Encounter with fake buyers is still an issue for Indian exporters especially for those who have limited resources and the chances of running into a fake buyer increases whenever an exporter is dealing with anyone for the first time. The latest case to come to the front is related to a French buyer who has not made the final payment and is currently untraceable. Samarth Sangal, CEO, Textile Stock, Delhi shared with Apparel Online that he had dispatched a shipment to Barcelona-based Miguel allegedly of Concora Special, a first time buyer for him who finalized a reasonable size order of cushions and paid 10 per cent advance also. Balance payment was mutually decided to be paid against scan proof of shipping documents. After due diligence, Samarth gave the proof of shipment to Miguel [scan copy of BL (bill of lading)], certificate of Origin and Invoice/Packing list, but to no avail.
Textile Stock is purely an export based platform for Indian exporters where they can get reasonable price for their struck shipment rather than to go to the local stockist and sell the goods at pennies.
“After the delivery we had one communication with Miguel in which he renegotiated prices without any strong reason and kept the goods at our expense in a warehouse till he pays for the goods. After that we have neither received any response from Miguel, nor have received the balance payment. We called many times on his numbers and even sent a known person to France, but he is still untraceable. Even the address given to us was just his postal address,” says Samarth who had contacted ECGC to know about the buyer before this shipment but the ECGC had no information as it was new buyer for them also.
Apparel Online also sent an e-mail to Miguel to know his side of the story, but he didn’t respond. “Nowadays 10 per cent advance is nothing, especially when working with new buyers as most of the exporters are now asking for full advance. I am facing loss as there is no platform to help exporters in situations like this, and also no system to ban such fake buyers exists,” concludes Samarth.
