We need to preserve the integrity of this website and also stop foreign based users from falling prey into the hands of some of the Auto dealers who profess to clear/buy and convert cars brought through Cotonou.

This Auto section has been able to provide a forum where Auto dealers specialise in various aspects of the business. We have the knowleable Auto Engineers who provide sound advice, we have Licensed and Unlicensed Custom Agents who clear cars through Lagos ports, we have dealers who provide pre-order shipping services for Cars purchase in US an Europe,we have car dealers who sell Nigeria used and Tokunbo cars; and we also have car dealers (middlemen) who assist in facilitating the purchase and delivery of cars from Cotonou. My grouse is with the last category- Cotonou car dealers/agents/salesmen,etc.

There is an emerging and worrisome trend here. Initially, these Nairaland based Contonou car agents usually just solicited for clients here ,provided responses to enquiries about prices of certain models of cars obtainable from Cotonou and gave 2-3 day guarantee of delivery after payment. Then with the increase in interest from UK/US based Nairalanders the Cotonou car agents started to add CLEARING OF CARS shipped  Cotonou to their sales pitch/portfolio. They kept on updating their threads with smiley characters to remain relevant. Then they upped the ante by offering LHD conversion services upon delivery in Lagos.They promised and guaranteed that they had personal "Mechanics"  who were  LHD experts and encouarged the shipping of RHD cars through them . Some agents here even offer  free accommodation for a couple of days while waiting for the car to be "brought" into Lagos as part of the enticement.

I have been reliably informed that most of these Cotonou car agents are mainly middlemen who use their local knowledge and  mainly specialise in helping clients buy cars at Cotonou. I have no problems with that. Any other service beyond that is quite risky.

Shipping and clearing  cars to Cotonou through them is very risky (they mainly depend on one local Cotonou based licensed custom agent). Selling your shipped car through them is also risky as they can not really guarantee any sales, they make boastful promises about having lots of clients-but they are just hustlers looking for the next UK/US based prey. Finally, most of them do not know anything about LHD car conversions neither do they have "mechanics" who provide such services. They make such promises to entice you to ship through them, once your car arrives at Lagos and have taken their "COMMISSION" they start making excuses about their mechanics.

If these Cotonou car agents can be a bit more truthful or sincere it would make things better. Moreso, they have a potential very good BUSINESS MODEL. There is nothing wrong in them having the right package of being able to assist UK/US based Nairalanders in Shipping/Clearing/Delivering/Selling and/or LHD conversion of their cars for a fixed fee. If they would be able to deliver on these promises the sky would be their limit.

If they dont change  their ways I will be compiling a list of complaints sent to me against some of these Cotonou car dealers here in order to prevent genuine members of the public from being taken on a ride. Watch this space !!

LondonCool, welcome back! It's been a while.

Will be watching this thread closely.

With keen interest, i am watching.

me sef dey watch ooooo

Interestin, im watching also

NLers,no point reserving our variegated comments as i believe this is an issue that we all need to express our many frank opinion about.

The questions posed by LondonCool are serious and demand answers. Whether the answers provided are satisfactory remain to be seen.

Unfortunately, the Auto Section is gradually spinning out of control. It now resembles a Cyber Jungle. The truth is; if nothing is done now, it will get worse. Though most of the dealers here are trustworthy, the actions of a few shady characters will end up affecting all of us negatively. For instance, there must be honest dealers in Cotonou. But due to the actions of some unsavoury characters the term "Cotonou" has become synonymous with risky.

Many people have come up with good ideas on how to clean up the Auto Section. Sadly none of the ideas appear to have been implemented. The latest being the call to split the Auto Section into two. Maybe we should start with that immediately.

Valid thread/valid responses

Splitting of the forum would create sanity in the sense that people who do not want to see the many COME BUY thread can stick to the techs and views section.

That is the point. Moreover, when you divide a task into smaller parts, it becomes easier to manage.

Thanks for the various responses on this thread. I have been going around various "Cotonou" dealers asking them some basic questions concerning their modus operandi and business ethics. I am still awaiting the outcome of a couple of transactions from some clients to enable me get a clear assessment across here.

Trust is a very big issue here on Nairaland. I will be comming out with a couple of recommendations for the moderator and fellow users to look into and/or subscribe to in order to preserve the integrity of this Auto business section. N1m exchanging hands between total strangers shouldnt be taken lightly.

One of the fundamental ingredients of a business is GOODWILL. Godwill ensures that the same clientele/customers would repeat their transactions and/or recommend others to the business. Hence, FEEDBACK is very necessary. If there is any one who has successfuly completed a "Cotonou" related Auto transaction through Agents here let them come out and authenticate/validate the Agents. I know there is a thread  here that identifies all the various popular Dealers/Agents here but this is for the Cotonou-guru's !! We need to expose the quasi-dealers here who just update their Cotonou related threads every day,lurking for an unsuspecting prey.

Some of the recommendations I found useful here were
1) the setting up of a separate sub-Board for Cotonou related Auto transactions.
2) having a uniform users guide on how the Cotonou car business works (for intending buyers)
3) have a sticky thread for all the identified and validated Cotonou car dealers/Agents with details of their name,address,phone numbers,commission charges,whether they deliver nationwide or only Lagos,whether they undertake clearing,LHD conversion,etc,etc (This would prevent the current muddy situation where everyone just advertises and updates their threads with smileys jst to be on top of the Auto Board)
4) have a sticky thread with a a list of confirmed garages in Lagos where LHD conversions can be done properly
5) have a legal document uploaded which confirms that the buyer/agent intend to enter into a contractual agreement for the specified purpose.
6)any agent who wants his name to be added to the sticky thread  after the initial list  should apply through the Moderator

It appears the owner of this site is never interested in all the allegations of fraud going on here on nairaland. He is a very important factor in eliminating fraudsters from the site. But it appears he is more interested in making cash than the integrity of the business. I want to warn that if he continues to be non-challant about fraud on NL, then another site will spring up to compete with nairaland. This site will have zero tolerance for fraud and related activities and will take care of the shortcomings of nairaland. I hope someone is listening?

[b]@ Room,
Has there been any Fraud that has occurred out here, if there has been, i am sure the person that has been Fraud should be able to come on here and tell us how it happened, i am sure we should be able to help us, I have always stand for the integrity of cotonou dealers on here in Nairaland and would continue to, When it comes with conversion of LHD cars, Poster, i could give assistance and help about that anytime i am chanced to meet topics of such up. But Fraud isn't something that should be taken lightly as earlier said, but the truth remain also that Fraud on Nairaland can't be easily done and gone away with easily, I advice if anyone has intention of such, should get it off. Talking about feedback, i think some nairalander just don't like the ideal, take for example a man i got a 2010 Honda CRV for, i am not going to mention his name or say anything about him cause he warned me against such, He even refused my posting his car up on nairaland. some are just guest and just surfed through the site and not member, the truth is just that you have to be careful about dealing on here. Although people were not this much about buying cars in cotonou, but now that we have lots of people on here, you just have to be confidence of who you dealing with, if possible get to meet the dealer and know everything about him before dealing with him, I wish All Nairalander best of luck in buying there cars from cotonou, need any advice, i am right here to give them [/b]

We talk of fraud perpetrated by certain people and we want the moderator to do something about it.dont we feel if these fraud is clearly reported here it would go a longer way at alerting other members and guest alike?Cotonou dealers did this and that but clearly stating the data of the image soiling dealer and the wrong done would clearly solidify an accuser's claim.

@Poster,

Can you just make it clear what really happened

@House,
Been reading through the thread but i am sorry to say i cant read any meaning to it.
LondonCool started this thread with no clearification. Were you one who sent a car from US, UK or Canada or from anywhere?
If you are the one, fine which Cotonou dealer did you hand this over to and give us the name of the Dealer to make this thread meaningful.
With all due respect you cant just come and start a thread like this with no concrete evidence or something.

The question to LondonCool is:
Which car dealer did you or are you talking in particular or did you deal with all the cotonou dealer on NL?

Let it out. Like larryshow has said
"Can you just make it clear what really happened"

This topic does not deserve the homepage status at all
There is no substantiated allegation against no one in particular, and until there is one, this thread should be considered as one of the random and useless threads that should be thrashed or locked.
There are honest and genuine people here who engage in cotonou services.
If there is/are any allegation/s, the poster should spill or forever shut his trap, rather than seeking unnecessary attention.

Habi , Its really easy to split out the name and also narrate what happened to us, I am 1000% interested in listening. We wait for the poster to answer the questions he has been asked.

[b]@ OP

. . .still waiting for the proof.

However, the loudest customer is the one who is disatisfied with his client; He will go to every length to make sure that his voice is heared and that his client's business is destroyed forever.

We have a bunch of cotonu dealers here that have been handling many transactions for Nlers on daily basis; so far, I have not seen any customer coming out to complain about any fraud from any cotonu dealer. If this is your own way of gaining popularity, you have to understand that "those who destroys others to succed will certainly meet failure at the door of their success".

Thank God you made $48,000 profit in 2007 on Nairaland but that's none of our business here. I dont see any reason for your venting your venom on Cotonu dealers if your profit has become less than you expected in recent year.

We are tired of waiting for your proof. If you have a genuine claim, post them here and let those involved come out to defend themselves, if not, I'll suggest you delete your posts and stop scarring prospective customers away from people that are trying to earn a living.[/b]

I wonder how this hocus pocus even made it to the homepage. . . All i can deduce to so far is LONDONCOOL is trying to squelch Cotonou dealers.  . . If you've had any failed transaction in the past through one of them its better you start calling names and not generalizing your allegation. . . If you think you have some ideas towards the alleviation of fraud on this site its better you spill it out and not go through this scandalous way. . . .

PS:Whoever put this on the homepage without further clarifications is a simpleton

How can this crrrrrrrappppp be on the home page.
I find it difficult to see any clear allegation against anybody in particular.
Since there were no complains of fraud by anybody about any nairaland ID, I am already thinking that one of the NL Cotonou dealers will help buy me a car, Then this headline by londoncool caught my attention only for me to see that he really doesnt have anything to say.
RRRRRRRRRUBBBBISH.

Emperoh:

Gestapo

A fraud mustn't take place before this thread goes to the front page.
We owe it as duty to us to clean up this thread and make it fraud-tight. . . .i as a dealer will definitely feel terrible if buyers cannot
trust dealers here to part with money. A lot of us here do not have the huge capital to become a full dealer
hence, we started doing pre-orders and cotonou runs, bridging a gap of profit and fleecing!!

Regardless of what we think, Londoncool has made a very point but i think its as much more as cleaning up this
thread and making it fool-proof than catching or claiming someone was defrauded.
'Nkwucha aburo ujo', so says my people from the east i.e 'To be forewarned is to be forearmed'.

The suggestions the poster made should pls be adhered to. Inputs of other dealers should really be sought on this
as we will be the ones to cringe under the heavy burden of mistrust from potential clients!!

KA CHINEKE MEZIE OKWU!!

Emperoh,
My point is the topic of the thread is misleading, How can you alarm people to beware of some certain group of people without any realtime life experience that ended BITTER ?
The poster might have good intentions to alarm the public, but the topic is misleading
Nigeria is a community where bad news spread faster than good ones, before you know it the genuine cotonou dealers would run out of making honest and legitimate living because of an alarm that lacks substance
if there is any bad experience that the poster has had or is aware as related to these cotonou dealers, he should spill and then we can all learn, until then, the thread is just another thread, from just another faceless poster
thats my point.

I will like to think that the writer has a reason(s) for making an initial claim. Afterall, he/she is a long-time member who i have seen the username in the past. Though not of recent. So he/she is not just someone who jumped out of nowhere and start writing.

I think it will be civil to refrain from calling names and allow for a response. We are not all on the thread at the same time.

I will like to give about 48-72 hrs to see a response before jumping into conclusion.

We can all learn more. No matter where the chip may fall.

Just my 2 cents.