Claims made by the buyer against the seller in connection with the non-compliance of the quality and quantity of the delivered goods with the terms of the contract are called complaints.
Complaints may be made by the buyer only on such issues that were not the subject of acceptance of the goods made in accordance with the terms of the contract, as well as in cases where it is found that the documents submitted by the seller do not correspond to the actual data characterizing the delivery of the goods.
The parties to the contract establish: the procedure for submitting a complaint; the time limits within which the complaint can be submitted; the rights and obligations of the parties in connection with the presentation of the complaint; methods of settling the complaint.
The complaint is submitted in writing and contains the following data: the name of the advertised product, its quantity and location; the basis for the complaint, indicating for what defects it can be presented; the buyer’s specific requirements for the settlement of the complaint.
The complaint is usually sent by registered mail with the attachment of all the necessary evidentiary documents:
acts of expertise; reclamation acts drawn up with the participation of a representative of a disinterested competent organization; bills of lading, specifications, quality certificates, and in case of intra-container shortages – packing lists.
In these documents, reference must be made to the number of the contract and the number of the transport document. The date of presentation of the complaint is the date of the postmark of the shipment.
The terms of filing a complaint established in the contract depend, first of all, on the nature of the goods supplied. Contracts set different deadlines for filing complaints for quality and quantity: quality is longer than quantity, since hidden defects in the goods are difficult to detect. After the expiry of the period specified in the contract, complaints will not be accepted.
The presentation by the buyer of a complaint cannot serve as a basis for refusing both the goods for which the complaint is submitted and the acceptance of subsequent instalments under the contract. The contract usually specifies the mechanism for making claims in the form of complaints. According to it, the buyer must:
place the rejected goods in your warehouse separately from other goods in one place and inform the seller of the location of the goods and the timing of its readiness for inspection; draw up an act of examination for all detected defects in accordance with the current rules in the buyer’s country. If the subject of the complaint is the quality of the goods, the buyer may provide the seller, at his request, together with the act of examination, samples of the rejected goods; provide the seller with a correctly executed complaint within the period specified in the contract.
The seller is obliged to consider the complaint and report on it his decision no later than the deadline established in the contract. If, within this period, the seller does not respond to the merits of the claim, it is considered to be recognized by the seller and the buyer has the right to apply to arbitration with the attribution of the costs of the arbitration case to the seller’s account.
The settlement of the complaint can be made in one of the following ways:
making up for the shortfall in the delivery of goods by quantity in a separate batch or with subsequent deliveries; by returning the rejected goods and paying their value in cash; correction of defects in the rejected goods at the expense of the seller; replacement of the rejected goods with another that meets the terms of the contract (all costs are at the expense of the seller); providing a discount from the price of the rejected goods or by discounting the entire batch of goods in proportion to the percentage of defective goods; the seller’s obligation to set off the established amount for the defective goods in settlements for subsequent deliveries under the same contract or for the next transaction.
In the trade of raw materials and food products, as a rule, the provision of discounts on the price of the rejected goods or a markdown on the value of the entire consignment of goods is applied.