Members of the public are being advised to exercise caution when procuring heavy equipment/heavy machinery from businesses operating from Shanghai, China.

Recently, the Department of Trade, within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Commerce, received a number of complaints from patrons who discovered that several pieces of heavy equipment procured were not the agreed equipment identified and ordered by the consumer from businesses operating in Shanghai, China.

To this end, the ministry is requesting that due diligence be conducted on suppliers of heavy equipment from that region, since there is no legal guarantee, or warranty, on goods procured from that City.

In light of the forgoing, the ministry is advising citizens to take all the necessary precautionary steps when making purchases from countries abroad by:

1. Ensuring that the website /business from which you are ordering your goods or services is reputable

2. Ensuring that there is a system in place for redress if the goods or services bought or agreed to be bought, suffer from one or more defects.

3. Ensuring when necessary that there is a trustworthy intermediary to act on your behalf when purchasing goods or services overseas.