How to Deal with Claims ABC Import & Export Trade Co. is a company who exports natural fiber products to America. In July 2007, ABC signed a contract with an American company exporting natural fiber carpets to America with a total value of $135,000,000. After the arrival of the goods, the American company found that some carpets were stained, which caused a great sum for cleaning and therefore lodged a claim against ABC. Upon receiving the claim, ABC conducted an investigation immediately to see whether the claim was justified and the check showed that it was due to negligence of ABC. Since the importer was a long-term business partner, ABC offered to compensate the American company in cash by paying $8,000 by installments on the condition that the American company concluded another ten orders for goods and each payment was deducted by 5% as compensation for the loss of the previous order. The case has presented a clear process in handling claims: (1) Find out the causes. Once the clients file claims, keep calm and make inspections to f ind the problems. For those big claims, the claimees must inspect more carefully and strictly, finding problems which provide the basis for the claims. For instance, if a claim is caused by the color of the carpets that doesn’t conform to the color of the sample, the seller should first check the color of the goods according to the sample and make clear how much the color difference is. According to International Standard about color, discrepancy to some degree is acceptable. Within the permitted scope by International Standard, the seller can reject the claim. (2) Check the time limit for claims. Claims should be filed within the time limit and the testimony should be offered, otherwise, claimees have the right to reject the claims. The time limit for claims is formulated clearly in export contracts. Generally speaking, claims caused by the quantity of the goods should be filed within 15 days after the arrival of the goods, while those caused by the quality of the goods should be filed within 30 days; for the mechanical equipment, the time limit for claims is three months or longer; and for agricultural sideline production, the time limit for claims is usually two or three days, or even shorter. Once the time surpasses the time limit for claims, goods can be treated as perfect, and the sellers aren’t responsible to compensate. (3) Find out the responsible party according to the inspection and guarantee certificates. It can be the fault of clients’ arrangement or factory or misunderstanding of the export company. If it is proved that the claimee should be held responsible for the loss, he/she should take the responsibility bravely and settle the claim by adhering to the principle of satisfying the client and reducing his/her own loss to the minimum.