We lost a $250k deposit to a ghosted packaging supplier
Anaita shares a real Hero Packaging story where they committed $250,000 a year to a new eco-friendly packaging supplier after multiple calls and samples, only to have the owner and staff disappear with their deposit. She's now pursuing the issue with international lawyers and police.
The lessons
Don't hand over large deposits to new suppliers until you've verified their business legitimacy beyond calls and samples.
Have a contract and payment protection in place before committing six-figure sums to an unproven vendor.
Be prepared for supplier scams even after extensive vetting, and have legal recourse ready if things go wrong.
Questions people ask
What happened when you tried to work with a new eco-friendly packaging supplier?
After multiple video calls and sample rounds, Hero Packaging committed to spending $250,000 a year with the supplier and paid a deposit. The owner and staff then went silent for six months and the money disappeared, leading to involvement of international lawyers and police.
Transcript
I haven't done one of these in ages but it's story time this is something really bad that's happened to us in the last six months so I own a company with my husband and it's called hero packaging we sell eco friendly packaging solutions and we are always on the lookout for new and trending eco friendly packaging ideas and we found someone someone with a product that was I would say better than compostable packaging we had multiple video calls we got sent numerous samples over a period of a few weeks and we committed to spending 250 000 a year on this product they took our deposit money and have since literally ghosted us for six months we can't contact the owner we can't contact the staff our money has basically disappeared yes we have international lawyers and international police but it's a really shit thing to have happened in business I want to name and shame but I probably shouldn't
