How can i check if Polish company legitimate?

ctbfashion

Hi,

I have had communication with a company based in Poland we have agreed price etc and sent an invoice but i would like to do a company background check or something. I have googled etc but all answers come up in Polish and i have tried to translate but no joy any help appreciated.

pedroeibar1

You should have done a background check before you did anything. Get a credit report on them - if you do not have an account yourself get a contact with one to do so for you. Also, talk to EI, they might know he Polish Co. (Why would you send an invoice?)

ctbfashion

They have sent me an Invoice. No money has changed hands. As i said i have been trying to do a background check on them but i cant get anything up in English. I was not going to to do a check on them before i knew a good price etc as i would be doing them all day for every enquiry made.

pedroeibar1

Are you the supplier or the buyer? If the former you need to know if you will be paid, if the latter you need to know thatyou will get the merchandise as ordered.

Either way you should do your homework before agreeing terms. How can anyone agree terms without knowing about the trading partner? As I said, go get a credit report on them from any of the main credit reporting agencies or see if EI has any info.

ctbfashion

I am the buyer. I have agreed a price which i think is reasonable and i have been trying to find information but i am finding it difficult as the information is in Polish.

The point of this thread was to look for advice on avenues to check on the company and for some recommendations on where to go to get this information in English.

fearghalcotter

A couple of useful tips in relation if you are feeling sceptical:-

1. What was the method of contact? If it was e-mail, make sure the address is @companyname.pl and not g-mail or anything else.

2. How did you hear about them/ come into contact with them? Was it a reliable source? Who made the initial contact?

3. If you agree to prices and terms, its not unusual to then receive an invoice However, on most typical invoices will be some business information you can use as I'm sure you know i.e. address/reg no. or something along those lines which, as mentioned below, you can go to EI, see if they have contacts in the region and run a cross check that way. Failing this, check polishforums.com

4. When looking at details not in English, most browsers (I use Chrome) offer a translate now option. It may not be perfectly translated, but hey, you will get the jist of it. If they were to do a background check on you, would it come up in Polish? If your browser does not offer this, a messy way is to copy and past large amounts of text into a free translation website. The only things which wont be translated are texts within images and spelling mistakes. There are so many free translation tools online, so translation should not be an issue.

5. Google the "person" who is your main point of contact. If they deal in international trade, check their linkedin profile and ensure its valid (i.e. a good few contacts, recent and past activity etc.). You can do the same for the company.

6. It also depends on the item or items you are purchasing and quantity - for a lot of goods if it seems to good to be true, it probably is!

7. Check alibaba or another global trading platform, look through the different posts as to ways people got scammed and learn from their mistakes!

If its a large order, get a sample out first. If you aim to become a regular customer of theirs, they should have little to no problem with this.

ctbfashion

Cheers thanks for the positive advice.

I got the contact on Merkandi which many people use for trade.

The price and information is fair to what i have paid in the past. It is more that the product is harder to source.

I wil follow up on your pointers.

Thanks