Quality and inspection
When the shipment is wrong.
Whether you recover anything depends mostly on what you do in the first two days and on what evidence existed before the container arrived. Unloading a damaged container completely before photographing it is the most common way a valid claim becomes unrecoverable.
The first forty-eight hours.
In order, and none of this is optional if you intend to claim anything from anybody.
- 01
Photograph before unloading
The container, the seal, the doors, and the load as it sits. Once the box is empty nobody can establish how anything was packed or whether the seal was intact.
- 02
Note damage on the delivery receipt
A clean receipt signed at delivery is a statement that the goods arrived in good order, and it is very hard to walk back.
- 03
Notify, in writing, immediately
The carrier, the insurer and the supplier. Time limits are short and they are contractual, and delay is the most common reason a valid claim fails.
- 04
Stop unloading if it is severe
A surveyor may need to see the load in place, and an empty container tells them nothing.
- 05
Quantify against the packing list
Carton by carton where possible. This is what the packing list exists for and it is why carton-level detail matters.
What evidence you needed before.
A sealed retained sample at the producer. Without it, a quality disagreement is two opinions and neither side can prove anything.
A pre-shipment inspection report with dated photographs and the seal number. It establishes the condition of the goods when they left, which is what separates a transit claim from a production claim.
A specification with measurable terms. A claim that the goods are not good quality has nothing behind it. A claim that moisture was above an agreed figure has a number and a method.
None of these can be created afterwards, which is the whole argument for setting them up on the first order.
Three things that destroy a claim.
Unloading and stacking the whole container before anybody photographed it. Extremely common, entirely understandable, and it removes the ability to establish anything about how the goods travelled.
Signing a clean delivery receipt. It takes a moment and it is a statement about the condition of the goods.
Delay. Carrier and insurer time limits are short, and a buyer who spends three weeks trying to resolve it directly with the supplier first has usually lost the other two routes by the time they turn to them.
Deciding who to pursue.
If the goods were wrong when they left, it is the supplier. If they were right when they left and wrong on arrival, it is transit, which means the carrier within their liability limit and the insurer beyond it.
The pre-shipment inspection is what separates those two cases, and without one the argument is unresolvable and usually ends with the buyer absorbing it.
On the commercial side, decide early whether you want the money or the relationship. Pursuing a small Indonesian workshop through a formal process usually ends both, and a negotiated outcome on a continuing relationship is frequently worth more than a claim you might win.
Questions buyers ask.
Can I refuse the whole shipment?
It depends entirely on what the contract says and on whether the failure is fundamental. Refusing a container you have already paid for leaves you with neither goods nor money in a foreign port, so it is a step to take with advice rather than in anger.
The supplier says it was fine when it left. Now what?
That is exactly the question a pre-shipment inspection answers, which is why the inspection is worth more than most buyers think when they skip it. Without one, you are arguing about a container nobody independent examined at either end.
Is it worth claiming on small damage?
Often not, once you count the time and the effect on the relationship. What is always worth doing is documenting it and raising it, because a pattern across shipments is a different conversation from a single incident and you need the record to have it.
Read next.
Inspecting before it sails
The five moments worth inspecting, what a report has to contain, and the mistake that makes an inspection worthless.
Insuring a container properly
The carrier's liability is far smaller than your cargo is worth. What cover to buy and what a claim actually needs.
Packing for a tropical voyage
Container sweat, mould, insects and crushing. Four failure modes that arrive as claims, and what stops each.
What a sample actually proves
The narrow question a sample answers, and why the sealed duplicate you never open is worth more than the one you evaluate.
Pre-shipment inspection
An independent check before the container is sealed. What it covers, what it cannot, and why it costs a fraction of the problem it prevents.
Marine insurance certificate
Whether the seller insures depends on the Incoterm, and the cover level is not what buyers assume. When you need to arrange your own.
Commercial invoice and packing list
The plainest documents in the set and the ones that stop the most shipments, because customs and the bank read them against everything else.
Weights and shortfall
Goods weighed at origin and at destination rarely match. Which gaps are normal and which are a claim.
Traceability and recalls
If you had to withdraw a batch tomorrow, could you say which one. What to hold before you need it.
Specifying the packaging
Left to the factory, packaging is chosen on cost. What to specify instead, and why.
How a reefer container works
A reefer is a machine, not a cold box. What it can do and the three ways shipments are lost.
Checking goods on arrival
Twenty minutes per delivery catches most problems while you can still act on them.
Credits and refunds
A refund is rare, a credit against the next order is normal. How settlements actually work.
Rework at origin
A failed inspection is a decision. Which problems can be reworked and which end the shipment.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.