RMA

Claim a defective part (RMA)

Every shop eats bad parts. The ones that do not are simply the ones that claim them — and claiming is mostly a paperwork problem: knowing which supplier, which SKU, and which ones are still owed to you.

1. Register it the moment it fails

   Not at the end of the month, when you no longer remember which order it came from. Create the RMA with the part and what went wrong while it is fresh.

2. The supplier is already on the part

   This is why tagging the distributor at intake matters. Months later, the part still knows who sold it to you — and that is the whole claim.

3. Export the SKUs for that supplier

   Distributors want a list, in their format. Export the SKUs for one supplier and send it — instead of building the list by hand out of invoices.

4. Track it: pending, sent, resolved

   Three states, so you always know which claims are still owed to you. This is the part shops skip, and it is exactly where the money goes missing.

5. See the credit you recovered

   A running total of what came back. It is usually more than owners expect — and it is the number that tells you whether a cheap supplier is actually cheap.