AUTOSPECS LTD/japaneseusedcars.com complaint

[Mark]

Basically, all the shipping agents are back on the 4th but this does not mean we receive the doc's on the 4th. They still have to be processed and sent out. Just thought I would mention this before someone jumps on why there was a delay between the 4th and the 10th.
With countries with quick shipping times, as Steve mentioned, it is best to surrender the BOL but sometimes customers do not want this done.
Exporting vehicles around this period is a pain but we all do. It is not just this period as well...... Golden week is also a challenging time.

Cheers

MB

[jdmvip]

On a different note, the shipping port of Port Moresby is a nightmare. The Customs officials are corrupt. They do play around with people and expect pay-offs to get vehicles out quick. I'm not surprised HONDACRV's vehicle was vandlized. That's not uncommon at that port. We advise our clients to retreave their vehicles at that port the same or next day from when it arrives. While this advice will not help the OP, everyone should keep it in mind for next time.

This is good to know, you Exporters have this inside knowledge so don't be scared to make new threads and advise people about this.

[jdmvip]

Anyway I hope the OP and Exporter can mention more details about the pickup delay and provide more details about the discrepancy of dates and also the 2 different/conflicting Advice Notices.

[AUTOSPECS LTD]

For Autospecs:

1.) Why was there such a delay with the BOL and discrepancy of the shipping dates and vessel (according to Honda CRV) aside from the New Year's holiday?
2.) Can you provide the vessel and sailing # so some Exporters can independently verify the actual and scheduled sailing dates?

Hi! Vessel was Modern Peak #4 NYK dep Yokohama Dec 29. Agent advised ETA as Jan 12.

As alluded to in a post above, BOLs simply arrive slowly that time of year. Shipping co sends to shipping agent then in turn to us and then onto the cutomer. Assuming ETA of 12th and normal speed of delivery the docs should have been there in time. And probably a day late if the ship did actually arrive 3 days early. Turns out the delivery company took a week which was unhelpful. I included the tracking no in the earlier post. And we were not informed of the lateness of ship or documents until Feb 1. We have not tried to assertain what date the vessel did actually arrive by the way. We have just taken the customers word. We would check with his Customs agent but he has not provided details.

Friday night so time for a beer. Have a good weekend all.

Tony.

[Mark]

This is good to know, you Exporters have this inside knowledge so don't be scared to make new threads and advise people about this.

Just my 2 cents...

Exporter earn the knowledge from experience, this includes why you surrender BOL's to why you check a certain thing on a vehicle to how you fit seven mini trucks into a container…. yes Steve, I saw your video…lol. How we obtain our experience is sometimes by getting something wrong in the beginning and paying the price for it or doing our own homework etc. It is the old saying, you learn from your mistakes and we all make them but as long as you learn from them.
But in business, what we learn, we do not always want to publically display, we do not want our competition to learn something that we have either learnt the hard way or put the time and effort into learning.

This is why exporters keep certain things to themselves and only share it with their customers and not on a public forum. But we do give some information away, but in general we also keep a lot to ourselves.

Cheers

MB..

[dah_hunter]

Does AUTOSpec not send digital Copies of the Documents to the Client as well, before they ship the originals..

I know this is something i require, as that way i can get things rolling before the car lands in my Country..

in this situation, if the Client has the Digital copies, and printed them off could he have no avoid all this headache?

Just my thoughts

[Mark]

Does AUTOSpec not send digital Copies of the Documents to the Client as well, before they ship the originals..

I know this is something i require, as that way i can get things rolling before the car lands in my Country..

in this situation, if the Client has the Digital copies, and printed them off could he have no avoid all this headache?

Just my thoughts

If the BOL is not surrendered in Japan, then he would need the orignals. When you surrender the BOL, the Japan office of the shipping line sends a message to the overseas office informing them that the cargo can be released upon arrival by the shipping lines agent in that country.

Cheers

MB..

[GregA]

Kudos to Autospec coming on here to tell their side of the story!

[Derek]

Excuse me? Apart from the board rules not allowing vendors to try and damage eachother, it is against Japanese fair trading law to try and damage a rival Derek. I am assuming you are a trader, but I don't see your company number nor used goods trading license number displayed on your website - you should update that asap as it is illegal not to display them if you have them.

I think you hit the nail on the head though saying it sounds strange to just not send the BL - it sounds strange because we actually did send the BL at the first opportunity. No reason for us not to. And having read what happened and now having some knowledge of the details that you previously professed to not knowing, maybe you have a different view regarding us paying for the storage now?

Hello Tony,
I mentioned that I hoped the posting of this would force a positive outcome to this story. As we all know, some exporters give the run around to customers. I hear it all the time. It sounds to me like there was more to this story than was first mentioned and would like to apologize for jumping the gun there. It is not my intention to defame anyone and if you follow my posts on this site, you will find that I rarely speak out against anyone, and am respected for being unbiased.

Please accept my apology, I am happy with how you handled this situation by coming to the forum and explaining your side in detail. It takes a long time to run around the internet chasing after posts like these.

I will not form a judgment again on this matter as I still feel like there is not enough information to understand it fully but I appreciate your efforts.

As for my website, it is legal in all ways according to the city of Yokohama. Thank you.

Perhaps I could take you out for a beer to make it up to you.

Cheers

[Honda CRV]

Thanks everyone for their input.

I suspect Autospecs has missed some of my emails about the import of the Honda. Here is one dated 10 January (one day after the vehicle arrived) for example

Re: ShippingMonday, 10 January, 2011 12:20 PMFrom: "alex nicolson" View contact detailsTo: "japaneseusedcars.com" Hi Tony. I haven't seen any documents or tracking number yet. Over to you.

--- On Fri, 24/12/10, japaneseusedcars.com <info@japaneseusedcars.com> wrote:


From: japaneseusedcars.com <info@japaneseusedcars.com>
Subject: Shipping
To: "Alex Nicolson" <alexn20032003@yahoo.com>
Received: Friday, 24 December, 2010, 5:15 PM


Hello Alex,
> We now have shipping details:
>
> ETD: 29/12
> ETA: 12/1
> VESSEL: Modern Peak
> LINE: NYK ww.nyk.com/english/[/url- ignore this]
>
> Documents will be sent around a week before the ship arrives, and we
> will forward a tracking number for them by email.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Tony.

You will note I reminded Autospecs a day after the vehicle arrived that I had no documents and the documents were sent the next day (11/1). You will also note the somewhat guarded Autospecs commitment to send these documents "around a week before the ship arrives".

I couldn't then (and still can't) track Modern Peak on the NYK website, although I have found the schedule, but that may be because my IT skills/PNG bandwidth are not up to the task. I also assumed, apparently mistakenly, that the documents would be sent by an appropriately prompt means of transport and that the shipper selected would also provide the B/L reasonably promptly.

The comments about PNG Ports are quite correct and it took me over a week to get duty assessed and then over another week for my agents to get the vehicle off the wharf and thru Quarantine (both were initially estimated at 1-2 days!). I would not pay any inducement other than fair fees and charges but probably as a result of the net delays the vehicle lost its radio, jack and mirror. The importing agent so far attributes this to damage en route and theft in Japan (thankfully I have a PNG Ports Authority form which shows both the jack and radio/cd/etc were present on arrival and I am sure they were not stolen in Japan; although if Autospecs had had a second hand one lying around that they could have sent me from the ones they replace for purchasers it would have been appreciated). I'll probably have to buy the originals back from someone here!

I have twice now been threatened with legal action by Autospecs if I publicise my dissatisfaction with their service in any form and I am delighted that they have chosen to respond (even selectively) in a public forum instead. I do know that as a semi-retired 60 year old bloke living on a pension in the third world in rented premises and driving an 11 year old Honda CRV (and it is a very nice car by my standards!) I cannot afford to defend such actions or to allow an undefended judgment to be entered. Nor, of course, would I wish someone who sends strongly worded emails and threatens me with litigation to intercede with my customs agent!

Hopefully this will be my last post on this subject. I will just have to wear the losses. I commend Autospecs for choosing to seek to refute my opinion and admire their wit in offering a discount, just possibly someone may get some benefit from my experience (apart from the $%^&*** who stole my radio and jack!). Now on with the eyepatch, put the parrot in place and run up the Jolly Roger.....