Michelle at Shanghai International Toy Makers LTD laughs at buyer and scams them “because she can”
Irland
Seller Contact:
Michelle LU
Seller Address:
No.9 Lane 5209 Sanling Road, Shanghai, China
User Experience:
The Chinese factory would not realise the BL in Dublin on the good until I paid an extra $5,000. I did not agree with them and they never ever mentioned $5,000 extra before this time.They said they wanted this money or they would not let me have the goods.
Basically they blackmailed me in to paying extra $5000. The agreed price was $9,300 USD I ended up paying them $14,300 USD. I am still in shock. My hands were tied. There was noting I could do.
There was noting they could do as I needed these cards on Monday as they had to be shipped for Christmas. My client was very distressed because they did not have the goods.
They said that your inspector told them that 15K cards were bad and they had to be redone, I thought they were doing this free of charge as it has happened before because of the quality from their factory and they fixed their problem on other occasions (it was their problem, not mine). They also forgot to put the glue on the envelope, which was a major problem too.
They never charged me extra before for reworking? They also never mention this charge at the time. They got the 1st payment off me in Aug 2013, then they called for the 2nd and final payment when the goods landed in Dublin. This was promptly paid. After this they still would not release the goods (BL) and demanded a further $5,000 for the reprint? or would not release the shipment.
I have never been treated like this before, the problem is I only talked with Michelle in that factory as she is the only one that speaks English. She said they were using this opportunity to take $5,000 extra from me, because they knew I would not use them next year. They were her actual words.
I do have a problem also, the cost to reprint 15k cards does not equal $5,000 . According to Invoice, 30K = $9,300 which would mean that 15K = $4,650 and that is selling price not a cost price which they should have cost me.
I offered them $3,000 extra to release the BL and she replied “NO” they wanted the full $5,000.
Michelle, said she knew about the $5,000 but she decided not to tell me in Aug and waited until the goods landed in Dublin because she knew I needed them and that I would pay the money under distress. She also laughed at this point.
It is absolutely disgraceful business behavior.
My problem is I think Michelle is at fault in the Factory and here bosses do not know what happened and she was covering her own back. I know they are a very reputable company and I think they would be horrified if they knew what really happened.
I placed an order of 200,000 plush bears with ITM earlier this year. Since it was my first business encounter with ITM, I was not sure if the communication between us would be smooth. ITM soon put me at ease and kept me posted every step of the process. And in order to meet the deadline and beat the time difference, they would call me (my day time and their night time) to clarify and get things answered over the phone right away, and the phone conversations were usually confirmed by an email recap. Also they did the quality inspection on each and every one of the order as promised, which I appreciated most.
Overall, I am satisfied with my order and their services and would certainly recommend ITM to my friends.
arthur andersen
Rafteam,
Thanks for sharing your experience with this supplier and helping to warn others. Sadly, extortion and even kidnapping are not uncommon in China business.
Here is a 3rd buyer’s experience, almost identical to the two situations described above:
Blog post: “What to do when a pissed off supplier and his thugs camp out in your China purchasing office.”
http://chinasourcinginfo.org/2013/08/06/what-to-do-when-a-pissed-off-supplier-and-his-thugs-camp-out-in-your-china-purchasing-office/
For reference:
While it is outside of the scope of this website, know that http://www.SourcingServiceCenter.com has helped other readers of SBL to do things like conducting due diligence on potential suppliers and/or engaging a lawyer to coordinate police action against thugs,
Source smart, source safe!
We had similar experience with the same company! Michelle Lu and her boss (Mr. Xiang) would not realease the BL until we paid an extra $46,500 !! The fraud method is the same: they delay the shipment and then they ask the money or they would not let us have the goods. THEY ARE SCOUNDREL!!!
We ordered 4 containers (3×40’HQ + 1×20’GP) of plush microwave toy with removable inside bag of lavender + seeds for a total of $97,520.00. When the containers arrived at La Spezia port (Italy) they ask to paid extra moneys in order to release the BL for each container. The goods were very urgent and we were not able to find any others solutions.
After getting extra $46,500.00 in different payments, Michelle asked to us others moneys for release the BL of the last container. The manager of our Chinese office tried to visit their office in order to solve this trouble… HE WAS KIDNAPPED UNTIL THEY GET THE MONEYS!!
We were in a terrible situation…..unreal!!Our Chinese manager was able to call covertly the police in order to be released.
The police brought them to the police barracks and here the Xiang’s henchmen beat up the our manager!!!
From the police we discovered Xiang is a crook and they have been already investigating on him.
After the police intervention we were able to get the BL of the last container without pay extra moneys, but in the following days our chinese office in Nanjing was occupied from the Xiang’s henchmen!! THEY STILL ASK THE MONEYS threatening our chinese colleauges.
At last we were forced to move the office from Nanjing to another city.
It’s unbelievable and terrible situation, it’s absolutely the worst situation in more than 30 years of work.
NOBODY HAVE TO START BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM!