Saturday 15 March 2014

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I bought a Toyota Rav 4 from a car importer last year in June but up to now the car has not been delivered. They have a representative in Gaborone who sent me a bill of lading and I got the information that the ship offloaded it in Namibia on the 12th September 2013. The supplier then sent me an email on the 17th saying the truck had left to pick the cars and that I will receive my car in a few days. Then there were delays related to clearance papers of other cars, but mine was ok with documents.

On the 31st October 2013, I went to meet the agent in Gaborone and ask him that since there has been too much delay I would like to go pick the car myself and that I would like to have a refund for my transport fee to Gaborone since I had paid for delivery at Gaborone, but he couldn't give me the details I needed for the car to be picked. I then gave up and waited for the truck to arrive thinking it wont take long.

In December they said the truck is coming but it never came. On the 6th January I also checked the supplier through email, but they said there was a mix up with other cars documents, which delayed the clearance. I went to see the police last week and they called my supplier and he repeated the same thing about mix up of documents. It has been too long for me and I just don’t know what to do. What can I do, more so that I took a loan to buy that car and I have been serving it since I ordered the car?


I’m very sorry for the trouble you’ve had with this car importer. The bad news is that many companies in the car import business are run by crooks. We’ve heard of several companies who do exactly the same thing as this company has done to you. They take your money and then give you nothing but a series of lies about where your car is. Many times there’s simply is no car at all.

I suggest that you go back to the police and update them on your situation. You need to lay a charge of cheating against this guy. Let them use their powers to punish this guy. He deserves it.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

On 26th February my wife ordered electronic goods from a company in China. She knew that these are replicas of the original ones, including two iPads for $70 each, two Acer laptops for $85 each, a Blackberry Q10 for $100 and a HTC phone for $50.

My wife then sent the money using Western Union to a man called David Li and received a tracking number for DHL so she could track you parcel on the DHL website. She tried to do that but it showed the number was invalid.

We then spoke to DHL and they tried to trace the package but they said there was no such parcel. My wife is just crying and totally depressed by the situation, it really is appalling to get such kind of dealings from someone from so far and does not deliver what he said he would.


I can understand your frustration as well as your wife’s feelings. I’m afraid that the plain truth is that you’ve been scammed. Obviously the fake DHL tracking number is a big clue but the biggest is that “David Li” wanted payment using Western Union. Real businesses don’t use Western Union for payment. Real, trustworthy businesses use bank accounts.

There is another issue. What were you thinking, trying to buy “replicas”? There is no such thing as a replica iPad, laptop or cellphone, they’re just fakes. Even if this wasn’t a scam you still would have been buying illegal products and it wouldn’t have been possible to help you if anything had gone wrong.

Please don’t buy fake goods, you’re just facilitating crime.

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