J N

At your own risk

I was looking for a car in May 2019 & came across Auction House Japan (AHJ).. Everything looked legit on the site and everything checked out & so I signed up for an account in mid May 2019. Shortly after, one of their sales agents Mike Spencer called me after my account was set up.. This is what has happened in summary: - For 2 weeks, Mike would send me photos of the car that I wanted while I sourced for financing. - On May 28th after seeing a car I like I requested Mike to reserve it for me & he insisted tha I should pay $500 reservation fees which I did on May 29th. - I completed the balance of $1,800 on June 7th and that is when the stories began. *The car which I had paid reservation fees for had been sold to another buyer. I figured this out after my agent kept sending me pics of other cars after I had paid in full the amount we had agreed on. *We settled on another vehicle which apparently didn't pass QISJ inspection. *My agent Mike then told me that he'd found another car but due to bad weather, was waiting for the weather to get better so it can be taken to their yard.. 2 weeks passed. *Then the agent finally told me that he had to travel to another town to source for my car directly, then he sent me the auction sheet for a car rated R. That my friends means that the car needs major repairs. After fighting on phone for 3 days, I agreed that they should fix it for me & take it for inspection. I was resigned to the fact that I'd been played & I just needed my car. - On 31st July 2019 (2 months & 2 days after I had started this process), I was sent for the inspection certificate for the repaired car and was promised it would be shipped on 16th August. Today is 15th August & my agent has been avoiding all my calls & messages for the last two weeks. All I wanted is a shipping order. This shipping order is important in order to organise for marine insurance from a local insurance company * before I forget, somewhere between this car being repaired and inspection - a new agent by the name of Ethan Brown contacted me. I thought things would change.. At some point he called to ask me to pay an extra $150 for "priority shipping". I was so mad.. imagine being told to pay extra for your car to arrive in good time when they are solely responsible for all these delays - I felt insulted. Now, for me to come & write this whole story here, I have given these guys enough time to fix their ***** ups. I have contacted them through the customer care agents on their website at least 7 times in the last 6 weeks and their response is always a non-commital "we have forwarded your compliant - one of our sales agents will contact you". - I am aware of the implication of this bad review - these guys might refuse to ship my car or refuse to refund me altogether. I have made peace with the financial implication of this complaint. If this is the case then I'll be back to update you on this. - There's no direct way to lodge a complain on the website (their contact form doesn't work - surprise surprise!!). For 2.5 months I have been patient with these guys but they have taken my patience for granted. I don't think it's fair how they've taken me in circles. I strongly believe that because my car is not that expensive, they can afford to treat me as expendable. - it is not fair how this company treats customers and if I can do anything to ensure that things improve then I will do it. In short.. if you want to import from Japan, import with this guys at your own risk but if I was you, I just would NOT import with them at ALL. Take your money, you patience & peace of mind elsewhere.