No matter which country you are purchasing from, you may encounter some difficulties while purchasing products from an overseas country. First, I will talk about what these difficulties are and then what you need to do to avoid them.
Negligence of foreign trade personnel, failure of personnel to follow your order
When you place your order from the company from which you want to buy the product, the only person who will contact you is the foreign trade personnel of the company. Therefore, if the exporter company’s foreign trade personnel follow their work well, your import process will be easier. Otherwise, you may encounter situations that you do not want to encounter. Some of these situations may be that the staff is not helpful with the change you want to make regarding the order you have placed or they are not interested when you want more information about the products or may be they do not follow up your order well so that your shipment is on time; or there is no after-sales support. In order to avoid these problems, I recommend that you contact with the company in written form. It may also be helpful to be in contact with at least 2 people from the company.
Failure of the manufacturer to deliver your order in the promised time
Another problem encountered is that the manufacturers do not deliver the products on the promised date. The urgency of your order may make this issue even more important for you. Because the producers might not be able to finish the products on time due to some problems they encounter. And this may cause some problems for you. For example, you may be missing the ship you have booked… Or the products might arrive later than you wanted, and this might affect your market share. To avoid these problems you can discuss your sanctions before the order for delays that may occur during the order delivery phase.
The products in your order may be not produced in quantities you want.
This is one of the main problems. If your order is full container, it is enough to make you so mad, as you have to face this problem at the last minute. Your container being empty would mean that the fee you paid for the freight is wasted. Confirming your order a few days before the shipping date can help you to avoid this problem.
Cancellation of the ship you have booked or cancellation of your reservation at the last moment
From time to time, ship owner companies can cancel the exporter’s reservation or cancel their call to your port. If you don’t search more than one shipping company for your shipping organization, you might be in a difficult situation later on. I always recommend getting offers from at least 2 shipping companies.
Product quality may be at a lower level than the agreed quality
This is one of the most important problems. Even though some Far East countries are very well known in this regard, my advice to you is to research the references of the company from whom you want to buy products. Do they have export experience? Which countries do they sell goods to? How old are the company? Have they been sold to your country before? This information may be important to you.
