Recently updated on April 15th, 2021 at 03:00 am
I’ve been told by some clients about their bad experience in purchasing goods from China before coz their money was taken away by Chinese supplier, China buying agent or shipping agent. After that, some of them stopped all the business related to China markets, yet some of them kept doing business in China. With lessons learnt, they adapted to the business mode and culture in China, and everything has been smoothly since then.
One thing in common with buyers coming to China to purchase goods is they want to save costs. However, some of them try all extreme ways to save costs.
If Chinese people feel you want to screw them at first, I’m 90% sure you’ll be screwed by the Chinese first. If they feel you’re willing to share, I’m also sure you’ll get much more in return than expected, many more than what you’ve shared.
From culture aspect, li shang wang lai 礼尚往来 is a protocol standard governed Chinese culture of 5000 years, which means Courtesy demands reciprocity.
A principle of human behavior is reciprocity. If you are nice to them, usually for most Chinese, they would be nicer to you, they will do their best to help you get things done smoothly.
From cost aspect, the main reason why some Chinese take client’s money away is because some of the buyers try all means to save costs, give very absurd budget and very strict requirements, wasting them lots of time in vain.
A case in point is a Pakistan businessman ordered 10000 pieces of packaging boxes from a supplier. He kept bargaining at all means with the supplier and got the best price of 1 rmb per piece. That’s very little profits for the supplier. However, for the first sample, he was so picky that he had the supplier modified for about five times but was not willing to pay for labor cost involved coz he insisted it was the fault of the supplier. And he wanted to change another material which costs more. Finally, after nearly one month and a half’s negotiation, they agreed on the final sample and the businessman transferred the money to the supplier. After receiving the money, the supplier disappeared.
Another case in point is an Indian company’s money was taken away by their Chinese buying agent. The company kept lowering down the service rate to 2% of the total buying amount by declaring that they would buy normally 200,000 usd per month. Since the company purchased various kind of items and some need to be custom made, it took the buying agent lots of time to sort these out, nearly one month with lots of time spent in wholesale markets and factories. However, the Indian company only placed order of 11,000 usd in total and they insisted only giving the buying agent 2% of the total buying amount. After receiving the money, the buying agent also disappeared.
Do you think it is feasible to have things done smoothly in China within a set budget?
Sometimes it is almost impossible. Relationship(also known as guanxi) is much more complicated. To have things done smoothly, you might need to treat people to dinner, entertainment, give them gifts or other bribes. That does not cost too much, however, sometimes a package of cigarettes or some drinks in hot days do help you get things done very fast.
With around 30 years stayed in the neighborhood of factories and wholesale markets in Pan Delta, I must admit some Chinese are so ugly: poor quality goods, poor customer service, cunning…etc. However, they are not bad. Most of them only want to make some small money to support their family in a developing country with poor social welfare.
I feel really ashamed when people told me some dishonest Chinese took away their money, however, I deeply believe that they wouldn’t take away your money for no reason.
Anyway, be careful when you are buying goods from China.
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