Before I went off to China I did a lot of research on Agents and looking to pick the right one. What I found was 2 things that concerned me from reading through blogs and articles the first one being how do I know I’m going to be dealing with a good agent. To me I always like to know personally who I’m dealing with, there is only so much you can get from someone over the phone and through emails. I like to see the whites of peoples eyes have them in front of them and talk things through face to face. Also I like to see what they are capable of and if they do have the facilities in place to deal with what I needed from them. The only way I knew I could satisfy my concern with this problem was to actually go there and meet them which is what I did.

The Second issue which going back to the title of this blog was the kick backs I had read about agents getting Kickbacks from manufactures in order to sell their goods. Thinking about it there was no way I could ever find out if they were. I could limit any difference there may be by speaking to different agents which I did, but what I seemed to find was that there were some discrepancies it the cost of the items between agents but then there was also discrepancies with the cost of the shipping or FOB. There was no real way to weed out this problem so I went for the agent that I felt more comfortable with and had developed the better relationship as there was not much difference between the costs. From working through the final figures I was still saving myself money and I could make it profitable to myself.

The way to look at it is that Kick backs from China does exist in some form or another, it shouldn’t let it put you off from buying from there. You just need to take it as part of the norm there. I guess you could say it’s similar to if you go to the states and have to tip everyone there for us in the UK we are not a tipping nation so not used to it… I never did understand going to my friends wedding in America and everyone tipping the bar tender $1 to open a bottle of beer when it was a free Bar!! (^_^)