I reported a story here about a supplier which caused my buyer's trouble.
I almost wanted to treat it as a "scam"
But today I wanted to go on this story, as it is a miracle after that.
More orders and more cooperations with this supplier after a scam was happend and will be happen.

How and why?

Let me give a brief introduction about this supplier and the previous plot.

My Europe buyer ordered some car mp3 and SD cards from a supplier. ( I didn't source or trade on it)
I help with inspection and delivery assistant as his agent.
He didn't require me to test SD cards but asked me to test car mp3 only.
 (A percentage of the car mp3 had quality problem, I returned for replacements.

The supplier talked to me in private that they didn't expect I had them checked one by one)
When the buyer sold the SD cards after received, he found the cards were made with the refurbish chips.
He talked to the supplier, and posted them back. He wanted a refund instead of replaced cards.
He said, jasmine, if they want to give you the replaced cards, pls don't take it, as i don't believe them at all now.
 
I help to ask a refund from the supplier. They didn't agree. They wanted to replace with new cards only.
I quarreled a lot with the supplier on behalf of my buyer for some times.
My buyer and I felt depressed. It seems a lost there.

At the end I suggested my buyer to order new products and ask the supplier to replace with the new products also.
I guessed my buyer would think jasmine was crazy and how she could suggest such a solution?! It doesn't help.
But he understood me and adopt my my suggestion.

As I told my buyer, "when you give the new order to them, they are happy that you still trust them, they may be willing to do more for you."

Then when i talked to the supplier this way, they was happy as what we expected. But later they decided to replace the cards with the products my buyer interested in. You see, their attitude is different.
 
I got the new replacements(car mp3), and found they were good quality this time, my buyer was also happy with the quality.
Several weeks ago, my buyer would like to place the car mp4 (also order car mp3 together), but he asked my advice if he can still come to this supplier.
As he had some shadows last time. I told him, in my view, it is no problem, I will inspect for you strict and plus we already saw their attitude changed.
So the buyer ordered the car mp3 and mp4 from the supplier.

I found most of them are in steady quality after inspection and replaced with a few faulty ones.
Now my buyer received them and told me that they are good quality and sell well there, especially the mp4.
He is planning to order more this month.

I don't suggest the buyers to work like this when he deal with a tough or scam supplier.
But somethings can be change if you communicate with another solution if you have the problems or misunderstanding with the moral suppliers.  

Anyway, I believe communication will changes the world, even for the country affairs. Communication is so important in social life!

yada yada yada......ok I also agree communication is important. I don't think that the original purchase was for used products. So why did they send him used stuff. That is a normal business expectation. The sellers can start by learning good business ethics. Actually, learning good business ethics might be too hard for them right now....how about they start at learning normal business ethics then they can move up to learn the other.

A guy who deserves the name "serious buyer" shouldn't call this "yada yada". Instead, it's an experience acquired.

Way too many people thoughtlessly go down the beaten path, following established rules and advices. And in fact, some of these rules and advices are outrageously silly. These people aren't much better than zombies or programmed computers.

On the other hand, trying something new, based on your experience and intelligence, quite often teaches you useful lessons, like in this case. Congrats to Jasmine for her success!

I still ponders why the supplier tried to pull a quick one on the first order.

Why they can't be honest?

Quote: I still ponders why the supplier tried to pull a quick one on the first order.


Why they can't be honest?

My guess is that he has bad financial problems (who not in these times?) and wanted to avoid the extra expense arranging this deal would have caused him. By selling again, he recovered part of that money.

My expectations as a consumer is to receive new products for the money I pay, unless it is stated "used" or "refurbished".  I would hope this is the expection that most of us have too.  My guess is that most of use do.  It turned out that the Seller was not honest to begin with and that is the start of the the issue.  If the Seller did not try to pull "a fast one" on the Buyer, there would have been no need for further discussion by the middle person. 

I think that it would be a miracle if the Seller learns that that is not a way to do business.  So much time of going back and forth trying to solve this problem could have been avoided.  In the end the Seller still made out on everybody.

Who knows, the person in the middle could have been involved.  I have been scammed.  I take the extreme level of caution on this Alibaba site that i don't even buy from anybody.  I just help warn others of scams or potential scams.

germex wrote:

My guess is that he has bad financial problems (who not in these times?) and wanted to avoid the extra expense arranging this deal would have caused him. By selling again, he recovered part of that money.

Isn't that rather dishonest? The seller gets the money while the buyers receive inferior products and endless headache.

I don't like this idea of placing second order to recover losses from the first order. If a seller is shonky, why would he suddenly become honest in subsequent orders?

Your assessment about the seller might be correct, but I wasn't talking about him. My opinion is only that the way this problem was dealt with shows experience and common sense.

I would have thought it's rather risky to place a second and larger order with a dodgy supplier

From Jasmine's description it's really hard to judge the situation. In life there are often important factors you can't really describe, like the other person's voice, the way he looks at you, etc. Only if you have some experience, will this tell you a lot and help you make a decision.

That's why in my first post I was talking about people who act like zombies or programmed computers. Most people don't have the ability to judge a person by those "secondary" manifestations and therefore act in an insecure and pre-established way. But apparently Jasmine does have this ability and therefore was able to solve a problem. So once again my congrats to her.

Though of course, until you develop this experience, you better proceed with extreme care.

it is really risky. but maybe your trust and decision got their attention. That producer is so lucky to make a deal with you. we are also a supplier, we can't do that like them, if so, we will lose this customer at all. Believe this supplier treats you as God now, anyway, wish you luck