This week two gentlemen who were visiting Japan from New Zealand on a business trip came to our office. They were interested in buying a car from Japanese used car auction for their personal use. I took them to Yokohama used car auction with me.
One of them found a nice car which he liked, but the auction had already ended. He was lucky that car was not sold in auction, so we tried to buy the car by negotiation ( It is possible for a buyer to negotiate with the seller though auction staff).
My customer was happy that we could buy the car after the auction was over. However later we found out that the car had a problem with the air conditioner. The air conditioner had run out of gas. If it was just a simple problem of being run out of gas, we can fix it for just about 3,000 yen. But I think the problem was different and the seller knew it very well. So he just mentioned to the auction office that the air conditioner had run out of gas. And so the auction inspector didn’t realize that problem and was not mentioned in the auction sheet.
In short, we were cheated by the seller. If we buy a car during the auction process, and later find problems which are not mentioned in the auction sheet, we can market that I cancel our order. But since we bought the car after the auction was over, we could not cancel the order. It was not my customer’s fault, but I took it as my lack of observation, so.I discounted my customer for 100,000 Yen. My commission is 50,000 Yen and it was a loss for me, but I must take a responsibility for quality for my customer.
It was a sad affair, so ladies and gentlemen, please take extra care if you buy a car after the auction is over through negotiation.
The two customers from New Zealand are Kiwi but their nationality is Iraq. They have a very serious problem in their home country, but I found them very bright and of good character. Though I do not wish to mix politics in this blog, I just pray that their family and friends in their homeland Iraq can live peacefully.
Technorati Tags: Japanese, used car, auction, New Zealand, Iraq
Tags: Japan, japanese used car auction, new zealand, used car auction