I have paid a consultancy fee to an Australian consultant company (with ABN, no ACN) to search for a car at Japanese auctions and going through the import process. The company contacted me 2 week ago and said that an suitable car has been identified in an auction. I authorised them to proceed over the phone. They came back to me on the same day that the bid was successfull by their Japanese agent. I asked for the bid evidence. They refused to provide anything. Then the company emailed me an invoice which was issued by an Japanese company with car price plus FOB cost. The invoice has no Japanese corporate number (similar to our ABN/ACN) on it. After asking them a number of times, they revised the invoice to have a 12-digit number on it, while the standard Japanese corporate number has 13 digits. I have used another compnay to check the actual auction price. It is found out that the auction information of the car is not available. Someone told me that the Japanese car auction house has a paid service to hide the auction information. My guess is that the consultancy company has successfully bid for the car. They hide the final bid price trying to charge me more, and get me to pay into a personal bank account in Japan.
Apparently the Aus consultancy company is doing something not right. So I have lost my trust with them. Ideally I'd like to cut the deal to cap my loss. My questions are:
(1) As the consultant refused to pass me any auction bid evidence after the auction has closed 2 weeks ago, is there a law to back me up that the bid authorization has already been invalidated? If this is the case, it would be excellent. How about if they provide the bid evidence later, such as after a month with a different bid price?
(2) The Japanese company is not providing me an invoice with an Japanese corporate number through the Aus consultant. Does the Aus consultant has a position to ask me for compensation if I refuse to pay such an invoice? I highly suspect that once I paid for this invoice, there will be more to come. If I miss any of them, they'll have a ground not to deliver the car. If I pay all of them, I may get a car which will not be driveable.
(3) What are the potential actions that I should do?
Your information would be much appreciated.
Apparently the Aus consultancy company is doing something not right. So I have lost my trust with them. Ideally I'd like to cut the deal to cap my loss. My questions are:
(1) As the consultant refused to pass me any auction bid evidence after the auction has closed 2 weeks ago, is there a law to back me up that the bid authorization has already been invalidated? If this is the case, it would be excellent. How about if they provide the bid evidence later, such as after a month with a different bid price?
(2) The Japanese company is not providing me an invoice with an Japanese corporate number through the Aus consultant. Does the Aus consultant has a position to ask me for compensation if I refuse to pay such an invoice? I highly suspect that once I paid for this invoice, there will be more to come. If I miss any of them, they'll have a ground not to deliver the car. If I pay all of them, I may get a car which will not be driveable.
(3) What are the potential actions that I should do?
Your information would be much appreciated.
