When a shipment from 1688 arrives with missing cartons or goods smashed inside, the first question everyone asks is who is responsible. The answer is never obvious, because liability in a cross-border supply chain is spread across several parties, and each one has a reason to argue the fault is not theirs.
The stages a shipment travels and who holds the risk at each one
To know who is liable, you need to know whose hands the goods pass through. A typical 1688 order moves through these stages:
- The factory packs and hands over to a domestic China carrier. Until the carrier scans the shipment into their system, the factory still holds the risk if something goes wrong.
- Domestic China shipping to the consolidation warehouse. The domestic carrier is responsible here. If goods are lost or damaged in this leg, the claim goes to them, not the factory.
- The consolidation warehouse inspects, repacks, and hands over to the international freight carrier. This is where defects often go unnoticed and where repacking sometimes causes new damage. The warehouse holds liability during the time the goods are with them.
- International freight from China to Vietnam. This is the longest leg and the one where most losses and damage occur. The international carrier is responsible.
- Customs clearance and delivery to your warehouse. Once the goods clear customs and are accepted by your freight agent or order service, risk shifts to them, and finally to you when you sign and accept.
Knowing which leg the loss or damage happened in is the first step to claiming against the right party.
How liability splits in practice
When the factory is liable
The factory is responsible for anything that went wrong before they handed goods to the carrier. Common cases:
- Short shipment. The invoice says 100 units but the carton holds only 87. If the carton has not been opened since leaving the factory, this is the factory's fault.
- Manufacturing defects. The quantity is correct but the goods are defective, wrong color, wrong size, or do not match the approved sample. This is a production issue, not a shipping issue.
- Packaging so poor the goods break in transit. If you specified shock-resistant packing and the factory used a single layer of paper instead of bubble wrap, the root cause of breakage sits with them. Proving this requires photos of the packing taken the moment you open the carton.
When the carrier is liable
The carrier (domestic China, consolidation warehouse, or international freight) is responsible when goods are lost, go missing, or are damaged while in their custody. In practice, their actual exposure is limited by:
- The terms in the shipping contract or waybill. Most carriers on China-to-Vietnam routes compensate by weight or up to a fixed cap, not by the real value of the goods. That cap is often very low, sometimes a few thousand dong per kilogram.
- No cargo insurance purchased. Without separate cargo insurance, the default compensation from the carrier rarely covers the value of the shipment. For a batch worth more than a few million VND, insurance is worth pricing into landed cost.
- Force majeure claims. Some carriers reject claims citing natural disasters, customs delays, or events outside their control. Read the terms before you choose a route.
When you are liable
You take on the risk from the moment you sign for the delivery. Once you have signed with the delivery agent, claiming for shortages or damage without documented proof taken at the time of receipt is nearly impossible.
You also take on risk by default if you:
- Skip cargo insurance on a high-value batch.
- Give the factory vague packing instructions, making it impossible to determine who caused the damage.
- Accept goods through an agent without a physical inspection before signing.
Evidence: the only thing that decides who gets compensated
Theory is one thing. When something actually goes wrong, the side with stronger evidence usually wins. Here is the evidence you need to collect.
Before goods leave the factory:
- Photos or a short video of the goods being packed at the factory (ask the factory to send these).
- A packing list showing the quantity of each SKU per carton.
- Photos of all cartons with the waybill label visible on the outside.
When goods arrive at the consolidation warehouse or your warehouse:
- A continuous video of the entire unboxing, no cuts.
- Close-up photos of any damage on the outer packaging before you open it.
- Photos comparing actual count against the packing list.
- A note on the delivery receipt recording any shortage or damage before you sign.
When dealing with the carrier or the factory:
- WeChat or Alipay chat history between you and the factory, especially any packing instructions you gave.
- The purchase invoice with the real value of the goods, to anchor the compensation claim.
- The full tracking log of the shipment.
Without evidence, a claim carries almost no weight. The factory will say the goods left the factory intact. The carrier will say they received goods already in that condition.
How to run a claim when goods are lost or damaged
When you discover the problem, the order of operations should be:
- Document everything before touching anything else. Do not sort the goods or discard the packaging. Shoot the video, take the photos, count the units.
- Work out which leg the problem happened in. Use the tracking log and the condition of the outer packaging to narrow it down. Outer packaging intact but units missing inside usually points to the factory. Outer packaging crushed or punctured usually points to the carrier.
- Contact the right party. The factory for production errors and short shipments. The carrier or consolidation warehouse for damage that happened in transit.
- Put the claim in writing with a clear deadline. Send a WeChat message or file through the 1688 platform. State what happened, how many units are short or damaged, and give a specific number of days for a response.
- Keep the damaged goods intact until the matter is settled. Do not sell the damaged units or dispose of them before the other party acknowledges the problem. They are your only physical evidence.
For factory disputes on 1688, if direct messages go nowhere, you can open a formal dispute through the platform. The 1688 dispute system is slow but it puts more pressure on the factory than a private chat thread.
Reducing risk before anything goes wrong
The lowest-effort approach is preventing the problem in the first place. A few things worth setting up from the start:
- Give specific packing instructions in writing before each batch. For fragile goods, specify the cushioning material, the number of wrap layers, and how cartons should be stacked. Do not leave it to the factory to decide.
- Buy cargo insurance for higher-value batches. Premiums typically run around 0.3 to 0.8 percent of the declared shipment value, depending on the route and product type. For a batch worth more than about 30 to 50 million VND, this is worth adding to the cost calculation.
- Ask the consolidation warehouse to photograph each carton before handing it to the international carrier. Many order services do this if you ask. It becomes important evidence if the goods arrive damaged.
- Watch the tracking and ask early if something looks wrong. A shipment sitting at the same location longer than expected, or a tracking status that stops updating for several days, is a signal to follow up before things get worse.
Bottom line
Lost or damaged shipments cannot always be avoided, but most of the financial loss comes from two gaps: no evidence when you need it, and not knowing which party to hold accountable. Pin down the leg where the problem happened, collect evidence before anyone else touches the goods, and make the claim against the right party with a concrete written request. That is the only way to recover something rather than absorbing the entire loss yourself.