I was contacted recently by an importer who had bought a car from a Japanese car dealer on Tradecarview and was worried that he'd been ripped off. He'd contacted the exporter and didn't get a reply. And when the reply eventually came through he couldn't understand it.
It seemed that communication had completely broken down and the importer had sent his money and wasn't going to get his car. It seems it happens sometimes:
http://www.tradecarview.com/help/blacklist/
I just sent through a few simple questions - in simple English - that the importer could ask the exporter to confirm the status of the shipment and what docs he should ask the exporter to send through. The importer eventually got the docs and the car.
Got me wondering how an importer selects a Japanese exporter. With hundreds of exporters to choose from it seems confusing. Some exporters even have the same website templates from the same website developers offering basically the same services. How does an importer choose?
Do you check the blacklists, like the JUMVEA blacklist?
http://www.jumvea.or.jp/e/introducti...awals_list.php
Do you Google the exporter company name with words like "ripoff", "fraud", "scam" or "complaint" after the company name and just see what pops up?
Or do you just contact a few exporters and see what kind of response you get?
Or look for recommendations from other importers?
There's a few more ideas to select a Japanese exporter here:
http://www.ts-export.com/faq.php#48
What advice have you got on how to select a Japanese exporter?