Dalighieri:

I began to discover a number of physical defects in the car which auction export did not disclose, either on the auction site or their emails when I requested for complete information about the car before I begin to make payment.

*First the car has had a rear end accident which seemed pretty serious, the panel beater they used had done a bad job just filling with body filler and spraying on it, then the back bumper on the left was bulging out from the bracket, when i took it to a body shop to get it sorted thinking its just to reset the bumper and maybe buy new brackets, they said the bumper was crudely screwed on to the body as a sort of money saving strategy and pushing the car on to a buyer,the only solution would be to buy another bumper.

Another discovery auction export failed to declare was the state of the front tires which I had to change within the first 3 months of using the car.Bear in mind that the car never left the Ikoyi to Vi axis within these months, hence it wasn't even due to excessive use or anything.While the tires were being changed we noticed the front brake pads needed to be changed as well.We checked the back same thing then the wipers as well all changed.

The car had no spare tire, no jack, wheel spanner, see caution or any assesories you expect to find in a Mercedes Benz of 2014 model.I washing to start fighting the man that cleared the vehicle before he swore to me that it was impossible to vandalise via Grimaldi then he opened the section for spare tire and showed me the dust that had settled on it, if someone had removed the spare tire oral the other accessories there would be a clean outline not dust that had settled over several weeks or months of the car in transit.

I reached out to Auction export expressing my disappointment and the lady who attended to my query began to patronise and effectively dismiss everything claiming ignorance.I simply stopped replying their mails because I was not getting anywhere and chalked it down to experience.I have not used the car for 2 yrs less than 50k miles but I can't wait to sell it add some money and buy my next car from registered car lot far far away from auction export.

Thanks for reading and like I said before if you really have to patronise auction export please do so while shining your eye and making sure you learn from my unpleasant experience.Took me this long because I did not want to be reminded of it at all until I saw some posts on here from auction export representatives.

antagonist:
bro sorry for your bad experience I've seen some similar negative opinions about them before as pertains customer service, but there are some points you raised that I want to ask you about if you dont mind



please did you run a comprehensive vin check on the car before you bought it or did anything else, was it a salvage car or a clean title?

I didn't because I assumed auction export being a reputable company would not take on a vehicle unless rigorous checks have been carried out.I have worked in a car auction place in UK before, bought several auction vehicles and I know that before they even put a car for auction they will take it to their workshop and have their mechanics run complete check on the vehicle.



some of these things are not so unusual for tokunbo cars especially salvage, most people change some things and buy new ones when they import cars, some cars don't even enter naija with foot mats, talk less of c caution,

I agree with you but the car I bought is clean title, if it was salvage would have made list of everything missing and bought them from there because it works out cheaper and better for me.I agree with you that its not unusual but if I am buying a Toyota Corolla,camry then I won't complain when I spend almost $25,000 just to buy a car alone, a car of less than 4yrs old when bought it I expect all those acessoriestogbe there.


sorry about your experience bros, if you can clarify maybe it will help someone else

wamiikechukwu:
While about to write this, I just saw there advert.

Sorry about that, but as they say experience is the best teacher.

Hope you find a good car next time.

Meanwhile

Do you need an android app for your business or website, then contact me I will build one for you at an afford price.

wamiikechukwu:
While about to write this, I just saw there advert.

Sorry about that, but as they say experience is the best teacher.

Hope you find a good car next time.

Meanwhile

Do you need an android app for your business or website, then contact me I will build one for you at an afford price.

Dalighieri:


I didn't because I assumed auction export being a reputable company would not take on a vehicle unless rigorous checks have been carried out.I have worked in a car auction place in UK before, bought several auction vehicles and I know that before they even put a car for auction they will take it to their workshop and have their mechanics run complete check on the vehicle.

antagonist:


as far as I know auction export is like a broker or an agent, they dont have their own cars or workshop or anything they only buy from copart and other auctions and sell to other buyers, like they are middlemen between the main auctions and buyers

Dalighieri:
Good Afternoon Nairalanders,i have been a member on here for many years and gotten a whole lot of information via resourceful members in the different sections.When I decided to buy a car in the states Nairaland auto session was the first place I came to and found auction export.So after I went ahead to purchase a vehicle through them,i decided to come back here and relate my experience in the hopes that others who want to use auction export after me will be more careful and circumspect, ask the right questions and put unnecessary safeguards in place before parting with their hard earned money.I don't know if my experience is the norm or an exception but I can assure you that every single word I have written here is the truth and I regret ever buying a vehicle from auction export, even after my brother and an uncle warned me to just buy my car in a normal car lot in the states and get it shipped to Nigeria but I wanted a bargain.

==============================================

I finally saved up enough for the type of vehicle I wanted to use in Lagos after a long while and began to ask people around for where to purchase a car in the US.I was living in the Uk before finally making the decision to relocate finally in 2017 but I needed to buy a really nice car which I had been saving towards for years.

After trawling through Nairaland auto section and using google numerous times I settled on using auction export due to the absence of negative reviews, the overwhelming use of their company by Nigerians and absence of any fraudulent claims.So I found a friend's elder brother who had an auction export account and imports cars to Lagos,but the condition he gave me (5% of total valus of the purchase as his payment)didn't go down well with me or even sound fair so i asked my junior brother who is resident in the United States Hamilton,to register an auction export account.After he did he sent the login details to me and began to search for a car.

One thing I quickly realised with auction export is that unlike normal auctions where it is meant to be a game of chance, where you can either win the auction by buying for a bargain or slightly above the market price, auction export has skilfully rigged the deck by making sure no single car on their platform will sell for below the market price.If you bid on a hundred vehicles and win the bid, they would pull or cancel if it didn't reach their desired threshold rather than allow the auction to flow to the end when there is no reserve price for the vehicle in question.

You can argue that they are a business hence will do anything to secure their bottomline which is fair so i don't have a problem with that.

My main grouse with auction export centres around a 2014 Mercedes Benz CLA250 I finally won the bid for and bought from them.As soon as I won the bid I began to transfer the money in tranches directly to the AuctionExport account, so i transferred all the complete payment including the almost $2,000 dollars hidden payments that did not reflect on the website.After we transferred the money into their account with proof of payment from the Santander Bank few days later auction export said the money did not reflect in their account, neither have they seen any record of such transaction.I sent them all the bank transfer evidence and in spite of that they began to charge me a late payment.

**Please note that I had no single fault because I transferred directly to the account details I was given within the 3 days and with clear and verifiable evidence which I still have in my email.I went back to the Santander bank in Uk and they stated that the fault has to be with the recipient bank as they had zero issues from their end.After numerous calls to auction export which yielded no result because they made zero move to sort things out with their own bank.Their bank sent the money back to my Santander bank in the Uk with over $1,000 missing.Meanwhile I was still being charged late payment fees notwhitstanding the fact that the fault had nothing to do with me.I was able to do the transfers again this time using my junior brother's account in the US,and they finally acknowledged receipt of the money plus late payment charges.So we paid for the car and follow through on all the required steps and documentation.

Because I am buying a used car at auction i asked that my brother be allowed to physically inspect the car at the auction export car lot, but they declined this saying the time allotted for inspection was before the auction hence no one could inspect until the car arrived at the port destination.The shipping and all the needless delays took over 1 month.Each time I called a staff to complain or get updates i will be politely dismissed on the phone like an irritant or they simply don't pickup the phone.When they finally give you an update its a repeat of the same thing over several weeks.After about 3 months to cut the long story short we take delivery of the vehicle via Grimaldi in the LagosPort.

I began to discover a number of physical defects in the car which auction export did not disclose, either on the auction site or their emails when I requested for complete information about the car before I begin to make payment.

*First the car has had a rear end accident which seemed pretty serious, the panel beater they used had done a bad job just filling with body filler and spraying on it, then the back bumper on the left was bulging out from the bracket, when i took it to a body shop to get it sorted thinking its just to reset the bumper and maybe buy new brackets, they said the bumper was crudely screwed on to the body as a sort of money saving strategy and pushing the car on to a buyer,the only solution would be to buy another bumper.

Another discovery auction export failed to declare was the state of the front tires which I had to change within the first 3 months of using the car.Bear in mind that the car never left the Ikoyi to Vi axis within these months, hence it wasn't even due to excessive use or anything.While the tires were being changed we noticed the front brake pads needed to be changed as well.We checked the back same thing then the wipers as well all changed.

The car had no spare tire, no jack, wheel spanner, see caution or any assesories you expect to find in a Mercedes Benz of 2014 model.I washing to start fighting the man that cleared the vehicle before he swore to me that it was impossible to vandalise via Grimaldi then he opened the section for spare tire and showed me the dust that had settled on it, if someone had removed the spare tire oral the other accessories there would be a clean outline not dust that had settled over several weeks or months of the car in transit.

I reached out to Auction export expressing my disappointment and the lady who attended to my query began to patronise and effectively dismiss everything claiming ignorance.I simply stopped replying their mails because I was not getting anywhere and chalked it down to experience.I have not used the car for 2 yrs less than 50k miles but I can't wait to sell it add some money and buy my next car from registered car lot far far away from auction export.

Thanks for reading and like I said before if you really have to patronise auction export please do so while shining your eye and making sure you learn from my unpleasant experience.Took me this long because I did not want to be reminded of it at all until I saw some posts on here from auction export representatives.

Dalighieri:
If I were based in the states and used the car in the US,i will take them to a small claims court and win damages.The vendor has the responsibility of disclosing every single detail especially when it has potential to impact the value of the item.Its like buying a house and you conveniently forget to mention rising damp that has been covered up by tiles