Your order plan.

What usually goes wrong

For your goods: what has gone wrong for other buyers, the sign it was coming, and what an experienced hand does.

You have not told us your goods yet, so these are the lines that apply to any goods.

We have no notes for your route yet, so these are the lines that apply to any route.

• The supplier is not what it says it is. The sign: a catalogue that spans unrelated categories, a name that contains "manufacturing" the licence scope does not support, and a reluctance to do a live tour, "still photos instead of a live video call". What an experienced hand does: reads the business scope on the licence, then asks for an unscripted video call and "a line worker, not just the supervisor".
• The sample is better than the production. The sign: no pre-production sample offered, or a sample fee "treated as a tax or a negotiating chip". What an experienced hand does: orders the pre-production sample, expects "Two rounds", and does not pay the production deposit "until you have approved a signed-off PPS".
• The specification cannot be measured, so the dispute cannot be won. The sign: adjectives where numbers should be. What an experienced hand does: writes dimensions with tolerances, material grades and a reference to the approved sample's serial number.
• The deposit goes to the wrong account. The sign: "Unexpected requests to update supplier or creditor contact information" and "Urgent pressure to change payment details". What an experienced hand does: rings a number held before the request; "Use contact details you already hold or that have been obtained independently, not those included in the request."
• The supplier goes quiet. The sign is the slowing itself; the delays compound before the silence. What an experienced hand does: remembers that "A supplier who has gone quiet is often not a fraudster", and is more likely "embarrassed, cash-strapped, or drowning in a factory problem they cannot admit", and opens a direct, specific conversation while there is still a factory to talk to.
• There was no inspection, and the leverage is gone. The sign: a balance paid against a photograph. What an experienced hand does: books the inspection before the balance and pays against the report.
• The cargo is damaged by how it was packed. The sign: no loading photographs, no packing specification in the order. What an experienced hand does: writes the packing into the order, asks for photographs of the stuffed container before the doors close, and follows the CTU Code the insurers call "industry best practice".

Before you commit

A checklist for your goods, drawn from public guidance.

1. For a new counterparty, pay by deposit and balance against shipping documents, keep the money on the platform if there is one, and buy the inspection you would otherwise be paying the bank for. Move to open account only after the third clean order.
2. Buy FCA (origin terminal) or FOB if the supplier insists, book your own forwarder, buy your own Clauses A insurance from the moment risk passes, and clear import yourself or through an agent you appointed.
3. A supplier who offers to ship Chinese-made goods "via" a third country to avoid a duty is offering you a customs offence in which you are the importer of record.
4. Tell your forwarder or agent in writing, before the goods arrive, that you want postponed VAT accounting on every entry.
5. The bank and the customs officer are checking the same thing from two sides: that every document tells one story.
6. Treat the seller's CIF certificate as worth roughly nothing, buy your own Clause A cover from the point risk passes to the point of delivery at your warehouse, and if you must buy CIF, ask for CIP terms or for the seller to insure on Clause A at your cost.
7. For a first container from Asia the lead time is production time plus two to three weeks of pre-carriage, cut-off and sailing wait, plus the port-to-port transit, plus a week at the UK end for discharge, clearance and haulage.
8. For a first order, the sequence is register, licence, scope, video call, sample, then deposit; the bank account name must match the licence; any change to that account is confirmed by a call to a number you held before the change; and the contract names a forum in the supplier's own country.
9. For a first order, budget one audit day before the deposit and one inspection day before the balance, set AQL at 0 critical, 2.5 major, 4.0 minor at Level II unless your goods have a safety dimension, and write the specification so an inspector who has never met you could fail the lot from it.
10. For a first dollar-priced order, confirm inside the quote's validity, write the currency and the price on the purchase order, pay the deposit at spot, cover the balance with a window forward from a regulated provider, send it OUR, and cost the duty at HMRC's rate for the month of entry.

Each line has its source. Open "Why we say this" to see them.

These notes come from public guidance and published practice, not from your figures. They change nothing in the plan above.