Beware importing a car from the US

[ken1939]

I am happy with Cheeta Imports out of Mel. They have an office in Indy and one in Lilydale. Personal service to say the least, its just seasonal shipping, they ship twice a year though.
I have heard good things about EDI. To bad Pack and Send cant help!

[snowcone]

Originally Posted by usatoaus

My last communication with Gary Redman was 25/8/14 where I explained how the Department of Agriculture (DAFF) operate and that I would let the owner of the business deal with the damaged wheels spats and address the scuff marks that, coincidentally, were not reported to anyone until after the vehicle had left the unpack depot.

Apart from sending his Import Approval, I don’t believe I have had any further communication with Mr. Redman as the matter was referred to Mr. Ryan and I had presumed, been dealt with.

Given that almost 12 months has passed and my emails are read and the phone is answered and messages are returned, one would have thought that Mr. Redman, who seems to have gone to considerable lengths, would have reached out and asked for some assistance on this matter. Instead it would seem Mr. Redman would rather spend time on Internet forums than getting the matter resolved.

I am assuming Mr. Redman “won” the case as Mr. Ryan was unaware it was happening and therefore unrepresented. Provided with the opportunity to represent himself I am sure the outcome would have and will be different.
Mr. Ryan does not frequent Internet forums, he is generally on the road doing inspections, collecting vehicle and packing containers. I will raise the matter with him and ensure that it is followed through.

I will also respond directly to Mr. Redman’s email as this doesn’t need to be aired on a public forum.

I also have to say that I am very disappointed with this community who are very quick to throw accusations and name calling based on one side of a story. The company I work for shipped in excess of $5,100,000 worth of goods in 2014 and one person come on here with an issue, which should be addressed, however I think you would be hard pressed to prove that it is a “dodgy operation”.

I personally have served the motoring community, particularly the Ford community, which is my choice of brand expressed in my current ownership of many Blue Oval vehicles, for over 15 years. I have supplied tens of thousands of used and aftermarket items and new tyres to many Ford owners and wouldn’t be surprised if a large number of members on this board have had successful dealings with me over the years.

So as stated, I will address the situation with Mr. Ryan and Mr. Redman and attempt to resolve the matter.

If anyone else has an issue or concerns, feel free to call or email me: http://usatoaus.com/contact.html

Regards,

Phil Newell

I would like to comment that some of the facts Phil has stated here are not correct but I would also like to state that Phil has made contact with me and the possibility of a mutually satisfactory settlement is now a strong possibility, so I won't get into a ****ing contest now.
The facts that I want to dispute is that Mr Ryan was totally aware of the dispute and had the opportunity to represent his business at the QCAT hearing as he was the one that requested an adjournment so that the paperwork could be sent to the US.
I did not contact Phil after the problem arose as both Phil and Indira passed it all onto Mr Ryan and after that my legal obligation was to send all correspondence to the registered owner of the business, Mr Ryan. Obviously if I thought Phil could have fixed it I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble trying to get My Ryan to fix it.
Anyway, watch this space for the final outcome.

[Mowdit]

When paying an importer to "clean" a car for import you are paying for it to be cleaned to pass quarantine !

If you want your car washed go to your local car wash
(Am sure it's way cheaper!)

Big difference IMHO

[snowcone]

A resolution has been reached in this matter with Phil taking over proceedings and making me a suitable offer for the damages.

From what I can see there appeared to be some miscommunication within USAtoAUS about what was happening and who was dealing with it, which was unfortunate for all of us involved.

I applaud Phil for his speedy action in addressing this and I wish I had dealt with him in the first place.

[gcg2503]

Originally Posted by ken1939

I am happy with Cheeta Imports out of Mel. They have an office in Indy and one in Lilydale. Personal service to say the least, its just seasonal shipping, they ship twice a year though.
I have heard good things about EDI. To bad Pack and Send cant help!

Agree.

Brian @ Cheetah Imports has imported some stuff many times for friends of mine without issue as well.

[PlukaDuck]

I don't know how fare you want to push the issue but any cross country trading in the usa comes under there federal laws as long as it was not an auction purchase.
The FBI will look at your case maybe.

[usatoaus]

If you read the messages you would find that the matter has been resolved.

Thanks for your concern.

[lownloud]

I've used USAtoAUS before and been totally happy. No issues whatsoever.

[gcg2503]

Sorry to dig up an old thread.

Who do you guys recommend to use to ship from NY to Melbourne?

The guy I used last time ships from LA only

I don't really want to transport the car 4500kms across USA to LA if I can avoid it!

[usatoaus]

We ship out of North Carolina and can arrange transport from NY.

As you can see even in the very rare case that something goes wrong we take car of things.

[gcg2503]

Originally Posted by usatoaus

We ship out of North Carolina and can arrange transport from NY.

As you can see even in the very rare case that something goes wrong we take car of things.

Car is in Massachusetts....So would need to be freighted from there to NC and forwarded to Melbourne

How do I go about a quote? Online or can you roughly price that?

[usatoaus]

Please send through a Contact Form on the website with the year, make, model, running/non-runner and city, state and we will reply with a complete quote.

[gcg2503]

Originally Posted by usatoaus

Please send through a Contact Form on the website with the year, make, model, running/non-runner and city, state and we will reply with a complete quote.

Is this is your website below? I found it difficult to input vehicle parameters for quoting purposes!

http://www.usatoaus.com/FreightOrder.aspx

Waiting on 3 quotes from other websites. Thanks for your help usatoaus.

[usatoaus]

That section is for freight (engines, boxes, pallets etc).

Just fill out the contact page: http://www.usatoaus.com/contact.html

[bathurst-racer]

I used USA to AUS to import my Torino a couple of years ago. They were very helpful and were able to arrange picking up some extra parts which the internal shippers in the States wouldn't touch. I received a very warm and I believe genuine email from Indy about my car which caught their attention as they are Ford people to the bone. It took a while for the car to arrive but I understand it was December and it wasn't easy to fill a container over the Christmas period.
I think one issue you need to address Phil is the insurance. I paid the premium on the invoice and from memory it was about $50.00 more than the quote I received on the phone from Indy. I didn't receive a copy of the policy which is a theme which runs through this thread. If people suspect the premium they paid ended up in your pocket can you blame them ? In respect to customer service you have let yourself badly here.
I'm glad that Snowcone was able to have his issue resolved. As it was pointed out there are two sides to every story. Its much easier to defend ones reputation when customer service is the mantra in your business.

[truckrod]

Well Im sorry to say USAtoAUS, Lawrence Ryan Indris Newell and Philip Newell are at it again. What makes matters worst is that Lawrence is a personal friend and we always got on well with Indy and Phil. We purchased a large complete mustang floor and USAtoAUS shipped it to there depot. All fees were paid up front including requests for insurance as the part was very expensive.
To cut a long story short the floor arrived squashed at the Kelso depot. No timber frame remained and the chassis looked twisted from Lawrence's photos. I have repeatedly asked/begged for insurance papers, from all three persons, many many phone calls and emails to Lawrence Indy and Phil and still 12 months later Lawrence and Phil claim insurance has been paid out but as yet I have received nothing.
So many communications as well as a letter of demand has received no response whatsoever.
I have used their services before and they were great. So why not pay what is owed to us. There is no dispute money is owed. Im guessing no insurance was even taken out. All up $4500au. Indy has given me credit of 900au on other frieght because of the amount owed but know Im in fear that they just want to keep the money for themselves.
Lawrence Indy and Phil, why? I have a family, please assist and do the right thing. And my other parts, where are they, its been 5 months!

[truckrod]

**UPDATE** In communication with the company to try and find out what's gone wrong and how it can be fixed to everyones satisfaction. Will let you know the result.

[truckrod]

Ok so disaster averted. A dodgey email address didnt help the issue. Lawrence and Indy sorted out asap with many thanks. I understand parts take a while as have ours but as much as Ive had a winge here I must say Indy has bent over backwards to sort various issues. Its just the way shipping goes sometimes. Ive had 4 shipments so far and they all take a while but arrived safe and sound

[2011G6E]

I worked with a guy a few years back who imported a late 60's LTD coupe. He got the owner in the USA to take a memory card full of photos of every square inch of the car inside and out, and then put the card in an envelope under the dash tucked into the carpet, just in case something happened to the car on the way over. The guy also gave him a link to a Photobucket album of all the pictures.
He planned to be there to inspect the car when it arrived and if it was damaged and the company he was using tried to say "not our fault, it was like that", he would do a magic trick of saying "Now I haven't been anywhere near this car, is that correct?", and then get one of the company people to reach up under the dash and Ta-Dah!, pull out the envelope with the memory card full of time-stamped pics to prove it hadn't been damaged before it was shipped.

As it turned out he was being paranoid over nothing...the car was immaculate and the company did a great job. I never bothered to find out what company as I never intend to import a car myself so didn't bother asking.

[Hemihunter]

USAtoAUS shipped a rare convertible for me back to the USA ! the new owner there was more than happy with everything when it arrived. Not to many companys shipping back to the USA these days. the service was great from my experience being the seller in Australia.

[428mustang]

i have been burnt the same way by usatoaus.

[HardTop Coupe]

A warning to everyone on here, stay away from USA to AUS, they claim that they deal with cars and know what they are doing when it comes to purchasing, inspecting and importing American muscle cars, for me they failed on all of those points.

1) The money took over a month to get to their account, they claim that the money hadn't been deposited yet. But after further investigations, it was found that the money was deposited in 2 weeks, not in 4.5 weeks as claimed by Lawrence. I can only conclude that they must have been using my money to conduct their business while waiting for payments from other deals.

2) The inspection they say they do, did not happen, they told me over the phone that the car was good, but in actual fact had a lot more rust than shown in the pics

3) The car was damaged in transit and bits stolen, so over a year now, we still have not received the correct bits, as they are too tight to send what is needed.

4) They are very very unresponsive to emails when there are issues to sort out.

5) They never answer the phone when there is an issue. ( it's funny how I could always contact Phil &/or Indy by phone, before the deal was made and when the car was in transit, but have NEVER been able to contact them since the car arrived with issues)

As mentioned in a previous post, the business is registered in the US, that is for a reason, so again, beware of this company if you want to import a car.

[428mustang]

hi for anyone wanting to import a vehicle please run away from that company usatoaus. they are a scam big time. if you feel like you got money to waste i suggest you use them. they will take your money and you will never hear from them ever again..

[meteoriTE]

Tried to get them to give me a price on bringing in some parts as they were on the east coast and my usual shipping agent is on the west coast and trucking them across the country was expensive. Wouldn't/couldn't give me a fixed price even though I had all dimensions and weights given to them. It was basically a case of get it to their depot and see, something didn't sound right so gave them a big miss, thankfully it seems. Plus I've never had a shipper want to charge GST on anything under $1000 Australian, let alone on parts, shipping in the US plus their shipping costs also. Managed to get the parts over to the east coast cheap as a friend of mine over there's brother is a long haul truck driver and happened to be heading to the east coast. So for two bottles of Jack Daniel's and $50 cash was a bargain to have it all delivered to the shippers at the port in Ontario California. Got the stuff here and no GST as the goods were under the $1000 Australian threshold, just like every other time. So do your homework people.

[Crazy Dazz]

Not commenting specifically on this business or issue, but I've come across some dodgy insurance problems.
There's a lot of insurance companies and brokers that are happy to take fees on such transactions. Either a flat fee, or percentage of value, or a combo thereof. For the insurer its money for old jam. Till somebody actually makes a claim.

You can also find that often when a service provider is charging you for transaction based insurance, there may in fact be no separate insurance transaction. Rather the provider has a blanket policy in place and is simply trying to recoup costs. And again, the policy may be worthless.

[Crazy Dazz]

People also need to think long & hard about where savings are being made.

There are reputable companies that routinely handle imports & exports, the majority of their customers have no problems, and those that do are generally fixed quickly. Of course these companies are more expensive.

So if "Company X" is going to charge you $3k less, you have to wonder where they are cutting corners??
Both companies would effectively be paying the same container rates, which is the largest component of the cost.
So maybe "X" has lower overheads, which means poor customer service.
Maybe they have skimped on insurance?
Maybe they strip packing and over stuff containers?
Maybe they specialise in scouting out spare capacity, which could mean delays, or bad handling & packing.

End of the day, you seldom get more than what you pay for.

[HardTop Coupe]

Originally Posted by usatoaus

If you read the messages you would find that the matter has been resolved.

Thanks for your concern.

Nothing has been resolved, you can't hide behind the owner in the US. You are trading in Australia, from QLD and need to take responsibility for your actions.

My advise to ALL is to stay away from these people!!!!

[HardTop Coupe]

[QUOTE=snowcone;5457504]Hi snow cone, how can I contact you, as I need to get some more information on how I can get Phil and Indy to be responsible for their actions. Thanks.

[Jack91]

Any more stories, good or bad about usa2aus? I regularly check out their site and have been close to pursuing a few times.

[HardTop Coupe]

Let me know how you go, caust the more the better, they can't stuff people around in this country and not be accountable to Australian laws....