THE Shenzhen Consumer Council has received 57 complaints from car buyers against a Qianhai-based car dealership that closed down without fulfilling the contracts it had signed with consumers, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported over the weekend.

    According to the council, some car buyers didn’t receive their cars after paying down payments or full payments to Mudelong, the company that sells parallel imported cars. Other car buyers didn’t receive import certificates or purchase invoices for their cars, which are necessary to obtain a license plate for a new car.

    The complaints involved different brands of cars such as Audi, Land Rover and BMW, with a total value of the involved transactions amounting to 20 million yuan (US$2.90 million).

    The company shut its doors out of the blue Oct. 24 after it became involved in debt disputes with several other companies. People from those companies drove away with over a dozen cars, including some that had been bought by Mudelong’s consumers with full or down payments.

    The car dealership also borrowed money from other companies by promising them import certificates for some cars, even though such certificates cannot be guaranteed.

    The council said that the company breached contracts it had signed with consumers when it failed to offer relevant certificates and invoices to car buyers. The council also warned that consumers should be wary of the risks in buying parallel imported cars.

    The company’s legal representative, Cai Zheng, signed a letter of commitment at the council’s office Dec. 6, promising that the company would return the down payments to car buyers by Jan. 27 and refund full payments by March 15 next year.

    The council said that it would support the consumers by organizing a legal team to file a lawsuit against the company and submit the company’s dishonest records to the city’s online credit system if the company fails to fulfill its commitment.

    (Zhang Yang)