Payment policy
How your payment is protected.
The risk in this trade is not the equipment. It is sending money to a company you have never met, in a country you have never been to, and then waiting. This is the sequence that answers it, written as policy so you can hold us to it.
The sequence, every order
A written proforma first
You receive a proforma invoice carrying the full specification, the price, the Incoterm, the lead time and the list of documents you will be given. It is valid 14 days. Nothing is ordered from any plant until you have signed it and returned it.
50 percent deposit, against a signed proforma
Half on order confirmation. It funds the build. It is working money, not money parked in an account, and what protects it is the inspection gate below.
You nominate the inspector
Before anything is loaded, an independent inspector chosen by you attends the plant, inspects the goods against your signed proforma, witnesses the load test and issues a report with photographs. Any inspection company accredited to ISO/IEC 17020 is acceptable to us. The choice is yours alone.
The balance falls due only on a pass
The remaining 50 percent becomes payable when that report passes, and not before. Not on production being finished, not on a plant confirming it is ready.
A fail means it does not ship
If the goods do not meet the agreed specification they are not loaded, and your deposit is returned to you less the inspection fee. A lost production slot costs us less than a container you never got to check.
The inspection fee comes out of your deposit
It is paid from money you have already placed, not added as an extra line, which means a stricter inspector costs you the same as a lenient one.
That is deliberate. An inspection fee charged on top creates a quiet incentive to skip it. Taking it from the deposit removes that incentive from both sides of the table.
This is what we require of suppliers, not a favour we ask for
Staged payment and independent inspection are the conditions a plant has to accept before it can receive a Steelgaard order. A supplier who wants the full amount wired up front, or who will not have a third party in the building, is not one we buy from.
That filter has a cost and you should know about it. It means we will sometimes tell you a cheaper unit is not available to you, because the plant quoting it would not clear this bar.
What you are not being asked to trust
Quality is signed off by a third party you selected. Your inspector stands inside the factory. The balance is released against the report, not against a promise.
What is left is whether we coordinate the order competently. That is the one thing you cannot outsource to an inspector, and it is also the cheapest thing here for you to judge, because you can judge it from how we answer your first email.
If you would rather not send a deposit
Some buyers on container volume prefer their own bank in the middle of the transaction to sending a deposit to a company they have not yet met. That is a reasonable thing to want and it is worth raising on your order.
What is workable on a documentary basis depends on the banks on both sides, so we settle it in writing for your specific order rather than publish it here as a standing term. Ask, and you get an answer about your order rather than a general claim about every order.
The four things this sequence rules out
Payment in full in advance. Shipping against a sample no independent party has verified. Holding your deposit against a future order. Releasing your balance to a plant before your inspector has signed the report.
One thing this does not cover
Inspection protects you up to the point the goods pass and are loaded. It is not marine insurance and it is not a customs guarantee. Cover in transit is governed by the Incoterm named on your quotation, and it is stated there explicitly so you are not left to assume it.
Ask for a proforma.
Send the rating you need, the destination port and the quantity. You get a written proforma with the specification, the price, the lead time and this payment sequence on it. No obligation attaches until you sign it.
Request a proforma→