The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

How to play this situation, my first lesson in importing

Anything related to sourcing or importing products.

safff

Redlining
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
171%
Jun 11, 2015
179
306
So, I'd like opinions if you wouldn't mind on the below scenario.

I thought of a niche and found a supplier, after discussing the requirements, I was happy, provided a rough design and agreed a cost of $300 for a sample which I paid. double notmal cost but half refundable if I make an order.

I then emailed to say 'please can you clarify the process of shipping'. She responds asking my address but no more. I ask the question again and advise the address. The next email was 'on it's way' (to paraphrase).

Sample turns up, a few QA issues, but on the whole I'm happy. we discuss and I'm assured that its fixable.

5 weeks or so passes and I get a bill from FedEx for $1,100. There are several issues with this which I raise directly with Fedex.

1)I gave no authorisation to be billed this amount, or received no quotation or advise from them which I specifically requested from them when setting up the account.
2) I requested the intention of shipping arrangements from the vendor, she ignored or didn't understand my request (admittedly, I could and yes certainly should have been firmer in laying out who handles shipping rather than asking what their process was)
3) The invoice states that the item was 70kg. It was closer to 10 which displays a serious error or neglect somewhere along the line. Is it normal to be sent items and charged without some sort of advice?

Fedex after chasing 3 times simply responded saying 'we've billed the factory instead, thank you'. Nothing was heard furthrr, and I contacted the factory to open discussions to place a full order pending the QA issues. I get a response of 'sorry, we are busy so only producing a different product, we will make other products next year maybe'.

Another two months passes and I get an email from the factory 'we have been told you do not wish to pay this invoice, please can you advise today.' So Fedex had finally got in touch with them or theyve only just come across whatever correspondance was sent their way. Being Christmas, I haven't replied yet, the email came around two or three days ago.

What really has annoyed me and struck me as grossly unprofessional, is that today I get an SMS from someone at a company on the east coast. 'Hi, we've been told by our supplier that there is an issue with a fedex invoice or something, just checking in? please can you tell me the situation'

Is it just me or would you feel very annoyed that a) your business has been spread to essentially a party that are competitors, and b) that they portray this by text message? It has absolutely nothing to do with them. c) Supplier information is something I seek to keep confidential. I now have no trust that any information, designs or order information won't find their way to competitors.


How would you proceed? How I see it, I have the option of a) negotiating, perhaps contributing towards half of the costs. b) swallowing the costs but the way theyve come about, the fact their incorrect and the contacting a conoetitor leads me to c) digging my heels in and holding my ground with fedex, have them reduce the charge due to the miscalc (they seem to have ignored this fact) d) digging my heels in and holding my ground with the supplier? They sent the item before telling me their intent, they entered the weight etc.


I started off writing this post with a mindset of how can I mitigate the impact of this and maintain relationships with the proposed supplier, however between the slow turnarounds in delivery and emails, the mixup with postage (again, I accept that to mitigate this I could have said in no uncertain terms that they are paying upfront, but being a new supplier I took a gentler approach which it appears was marred in too much subtlety, that I've learned from)

but to be honest, I've made the decision to have nothing to do with the supplier (but still would like to not burn my bridges).

My ethics tell me to negotiate with fedex and swallow the cost of whatever the residual is or at least half it with the supplier (I'd assume that once they corrected the weight miscalculation, the cost would drop drastically), but part of me can't help but feel like I am being a chump in doing so.

Keen to know how more experienced importers might handle things?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

AgainstAllOdds

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
647%
Dec 26, 2014
2,274
14,724
32
Chicago, IL
You're placing a $300 order and come off as a novice. Don't expect the factory to cater to you. You're an after thought to them.

As for the Fedex bill: if Fedex told you that the factory is being billed, then move on. Find another factory or another product. The relationship you have with that factory is tainted and will be. It likely won't get better.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

safff

Redlining
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
171%
Jun 11, 2015
179
306
You're placing a $300 order and come off as a novice. Don't expect the factory to cater to you. You're an after thought to them.

As for the Fedex bill: if Fedex told you that the factory is being billed, then move on. Find another factory or another product. The relationship you have with that factory is tainted and will be. It likely won't get better.

It was a $300 sample, for a $15-20k order, not a $300 order.

Thanks that confirmed my thoughts re the supplier looks like its back to the drawing board
 

AgainstAllOdds

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
647%
Dec 26, 2014
2,274
14,724
32
Chicago, IL
It was a $300 sample, for a $15-20k order, not a $300 order.

Thanks that confirmed my thoughts re the supplier looks like its back to the drawing board

So did you place the order? Because $1,100 shipping is adequate for an order that size. For a sample it's not.
 

safff

Redlining
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
171%
Jun 11, 2015
179
306
So did you place the order? Because $1,100 shipping is adequate for an order that size. For a sample it's not.

Nope that's the core of the issue - FEDEX have issued me an invoice, $1000 for a $300 12kg sample that they say weighed 70kg, sent by air mail without my request or instruction.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Walter Hay

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
401%
Sep 13, 2014
3,318
13,305
World citizen
Nope that's the core of the issue - FEDEX have issued me an invoice, $1000 for a $300 12kg sample that they say weighed 70kg, sent by air mail without my request or instruction.
I can only say what I would do in your situation.
  • That supplier is no longer a potential worthwhile business partner, so I would forget them.
  • FedEx seem more prone to such blunders and "couldn't care less" responses than most couriers, so I would just grit my teeth, pay up in order to avoid a bad credit report, and not use them again.
It is clear that you need to do much more preparation before starting to place orders for your new importing venture. You will find a lot of help in my AMA. It's a lot of reading, but could save you a lot of stress. (And cash.)

Walter Hay
 

safff

Redlining
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
171%
Jun 11, 2015
179
306
thanks for the feedback Walter, I've been reading through your AMA thread funnily enough over the las week (thanks for the awesome content!) Making it a priority to get through it all before the next round of purchasing

Sent from my SM-N915G using Tapatalk
 

safff

Redlining
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
171%
Jun 11, 2015
179
306
I can only say what I would do in your situation.
  • That supplier is no longer a potential worthwhile business partner, so I would forget them.
  • FedEx seem more prone to such blunders and "couldn't care less" responses than most couriers, so I would just grit my teeth, pay up in order to avoid a bad credit report, and not use them again.
It is clear that you need to do much more preparation before starting to place orders for your new importing venture. You will find a lot of help in my AMA. It's a lot of reading, but could save you a lot of stress. (And cash.)

Walter Hay
thanks for the feedback Walter, I've been reading through your AMA thread funnily enough over the las week (thanks for the awesome content!) Making it a priority to get through it all before the next round of purchasing

Sent from my SM-N915G using Tapatalk


Sent from my SM-N915G using Tapatalk
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top