Chapter 28 – What Options Do You Have When Your Customers Complain about Quality Problems?

Since you, as the importer, are responsible for the quality of the imported goods, your first priority must be to satisfy your customers. You can always find another factory in China but finding new customers in your home country will be much more difficult.

Your quality control department must analyze all defects and input all data in a quality performance file for each of your suppliers. During the next meeting with your supplier, you can ask for compensation but will have to provide evidence to them.

In my eBook How To Settle Factory Claims In China More Successfully I provide more inside information on this subject.

You should know that there are limits to what your supplier is willing to accept and even the best long-term relationship will not help in some cases. Compromise is the magic word if you are looking for a solution that can be accepted by both sides.

If you have already negotiated a percentage of defects allowance with your factory (typical for electrical household appliances is 2% and for consumer electronics products it is 4-5%) you have a much stronger bargaining position if you can prove to your supplier that they did not keep their part of the agreement.