Originally Posted by
Cuppa
Looks like you will all have to put up with me for the foreseeable future after all. What follows is a copy & paste from my facebook page this morning. Grrrrrrr!
A follow on from my last excited & optimistic post about buying the OKA. Another story follows, not the one I wanted nor expected. It is a story of huge disappointment, anger & now after little more than 24 hours to process what happened a sense of relief mixed with the yet to dissipate disappointment of a lost dream we had put so much energy into. This no doubt will become another lengthy post, I believe writing it may be cathartic & helpful to me, & after my previous post I feel the need to explain why I am back in Mutchilba today & not in Taree delivering the OKA to the chap who was going to undertake the transmission change etc for us. It's been another rollercoaster ride. Hold tight & read on!
As planned I flew from Cairns down to Brisbane on Monday to pay for & pick up the OKA to drive it the 600kms to Taree, NSW . It was a nervous time, not because of the amount of money I would be paying or because of any fears about the vehicle or whether I was doing the right thing, but because of the severe weather warnings of dangerous winds & flooding along the whole of the route I needed to drive. Some places had already had up to 600mm in a day, & similar forecast to continue at the time I'd be driving. I was confident about the vehicle & about the seller.
The seller met me as arranged, in Brisbane, & took me to his home where I would spend the night sleeping in the OKA before driving it away the following morning. As on my previous visit I was made welcome & we spent a number of hours going through the OKA to familiarise me with everything as well as eating together & enjoying each other;s company. At mealtime I asked to see the the certificate of Electrical safety for the vehicle's 240v systems he had agreed to get, & was disappointed when , without apology, he told me he had not had it done. Worse was the fact he had not obtained the legally required 'Certificate of Inspection' (the Qld version of a heavy vehicle Roadworthy - or MOT for UK readers) , but "not to worry" he said I can still get it in time for you leave in the morning as planned". This was a relief as I had flight onward from Taree booked & paid for. Half an hour later following a phone call he showed me an email on his phone from the certifier with an attached Certificate & a note to say it had been electronically lodged with the Qld transport authority. Phew! Without this transfer of ownership cannot occur. Later that evening he printed out a copy for me, & I checked it over at about 10pm, just as I was waiting for my laptop to boot up in order for me to transfer funds to him.
My heart sank when I noticed it had an engine number different to what was on the engine in the vehicle, & we quickly reached an impasse with me stating I would not be prepared to risk making payment without such details being correct. He suggested that I drive the vehicle away the following morning but withhold payment until he obtained a correct certificate. I thought this exceptionally trusting & generous of him, but also wondered might happen if a problem arose with the certificate. I had reason to worry as the incorrect certificate was obviously 'dodgy' if for no other reason than it had been sent on the basis of emailed info from the owner, not from an actual inspection. The engine number shown was apparently for the original 4 cylinder motor , even though the certificate stated it had 6 cylinders (as per the all important replacement American import Cummins motor). But still I was intent on keeping to plan to drive the OKA away in the morning.
The seller emailed the certifier & said he would follow this up with a phone call early next morning.
I had a restless night in the OKA, which afforded me time to look at many things in more detail. I laid & mentally constructed the internal modifications I wanted to make.
First thing in the morning I was greeted with "Come & have a cuppa, we need to talk". The tone used was not encouraging & I was immediately concerned. As I walked to the house I note that his wife who had been very hospitable the night before appeared to be avoiding eye contact with me & didn't say a word. I imagined that a correct safety certificate may not be forthcoming until later in the day & resigned myself to a much longer drive in one hit, through the wild weather than I had planned on.
My cup of tea was handed to me with the words "I don't think you are the right sort of person to be an OKA owner". This was out of the blue, I was gobsmacked & confused. I have come to realise that this was an attempt to hold me responsible for the decision that was yet to come. I spluttered & gasped my lack of understanding & attempted to reasonably contradict him. I learned that he had been in contact with the certifier who informed him that the only way to change the certificate was for him to attend a Transport dept office in person & that it was highly likely that they would wish to also sight & inspect the vehicle. At this point I saw my well laid plans disappearing out of the window, but even at this point had not contemplated what was to come!
Out of his shirt pocket the seller produced bundles of hundred dollar notes & a piece of paper. "Here is your deposit & I'll pay for your flight back to Cairns, here are flights available today." I was still spluttering, unwilling to accept that everything I'd planned & hoped for was coming to an end right now. He made it clear he had no intention to present the vehicle to the Transport dept, I thought at the time he meant that day, as he had 'a lot on' but now I think he probably meant 'at all'. As the realisation dawned anger trumped disappointment (although I remained relatively civil, I believe I only used the 'F' word once!). I reminded him of all the costs I had incurred on the basis of the sale agreement we had made, including several flights to & from NSW to check out & drive other OKA's with the Cummins/Allison combo I hoped to get fitted, & to meet the chap who would do the work face to face to discuss & agree on the process. The seller responded with 'how much' & when told simply pulled more cash from his shirt pocket & handed it to me to cover those costs. Truly I was reeling, trying to make sense of the situation.
As I sat at his kitchen table, he went to another room, returning with a paid for flight booking, the plane departing in a little over 90 minutes time & us 45 minutes drive from the airport. "Get your bags" he said, we don't have much time.
As we drove, he seemed far less tense than he had done at the kitchen table. I was angry & felt like telling him so, but instead asked him how he was feeling. "Relieved" he said. "Relieved?" I asked. "Yes, I've been worrying that sooner or later you would discover that the Cummins motor is in fact a Chinese copy" says he. This admission that he had been prepared to deceive me was made in the complete absence of any apology. In fact no apology had been forthcoming about things he had agreed to do & not done, or indeed anything else. I expect he had realised that his offer for me to take the vehicle to Taree prior to payment would see the engine deception discovered as soon as it was looked at there by someone familiar with the Cummins motors (unlike me). All was conducted in a friendly manner - very disconcerting. My gut feeling was that as a successful & wealthy businessman, that anything that didn't fit for him was expendable including people, & that apologies were probably something not in the businessman's repertoire. Such things most likely only represented something never contemplated - an admission of guilt.
The two hour flight & 90 minutes drive back to Mutchilba gave me time to begin processing what had happened, later discussion with Julie & friends helped. I turned over every detail I could recall about the affair & about the vehicle again & again. But the story had so many inconsistencies I struggled to gain the certainty I needed about why this had happened. I even started to blame myself even though I couldn't pinpoint what I had been responsible for. It was a pretty 'shit' experience.
Finally this morning I have reached an understanding which fits. Although I am unwilling to detail all the snippets of info which have led to this understanding for fear of both boring you to tears & risk of litigation from the wealthy seller, I am now confident in my belief.
Unlike my home state of Victoria (& most other states I believe), where vehicle modification approvals are carried out by well qualified motor engineers in a very regulated system, in Queensland any motor mechanic with 10 years experience in the trade can apply to become a 'certifier'. Many have & there are a plethora of one man mobile services offering Certificates of
inspection & Modification plates. A quick search on Google reveals that dodgy certificates & plates are not uncommon.
I now believe that the significant modifications on the OKA (Engine replacement, GVM upgrade, home made fuel tank, change in seating & possibly more) have probably been subject to the same dodgy practice as the Certificate of Inspection, quite possibly through the same certifier. All stuff waiting to 'bite' me down the track when I went to re-register the vehicle in Victoria. I believe the seller knowing that things were at the point of unravelling if an inspection at the Department were to occur, felt 'on a hook' & that the only way to extricate himself from that situation was to get rid of me quickly. And that is just what he did.
I remain angry which is probably important in coming to terms with the 'lost dream'. Some of that anger is with myself for having allowed the 'dream' to blind me until a very late stage of the proceedings, in particular that it was the seller's decision not to proceed, rather than mine. However I do take some solace in the fact that however it happened, I 'dodged a bullet'. If the truth had come to light after I'd handed over the money the situation would have been far worse.
What a bastard! Stuff like this shakes one's faith in humanity, but I expect the trust to return with time. Friends have been good
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