Case sharing about How to Handle the Rejection of Goods?!
One of our customers is a manufacturer of draw-bar boxes with good economies of scale. Starting in 2018, our boss wanted to switch from domestic trade to foreign trade.
On January 25, 2019, two 40HQ containers were shipped to and arrived at the UK port of SOUTHAMPTON on around March 14.
Since it was the first time to do business with this customer, the boss did not charge 30% down payment in order to open the business. He received a nominal amount of USD $3000.00 to start the production.
The customer paid off the money and other expenses of the first container on March 27, 2019, and said that balance payment of the second container (RMB 126,000) would be paid a few days later. During this period, he has been urged to pay balance payment but he only said it would be paid a few days later.
But until April 8, the customer suddenly said:
“Hi. I’m very sorry to let you know that unfortunately ---- has gone into liquidation and can not trade anymore”
So now the situation is that the customer directly announced the abandon of goods and did not pay balance payment.
Do you have a similar experience? How can I deal with it and what should be prevented? Please give me some suggestions
First, calm down. Contact your client and ask him what exactly is wrong. Next, see how serious his problem is. Meanwhile, contact your forwarder and their local agent to arrange the goods properly. If the customer clearly wants to abandon the goods, there are three options:
1. Find another British buyer to resell;
2. If you fail to find buyers for the moment, don't argue with the receiver; instead, let him make a jettison statement (most countries return all need the port of destination and consignee jettison statement). Arrange the return, and the goods can be returned to Hong Kong or a bonded warehouse. After finding another client, just send the goods out again. In such condition, you don't need to pay tax, simple procedures for minimizing the loss;
3. Abandon the goods, pay off the cost, and let the customs at the destination port arrange destruction or auction, which is the worst plan;
Another point needs to be paid attention to is: the British destination port demurrage fee is very expensive, so you need to deal with it as soon as possible. In the future, you need to ask a certain proportion deposit for goods to prevent temporary changes from guests. Few companies have so much energy to go through international litigation!