David Daniel - or Felix Daniel from Davidson_Investment_Limited

[ogruzic]

*personal details removed by moderator
Dear ALL,

First to tell you that i am in the apple business, as a grower and as a exporter. My site is going to be done by the end of the week, and you can see it on www.xxxxx.xxx

As you can see, i am from Croatia, and this is my story with this guy.

Luckely i have all the e-mails, which i have sent to him, and he to me but there are more then 250 of them, so i will just give you start.

In begining he told me that he wants to buy my apples, and for that why dont we start with numerous RFC of course. In this matter, i told him, that i would prefere to go one by one, just to see how is business doing.

And we have agreed upon the price, and terms of payment, which were 20% in advance and 80% upon reciving B/L from me.

Now a little bit of his e-mail:

Dear xxxxxxxxxx,

With much pleasure have we noted your mail content and we really appreciate your good concern about the growth and development and security of this first time business dealing together as we wish to enter into a long term business relationship/partnership successfully and fruitfully. We really appreciate one again.

We understand and note that you are growers and the apples will be ready for picking only in September as you said and we hereby accept this issue of beginning the apples supply to us in September.

Do proceed in issuing and sending us proforma invoice for the apples 1x40ft. container which include 20 euro pallets and on each is 650 kg, giving the total of 13,000 kg.

We would like to inform you that you are requested to issue us 2 proforma invoices i.e. one invoice for C/F price FOB based price for comparisons because we would like to be sure and know exactly what we are doing and what steps we are taking.

Regarding the paper work, we would need your products Registration / Legalization Certificate valid here in our country, your products Analysis Test Certificates and Certificate of produucts country of Origin. Do provide us the above requirements paper works.

Concerning the payment, we would be paying you upon delivery and would like you to understand and note first our great desire, eagerness and willingness to doing a long term business with your esteem company and we would like you to understand that we are highly determined and have decided to making this business a REALITY and for your good information, we are very enthusiastic and optimistic in entering into a long term and successful & fruitful bsuiness relationship/partnership with your esteem company but we would need your good & maximum cooperation, trust, sincerity, honesty and support from your side in order to getting this business established and developed firmly here in our country Cotonou, Benin Republic and all over the 16 West African countries in which we are covering as this will be for the good benefits of the both parties.

We would like you to understand that we really would like to be your Exclusive Sole Agent/Distributor/Sourcing-Out-Partner of your products and we need all rights and agreement as you accord us with your maximum cooperation, trust, sincerity, honesty and support needed in this business progressions and concerning your payment, we would be paying you upon delivery of the consignments but we would like your company to trust our company and do business mutually without any Bank Guarantee Letter though this is the first time we are doing business together but it doesn't matter much because we have good intentions, good aims, good visions and good dreams on your company and we would like us to doing business together and let us jointly build this relationship together for the both companies' good benefits as this business is for a long term one. Kindly give us your maximum cooperation needed in this business growth and development.

Regaring your paper work, we would need you to send us original invocie, prof from the helth inspection, prof of the quality of the apples, and all the other papers which will come from the shipping company.

As your Agent we are, we would like you to direct all containers in our name and address and then inform the second buyer to contacting us directly for the release of the container to the second buyer while your payment will be directly to your nominated bank account without any delay. Why, because, we don't want you to have any problems in doing business here in West African Countries in which we have our own distribution network of every products dissemination and we would not appreciate to having a competition on the prices here in our country and in West Africa and this is why we want you to follow this steps for things to be more organized as this will be for the good benefits of the both companies.

We are looking forward to receiving your good confirmations urgently and hoping to receiving the 2 invoices together for comparisons to proceed further.

Thanks & regards,
Mr. David Daniel

Now as you can see, his e-mail is very neet, polite and everything ok. Then i have proceed and i have asked Benin authorities to please do confirm me if his company is existing in Benin, and is everthing ok with all of this. Well it took them some time, but at the end they have told me, yes they are all register and all is ok. They are good - that was conclusion.

Ok.

Then i have agreed with my shipper that he is to pay for the transport, (my shiper is www.trast.hr, and person incharge is Mrs. Nela Zitinic, whome you can get on xxxxxxxx@trast.hr), and to pay for my 20%. He has payed my 20% as it follows:

WEST AFRICA COMMERCIAL s.a.r.l.
1er. ETAGE,
IMMEUBLE TABA
P.O.BOX 1808 TEL: (228) 21 02 27
LOME, TOGO FAX: (228) 21 01 84
WEST AFRICA e-mail:warjd@defitogo.tg



Date : 23/08/06


PAYMENT RECEIVED


Attn :
Obiteljsko Gospodarstvo Ruzic


We have received payment for which the detail is as below :


Date Company Name Payment Ref. Amount Your Inv. No Remarks
23.08.06 Felix Young Daniel OP 262 Euro 2380
We will make the above payment to you in next 5 to 7 working days as per our agreement with your above
customer.

Best regards.

Manu / Murali

So, Dear All, as you can so so far so good. No problems, what so ever. guy has payed me 20% in advance as we have agreed, and to my surprise he has payed totaly for the shiping of the RFC to my shiper. Everthing was ok, and there as no problem from any side.

In order that i get export licence from my Countra, i am forced to pass helth authority department, which is verifying that my apple is indeed 1 A clas quality apple, in acordance with EU standrds. With all of this certificates, and licence, i have put my apple in the RFC, and it has left Rijeka. Now, accordingly to the invocie, he was supposed to pay with in 5 to 7 working days until reciving original documents with DHL. I have send it to him, and tracking number, and then.....

And then, it starts, first of all, he could not get his turn in his bank, as you can see below:

My dearest friend,

I really thank you for your good courage and determinations towards this business as we are really fighting with our best strength to seeing that things are done accordingly.

Well, my father has not come back as he went for burial funeral of his mother and as for my family, they are all fine and what about your father, your mother, your wife and kid, hope you all are swimming in the ocean of good health..........

Well, we have been in a close contact with out bank since Morning and we have been persuading us and they told us that our file will be processed this evening or tomorrow morning due to the much engagements they have.

Infact my good friend, i have really tried my best and i still promise you that i will still be trying until things are justified the way they should be as this is my promise and assurance to you.

Hope to hear you soonest.

Thanks & regards,
Mr. David Daniel
Your trustful friend.

and personaly my favorite:

My friend indeed,

I am assuring you that everything will be fine by the end of this week as i will always want you to count on me all the time.

Looking forward to hearing from you shortly.

Thanks & regards,
Mr. David Daniel

Ok, so of course the week passed and nothing happend in the payment terms. And i was keep asking when is the money going to hit my account, and the respond was always the same. So at that moment i knew i can kiss my money goodbye, but RFC has reached Cotonou.

And then to my surprise he has contacted me saying that my apple is roten, bed and not good, and to prove this, he took 6 of my cartons and put 23 roten and bed apples around it.

I do not have to tell you that this apples are not mine in the first place, since i have sent him type Idared, and he has put something totaly different in front of my cartons and some in the cartons. When i asked him what is happening, he told me that i can see it for my self and that he has huge problems with his buyers in Benin. In this part i would realy like to go back to the fact that apples were proven to be 1 A class from our helt Ministry, stemp on the paper, and sent to him. Also, Maersk has put 2,5 degree celsious in side, and 95% of humidity, so in this conditions, there were no chance that apple woudl roten and turn bed in 21 days, in 6 moth phearps, but in 21 day no way.

Anyway, here is his reposnd to my asking him, when is he going to settle his debt to me:

My dearest friend,

In addition, we have really gone through hell in the cause of the apples. To be frank with you and i understand that it will occur to you that we have taken delivery of the shipped container and we have a very bad experience and we were gathering information together before writing to you because we feel disappointed and betrayed my good friend.

In our life time, we have always dreamt to doing a genuine business with a genuine company as this will be for a long term one but we have encountered another problem in which we are really finding it difficult to relate to you my dearest friend.

Well to start with, we have taken delivery of the shipped container and after we had received the Original Documents, we submitted it to our End-buyers to enable them pay in advance for your payment remittance to your account but could not meet up with the sales. Our end-buyers commented on the followings such as:

1. Number of Cartons
2. There was no strong packaging of the apples
3. The price of the apples is too high
4. A carton should be 20kg

These are the problems in which we have encountered my good friend in the sales of the apples and we were not able to recover our own investments, let alone your own payment and not to talk about Net Profit.

Infact my good friend, we are very very very down over this issue because we have lost our money in which we have invested in this business but still, we still want us to doing a long term and successful business relationship/partnership with your company because we are very enthusiastic and optimistic to doing a fruitful business with your company but in this case, we don't really know what to do while we await your comments on this issue because we still want to do business with you my good friend.

Bear in your mind that we still want us to doing business with your company and you have suggest what should be our next step because we still want to come to visit you there in your country.

While expecting your reply shortly to proceed further.

Thanks & regards,
Mr. David Daniel

Now, i do not have to tell you all, that i have told him everything before we went into this business, and how he started to complain over carton number - luckely for me i send only 1.000 cartons.

To continue, i have asked him, ok how much of these bed and not good apples of mine arrived in RFC - answer 50 = 5% = 700 kg.
I told him, ok deduct it from the original invocie, and send me the rest of money, and here is the reply:

My dearest friend,

*I will like you to understand that we really got what you mean but we do not have any money left with us because the little one in which we sold out from the sales of the apples is been given to our bank as we were about to transfer it to you. Our bank then withdrew it as the loan we took from them. So now my good friend, we are empty indeed.

This is what we want you to understand and this is the reason why we are asking you to send us only 1 RFC to enable us balance you as well.

Do think about this issue and revert back to us and this is the time you will have to show us your good assistance towards the growth and development of this business.

Do understand our point and consider and reason with us accordingly while looking forward to hearing from you shortly.

Thanks & regards,
Mr. David Daniel

YES, you are reading it ok, he asked me to send him 1 RFC totaly for free!!!!!

Now, can you imagine this, i can not, and it is realy unbelivable. Now, how is this story going to end, i do not know, i will try mybest to take my money out somehow from him, but....i do not have high hopes at all. So lost 9.000 EURO + huge headake.

I would also like to att his picuture and here it is:

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=3996189

So, my Dear All, if you are aproached by this caracter do remeber me, and do not do anything with him.

Oh, yes just that you are on a safe side, here is his passport so that there is not going to be any kind of mistake:

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=3996199

Many regards!