A Little Mistake? No, May Cause Great Loss!

Here I’d like to share a story, an order from a new client with a tortuous process.

This article will show, why the process was so tortuous? How did I annoy the new clients? What’s the result and what I learnt from the order?

PS, my new client is from Malta, and I will call him R.

1.?Tortuous process

(1)?Issue one: payment by bank transfer failed

As we always do TT in advance, R said the transfer failed and required making payment by PayPal.

(2)?Issue two: the address on PayPal was different with receiver’s actual address

As PayPal prefers to protect buyers, if buyer claimed they didn’t receive the goods, the money will be back to buyer's account.

(3)?Issue three: our forwarder quoted the wrong shipping cost

Finally, we approved to receive money by PayPal.

When goods were ready to send, forwarder said the shipping cost was wrong.?

Before we quoted DHL, now actually shipping cost was much higher.

(4)?Issue four: I decided to ship by UPS, but didn’t notify R in time

To cover the cost, I decided to change DHL to UPS, as UPS was cheaper.

This was the biggest mistake I made, as the customs is quite strict in Malta, actually R reminded me to use DHL, I ignored that point.

(5)?We failed to cancel the shipment by UPS

R required to cancel UPS, but the goods had already been collected by UPS, it was impossible to cancel.

Then, there is no use in crying over the spilt milk. What is done cannot be undone.

2.?Result about the shipment

(1) Finally R received the goods

(2)?Our compensation

I promised to give him some discount in the next order.

My mistake made his purchasing so complex and harder. I know he has done so much effort to get the goods.

3.?What did I learn from this order?

(1) To control the risk

We never know what the person will be like in front of the computer. Must be cautious of any issue related to money.

You can make no margin, but never get a loss.

I think I am lucky, R is not a liar. Even though he told me if his goods were abandoned by the customs, we must refund to him.

(2) Highly value of every word of your client

R reminded me ship by DHL, but I didn't get that point was so important. And made a decision without his approval.

That was definitely a big mistake, a serious issue.

(3) Take the responsibility of your decision

After the forwarder quoted higher shipping cost, actually we should negotiate with them, or bear that part by ourselves. But not to make a decision for R.

And If R cheated me, I need to bear all the cost for goods, and be scolded by the boss. That's so bad... I can't imagine...

Fortunately he didn't, god bless me.

I really appreciate for his honesty and effort. We also get his later order...