Every month a buyer sends us a quotation from a "factory" that turns out to be a three-person trading office in a residential building. The price looked wonderful. The problem appears later, when the specification quietly changes or the deposit lands in an account that belongs to somebody else.
Here is the sequence we use, in the order we use it.
## 1. Match the company name to the business licence
Ask for the 营业执照 (business licence) as a photo, not a scan. Check three things: the registered company name, the registered address, and the scope of business (经营范围). A manufacturer will have production or processing in the scope. A trading company will list wholesale or import/export only.
Cross-check the name against the bank account before any money moves. This single check prevents most deposit fraud. If the factory says "pay our Hong Kong account", ask why, and get the relationship in writing.
## 2. Ask what happens on the production line, not what they make
Factory sales staff are trained to describe products. Ask instead: how many production lines, how many shifts, what is the monthly capacity, who performs in-process inspection, what Equipment do you own.
A genuine factory answers in numbers without hesitation. A trader pauses, then says "we have a partner factory". That is your answer.
## 3. Request the certificate AND the test report
A CE certificate on its own tells you very little — many are self-declarations. Ask for the test report from the issuing lab, and check that the model number and applicant name on the report match the factory you are talking to.
For electronics, ask for the ETL or TUV file number. For food contact, ask for the LFGB or FDA report. For toys, EN71-1/2/3 or CPSIA. If the report is two years old and the model has changed, ask for a new one.
## 4. Verify the export record
Chinese customs data is not public, but the factory can show export declarations or a certificate of origin history. Ask for the last three shipment documents to your region, with the buyer name redacted if they prefer. A factory that has never exported to the EU will struggle with CE documentation, no matter how good the price is.
## 5. Ask for a live video walkthrough
Not a marketing video. A live call where you ask them to walk to a specific machine and show you the serial plate, or open a carton from the current production run. Ten minutes of live video tells you more than an hour of edited footage.
If they refuse, treat it as a serious signal. Every real factory we work with will do this once a relationship is credible.
## 6. Place a paid sample order before a bulk order
Pay for the sample, not a "free" one. A paid sample goes through the same order flow as production: artwork approval, material confirmation, packing. Free samples often come from a different line or a hand-made prototype.
Test the sample against your own spec sheet. If the sample fails, walk away — the production run will be worse.
## A note on audit reports
Third-party audit reports (SGS, BV, Intertek, TUV) are useful, but check the date and the scope. An audit from three years ago does not tell you who runs the factory today. We re-audit every 24 months, and our report includes the licence-to-bank-account match, which most standard audits skip.
## The 20-minute version
If you only have twenty minutes, do these three things:
- Photograph the business licence and match the company name to the bank account.
- Ask three numeric questions about capacity and see whether the answers are immediate and consistent.
- Order a paid sample and inspect it before you commit to a bulk order.
That covers most of the risk. The rest is diligence on the production run, which is what pre-shipment inspection is for.
