Procurement might seem to be an easy job for some customers. Click here and there.
– Nice website outlook, Alibaba’s Golden medal, ISO 9001 certification… Elementary, my dear Watson! No doubt this supplier is by all accounts a respectable one. –
Happily some buyers know there are many traps to avoid while sourcing goods. And the first pitfall is to find a reliable supplier.
A buyer recently hired us to run a background check on a regular manufacturer.
Here is what our experts have found during their investigation :
– Company registration information : fake.
– ISO 9001 certification : also fake
We have to admit, those documents are in mandarin, thus quite troublesome to verify for customers.
– Supplier legal chinese name : none
– supplier official registration : none
Where does it end? This supplier was actually a trading office counting only 2 employees. We even found a scam claim against them.
To clear all doubts, we gave them a call. To confirm our findings we asked mere questions such as how many people work in your factory? It took only 3 questions before they hang off the phone.
One country, one party, how many identities?
Even if placing an order through a trader doesn’t necessarily mean the goods won’t arrive, it sounds like too much of a risk to be taken, compared to just buy from a trustworthy manufacturer.
Many traps roam buyers’path. If bad deals darken the reputation of some supplier, this one has, in China, the possibility of changing his english name. With a new name, the same chinese citizen, who has a real official chinese name, can start a new business. So you also have to check the reputation of the chinese name to make sure who’s in front of you.
