Advice on Buying from China — How to Avoid Poorly Made Products

Recently updated on April 15th, 2021 at 03:00 am

I run a relatively small company in Australia. I purchase all of my products from Guangzhou. I sell made-to-order furniture and sundries for Hotels and Motels.

My problem is that I have received delivery of furniture that does not match the specifications of my order. Now that I have received the items and the manufacturer has received payment they are unwilling to resolve the problem.

My question is this – What methods are available to me to protect myself from this happening again? I understand that it will be almost impossible for me to get a satisfactory solution for my current problem so I will have to take a hit on that one.

I appreciate any assistance or advice that anybody has to offer.

Thank you in advance Alex

Atma: You have to work with independent buying agent in Guangzhou, mainly foreigners, like me or others, who will charge you some amount but you will get exactly what you ordered, matching quality and all other specifications.

Lily: Hi Alex, Sorry to hear your experience, since you are in Australia, do you have QC people or purchase agent  in Guangzhou to help you check the quality before the shipment?

Alex Taylor: Hi Lily,

At this point I am the QC person. I don’t have a purchase agent. I deal direct with the factories myself. What is the advantage of using a purchase agent?

Due to a delay at the manufacturers the last time I was there I was only able to inspect the items after building but before staining. The quality of the building was excellent. When it arrived to me half the items were one colour and the other half was a different colour.

I made the mistake of assuming that the items would all be the same colour. It was the last thing I would expect to go wrong.

Peter Fenton: Hi Alex,

As I’m sure you know, Australia’s most famous poem the ‘Man From Snowy River’ goes:

“That the colt from old Regret had got away”

As noted in the other comments, QC is the best defense, however it seems the horse has bolted.

You need to examine the terms of the contract and what remedies that are available under the contract. A well drafted contract is the key to resolving disputes.

Alex Taylor: I’ll have a look through it but i’m pretty sure it’s just a list of items purchased and payment terms. No “remedies” are listed.

Smee 瑞纳多: And remember that a verbal contract is not worth the paper where it is written.

Stinky Panda:

For any new supplier i always have a factory audit performed, Pre-inspection and full on-line QC checking.  Meaning the QC people are there when the materials arrived, and the moment they start producing/assembling the goods.

When your first order or two arrive in your warehouse/customer warehouse according to specifications, you can consider to only do an FRI (final random inspection) on your orders at that supplier.

There is no shortage of 3rd party QC companies in China and you can use the international companies such as DEKRA, TUV, etc if you want absolute assurance (more expensive though).

I don’t think a local purchasing agent is necessary though, just have good QC checking.

Lu Yinyin: you must have paid deposit? then don’t pay the rest of money unless you have check everything and assured that was what you expected to be.

Howard Smith:

Hi Alex

I import footwear to Australia

Only way is build relationship and trust with company

I travel to China one week every month make sure I get what I order

Cheers

Stinky Panda: Sorry but I respectfully disagree.

I have a great relation with some of our supplier, but the people you talk to are always sales people (occasionally the actual owner of the company).  Pretty much all of the quality issues come from the companies purchasing and/or production departments who you hardly ever meet.

What I see happening time and time again is that purchasing will be pressured into lowering costs (as in ALL companies, this is normal). But purchasing in many Chinese companies will not tell you how they lowered the costs, only to find out they replaced materials with slightly less-grade ones. You might not even notice it, so they keep on doing this until shit hits the fan and you have massive returns. Quality Fade.

Sales has no idea this is going on usually, so even though you have a great relation and build trust with them – in the end it doesn’t matter because other fucktards have been messing with your stuff.

You need GOOD and thorough QC to minimize risks. Even then, how to instruct the QC to check what parts of your products?  I know most buyers don’t even use Original Samples for QC to check their products – just product sheets, which is a disaster waiting to happen.

Great book to read is ‘Poorly Made In China’ even though it is a bit outdated I see so many examples in that book that happen to me as well.

Howard Smith:

Is also true

What I meant to say I guess is need company that wants to continue to work with you so will look at issues not just say tough shit?

Friend of mine brings flat pack kitchens to Australia

Part of deal is all must be assembled and 100s photos taken for approval before they take apart again to send

So guess just have to find way works for you.