Shenzhen, China · 3 years on the factory side
I verify Chinese suppliers for overseas buyers — the legal entity, whether they are a real factory, and whether their documents will survive your market. Before you pay.
No account, no charge, no obligation. Looking for a factory rather than checking one? I find it and check it before you pay.
Why buyers get burned
A supplier list is not the hard part. You can find thousands of listings tonight. These are the questions that actually decide whether your order arrives as specified.
Three entities have to be the same company: the one that signs your contract, the one whose bank account takes your deposit, and the one that runs the production line. When they differ, that gap is where the money is lost — and it never shows up in the quotation.
I compare the registered Chinese legal name, the unified social credit code, the registered address and the company chop across all three — and I report every place they disagree.
A valid certificate for the wrong process is still the wrong certificate. Test reports get passed around between suppliers, with a different material named inside than the one you were quoted.
I check certificate numbers at the issuing body, and compare the report against your quotation.
The sample was right. The production run is a different material lot, a changed sub-supplier, a colour that drifted. You find out after the balance has left your account.
I tie the balance payment to QC passing, so the last check happens before the last payment.
What I do
Three fixed-price reports, or a commission on the order. Each one stands on its own — most buyers start with a report on one supplier, then move to the commission once they have a factory worth ordering from.
Level 1 — the platform screen, price and repeat-rate comparison, and the red flags visible from the desk. Level 2 adds the legal entity, whether it is a real factory or a trading company, capability and QC system for your product, and a clear recommendation — with the evidence behind it.
For food-contact, flexible packaging and medical device packaging: what your supplier actually holds, mapped against what your market demands, and what is missing.
Two or three suppliers, checked on the same criteria and quoted on the same line items — so you can see which one is actually cheaper, rather than which one wrote a shorter price.
I question suppliers in Chinese, compare quotations properly, check the sample and the mass production against the same standard, and put your balance payment behind QC passing. The sourcing page covers how I find the factory in the first place.
Money
Two separate payments, on purpose. If something goes wrong with the order, you are not also chasing me for your deposit.
How it works
Nobody honest can guarantee a supplier. "No guarantee" is not the same as "no protection", though. This is what I actually do, in order.
The three entities that must be the same company: the one that signs your contract and stamps it, the one whose bank account receives your deposit, and the one that runs the production line. I compare the registered Chinese legal name, the unified social credit code, the registered address and the company chop — and I report every place they disagree.
Production address, equipment list, environmental permit, and employee social-insurance headcount — trading companies typically show single digits.
Certificate numbers verified at the issuing body, not against a PDF someone emailed you. Test reports checked for sample name, date and standard. System certificates checked for validity and scope.
Is the material named in the test report the material they are quoting you? Are the claimed processes covered by the certificates they hold?
Production floor, incoming material area, whether the machines are actually running, inspection room, calibration labels, batch records, finished goods warehouse.
Deposit against the proforma invoice; balance tied to QC passing. No pass, no balance. Many buyers do not know this is negotiable. It usually is.
For larger runs I will tell you plainly when to spend your money on a formal inspection by an accredited firm instead of relying on me.
Every quotation, promise and specification change stays in writing — so "that is what we agreed" is never a debate three months later.
The check that comes first
Before you ask what kind of company they are, check who you are actually dealing with. Three entities have to line up: the one that signs your contract, the one whose bank account takes your deposit, and the one that runs the production line. Most of the money that goes missing in China orders is lost in the gap between them — and that gap never shows up in the quotation.
Once those three line up, you can ask the question everybody starts with.
The second question
This changes the price, the lead time, who can change the specification, and who you can hold to it.
| What to look at | Trading company | Real factory |
|---|---|---|
| Contract, bank account and production line | Three different company names appear across contract, invoice and bank details | All three are the same registered entity, and the chop matches |
| Registered production address | Often none registered | On file, matching the site you visit |
| Social-insurance headcount | Usually single digits | Matches a production headcount |
| Environmental permit | Usually none — nothing is being produced | Held for the process they run |
| The equipment they claim to run | Belongs to someone else | Theirs, and running when you visit |
| Who sets the price you receive | A margin added on top, invisible to you | The maker, on their own invoice |
| When the specification gets questioned | They have to ask the factory first | Answered by the people who run the line |
Trading companies are not automatically bad — some are efficient and honest. What is not acceptable is paying factory-direct prices without knowing which one you are dealing with.
On the three-entity check, I compare the registered Chinese legal name, the unified social credit code, the registered address and the company chop — and I report every place they disagree. One warning about the obvious shortcut: a business scope that lists only sales and wholesale is a flag worth checking, but it is not proof. Since China's 2021 registration reform, what is registered and what a company can do are two different things.
Sample deliverables
Two real report formats with client-identifying details removed. Every report states what was checked, how, and what could not be verified.
Legal entity, manufacturer or trading company, capability and QC system, risk notes, and a clear recommendation: proceed, proceed with conditions, or avoid.
What documents the supplier holds, mapped against what your target market requires, with the gap list and a document request list you can forward as it is.
Where I work
Most packaging problems are not manufacturing problems. They are the gap between what a supplier is used to producing and what your market requires. That gap is different in every country, so here is where I am set up to work — and what has to be checked in each place.
Where I am actively taking on buyers right now: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.
Where I am set up to work next: the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Austria and Belgium. I work in English, and these are the European markets where that is enough — the buyers tend to work in English, and the packaging rules are the strictest in the EU, which is exactly where a document check earns its fee.
I do not work in French, Italian or Spanish yet. If that is your market, tell me anyway — I would rather say no than pretend.
Before you ask
All 59 answers, grouped the way buyers actually worry, are on the FAQ page.
No. I am paid by you, not by the factory.
My fee is 5–8% of the order value, invoiced to you. You pay the factory directly — the money never passes through me.
This matters for one simple reason: if I were paid by the factory, I would have a reason to recommend the factory. I am not, so I do not.
Both, separately — and that is deliberate.
The reason: your goods money never touches me. If something goes wrong with the order, you are not also chasing me for your deposit.
Yes — that is actually the most common case.
Send me the company name and I will tell you what I can see from here, free. That usually means whether the registered entity matches the name they gave you, whether they present themselves as a manufacturer, and what their registration history looks like.
If you want more than that — an on-site visit, a document check, a compliance gap check — we can scope it from there.
Start here
Send me a Chinese supplier you are considering — or one you already buy from. I will tell you what I can see from here, free, and whether there is anything worth paying me to look at.
I work as an individual, not through a registered company. If that matters to you, ask — I would rather say it up front than have you find out later.
