Legal
Shipping Policy
Last updated: 17 August 2026
This page sets out how AgarwoodWholesale routes, packs, documents and delivers wholesale consignments, and what to do if something arrives damaged.
The commercial terms behind it — payment, title, liability and governing law — are in the terms of sale. Where the two pages describe the same thing, they are written to say the same thing.
1.How we choose the freight mode
Freight mode is matched to value density rather than weight.
Oils and koh-grade material ship express — DHL or FedEx — because the value per kilogram makes anything else false economy, and because tracking granularity matters when a consignment is worth more than the vehicle carrying it. Sticks and powder ship air by default, which is what lets a small order go out on its own rather than waiting for a container; sea becomes the better answer once the volume is large enough for the per-unit saving to beat the weeks. Ceramic, brass and glass ship sea at volume. Freight is quoted separately and charged to you on every mode.
We propose a mode with the quotation and tell you what the trade-off costs. If you want a different one, say so — it is your money and your timeline.
2.Packing
Packing is specified against the actual transit risk rather than to a single house standard.
Ceramic ships individually foam-boxed inside double-wall master cartons. Glass ships partitioned, each bottle separated from its neighbours. Brass censers pack ten per carton rather than twenty, because a twenty-piece carton exceeds what a single handler will lift carefully. All incense and powder ships with desiccant.
3.Documentation
Documents go to your nominated broker before arrival rather than in response to a query after the container has landed. This is the single most effective thing either of us can do to avoid a held container accruing demurrage.
Anything that has to be issued against the packed consignment cannot be obtained once a vessel has sailed. Those items need raising at order stage. Which documents your route actually requires is your broker’s call, not ours — ask them early and tell us what they say.
4.Incoterms, duties and taxes
We deliver on DAP or DDP (Incoterms 2020), as stated on the quotation.
Under DAP, we deliver to your address and the carrier invoices you for import duty, import VAT and clearance charges before or on delivery. Budget for those separately — they are not in our price, and a consignment left unpaid at customs will start accruing storage.
Under DDP, duty, import VAT and clearance are included in our price and settled by us. DDP is not available to every destination; where a carrier will not clear on our behalf we quote DAP and tell you why.
If your own forwarder is handling the main leg and you need a different Incoterm, raise it at quotation stage so it can be priced properly.
5.Lead times
Lead times are stated per product and run from order confirmation, or from written artwork approval on private-label runs. Transit time is additional and depends on the mode and the route.
6.Oils and dangerous-goods classification
Agarwood oil is a heavy sesquiterpene distillate, and closed-cup flash points for it sit above the 60 °C threshold that defines a flammable liquid. Where the sheet issued for your batch records that, the oil moves as non-dangerous goods with no UN number — no dangerous-goods surcharge, no certified-packer requirement, no passenger-aircraft quantity limit.
The figure that governs your declaration is the one printed in Section 9 of the safety data sheet issued for the product you are buying, not a number copied off a website. If a forwarder quotes dangerous-goods handling by default, send them Section 14 of that sheet.
7.Damage, shortage and claims
Photograph the carton and its contents before unpacking fully, and send us the images. That photograph is what settles a claim; it cannot be taken afterwards.
Transit breakage above 1% on ceramic lines is replaced. For all other lines — incense, powder, oil, brass and glass — claims for shortage, damage or non-conformity must reach us within 14 days of delivery, with photographs.
Where a claim is against the carrier rather than against us, we file it with the carrier and keep you informed. Carrier claim windows are shorter than ours and are set by the carrier. That is the practical reason for the 14 days.
8.Addresses, refusals and returns
We ship to the address on the confirmed proforma invoice. An address change after dispatch is a carrier redirection and is charged at cost where the carrier allows it at all.
A consignment refused on arrival, or abandoned at customs because import charges were not settled, is returned or destroyed at your cost. Once a consignment has been dispatched it is not returnable and not refundable for change of mind — on any line, at any quantity. This is a business-to-business sale and no consumer right of withdrawal applies.
That is stated in full, with what replaces a return and what a claim still covers, in the returns and claims policy.
Which documents your shipment needs, who issues each one and how much lead time it adds is covered in detail under export documentation. The commercial terms sit under terms of sale, and what happens after dispatch is under returns and claims.
DAP and DDP are defined by the International Chamber of Commerce. The authoritative wording, including exactly where risk and cost pass between us, is in the Incoterms® 2020 rules published by the ICC.
