Zhongyuanhuida Metal Material Imp&Exp Co., Ltd (河北中远汇达金属材料进出口贸易有限公司)
Blacklisted in B2B Supplier/Buyer Blacklist

• We agreed on the payment being 30% of the total amount in advance and the balance after we received a copy of the Bill of Lading, the port of loading was Xingang port, in Tianjin, China. At the end of October 2020, they sent us digital copies of the draft B/L, Packing List and a cargo photo, it seemed the operation was going as usual. Strangely enough, on November 2020, after the supplier agreed on the sale, issued invoice, B/L etc. they communicated us they did not have the the specific grade of Aluminium that we originally wanted, and that it would still need to be produced. They asked if we could accept an alternative type of aluminium. • We insisted on the original request negotiated beforehand, to which they confirmed they would put in preference order for production and ship to us. It is interesting to highlight during this stage, we had to repeatedly ask them to make small corrections on the documents (Proforma Invoice, Draft B/L) they sent us…such as inclusion of the applied Incoterm, insurance costs and fees that would be due to the cargo agent once the products would arrive in Brazil. • After this, the supplier finally confirmed the cargo was ready and the shipment left on November 28, 2020 to Brazil with our container. We paid the remaining amount. • On December 11, 2020 we requested all original documents (B/L, packing list, invoice et) in color, scanned and signed. • Later, on December 16, 2020 a digital copy of an Insurance certificate was finally provided to us via e-mail, an original hardcopy was offered but never actually provided • A Fed ex number for the original B/L was provided, however we were unable to trace that number at first. On contacting the supplier, they informed us there was a covid outbreak in their province of Hebei, which was in lockdown and services were limited. We cannot determine if the lockdown directly affected their ability to post documents to us, though through our preliminary research it appears there was no impact as most lockdowns were region by region and the areas affected during that time don’t correlate with their location. • However, we still gave them the benefit of the doubt, even though they may have used that as some kind of plausible excuse for what was about to unfold. • On January 14, 2021 we demanded the original copy of the B/L in color to Mrs. Tracy (the supplier’s employee) who said this could not be done because in her own words “need to wait for original to be released by delivery, then we can release B/L to you via telex”. • Oddly enough, during post due diligence we checked with the shipping company and the original B/L was printed on December 9, 2020, one month before our request. We told them all these procedures should have been done in advanced, not post shipping. • On February 17, 2021 the ship arrived in Brazil and our worst fears became a reality. The quantity and quality of product we had agreed on did not arrive. • From the original 40 tonnes, only 1 tonne arrived of a different kind of aluminium plate (we asked plates with 6m, they sent 4m). • Fortunately for us, Brazil customs would not release whatever was actually sent due to the massive discrepancy on the quantity and weight in relation to the bill of lading. • We immediately contacted them, demanding explanations on what might have happened and further info for import cancelation. • They initially said they did not know what could have happened and would do an internal investigation (which to this date has not occurred nor have we received any report from them about any progress of such an investigation). • We requested them to check the cctv surveillance from the port and their factory, however to this day we had no response in relation to this either. • After an exchange of e-mails and WhatsApp messages with promises to investigate, they quickly accepted it was a problem on their side and offered us a refund of the full amount formalized trough a Refund Agreement which we signed and emailed on 2021/03/08. • We also sent an export declaration sample so they could declare to Chinese authorities to facilitate the return of the metal and the container to China. • At the end of February, 2021 the supplier advised us they would accept full responsibility and would lodge a claim with the Tianjin port after their internal investigation. • After this, a series of ‘so-called’ attempts at transferring money back to us failed with basically no plausible explanation. For example, they would mention they tried to remit the amount but for some reason the bank in Brazil did not accept it (we checked with our Brazilian Bank and no transfer whatsoever was identified). • The supplier claimed that they attempted to make some ‘test transfer amounts’ of 5000 USD to see “if it works”. When pressed as to why they did that, they said ‘if that doesn’t work, then the whole thing won’t work, so it’s better to test it.’ • We couldn’t understand this reasoning but still we continued to engage with them and being lead astray. • Later they would send us a basic screenshot from a cellphone as some kind of “proof” of the transfer, but no transfer in Brazil arrived even after we offered them a different bank account option. • They continued to stall us and even mentioned that since there were banking transfer restrictions imposed by their government, that was the cause of it before but now it has been resolved (which while money transfers can be difficult out of China, in this case we know that daily banking transactions between Brazil and China were taking place and these restrictions did not exist). • Needles to say, this refund still never materialized and for almost the entirety of March, 2021 they were just stalling playing with us to save more time to see if we would give up on the request. After this, eventually supplier stopped responding and communicating with us. • We then contacted a Chinese Law Firm to help collect the debt in our behalf. Initially mediation efforts were conducted and the supplier, (through a brother of the legal representative of the supplier) willingly participated and attended them (2 sessions). • We offered them the option to transfer the refund to the bank account of this law firm in China (which would not have any impediments since it would be a domestic transfer) but they also stalled and never paid the amount. • The supplier asked questions about the circumstances which we already advised them, and how it was we discovered the problem etc. Again, it was a good thing that Brazil customs contacted us without ever releasing the consignment, this way we cannot be even accused of tampering. • Once again, the supplier stopped communicating and engaging with us. We conducted some due diligence and found the current shareholders of the company to be: - 马晓阳 - Ma Xiaoyang (60% of shares and Legal Representative); - 路保堂 – Lubaotang (40% of Shares); Due Diligence checks also showed that the supplier ha slinks with two other suppliers that have already been blacklisted (same phone number as well as shareholders).