Misty Cyan Coarse Pottery Matte Fair Cup, Japanese Style Tea Serving Pitcher

A long-standing German customer placed an order for 5,000 matcha bowls through the B2B channel (Order No.: GER-20240915-***), with a value of approximately USD 86,000. Upon arrival, the customer's random inspection revealed that about 1,200 matcha bowls had pinholes, crawling, and localized color differences on the bottom glaze, a defect rate as high as 24%, exceeding the agreed AQL 2.5 inspection standard. The customer provided a quality inspection report with batch numbers and product photos, demanding a full replacement; otherwise, they would cancel the subsequent cooperation order of 30,000 sets across the next three quarters.

We immediately dispatched a quality engineer to conduct a video conference with the customer to review the problematic batch, confirming that the glaze defect was caused by kiln temperature fluctuations. We proactively took full responsibility, urgently arranged for the warehouse to pull out retained samples from the same batch for re-inspection, and disposed of the defective products as scrap per the customer's requirements. At the same time, we activated a backup supply chain, having our partner factory in China work overtime to produce 1,200 matcha bowls meeting specifications, which were air-freighted to Hamburg, Germany. The replacement was completed only 5 days after the original delivery date. All costs for replacement shipping, scrap disposal, and customs fees were borne by us. We additionally gifted the customer 200 tea whisks as compensation, and revised the quality inspection standards and full-inspection process for subsequent batches with the customer.

A European trading company purchased 5,000 matcha gift sets from our company through a B2B platform, including accessories such as bamboo whisks, matcha bowls, and whisk holders. After receiving the goods, the customer conducted spot checks and found that approximately 1,200 bamboo whisks had bamboo strips broken to varying degrees, and about 800 matcha bowls had glaze wear marks on the rim. The customer requires a full batch return and replacement, otherwise they will cancel subsequent annual orders and claim compensation for logistics and warehousing losses.

Our company has urgently activated the maintenance service plan, dispatching after-sales technical team to conduct on-site verification and issue inspection reports. For the tea whisk breakage issue, we re-woven replacements by hand using materials from the same batch and uniformly reinforced all 5,000 tea whisks. For the glaze wear on matcha bowls, we applied food-grade repair glaze for local re-glazing and re-fired and polished at high temperature. Meanwhile, we expedited air freight of 300 spare sets and covered the customer's warehousing costs. After all repairs are completed, the goods will be re-packed and shipped after passing random inspection by third-party quality inspection agency SGS.