It was a
beautiful and pleasant morning of September 2007 and I was engrossed in my
office work handling my responsibilities
as Vice President Finance of an export House (Name not disclosed here).I got an
urgent call from my MD and was asked to see him at once. I had to rush to know
as to what is that urgent matter and it came to me as a surprise when I was
told to rush for Colombia at my earliest as one of our customer is planning to
file a legal suit against our company for substantial amount towards damages.
Reason:Our
Company has been supplying Motor cycles and Auto parts to a reputed customer at
Cali which we were procuring from China and selling directly using thru
Switching of Bill of lading method.
Incident so happened that local citizen had a narrow escape
while driving Motor Cycle fitted with the tyres supplied by us as the front
tyre got burst while he being at a high speed. Overnight our customer lost much
of its tyres sales in Colombia.
I alongwith
my Sr.marketing colleague (having good command over Spanish language) rushed to
Colombian Embassy at New Delhi to get the Colombian VISA and then arranging for
the air tickets.We got every thing streamlined and within two days left for
Bogota via Paris and were there by 6.30 p.m.next day.The morning flight from
Paris to Bogota over Atlantic was breath taking.
After reaching Bogota the very first job I did was to rush to
a legal book store to buy book on Colombian Traffic Rules and regulations. Without
bothering for the fatigue and jetlag of long journey I had to grasp quickly all
the relevant points over night
Next day we were scheduled to fly to Cali to face the Lawyer
engaged by the customer. I could understand all his arguments by good interpretation
done by my colleague from Spanish to English. His main point was that the biker
had a narrow escape due to tyre burst as he was driving at 110 Km/hr. and the
client means our customer lost good amount on account of sales damage. He gave
us tentative figure of their legal claim.We were listening to him with utmost patience.
He asked us to visit him next day morning with our part of reply before they
file suit in the court.
We instead of resting at Hotel preferred moving around Cali
and make our observations. We found many Bikers engaging in Bike racing at
midnight violating countries Traffic speed rules which are 80Km/hr on open road
and 60km within city but 65 at night . We photographed important traffic sign boards and from
local person came to know that particular biker was also taking part in high
speed race at night when his bike’s front tyre burst at around 120Km/hr speed.
That was something we wanted to know. At mid night back to hotel room I made
our arguments and were ready for next day meeting.
Next day the lawyer was happy to know that we had a sound
sleep thinking us being lazy type. He asked us whether we have any point to
make as he found his written arguments very convincing to mint good money from
his Colombian Client.
But his pleasure was short lived once we showed him all the photographs
and asked him to go thru Purchase order and also all the traffic rules of his
own country. He was shocked but surprised to know that as he did not expect us
to go into such details.
1.The purchase order mentioned tyres required to sustain
speed between 80 to 100 km/hr.while the Biker as per his own written statement
was driving at a speed around 120+.
2.Biker
violated traffic rules of his own country and we were free to file complain against him with Local police.
3. Colombian Customer tried to mint money to put in a false
claim of loss of sales of tyres but we could find from his stock records which I
secretly noted during my visit to his well managed ware house through help of
his own lady store supervisor who was also a finance professional like me and was
not at all aware of this case and never suspected our intentions of getting
important information. But we never disclosed this to our customer to save her
job.
4.We told
the lawyer that his case is weak and we shall file a counter claim case as they
intended to cheat us by false claim.
By the evening The lawyer had to withdraw Customer’s case and
we had a nice Pizza dinner at good Restaurant in Cali full of life and live
music with School Girls doing their part time employment at Restaurants to earn
for themselves rather than being burden on family.(A good professional culture
indeed) .Finally everything got sorted out amicably and I flew back to India
via In transit stop over at Venezuela and
then via Paris.The best part was when We passengers on board could see on the
right complete night and on the left complete day at a particular point of flight over Atlantic.
Conclusion
1.Understand
the legal case with patience and do not panic.
2.Go through
the Laws of the country properly before meeting the lawyer.
3.Do not waste time in enjoying but just focus on the job
entrusted to you as professional.
4.Think out of box and develop a probing nature to get clues
and on hand experience by sharp observations.
5.Must see
movies of SherlockHomes
Hope you
liked my experience.
Special Note:-Colombia
is a beautiful country.People are very polite and well
mannered and they love Indians.
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