Dear my friends,
Nice to meet you here.

I have meet the trouble, please gice me your advice. One of my customer from USA want us send the sample to him, but he didn't want to pay for shipment fee.

What would you do if you meet such trouble?

Replying To  [lindy]:

Very simple - Don't send any samples to him.

If he is too lousy to pay for the Courier Charge, then he is not going to order.

Replying to [lindy]:
Sample free but freight collected

Replying to [lindy]: lindy, I see this all the time. As a US customer it drives me crazy that Chinese ask for courier. This is because as a supplier to my own customers I send out samples all day long with the promise that one fish will bite. Samples in the USA are seen as a marketing expense and have a return on investment. The more samples you send the more customers you will eventually have. But Chinese do not see things this way. I have to say the mentality in the USA is spend money to make money. In China it's save money to make money. I don't ever pay samples fee on principle. This is because there are 100's of supplier and many do not have prices or service to make me comfortable enough to justify spending 100$ of shipping. So if I am just not that interested in the product why would I pay $100 USD for the fee? I can find another supplier that understand US business culture and etiquette and pay for freight then I would rather work with them. It is a indicator of the relationship I am bound to have with them. US and Canadian customers can be insulted by this fee. I noticed on most message boards that Aussie's, Africans, and European's pay for freight. But what can I say, in the USA a supplier would just never dream of asking a sample or freight fee.

I am one of those Aussie's that believes in paying sample costs. So let me give you my take on your comments for what it is worth.

First off I don't see factory samples as being promotional freebies. The samples that are offered by those factories are generally just final quality confirmation items prior to an order coming in. As such although there may be an upfront cost to the customer in securing the sample this money soon comes back when the order is placed. So in that way the sample really is free of charge for the customer.

Secondly, in your example these would be a 'marketing expense' and as we all know expenses need to be recouped. In the case of companies that routinely offer samplers of their products like shampoo and toothpaste the company has budgeted for these samples in their marketing expenses. These marketing expenses are recovered by a small addition to the unit price. So in that way the customer is actually paying for all the samples even if they never actually got one.

Someone pays for samples and it would be rare for a company to cover this cost themselves. In almost all cases the cost is deflected to the customer by slight increases in product price and that means that it is the legitimate customer that ends up covering the costs rather than those who accept samples but never order.

[The more samples you send the more customers you will eventually have.]

That is no longer true in many cases of product coming from China. In the past I would have agreed with you that the more samples a factory put out the more chance that they would have for an order - but that was because the recipients of those samples were legitimately looking to place orders. These days more and more people are requesting samples without any interest in actually placing orders. So many of the samples put out in the market place are dead ends that will never lead to orders no matter how good the sample quality is.

[I have to say the mentality in the USA is spend money to make money.]

We also have a saying in the west that 'nothing is free'. I believe that this is true for samples as the costs will be borne by someone and t is most likely the customer.

You are right that you don't want to waste money buying samples that are no good, but this is why you need to bring your due dilligence forward to ensure as best as you can that the factory is a good one BEFORE you order the samples.

[So if I am just not that interested in the product why would I pay $100 USD for the fee?]

If you are not that interested in the product then why should the factory cover the costs of producing the sample and shipping it to you? I think that this is exactly the sort of attitude that has forced factories to start charging for samples and shipping. Too many people order free samples without enough consideration for whether or not they really need them.

In my experience the problem there is that you may be left dealing with the sort of factory that can't get customers any other way.

[US and Canadian customers can be insulted by this fee.]

And Chinese suppliers can be insulted that you expect them to cover the cost of the samples and/or shipping. So I don't think that we can really take cultural idiosyncracies into consideration here.

I don't see the downside to paying for samples if you are a legitimate buyer. Sure you may waste some money on samples from suppliers that turn out to be sub-standard but that is the whole point of sampling. You have saved yourself from placing an order there too which may have been a disaster. If you sample from a factory that turns out to have the quality that you want then you place your order and get the sampling costs back.

Tell me, other than the dislike of paying for these costs, from a purely financial sense, what is your aversion to paying for samples?

Replying to [lindy]:I am a small buyer in Canada. If I am interested in a product and can get a free sample then I am very willing to pay a shipping cost (if it is not over inflated). It is tax deductible.
There are too many people out there who want something for nothing and you are not in business to give things away.

[(Interesting. I assume your products are quite cheap. I can't see you flipping out free samples of $100.00 products left right and center. Besides the fact that the shipping cost inside the US is a paltry amount against the cost of shipping overseas.... And you are one of the few people I have heard that finds a sample fee insulting.... Must be daddy's company.)]

I assume that this reply was meant for me so let me reply to your comments.

The only exceptions as far as I can see to sample payment would be:

a. raw material or swatches etc that have no commercial value;
b. a sample that cannot be resold such as one shoe with sole drilled out, or a printed item in some other companies name etc.

In every other case where the sample has a value and can be used or onsold then in my opinion the supplier has a right to ask for payment for that item. As has been stated on this forum many times, your motives for getting the samples may be legitimate. but unfortunately not everyone's are.

I don't see that the actual cost of the sample has much to do with things really.

If you think that the samples are so cheap that the supplier should have no problem covering the costs, then why not cover the costs yourself if they are so little?

If you think that the sample cost is so high that you cannot afford to pay for it then don't you think that perhaps the supplier has the same problem?

Sure in cases where the sample cost is less than the shipping cost it is a fair deal if the supplier covers the sample cost and the customer covers the shipping cost. Half/half. But as I say this would not apply to product that could be onsold or obtained for personal use.

Why am I so pro paying for samples even though I am a buyer? Well I realize that if too many samples are obtained that don't lead to orders then the following will happen:

a. product costs will go up as factories cover sampling costs by increasing costs on ordered product;

b. factories will become more reluctant to offer samples in the first place

I would be interested to see your reply to the above comments. To me this is an interesting topic and one that I would like to see your response on.

Samples...it depends on the supplier. If I like their attitude I offer to pay for the sample, freight and even a 7 day cruise for them and a friend...if I don't like the attitude I'll explore the matter by pushing the issue...if they pay for everything then the attitude is fine...if they keep the attitude and refuse payment...it's "onward Christian Soldier" to the next email.

Replying to [HKGJOHN]:

A letter to Dear John

Dear John, oh how I hate to write. Dear John, I must let you know tonight.

Cause my company will go bust if a hundred people people ask for samples every month without making a purchase. DHL, TNT. UPS do not provide free air freight for samples.

I have a strict policy of asking my prospective buyers to pay for the freight of samples. If they place an order with us I would refund them the cost of the sample's freight. Isn't that fair? Most Chinese company are doing just that.

You've got to understand that you are not the only buyer asking for samples from one single manufacturer. You try promoting your business by sending free samples and free freight to 100 overseas' buyers a month without making a sale. I dare say that given all the money in the US treasury you will not even be able to sustain such a business promotion.

Replying to [lindy]: This is an ever increasing problem between supplier and buyer as the cost to transport anything keeps rapidly increasing due to energy costs. Light weight samples move through the system via express delivery the most expensive way to send items. There is a way around this but it would mean that suppliers would have to build good relationships with freight forwarders and buyers would have to be patient in receiving samples. The best way is to include samples to potential customers on a monthly shipping basis with LCL to different countries. You could consider it a kind of piggy back system. I dont have all the answers but it would seem that sample shipping could be less expensive in this way for both sides.

Ranger

Replying to [lindy]:forget him and look for valuable clients.