Dealing with Returns from china..

[tim348]

So I am sure many of you by from alibaba or dhgate..

How do you normally deal with returns?
As we all know china suppliers claim they will take returns but when it comes down to it and you have a ton of product to return they don't always cooperate.

Ive had to dispute about 10k this year because of defective products.
The suppliers usually say something like "sure send me a video, we will replace next order."

Basically they want to replace items only if you keep placing more orders. But the video doesn't even make sense for certain product defects, and lets say I have 30+ bad items. Im not going to make 30 videos. Or there is no real way to make a video to prove they are all defective depending on what the product is.

At that point they have poor quality product and I have no desire to order from them again as it's only going to cause more problems.

Me personally If they dont let me send it back or replace it , I end up disputing the orders with my credit card company. I dont really see many other options. After the dispute they dont even try to contact me or anything. I suppose its because their product is so dirt cheap to make they just take it as a loss?

I would assume they are used to credit card disputes and set aside a certain budget for losses from returns.

How do you all handle the returns? I know I am not the only one as majority of the product from china is low quality, cheap materials etc.

[phaz0rz]

I return literally nothing and accept the occasional defect as the cost of doing business with China. I always use non-reversible payment methods to get better prices so I'm not giving myself much of an option.

With certain categories it's too cost prohibitive to run a business that way. I've learned to stay away from those categories.

When I first started selling I requested a return and our supplier ended up telling me it would be too difficult to get the items back into China. In my experience it's very difficult, if not impossible, to get Chinese suppliers to actually accept your return.

[fatman]

which product are you deal with them?

[tim348]

I sell various electronic products. My main supplier has replaced some of them but its like pulling teeth to get them to do so.

I guess it depends what you are selling. If i did not dispute or get any replacements I would have easily lost over 10k this year and another 10k last year as well. I keep track of all the defects and whatnot and make sure I don't loose money. its all part of business as annoying as it is!

[13obby]

Well number one rule is pay by debit or credit card and to be honest you need to find a good supplier it took me a few years to find I lost money but always claimed it threw credit card dispute I even got suspended on alibaba because I didn’t disput it through them but now I have a good supplier so even when I get faulty goods he replaces them no questions asked but to be honest I don’t always ask I just take it as a cost of doing business but if your getting shipments from China and everything is faulty then your not researching suppliers/manufacturers properly and always order samples before you jump in and be careful when you order samples some suppliers send you good quality items as samples and then when you place the main order you get something which is not the same quality. I find that don’t buy from supplier buy from the manufacturers direct it’s cheaper and they will make sure your product is good as long as you pay good money there’s a saying you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

[dallis]

I do what phaz0rz does, eat any loss or sell for enough to recoup my investment. Part of the risk of doing business with China. Learn to love it or use somebody else.