After-sales protections

I. General Provisions

These Rules are formulated in accordance with international trade practices and platform operation guidelines to maintain the normal transaction order of the platform, protect the legitimate rights and interests of both buyers and sellers, and standardize the after-sales dispute settlement process for steel products.

These Rules apply to all settled merchants and purchasers on the platform. Transactions shall be conducted in accordance with the principles of fairness and impartiality, honesty and credibility, fact-based judgment, and clear rights and responsibilities, with reference to the after-sales standards of major international B2B platforms.

As a neutral third party, the platform only provides dispute coordination, rule judgment, and after-sales supervision services, and does not participate in production, logistics, pricing, or specific contract performance details.

II. Scope of Quality Assurance

Merchants on the platform warrant that the steel products supplied (including steel plates, section steel, steel pipes, profiles, container plates, square steel, angle steel, channel steel, etc.) comply with the standards agreed in the order, including material, specifications, dimensions, tolerances, grades, and implementation standards (such as ASTM, GB, JIS, DIN, EN, etc.).

Quality issues include but are not limited to:

Non-conforming materials, unqualified composition, or unqualified mechanical properties;
Dimensional deviations exceeding the agreed tolerance range;
Severe surface rust, bending deformation, cracks, laminations, excessive scale, or other defects affecting usability;
Shortage of goods or damage to products caused by damaged packaging;
Serious inconsistency with samples, inspection reports, or Mill Test Certificates.

Merchants shall provide necessary documents such as original mill test certificates, quality inspection reports, and packing lists with the goods. Missing documents shall be deemed incomplete performance of obligations.

III. Return and Replacement Policy

Circumstances Eligible for Return or Replacement

The delivered goods fail to meet the agreed quality standards, confirmed by a third-party inspection institution or both parties;
Wrong delivery, missed delivery, or short delivery of goods;
Severe damage to goods making them irreparable or unusable;
The merchant fails to deliver goods within the agreed time and the delay causes substantial losses to the buyer.

Circumstances Ineligible for Return or Replacement

The buyer selects the wrong specifications, materials, or quantities due to its own fault;
Damage caused by the buyer’s improper storage, cutting, processing, or welding without following requirements;
Normal wear, slight scratches, or normal oxidation during sea/land transportation;
Force majeure (typhoons, earthquakes, wars, port congestion, policy control, etc.);
Claims filed beyond the agreed warranty period or without valid evidence of quality defects.

Liability for Return/Replacement Freight

For merchant liability (quality issues, wrong delivery, short delivery): the merchant shall bear round-trip freight and related customs clearance and storage fees;
For buyer liability: the buyer shall bear all relevant fees on its own.

IV. Delivery and Logistics Assurance

Merchants must deliver goods and upload logistics information within the time agreed in the order. If delivery is delayed without reasonable explanation, the buyer has the right to claim compensation for delay or cancel the order for a refund.

Logistics Damage or Loss

Damage to goods during sea, land, or air transportation shall be compensated by the liable party (merchant or logistics provider);
The platform supervises the merchant to provide a solution (replenishment, redelivery, refund, or price discount) within 7 working days.

For weight shortage or quantity discrepancy: double compensation for the short part or full refund shall be made accordingly.

V. Refund Assurance

The platform supports a secure transaction refund channel, and funds are regulated in accordance with the rules before the buyer confirms receipt or acceptance of goods.

For eligible refunds, the merchant shall complete the refund within 5 working days. If the merchant fails to handle it on time, the platform may directly process the refund.

Refunds shall be returned through the original payment channel without any handling fees.

For customized steel or special-specification steel: no refunds shall be made if there are no quality defects; proportional refunds shall be made based on actual losses if quality defects exist.

VI. Dispute Settlement Mechanism

The buyer shall provide valid evidence when filing an after-sales application: photos, videos, third-party inspection reports, comparisons of mill test certificates, weight lists, communication records, etc.

Merchants must respond to after-sales requests within 48 hours and provide a solution within 72 hours.

If the two parties fail to reach a settlement through negotiation, the platform shall issue a neutral judgment within 3–5 working days based on order terms, quality evidence, and international trade rules.

Any party dissatisfied with the judgment may apply for a single review, and the review result shall be final.

VII. Penalties for Merchant Violations

If a merchant engages in false material declaration, selling inferior products as high-quality ones, forging quality inspection reports, or other fraudulent acts, the platform shall:

Provide full compensation to the buyer;
Impose fines on the merchant and remove products from shelves;
Freeze the account, remove the merchant from the platform, and publicly announce the violation in serious cases.

For merchants with repeated non-performance, refusal of after-sales service, or malicious delays, the platform will reduce their ranking weight, restrict transactions, and terminate cooperation if necessary.

VIII. Warranty Period Provisions

The warranty period for conventional steel products is 30 days after delivery;
Special steel products such as container plates, high-strength steel, and weathering steel may be extended as agreed by both parties;
If quality defects are confirmed within the warranty period, the merchant shall unconditionally arrange replenishment, return, replacement, or compensation.

IX. Platform Commitments

Impartial to all parties, handling after-sales issues in an open, transparent, and fully recorded manner;
Providing evidence storage services for transaction contracts, order information, and communication records with legal effect in disputes;
Ensuring the capital security of buyers and eliminating fake merchants and fraudulent transactions;
Providing multilingual customer service to promptly respond to the after-sales needs of cross-border purchasers.

X. Supplementary Provisions

These Rules shall take effect as of the date of promulgation, and the platform reserves the right to update and revise them in light of the international trade environment.

If there is a separate written contract between the buyer and the seller, the contract shall prevail.

Matters not covered herein shall be handled with reference to the international trade practices of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the latest announcements of the platform.