Stage 1 Deadline: 1 Nov 2009

  

 

"Bob Miller opened a wholesale business specializing in novelty gifts. Looking for reliable suppliers of electronic gadgets, he sent out inquires and soon received many quotations. However, since Bob is new to trade, he has a hard time telling which supplier is trustworthy."

 

Advise Bob on how to verify suppliers during the early stages of trade for the chance to win 200 MVPs!

 

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ask for samples. then in order to reduce the freight charge, you may find one reliable people in China to collect all the samples for you and send them to you together.
Yes, to find a partner to help you is a way. Maybe you can choose some British men who leave in China.

You can do some research in the internet, and then narrow to there or four companies. Make a call and ask some samples and brochures. If you have some friends to know them already, you can get some information about the company. Make sure you get it from reliable source. Or you can make a visit if you feel obliged to go.

1.       Contact the suppliers and ask them to show some certificate document. Use the number to check  those companies’ authenticity and reputation through State Administration for Industry & Commerce of the People’s Republic of China’ website and other internet resources. Ask for product samples.

2.       Fly to China to attend some the Exhibitions and Fairs such as Conton Fair to know some credible suppliers and visit their factories as well.

3.       Pay attention to the modes of settlement.

Well you should first get the quotes from all your suppliers then figure out which supplier is cheaper then ask him his payment terms and freight. To check if the supplier is trustworthy or not you can ask for any references of his existing clients. As if you ask me i can easily you refer to my buyer and he can tell you if i am trustworthy or not. This is the best way normally.

Safe Trading Admin wrote:

Stage 1 Deadline: 1 Nov 2009

  

 

 

"Bob Miller opened a wholesale business specializing in novelty gifts. Looking for reliable suppliers of electronic gadgets, he sent out inquires and soon received many quotations. However, since Bob is new to trade, he has a hard time telling which supplier is trustworthy."

 

 

Advise Bob on how to tell verify suppliers during the early stages of trade for the chance to win 200 MVPs!

Learn more about this activity

 

 

Dear Bob,

To find a reliable supplier from a hosts of choices, it is important to know your requirements and communicate this to the suppliers in advance.  If you're new trading it doesn't mean you're new to your products, so you can guess which has the absurd price and which has the reasonable price.  By judging the reasonable ones, you can narrow down your suppliers.

So you're new to trading, you have hard time going abroad because you dont know the place and the people, so before you get excited you do some research first about the company profiles, investments, locations, and product lines.  If you know the place is a swarm  for scammers like futian etc, then by all means don't or if you can see their product lines suggest a very chaotic succession from products to products without a core strong objective, this should be a red flag.  No one wants to do business to a company who only wants to do what you want, there should be a professionalism and innovation on the side of the suppliers to give you more than you want.

Now comes down to narrowing to less than 3 suppliers, the best options for you when you want to visit the factories is to have the  company located within 50 km of each other, this way your travel expense will be much lesser at first.  Later when your business grows you can spread down your suppliers to much wider area.  It is important to visit the factory of your suppliers to know first hand their abilities and their long term relations with you.  The cost of flying is now cheap and it is very easy to get visa to china for business and pleasure.

Thank you for your time in reading and have a good trading to all!

 

Best regards,

Marlon

1. Google all the respondents. See what the internet is saying about them. Are they listed in any directories. Members of any associations. Any press releases on them?
2. Their email should be a name at their proper web address. I only use my gmail for non-business purposes never for any business.
3. Look at their website, they have to have one if they are serious. Search for meaningful content about themselves and what they do. If they have a telephone, contact email, an "about us" page.
Scammers rarely go to all this trouble and usually have one web page that is 3 million characters long.
4. Once they pass this test to your satisfaction, then respond and ask them for a quotation, their terms of business, their minimum order and how they expect to be paid. If their reply is within a reasonable time period and answer your questions professionally, then call them.
Always, Always put a face or voice to the company and have an initial satisfactory experience with them verbally.

Safe Trading Admin wrote:

Stage 1 Deadline: 1 Nov 2009

  

 

 

"Bob Miller opened a wholesale business specializing in novelty gifts. Looking for reliable suppliers of electronic gadgets, he sent out inquires and soon received many quotations. However, since Bob is new to trade, he has a hard time telling which supplier is trustworthy."

 

 

Advise Bob on how to tell verify suppliers during the early stages of trade for the chance to win 200 MVPs!

Learn more about this activity

 

 

1: The feeling of their website , it is the first way to make you know the supplier .

2: Compare the products,such as raw material ,the price and certification and so on

3:Asking for samples, the sample must be free but you can pay for the freight, anyhow , give before get , you do not believe in others , the same they are

4: Testing the sample

5: Visiting the supplier corp. or not , it depends on you , suggust you to do so if the supplier is new.

1)As you had got quotation from many suppliers, choose the 3-5best price and most detail quotation among them, ask them to take photos of the product for you confirm the price is according to what your enqiure, take photos of their factory, mentioned that you want to have a general idea about the factory, then make a decision to visit them.Ask them to send samples for confirm the order.

2)Factory visit, the most important part!!!After you got the samples, compare the quality with the price, as well as the factory photos, make a decision to visit the factory. (If you don't have budget to visit them, find a inspection agent to make factory audit) when you inspection the factory, Normally, the factory will send someone to pick you up. When you are in the factory, check their office first to see how many people in the office, meet the boss and manager for production, check their license and other certificates, request a copy for each one. Now come to the most important one, check the quality control department, a good factory should have their quality control people through out the producing process, that's since the raw material go in the factory, they check and test, measure each material to make sure its quality, on the production line, each part of the goods finished should have quality control people to recheck, when the goods is harf-finished and 100% furniture, there will be a big check on it and randomly pick up some of the quantity to make the test, before they pack the goods up, they will do quality check again, after they goods are put into the carton, quality control department should ramdonly open the cartons and make the testing on some item to check it's quality, count the quantity again before and when the goods load into the container. When you check these detail, talk with the sales or the manager or the boss to see if they know the workers each other, if they know the product well, to know if they fully understand the whole producing process.

3rd, Come to you office, check the copy of license and certificates you got from the factory, to see if it's the same name and address as the supplier's website shows or if it's the same as its alibaba account address, this process is to identify the person quoted to you is from this factory or from a trading company. If the address is the same, then it's from the factory. Also you can just through the talk you did with them when you visit the factory, if the sales or manager or boss know the worker and their products well, you can be quite sure you are buying from a factory. If you can not read Chinese, ask for help from this forum or pay for the visit to a inspection company.

4, Confirm again with the factory for the price, production description, delivery time, samples, color, quantity, packing specification, and so on, sign on the Proforma Invoice and Packing List!

5,Must sign contract with the factory, on the contract, the factory name must be the same as the license copy you got when you visit the factory.You need to write into the factory with period of time for quality guarantee! and how to solve problem when a claim happened.
You'd better write on the contract what situation happens, the factory should pay back all your deposit or all the payment!

6, Make a pre shipment inspection and loading inspection yourself or pay to a inspection company!