bought and I asked for the Auction Invoice, I did not suspect Derek was involved at all, considering his honest reputation on the forums and very happy customers. I suspected JPC alone was involved. Derek appeared to be emailing them, although to this day he has not sent me more than a handful of BCC’s of his conversation with JPC. All other contact he had was never sent to me. He also stated a few times that if JPC did not send the Auction Invoice that he would stop using them. Of course, as the days became months and I did not drop the issue and was not satisfied with his lack of action; Derek changed his position very fast. As the cards stacked up and evidence started to pool in for me that Derek might also be on this, I refrained from showing him any of my evidence. No customer should have to provide anything to an agent in order to get an invoice. It is the duty of the exporter to provide the invoice.


I did suspect Derek was in on it, since he seemed to be acting dumb when it came to certain things that set off alarm bells for me about my car transaction but didn’t seem to set off any alarm bells for him.


It wasn’t until Derek sent me a forged copy of the Auction Invoice and vouched for its validity, that I knew Derek was involved. To this day, I do not know how much money Derek stole from my car, but I know that he is guilty. He ended communication when I sent him my final email, and didn’t bother to prove to me how much my parts sold for or answer questions about that.




Derek is saying that it’s difficult to get the Auction invoice from the exporter, why not accept this?:


Answer:
It is not difficult to get the Auction Invoice from from an exporter. Most exporters would provide the invoice if asked during a negotiated sale. And if they don’t want to, then there is a big problem. This is not an internal document and Derek stating that most companies don’t send it, is clearly not true. I contacted several other exporters, and they all stated that if asked by the customer to provide, they would provide the Auction invoice. Derek himself has received the Auction Invoice after negotiated sales so he knows how this works but he is telling me otherwise.


Derek provided me a copy of an Auction Invoice himself in effort to show me that the forged copy he was sending was real, but it proved that a mailed copy is always given to the purchaser of the car, but stated that the invoices are always faxed. His contradictions carry on throughout the 4 months of my contact with him. No customer should ever just accept what their exporter says is the price without proof, no matter how kind of a person he may appear to be.




What does this ‘paper’ on the passenger side of your car have anything to do with this?


Answer:
In one of the pictures Derek took and provided, there is a paper on the seat on the passenger side (please look at picture). This piece of paper only appears in one shot of the passenger seat and disappears for the other set of passenger seat pictures.


I asked Derek about this piece of paper after learning that this paper is the Auction sheet and it might have the selling price written on it. Derek admits that this is the Auction Sheet and it sometimes has the selling price from negotiations written on the bottom. He says he can’t remember if the the Auction sheet was in my car, or if it had the price written on it. And yet, there the auction sheet is in the picture, and the price most certainly was on it, because it was toren off and turned it over when he took the picture. He offered no explanation about what happened to the Auction Sheet that was in my car. Normally exporters sent this Auction Sheet to the customer and yet Derek claims he can’t remember what happened with it or where it went.


So doesn’t that mean the price wasn’t on the Auction sheet and that’s why he never told you about it?


Answer:
It would be perfectly acceptable to think that way, but by this time; Derek had told me too many inconsistent things. And normally any other exporter just sends this Auction Sheet copy to the customer.


He first tells me that the paper in the picture is the Auction sheet and sometimes has the price written on it, but then tells me he’s not sure if that was in my case. If it ever had the alleged price of 520,000k I would think he would jump on it to show me there is some proof that the price is 520k. There is no good reason why he didn’t’ include this auction sheet in my package, nor what happened to it after.


So why get rid of the Auction sheet and not send it to me? Because it most likely had the price of 400k written on it. Derek just didn’t think I would ever find out what was on the car seat since it’s such a specific detail.


What is the difference between a JPC invoice and a Auction invoice?


Answer:
This JPC invoice is something JPC makes themselves and proves nothing. The Auctions Invoice is the only true document that shows what the real price was because it comes as an official document from the Auction house.


Derek knew what the difference between a JPC invoice and USS Auction invoice would mean. A JPC invoice was useless essentially because it’s a internally made document that they make themselves. The USS Auction Invoice is a document directly from the auction house that has the declaration of what the selling price actually was. This is the only document that can prove the price of a negotiated car sale.


It’s okay for Derek to ask for your proof first isn’t it? Why didn’t you just give it to him?


Answer:
Derek went from agreeing early on to send the Auction invoice and then sending me a JPC invoice, to stating I was being unethical to accuse JPC and that it was on my onus to send him proof before he did anything.


He wanted to know what I have in order for him to do anything about it, but after 4 months, he admits that no matter what I would have sent it would not have changed a thing- which means this email he sent was just for lip service and held no meaning other than he just wanted to know how badly he was caught. I didn’t send Derek the proof I had because I suspected Derek was a part of this fraud. When Derek sent me a photoshopped copy of the Auction Invoice and vouched for his validity, I knew he was 100% involved.


No matter what, no customer should have to provide proof of wrongdoing in order to get the Auction Invoice. It is your right as a customer to get that invoice in a negotiated sale because you need to see what your car really went for and if the exporter is making a mark up.


In my case, JPC and Derek did make a mark up.




I still don’t get what happened?


Answer:
When a car is being sold through the normal auction process, you as a customer can look up and see what the price was that it sold for from auctions. However, in a negotiated sale, you can’t look it up. The only way to know what the price the car went for in a negotiated sale, is the Auction invoice. Which is a document the Auction House makes and send to the exporter.


Any reputable exporter will give you a copy of the invoice if you ask for it. If they don’t, there is obviously a problem.


Why is there a problem?


Lets use this simple example. You ask me to build you a computer, and agree to pay for the cost of my parts plus me fee. You tell me your budget for parts is $1000. I go and buy your parts and build your computer and then send you a bill. I say the parts cost $900.


Then you ask for the receipt for the parts because you agreed to pay for the cost of the parts. I tell you then, you have to prove that I didn’t pay $900 for parts before I show you the receipt.


Now if you think logically, this makes no sense. When you purchase a car through an exporter, you agree to pay for the cost of the car, and then their fees. The car should NEVER have a mark up. In my case, Derek and JPC made a mark up on my car and charged me as if they bought the car for 520K when they didn’t, and then tried to cover it up when I placed more pressure on them.




What did the car sell for then?
Answer:


Most certainly it was 400,000yen, at the most 420,000yen if the seller decided he wanted a little more. It’s impossible to go from 225k to 520k in the 2 chances you get in a negotiated sale.


We know the reserve price is 400k which is most likely what the car sold for.


So the total Derek and JPC made on mark up for my car was 120,000yen.


Maybe it was all just JPC and Derek is a victim too?


Answer:
Derek as a person on the forums is honest good person, with most customers pretty happy with their experience with him. However, because hes’ built a imagine of honesty for himself, most customers may not question him, or if they do see something wrong, they are not likely to report it or review it simply because they might be afraid of any backlash on the forums, as he did try hard to persuade me not to post about my experience.


I want to take this opportunity and state, that when I contacted a handful of his customers, some had no issues and some had issues but didn’t bring it up simply because they were worried about back lash. In each case, I encouraged and still encourage people to not be afraid of any such thing, and to review fully and honestly about their experience with any exporter.




How do you know this Auction Invoice copy is forged?


Answer:
Please see the “Forged Auction Invoice” .


Why won’t JPC and Derek Show the Original Auction Invoice?


Answer:
From the start it should have taken only a few minutes to do, to send even a legible copy of the Auction Invoice to me. But both JPC and Derek had no interest and really had no intention from the start to send it.


They didn’t want to send the original Auction invoice and still won’t because the price on the auction invoice is not 520k. It has always been the only piece of evidence that can confirm what the selling price was and they never sent it, only a poor quality forged document.

[jdmvip]

As referred to earlier:

[61ihc]

JDMVIP-Gate! getting ripped off sucks! hope it doesn't keep you from enjoying your car.

[jdmvip]

I wanted to put this at the end, in order to keep it in perspective.

My information came from multiple sources including ones not related to this site (I believe some of them still don't know this site ).

Some are my wife's friends and all came back with the same information (one had inside Auction House access and another one was an employee).

All but one of my multiple sources declined to be publicly named, and some cited concerns about retaliation.

I would like to say that Steve Sastrad from SASTRAD helped in part with verifying what other sources had confirmed, without knowing what was going on and without knowing the details of my situation.

What he's doing here by letting me announce him as a source is putting himself out there to retaliation, but he saw this situation with Derek and JPC as too huge to go ignored when I did finally tell him that I have issue with the car price.

For my other sources, I'm not sure if any of them have come back to read, but I like to thank them, especially my wife's friends who are employee's of the Auction House for putting their jobs at risk to get this information to me. I appreciate what you have done and the amount of effort and resolve it took to do it.

[jdmvip]

PS you guys can post now, it looks like 61ihc beat me though lol.