Payment and costing
Credits and refunds.
Cash rarely comes back across a border. What suppliers offer instead is a credit, a replacement or a discount on the next shipment, and knowing that in advance changes how you negotiate a problem.
What is actually on the table.
A credit against a future order. The most common outcome and the easiest for the supplier, because it costs them margin rather than cash.
Free or discounted replacement goods in the next shipment, which suits ongoing relationships and does nothing for a one-off.
A discount on the balance, which only works if you still owe money. This is the strongest position and it is why holding the balance until inspection matters so much.
Cash back, which happens rarely and usually only with large exporters and a clear-cut failure.
What decides which one you get.
Whether you still hold money. A buyer who paid in full has almost no leverage and a buyer holding the balance has all of it.
Whether the failure is measurable. A specification with numbers and an inspection report produces a settlement, and a complaint about quality produces an argument.
Whether you intend to keep buying. A continuing relationship is worth more to both sides than a single settlement, and both parties know it.
How quickly you raised it. A problem raised on arrival is credible and one raised six weeks later is not.
How to structure it.
Quantify first: how many units, what it cost you, what you are asking for. A number is negotiable and a grievance is not.
Ask for a written credit note referencing the original invoice, so it exists in both sets of accounts rather than in a chat thread.
Set a deadline for using a credit, or it quietly expires when the relationship ends.
Agree what changes to prevent a repeat. A settlement without a corrective action just buys you the same problem again.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I withhold the balance?
If your contract ties the balance to a passed inspection, yes, and that is exactly what the term is for. Withholding without a contractual basis is a different situation and it damages the relationship.
Will a supplier ever refund cash?
Sometimes, with a large exporter and an unambiguous failure. Plan for a credit or a replacement, because that is what is usually available.
How long do I have to raise a problem?
As short as you can make it. Contract terms may set a period, insurers and carriers certainly do, and credibility falls sharply with every week you wait.
Read next.
When the shipment is wrong
The first forty-eight hours decide what you can recover. What to do in order, and what destroys a claim.
What an export contract should say
Twelve clauses that decide what happens when something goes wrong, and the three buyers leave out and regret.
Paying an Indonesian supplier
T/T, letters of credit and documentary collection, what each actually protects, and the five rules that stop a deposit disappearing.
Inspecting before it sails
The five moments worth inspecting, what a report has to contain, and the mistake that makes an inspection worthless.
What a deposit is actually funding
A deposit is not a gesture of trust. It funds something specific, and that tells you whether the size is reasonable.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.