Here's what to do when a 1688 supplier ships you less than you paid for.
Why short-shipped quantity needs different handling than defective or wrong-item deliveries
Not every problem with a 1688 delivery is the same problem, and treating them as one category is why so many operators end up with no leverage when something goes wrong. There are three distinct situations: the supplier ships fewer units than the order confirms (short-shipped), the supplier ships the wrong SKU or wrong variant, and the supplier ships the right quantity but some units are defective. This post is only about the first one. If you landed here because of wrong items or damaged goods, those need a different claims process and a separate defect workflow, because the evidence you need and the deadlines you're working against are not the same.
Short-shipped quantity gets ignored more than it should. When a shop owner opens a carton and the count feels off, the first instinct is usually "maybe I miscounted" rather than "this is a discrepancy worth documenting." By the time the shop owner recounts and confirms the shortage, the receiving window has often closed and there is no video or photo evidence left to file a claim with.
There's a direct cash flow problem here too. You paid the supplier in full for, say, 500 units of a phone case at $0.85 each. If you only received 470, you're out $25.50 on that line item, and it comes straight off your margin for the whole batch, not just that SKU. On thin-margin categories like phone accessories or basic apparel where you're already working with 15-20% margin, a 6% shortage can wipe out a third of your profit on that order.
The other trap is scale. On a large shipment, say 12 cartons totaling 800kg, a shortage of 30 units in one SKU is invisible if you're only checking total carton count or total weight against the manifest. You have to count by SKU to catch it. A carton can weigh exactly what the packing list says and still be missing 40 units of one item and have 40 extra of another, because someone at the supplier's warehouse grabbed the wrong bin.
Counting 1688 shipments on arrival: the standard procedure
Before you even open a carton, cross-check three documents against each other: your original order on 1688, the packing list the supplier sent (or included in the shipment), and the actual carrier waybill. If these three don't match each other before you've touched a single box, you already know where to look once you start counting.
Count by carton, not by pallet or by shipment total, and do this before you sign off with the carrier or the transit warehouse. Once you've signed the receiving confirmation, you've told the carrier (and often the supplier) that what arrived matches what was expected. Signing first and counting later removes your leverage.
Use a checklist built around SKU, not weight and not carton count. If your checklist just says "Carton 3: 45kg, matches manifest," you will miss a shortage where heavier items were swapped for lighter ones in the same box. A proper checklist lists every SKU expected in that carton with the ordered quantity next to a blank for actual count. This is the same discipline covered in our pre-shipment inspection walkthrough, just applied at the receiving end instead of before the goods leave China.
Assign this job to one person or team, explicitly. If it's split between whoever happens to be near the loading dock that day, counts get inconsistent and nobody owns the follow-up. Decide upfront whether your own warehouse staff does the count or whether you're paying a third-party inspection service to do it, especially for orders over $3,000 or shipments consolidating multiple suppliers into one container.
Documenting shortages so your claim actually gets accepted
Evidence quality is what determines whether a supplier pays out or stalls you. Record continuous video of the carton opening, no cuts, no edits, starting while the seal is still intact and running through to the final count. A video that starts after the box is already open is close to useless as evidence, because the supplier can claim the shortage happened on your end.
Before you break the seal, weigh the carton and compare it to the weight listed on the waybill. If the actual weight is lower than what's declared, that's supporting evidence the box left the supplier's warehouse already short.
Photograph the seal, the tracking number, and the 1688 order number clearly enough to read in the photo. This is what ties your claim back to a specific order rather than a generic complaint.
Photograph the actual count laid out by SKU, side by side with a screenshot of what you ordered. If you ordered 200 units of a black case and 200 of a clear case, lay out and photograph each pile separately rather than one combined pile of 400.
Save everything with a timestamp and file names that reference the order number, something like 1688-ORD8823401-carton3-count.jpg. When you're filing a claim two days later and the supplier asks for proof, you don't want to be scrolling through a camera roll trying to remember which video matches which order.
Deadlines for claiming a shortage with a 1688 supplier
1688's aftersales window typically starts counting from your confirmed receipt date, not from the ship date or the date you actually got around to opening the box. This window varies by supplier and by product category, so check the specific policy attached to that order rather than assuming a fixed number of days applies across your whole supplier list.
Report the shortage to the supplier within 24 to 48 hours of discovering it. Don't wait until you've finished counting an entire multi-carton shipment before flagging the first confirmed shortage. If carton 2 of 10 is short, message the supplier that day and keep counting the rest in parallel.
Set your own internal deadline earlier than 1688's platform deadline. If the platform gives you 7 days from confirmed receipt, treat day 4 as your internal cutoff for filing. That buffer gives you room to escalate if the supplier goes quiet, without watching the platform window close while you're still waiting on a reply.
Freight consolidated through a transit warehouse or grouped into a shared container adds a real risk here. If your goods sit in a transit warehouse in China before the container moves and you don't do a count at that stage, the gap between ship date and the date you actually open the carton at your own warehouse can stretch past the claim window before you even know there's a problem.
Writing a shortage claim to your 1688 supplier
Structure the message plainly: order number, the specific SKU or SKUs short, ordered quantity versus received quantity, and a link or attachment to your evidence. Don't bury the numbers in a paragraph, put them in a short list the supplier can scan in ten seconds.
State exactly what resolution you want. A refund for the missing units, valued at the per-unit price on the original order, or a reshipment of the missing quantity on their next batch. Include a response deadline, something concrete like "please respond within 3 business days," not open-ended.
File through 1688's official aftersales channel rather than only messaging the supplier directly in chat. The chat conversation might get the supplier's attention faster, but only the aftersales ticket creates a dispute record the platform can act on if the supplier doesn't cooperate.
If the supplier doesn't respond by your stated deadline, escalate to platform dispute resolution. Don't keep re-messaging the same unresponsive contact for another week, that just burns your remaining claim window for no benefit.
Preventing short-shipments on future orders
Favor suppliers with strong ratings and a track record of complete deliveries, which you can check by looking at review history and past order feedback rather than taking the storefront's overall score at face value. Our guide on vetting suppliers before you commit to a large order covers how to read those signals.
For large orders, ask the supplier to send photos of the packed goods before the carton is sealed, especially on orders above a few hundred units per SKU. It's a small ask that most established suppliers will do without pushback, and it gives you a second data point beyond their packing list.
Consider routing higher-value orders through an inspection agent or a sourcing intermediary who counts independently before goods leave China. It costs money per order, but on a $5,000 shipment, an inspection fee of $30-50 is cheap insurance against a shortage you'd otherwise catch too late to claim.
Put exact quantities and packing specifications directly into the order notes when you place it, not just in a side conversation. Having it documented on the order itself gives you a clean reference point if you need to dispute a shortage later.
FAQ: short-shipped quantity on 1688 orders
How much of a shortage justifies a formal claim instead of writing it off? There's no fixed rule, but most operators draw the line around 2-3% of order value. Below that, the admin time to document and file often costs more than the recovery. Above that, or on any shortage involving a full missing carton, file every time.
Does 1688 automatically refund confirmed shortages? No. Refunds happen through the aftersales dispute process, and the supplier has to either agree or the platform has to rule in your favor after escalation. Nothing is automatic just because a shortage is real.
What if the claim window has already closed? Your options narrow but aren't zero. You can still try direct negotiation with the supplier for goodwill credit on a future order, especially if you're a repeat buyer. Platform-enforced remedies, though, generally aren't available once the formal window has passed, which is exactly why hitting the 24-48 hour internal reporting habit matters.
Should counting be done in-house or by a third-party inspector? In-house works fine for smaller, frequent orders where you control the receiving process end to end. For large one-off orders or new suppliers you haven't built trust with yet, a third-party inspection service adds an independent record that's harder for a supplier to dispute.
Can shortages and defects or wrong items be handled in the same claim? Keep them separate even if they show up in the same shipment. The evidence differs (count documentation versus photos of the defect itself) and platform aftersales categories often route them differently, so combining them into one claim slows down resolution on both.
Counting by SKU, filming every carton opening, and setting an internal deadline ahead of the platform's window turns short-shipment recovery from a guessing game into a repeatable SOP your warehouse team can run without you in the room. If you're managing sourcing across multiple 1688 suppliers and want this kind of tracking built into your workflow instead of run off spreadsheets and phone photos, Scout and Orders are both in private beta at ordinex.cc.