When the shipment is wrong
Four words do the work: 次品 (defective goods), 和样品不一样 (not the same as the sample), 返工 (rework) and 索赔 (a claim). The question that moves things along is not an accusation but 你们打算怎么处理？ — "how do you plan to handle this?"
What actually happens
This is the part of a sourcing relationship nobody plans for, and the way it is opened decides most of how it ends. A complaint that arrives as anger invites a defensive answer, and defensive answers in Chinese business are courteous, vague and very hard to argue with. A complaint that arrives as photographs, quantities, a defect rate and a dated summary invites a number back.
Learn to recognise three deflections, none of which is dishonest exactly. 这是运输问题 ("that's a shipping problem") moves the fault to the carrier, and only an inspection report from before the goods sailed settles it. 下次给您补偿 ("we'll make it up to you next time") is a credit note dressed as an apology, and it is worth nothing if you are not reordering. 我们查一下 ("we'll look into it") is fine, provided you ask when — an open-ended enquiry closes itself.
The single most useful sentence here is not a demand at all. 我们想继续合作。 — "we want to keep working together" — said early and meant, changes the whole shape of the conversation, because it tells your supplier that solving this is worth more to them than winning it. Say it, then be precise about the remedy.
What they'll say back to you
Understanding the reply is the half of the conversation phrasebooks skip. These are the lines you will actually hear in this situation — learn to recognise them, not to say them.
What to say
Reporting it
Being specific about it
Asking for a remedy
Keeping the relationship
The bit that isn't language
Agree a third-party pre-shipment inspection in the terms of the very first order, when it is a routine clause and nobody reads anything into it. Introduced later, after something has gone wrong, the same sentence reads as an accusation — and by then the goods are already in your warehouse rather than the supplier's.
Quick quiz — 5 questions
Five questions built from the phrases above: you get the English, you pick the Chinese. No sign-up, no score kept — just a check that they have stuck.
How do you say this?
Common mistakes
| ✗ What visitors do | ✓ What works | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Opening with an angry email in English | Opening with photographs, a defect rate and a date | Anger produces courtesy, and courtesy here is a way of not answering. Evidence produces an offer. The tone costs you nothing and changes what comes back. |
| Accepting 下次给您补偿 without asking what it is worth | Asking for a credit or a partial refund now | A discount on a future order is only compensation if there is a future order. Pin it to a figure and an invoice, or take the refund. |
| Raising 索赔 before you have a report | Getting a third-party inspection first | A claim without documentation is an opinion, and it invites the transport-damage answer that cannot then be disproved. The inspection is cheap next to the shipment. |
Quality problems and claims — frequently asked questions
What does 次品 (cìpǐn) mean?
Defective or substandard goods — the items in a batch that fail your specification. It is the word to use for the units themselves; the rate at which they occur is 不良率 (bùliánglǜ), and quoting that percentage is far more effective than describing the problem, because a remedy gets calculated from a number.
What does 返工 (fǎngōng) mean and who pays for it?
Rework — the supplier repairing or re-finishing the goods rather than replacing them. Whether it makes sense depends almost entirely on freight: if the goods have already shipped, sending them back to China and out again can cost more than the order. Settle who pays each leg before agreeing to it.
Is it worth making a claim (索赔) against a Chinese supplier?
For a large order with a bilingual contract, a chopped copy and an inspection report, yes — the process is real and suppliers settle. For a small first order it is usually not economic, which is exactly why a pre-shipment inspection matters more than legal recourse: it catches the problem while the goods are still in China and still the supplier's.
What should I do the day a bad shipment arrives?
Photograph everything before unpacking further — the cartons, the labels, the damage, and a defect against the agreed sample side by side. Count what is there. Then send one message with the photographs, the quantity short, the defect rate and the date, and ask 你们打算怎么处理？. Everything after that is easier if the first message was evidence rather than a reaction.
Next
Before you fly
Work through the whole trip in Ready for a trip to China in 30 days, play Travel Survival Sprint to make the phrases automatic, practise saying them aloud in Airport Roleplay, or look up anything else in the Chinese → Pinyin translator.