Checking the supplier and the goods

Company check

against the license and the register, before payment

Goods check

at the warehouse in Guangzhou, before dispatch

Decision on defects

taken by the client, the cargo waits with no charge for storage

Packing following the check

From $5 per place, crated pallet – $30 per cubic metre, as at 20 August 2026

Dispatch weight

Terms depend on the shipment

Checking the company and checking the goods are different things

Checking the company answers the question of exactly who you are entering into a deal with. Checking the goods answers a different question: whether what is standing in the warehouse matches your order. The first is done before the money is transferred, the second after production and before dispatch.

Neither replaces the other. A real factory with a valid license can still send wrong items and incomplete sets, while a neatly packed consignment may come from an intermediary that stops answering a month later. Both checks are built into the supply cycle: payment to the supplier follows the company check, and goods receipt at the warehouse in Guangzhou comes before dispatch.

Checking the company before payment

What the open sources show

• Whether the legal entity exists and whether its name matches the one on the invoice.
• The date of registration and the status: active, suspended, wound up.
• The type of activity: manufacturing, wholesale trade or intermediation.
• The registered address and whether it matches the production address you are given.
• The legal representative – the person whose signature should be on the contract.

The open sources say nothing about product quality. They show something else: whether there is a legal entity behind the name in the correspondence, and whether it is the entity you are paying. That is enough to filter out the most common way of losing money – a transfer to an account unconnected with the seller.

What the business license shows

The business license is the principal document of a Chinese company, and asking for it is normal. It carries the name in Chinese, the 18-character unified registration number, the date of registration, the registered address, the type of activity and the legal representative.

• The name in Chinese is the primary one. The English name from the presentation may be absent from the register altogether.
• The 18-character unified number is what the register entry is found by. No number means no check.
• The type of activity. A trading company rather than a factory is not a problem in itself, but it changes the conversation about price and about liability for defects.
• The status of the license: with a suspended registration it is too early to sign a contract.

Bank details and the beneficiary of the payment

The beneficiary's name in the bank details must match the name on the license, character for character. A divergence here is not a quirk of local accounting. A payment to a third party means you have no document connecting the money to the seller, and in a dispute there is no one to bring a claim against.

Checking the goods at the warehouse in Guangzhou

This page separates three levels of service: a basic receiving check, order verification and a detailed inspection. The basic receiving check covers package count, the visible condition of the packaging, weight, dimensions and photographs of the packages. Order verification covers SKU, model, colour, size and quantity. A detailed inspection covers opening packages, checking their contents, visually inspecting the goods and working through your checklist. When goods from several suppliers are consolidated, we inspect each supplier's shipment separately before combining them.

1. Basic receiving check: packages are counted and checked against the packing list.
2. Basic receiving check: each package is weighed and measured – these figures are used to calculate shipping costs.
3. Basic receiving check: visible condition of the packaging, including boxes that are open, wet, deformed or repacked.
4. Basic receiving check: photographs of the packages, the overall shipment and the labels.
5. Order verification: SKU, model, colour, size and quantity are checked against your order.
6. Detailed inspection: an agreed sample of packages is opened.
7. Detailed inspection: package contents, visible condition of the goods and checks against your checklist.
8. Inspection results: damage and discrepancies are recorded by package number and SKU, with separate photographs of each issue.

Sample opening means inspecting part of the places, not the whole consignment. The extent is agreed in advance: one place per item number, a proportion of the consignment, or every place where the goods are expensive and there are few of them. Full opening is possible, but it takes time and repacking, so it is decided before the goods arrive.

What the check does not cover

A basic receiving check and order verification do not replace a detailed inspection or testing. A detailed inspection provides a visual check against an agreed checklist, but it cannot answer the following three types of question. It is important to make that clear upfront.

• Laboratory testing. The composition of a material, its strength and its fire and electrical characteristics are determined in a laboratory under a defined method, not by inspection at a warehouse.
• Hidden defects inside sealed electronics. While the casing is closed and the seal is intact, the contents are judged from the marking. Opening for the sake of a check often costs the goods their saleable condition and the factory warranty.
• Compliance with the certification of the country of import. A mark on the box is not the same as a valid certificate or declaration in your own country – that is part of official import.

If your category needs testing or certification, that is planned before the consignment is ordered, not when the cargo is already standing in Guangzhou. We raise the question at the quoting stage.

What happens if defects are found

The cargo stays in Guangzhou. You receive photographs and a description with the place numbers and quantities, and you take the decision. Dispatch does not begin without confirmation – that is precisely the point of checking in China rather than at your warehouse.

How inspection and packing reduce the risk of damage

Standard carrier cover on current routes may exclude cargo damage. We confirm the covered risks, liability limits and terms of any additional insurance for the specific route and policy. See insurance and packing for details.

That is why packing is not a separate service but a direct consequence of what was found at goods receipt. Before the places have been inspected its extent is unknown: thin cardboard, opened boxes and fragile contents only become visible during the piece count and the opening. The prices below are current as at 20 August 2026.

Photographs before and after packing go to you before the consignment leaves: that is what evidences the condition of the cargo when it is handed to the carrier. The full list of quote items is in pricing, and the current voluntary insurance rate is confirmed when quoting.

The cargo waits for your decision on defects at no extra charge

We have no paid storage at all, so a pause for a decision costs nothing. That changes the conversation with the supplier: you are not choosing between rushing and a storage invoice, but calmly waiting for a replacement, a top-up or a discount.

• No excess storage charge exists, so correspondence with the supplier does not turn into an invoice.
• Rejected places sit separately from the sound ones and do not enter the dispatch weight calculation.
• A replacement or a top-up can be waited for and sent as one consignment: delivery is charged once rather than twice.
• While the cargo is in Guangzhou the supplier still has open obligations on the order – that is the main argument in a dispute.
• The dispatch can go on being built up: a larger shipment is usually better value, and building up costs nothing.
• Long-term accumulation for a particular task is discussed case by case.

If supplies are already running but discrepancies are consistently found at your warehouse rather than in China, have a look at switching from your current operator.

FAQ