To trust your supplier is all we can do, as there are many steps to the export services from China before the goods gets to you, 1st will the supply send you goods, 2nd will they be what you want, 3rd whats the overall quality of the goods sent, 4th if you have problems with any of the products later will the supplier be there to help you, 5th is the supplier looking for long term business or just the quick sale.

For any buyer that starts new business with a supplier, there will be little trust i am sure, but after you have made some orders you will feel much better, but do you trust the supplier after more orders?, i think you would but you need to always be in control of the order and make sure your production is checked before shipment this is paramount.

To send money to any person or supplier you   don't know or have seen before is not the best start, don't matter what country you send too, so you have to do all your D/D checks or get help from another source. Some buyers would change their suppliers after the first sight of faults, like some damage to their goods or faulty parts, but if your pre shipment checks are upto date you should be ok, if you have problems with a supplier it's always best to work through them and learn from these situations.

We see more people checking all details about suppliers and this is great, but many can go over the top, if they see one things wrong with the supplier they feel it's a scam, wrong Tel code or maybe when they call a supplier and the number is off lline, SCAM well sometimes maybe not, just could be a reason for this, i have contacted many companies in UK and the line was dead or could not get through to them but these are very good companies so i knew would not be a problem, but remember it can happen, you need to have a open mind.

Is the supplier a factory? or trade company or agent, sometimes you only find out by way of a supplier visit, i have a story from our last trip to China in Dec 2007, we contacted about 8 suppliers for doors and 2 of them was in Hangzhou, i met one of the suppliers at the airport and he gave me all details about the products, after a few days we made times to visit all suppliers and later found the guy we met at the airport was a agent for the factory we contacted, this guy knows the factory very well so maybe hard to find the truth sometimes. We later had another meeting with the factory and the agent came and wanted to deal with us as he speak English well, but i did not need his services so he left the meeting, the prices we got from the supplier we cut back 30% so proves the profit made if we did not just deal with the factory.

Most suppliers have products on their web site that they do no make, and they buy from other suppliers, this is very normal but you need to know the real truth and check the correct certification. The bad side is the more people are involved the more chance to have more problems, and loose communication.

People like to buy samples, but what will the sample prove to you? as can you 100% say where the sample came from and was made, or would the real live production be the same quality, simple that the sample made can have much time spent to get it right, but on production day when the time is tight and the container is waiting for loading the quality can go out the window.

We should know when the factory is very busy working all hours this can cause problems, like all business they have to buy the materials for the goods and their suppliers can let them down too and this would cause time, also workers and machines all can have their off day.

Buying new designs is great for sales, but can have lot's of errors on the production and the returns from your customers after some little use, it may take time for the factory to make changes along the way, with help from the buyers, but where you buy an old design the product has been tested and all the errors gone and now you have a nice product that can last, this is not all cases, but food for thought.

Many buyers would say what the supplier can offer you, but the good suppliers can say what can the buyer offer them, because if my company made a product i feel is great and we are 100% behind it, i would want to know how it's sold and where and to who?, at the end of the day if you sell on Ebay and want to make a quick profit and have poor customer service some suppliers would not like this and can refuse to deal with you, this is one thing we came across this month in Shezhen, where   the company was very big and very busy, so they only look for long term business with people they know can provide customer service.

To understand your products and the market is the only way to have sucess.

You need to make sure that all contact details for the supplier is correct, and check other adverts they have placed on the net, remember you have to use your own skills for this, and sometimes information which is incorrect from a suppliers may not always proof them to be a scammer, we need to understand who has made these adverts, as for many suppliers in China the sales people   could have   placed the free business B2B adverts for their own sales.

Registered   companies in China must be in the data base at the   Bureau of Industry & Commerce (BIC).   approved, companies   will be   provided with a unique company number.   You can contact the local office for that area and give them the company register number, you might need help from a Chinese person for this part, sometimes you need to contact them by telephone.

Check what the suppliers wants as payments, Letter of Credit (LC) payments, TT bank payments, check if paid to a personal account or company, sometimes samples can be paid to a personal account, you need to make sure and why?   PayPal payments is ok for small orders or samples, but not many Chinese offer this payment type, or   escrow service.

Be sure about the product prices, if they are too low, you need to ask yourself why !! as this is the way scammers would get you to buy from them, you need to contact other suppliers and see what they offer or check the market prices.

We find many suppliers that offer brand named products for sale in China, you really have to check well as many will offer copy products ) FAKES and the quality or the controls maybe not be the same, there are many Chinese brands out there that would not have problems with the copyright laws and warranty issues from the brand name companies, but with all products you need to check the certification you need for your own country, as suppliers in China that export items like electronic products would send by express delivery to get away from the certification checks.

In the main most suppliers will offer you a great service, but you need to make sure you take great care and complete all the due diligence checks before you part with your money, in this way you will have a great future in business.