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Date Posted: 17:48:48 02/07/02 Thu
Author: GB
Subject: Ex-supplier who saw the light early...
In reply to: PM 's message, "Re: Invoices in who's name??? Who made the contract???" on 15:12:38 02/07/02 Thu

I have been in the motor trade in Germany for around 5 years. I supplied Auto Modena right at the beginning with a few cars but it was such a disorganised operation, it was more trouble that it was worth and although I never had any problems with payment etc, I did not sell them any vehicles after about May or so 2000.

There was no organisation of the books, I kept having to nag for deposits etc and also for balance payments. However, I always had direct contact with every one of my AM customers (I must have sold around 30 cars I guess) and so the problem of missing money and transfers getting "lost" was really never an issue. I never let any cars out of my sight until I had the full amount of money in my account.

The admin was very unorganised, all paper files and to be honest, I could have told them anything about a particular deal because they couldn't have proved I wasn't lying / telling the truth. Most of my customers called me to complain about AM and preferred, once having contacted me for the first time, to deal directly with me and ignore AM completely... which they did. I had no problem with it, they were my customers (business always done with the customer directly). It simply got too hectic, too unorganised on AM's side and in the end I told them to go and find their cars somewhere else.

The so-called financial controller had no idea about the VAT implications of importing vehicles as a private or business owner (i.e. non-VAT / VAT registered) and despite telling him several times how it works, they still couldn't get things up and running. I got suspicious when it took them over 9 months to set up Modena Contracts Limited (I think) to buy cars VAT-free.

I never sold one car to Auto Modena Ltd or Modena Contracts Ltd or any other company of theirs, all to private customers with Auto Modena getting an agency fee from the customer and a small percentage from me. Not only that, I had many contacts at similar companies throughout Britain, some who knew Bryan and Keith personally, and they said they would not touch AutoModena or anything to with these two with a 10 foot bargepole. That was good enough for me....

I'll be perfectly honest, I had a good relationship with this company and I am shocked to see how this thing has developed out of control over the past couple of weeks (I only heard about it a week ago). It does not surprise me, though, that they have gone bust. I have heard of some seriously cocked up deals they did (not just with single customers, I'm talking business for 50 or 60 cars here) and it was treated like a drop in the ocean. Most companies would have gone bust under normal circumstances, which makes me wonder if there isn't something bigger going on behind the scenes.

If you want to get in touch, please feel free to mail me and we can chat more in person: indigo1200gb@yahoo.de (that goes for anyone). Like I said, I haven't had any business dealings with this company since about October 2000 when I delivered the last vehicles I sold to them, but if anyone wants any advice etc... only glad to help.

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