Does China Have a Return Policy?

In most developed countries, returning a product purchased at a retail location is not a problem. In fact it's so easy that people often will purchase a product when they're not even sure if they will keep it. For example, when a customer purchases a product from Walmart, the world's largest retailer, they are assured that Walmart will take almost anything back, for almost any reason. An excerpt from their return policy reads as follows:

To return a purchase to a store, take the following articles to Customer Service at your local Wal-Mart:

* The item you wish to return

* The invoice for that item

* All original packaging and accessories

For all payment methods except Bill Me Later®, an associate will issue an immediate credit to the original payment method or provide a store credit for the cost of the item and the sales tax, if applicable.

But what happens when Walmart (or your company!) receives defective or substandard goods from a factory in China? Does China have a return policy? The Silk Road International Blog has an interesting article titled Returning Products to a Factory in China where David provides insight into what the reality is on the ground and what your legitimate concerns should be when deciding to request a return of product.

In summary, David points out that if you're receiving defective/ substandard products and you're just finding out about it when it hits the dock at your landed destination, you failed to perform the necessary quality checkpoints that simply are required when working with Chinese factories.

So what's the solution? DON'T EVER SHIP BEFORE YOU (YOU PERSONALLY OR SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE FACTORY) APPROVE IT. It doesn't matter how "good" your relationship with the factory is. It doesn't matter if you've shipped the same thing a dozen times before. It doesn't matter how big your order is or how many other future orders rely on this shipment.

If you've got product in your home country (and you've already paid for it) it's too late to be finding find problems.

However, accidents do happen, schedules are tight, small companies can be inexperienced, etc. In addition to the obvious issues involved with requesting a refund such as potentionally damaging your relationship with the factory, here are 2 points out of the 6 that we consider vital to consider:

2. You may not get the product back into the country-especially if it's defective or already opened because of import restrictions. There are limits to what China (and all countries) will allow into their country. Rejected product and or second hand items are often not allowed into China. You need to confirm with a freight forwarder before you start negotiations with your supplier that this is really an option.

You may also find yourself with an IP (Intellectual Property) issue:

5. You will see the returned product again, somewhere. If the product is usable and if you can send it back into China and if you are getting a second order for free I can guarantee you that the factory will sell the stuff to cover their costs. They don't care about your reputation in the industry-they are concerned about their bottom line, first and foremost. Be prepared for customer service calls from Karachi.

Check out the entire article and as always, do your due diligence to prevent problems from happening once it's too late!