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!

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 fck?
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 withpaint! 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.