This is a sad story about an attempt of cooperation with an Indian manufacturer of hand tools. It has its roots in summer of 2010 when I was surfing the Internet trying to find a reliable supplier of spanners and wrenches in India. Why in India? Because Indian manufacturers are among leading ones in the world – their products are high-quality and not expensive. Although by the time I started my search I had been told by a number of people that to work with Indian suppliers meant wasting a lot of time because they did not meet deadlines, I decided to find something worthwhile. It was www.indiamart.com web-site I was surfing. Eventually I found a number of manufacturers of desired tools and sent enquiry to them. In a week or so I had all prices for a product range I needed. Among those who sent me quotations was Jagdambay Tools Worldwide - a company located in Jalandhar, Punjab. Their prices were quite competitive and their product range was meeting our demand in full. They even sent me some samples of their combination spanners – they looked good and really were high-quality tools. Before signing a contract with that company we decided to find some extra information about it with help from our friends who had connections with some people in India. They told us that the company was OK – no signs of bankruptcy or inconsistency, it looked like quite a good company. So we began to elaborate a contract which would include terms of payment, delivery and so on - a standard procedure. That process, though began with a surprise: President of the company – Mr. Manish Ludhra – wrote me in his e-mail that they did not sign any contracts. Also he mentioned that they supplied their goods to two Russian customers and they had not asked him for a contract. Finally I said him that we could not buy something from abroad without a contract – no Russian bank would transfer money without it. That made him sign the contract. But he put his signature only – no rubber stamp was used (he said that he had not a stamp). OK – that would suit. Then we discussed printing our trademark on the spanners. Mr. Ludhra eagerly said that they could write it with a laser for 2% of the contract sum that was $141456, 66. That was completely acceptable – laser printing looked nice and was quite inexpensive.
According to the contract we had to pay 30% of the contract sum in advance and the rest 70% - after we received a copy of a bill of lading. Usual practice when working with a foreign supplier. So we paid $42437. Mr. Ludhra had to ship the goods in a 70-day time span from the moment of the advance payment. The time went by… The 70th day came but no goods had been shipped. Mr. Ludhra was hard to reach via e-mail, MSN, Skype - he was absent for a number of weeks. Or pretended to be absent. Finally he got on-line. He wrote me that he was about to ship the first container but we needed to pay the balance. We transferred the remaining sum to his account in the State Bank of India. That was a terrible mistake! Never (I mean it!), never pay any money until you get a bill of lading!!! Any payment made from Russian bank reaches a foreign beneficiary in 4-5 days. So 5 days later Mr. Ludhra wrote that he had not received the money by that moment. That lasted for 3 weeks. But I was wise to send an enquiry to his bank and they reported that the money was credited on his account on the 4th day since the payment! So he lied to me all the way! What a shame!
After I unmasked him, he wriggled and told me that he had some problems with his bank and could not use the money we had paid although it was on his account. But all my attempts to reach his mind were useless – he kept saying his mantra: “You have to wait, dear, until we solve the problem”. That seemed to me a never-ending story – he answered to all my e-mails by two words – “wait, dear”. I had never felt so discouraged, feeling that I could not do anything but to be angry!
Then came act 2: Mr. Ludhra shipped the first 20” container. 180 days after we paid the 30%! But it was almost empty!!! There were only 13, 5 tons of cargo inside! Instead of 20 tons! And the content was worth $39740, 94. Maybe someone would argue: your container was full by volume! No! It was EMPTY! So we paid for the air to ship it to Russia across the world!
I skip an epic about invoices and other documents although it also made me nervous.
Halleluiah! Here came the container at the end of December, 2010. What a f…ck? Are those our spanners? It can’t be so!!! That junk is not needed at all! Even for free. The spanners that arrived were completely different than those Mr. Ludhra sent to us as samples. They were crude and curved, as if they had been made by blind Chinese kids. Our trademark was written with…paint! No laser! It could be rubbed away with one’s fingernail! It even looked ugly. But what was most terrible and disappointing is results of chemical and mechanical tests we performed: the spanners were made of steel 30 without any alloying additives, instead of chrome-vanadium steel as it was agreed upon and as it was written on each spanner! A 19 mm combination spanner just bended in two ways when we tried to unfasten a nut, its jaws diverged! It was just ordinary raw steel.
Now we are trying to find Mr. Ludhra but he is difficult to catch even via e-mail – he receives but never reads my messages. I have been trying to call him on the phone – he is always absent. The whole day. The following day. The third day. Any day.
By this opus I want to warn anyone who is searching for an Indian supplier: Jagdambay Tools Worldwide is a fraudulent company! Be careful! Don’t you believe them!