Online order gone wrong, factory owner cheated

Conned: Tan showing the inferior material he received from China that he ordered through a website. (Photo from Guang Ming Daily)
Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/9/26/central/9529321&sec=central (By JASTIN AHMAD TARMIZI, 26/9/2011)
A factory owner was cheated when he bought goods worth almost RM500,000 from a website recently.
Tan Chong Chew, 48, whose factory manufactures thermoplastic road marking material in Kota Damansara, said he ordered four containers of hydrocarbon resin for making road marking from three companies in China only to receive fake and inferior material. “My company has been importing this material from China for almost 10 years from one supplier. The usual supplier had to stop production for maintenance of the factory for a few months. “We cannot stop production as there is a demand here so we had to source from other suppliers,” he said. Tan said he had asked the companies to send specimens of the material before making the purchase. “The specimen they sent was genuine and we paid a 30% deposit to confirm the order and paid the rest once the goods were on board the ship. “When we received the product, they were not the material we ordered,” he said, adding that the material he received was inferior such as bitumen. Tan said after receiving all the goods, he tried to negotiate with the suppliers, however, the three companies denied sending the wrong product. “Two of the companies agreed to compensate assuring me they would deduct from future purchases and told me to place another order,” he said. Tan said he went to China twice to complain to the authorities only to find that the address given by the suppliers were non-existent.
Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, who accompanied the victim at the press conference, urged people to be more careful when buying products on the internet. “We have to always check with the relevant authorities and confirm whether it is a genuine supplier before making a purchase,” he said. “I will try to highlight this case to the Chinese embassy in Malaysia and the police,” he added.