Good day! I have a question we import from China We import drinkware, ceramic mugs, travel mugs, water bottles & acrylic mugs and we also design inovative drinkware as well and we patent our own design mugs, and most suppliers I deal with sub-contract other factories to produce our goods. Lately we have had many quality control issues. Is it hard to find leads that actually own thier own factory in China? How can i find someone that dose? Is this some type of secret they don't want to answer to? I'm hopeing if we find someone who owns thier own factory and can stand behind thier quality it will eliminate the headaches of quality control? I would appreciate any feedback! Thanks! Peace & Love!

Replying To  [Miss Jesse]:

Hi Miss Jessie.

What product or products are we talking about here?

We import drinkware, ceramic mugs, travel mugs, water bottles & acrylic mugs and we also design inovative drinkware as well and we patent our own design mugs. Thanks for your help in advance! Peace & love Jess

Quoting from [Miss Jesse]:

 Good day! I have a question we import from China and most suppliers I deal with sub-contract other factories to produce our goods. Lately we have had many quality control issues. Is it hard to find leads that actually own thier own factory in China? How can i find someone that dose? Is this some type of secret they don't want to answer to? I'm hopeing if we find someone who owns thier own factory and can stand behind thier quality it will eliminate the headaches of quality control? I would appreciate any feedback! Thanks! Peace & Love!

My guess is that you are actually dealing with trading companies and not factories at all, even though the trading companies may be pretending that they are factories.

I assume that you are buying and shipping a wide range of those products and that your quantities per item are not huge (i.e. not hundreds of pieces per item per color).

If you were to find a manufacturer yourself you would have certain limitations:

a. MOQ - you would have to buy a relatively large quantity per piece per color;

b. you may be limited in products that are available.For example if you buy glass wares and plastic wares you would need to deal with two seperate factories. The more your products vary the more individual factories you would need to deal with.

So dealing with trading companies can be a real advantage in enabling you to get a wide range of products in reasonable quantities from one seller.

The disadvantage is that the production is being given out to different factories some of which are better than others.

My advice would be to first determine whether the seller you are dealing with is a factory or a trading company.

Then establish a minimum quality level for your products that you can accept and put that into writing complete with pictures so that the seller knows what you will and wont accept.

Finally, arrange for a representative to conduct a pre-shipment inspection on the production prior to releasing final payment.