Your first shipment of metal display trays reaches the warehouse. During unpacking, a colleague finds rough edges on trays from one carton and sends the China supplier a close-up photograph. The salesperson offers a discount on the next order. Your buyer has not yet established which trays have the problem, whether other cartons contain them or which agreed requirement they fail. Before accepting that offer, notify the seller of the specific finding and build a claim your team can explain.
The trays and findings are fictional illustrations, not customer transactions or a product-testing standard. This article is general information, not engineering, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice. Qualified specialists must assess safety, conformity, notice requirements and remedies under the actual contract and applicable law. Evidence of a defect does not guarantee a refund.
Notify the seller while you establish the extent
Give the contracting seller the order and lot references, receipt date, affected item and a clear description of the observed problem. Identify where your team found it and attach the evidence already available. State which quantities you have examined and which remain under review. Keep the notice, its attachments and evidence of delivery through the channel required by your agreement.
Your team should review contractual, platform and legal notice requirements at once. An investigation can continue after an initial specific notice; waiting for a complete warehouse report may put a deadline at risk. Ask counsel whether and how to supplement the notice as new findings appear. A request for the salesperson to investigate does not itself extend a deadline.
The CISG text, Articles 38 and 39, addresses examination of goods and notice specifying the nature of a lack of conformity. Counsel must check whether it applies and how the contract and relevant declarations affect your position. Article 39's outer time limit is not permission to wait before reporting a defect you have discovered. This article supplies no universal complaint period.
Compare the finding with the accepted product
Retrieve the specification and approved revision that apply to this batch. Your product reviewer should explain the observed difference against that requirement, using an appropriate assessment method. For the trays, the reviewer needs to assess the edge condition and any safety implications before purchasing treats the goods as saleable.
Use the sample-reference guide to identify a specimen the parties accepted. A photograph of an attractive booth tray may help locate the sample, but the reviewer needs the actual agreed basis and any documented changes. Preserve the supplier's explanation separately from your team's observations.
Article 35 of the CISG addresses contractual conformity, including quality, description and packaging. It does not let your buyer replace an agreed specification with a new preference after delivery. Have the responsible reviewer distinguish an unmet requirement from a feature your business now wishes it had ordered.
Map examined goods without guessing the whole batch
Record item, variant, carton marks and any production-lot identifiers. Separate goods examined and accepted, goods with recorded findings, and goods your team has not examined. An unopened carton remains unexamined stock; a defect in one tray does not establish that every tray in the shipment has the same fault.
Preserve identified specimens and relevant packaging for review. Ask the qualified reviewer how to segregate affected stock and prevent unsuitable goods entering sales. Keep original photographs and inspection notes with their date, location and context. A close-up without an item or carton reference is hard for another reviewer to connect to the purchase.
Purchasing could prepare this record for the fictional trays:
| Claim detail | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Purchase baseline | Seller, order, invoice and accepted specification or sample revision |
| Arrival and identity | Receipt date, item, variant, lot and carton references |
| Finding | Observed defect, reviewer assessment and requirement concerned |
| Examination coverage | Method and quantities examined, findings and stock still unexamined |
| Preserved material | Identified specimens, original photographs and relevant packaging |
| Notice history | Recipient, channel, dates, attachments and subsequent updates |
| Proposed settlement | Goods and findings covered, requested remedy and unresolved matters |
These are editorial claim-preparation fields, not a sampling standard or a legal notice template. If your team wants an estimate for unexamined stock, commission an appropriate assessment and retain its limits. Do not turn a convenience sample into a shipment-wide defect percentage.
Agree an assessment that can resolve the disagreement
Give the seller a chance to respond to the identified finding and evidence under the applicable process. Its assertion that the damage happened during transport needs assessment, just as your buyer's assertion that the factory caused it does. Preserve relevant arrival and packaging records rather than discard them after unpacking.
If another inspection is needed, use the independent-inspector guide to agree access, scope, method and reporting with a competent contractor. Your team needs an answer about these goods against the accepted requirement. Another general supplier audit would address a different question.
Discuss which specimens the reviewer may examine, who retains them and how any destructive testing is authorised. Record agreed inspection costs without assuming that commissioning an assessment makes the seller liable for the bill. Keep applicable notice deadlines active while the parties arrange access.
Limit a partial settlement to what the parties intend
A proposal for money back should name the affected goods, amount, currency and treatment of remaining stock. Have counsel review any wording about acceptance, waiver or final settlement before an authorised person agrees. A refund for identified trays can leave another finding open, but the settlement must say what the parties actually intend.
CISG Articles 50 and 51 address price reduction and remedies for a non-conforming part, with conditions. They do not provide a flat refund percentage based on photographs or let this article decide your entitlement. Your adviser should assess the remedy and any seller proposal to cure the problem.
The supplier-refund guide covers the separate task of agreeing a return route and reconciling money received. First establish the scope that the settlement covers. A future-order discount remains a commercial proposal until the parties agree it; do not close the claim merely because the salesperson offered one.
Use pay an invoice for an A2vanta payment enquiry, or the established support channel for a question about an earlier payment. A2vanta does not inspect the trays, determine refund rights or negotiate the quality claim. Give your buyer and advisers the evidence needed for those decisions.