Hi James, I am so glad you mentioned your experience with the company
from ShenZhen, China. I going through the same thing now - from Shen
Zhen, very persistant, asking about prices for large quantities. The
“rep” is now saying his company has decided to let him come here to
visit my company and talk about my jewelry and shipping. I don’t
know if that is a ploy to get me to trust them or what. Has anyone
else been contacted like this from China?
Jill, I would tend to be very cautious, especially if they claim that
visiting your company is the only reason for the visit. That means,
among other things, that your company (and you) will be listed on
their visa applications to enter the U.S. You need to ask yourself
whether you feel comfortable with this. Ask yourself what they are
trying to accomplish by spending thousands of dollars in travel and
expenses, salary of an employee, just to visit you in person. If the
value you offer them outweighs the costs, then maybe they can make a
case for it. But I doubt it. I spent over 20 years in corporate
business, including international business. You don’t just decide to
send someone across the globe on a whim to visit a small company that
you’re considering doing a little business with – there’s a lot of
due diligence that takes place first, and the value of the deal has
to be big enough to make the expense worthwhile.
If they had said “we’ll be in the U.S. during the following time
period and would like to meet with you while we’re there,” I’d feel
less uncomfortable. The way they’re approaching it, though, would be
raising major alarm bells for me.
Just my $.02 (u.s.)
Karen Goeller
@Karen_Goeller
I going through the same thing now - from Shen Zhen, very persistant, asking about prices for large quantities. The "rep" is now saying his company has decided to let him come here to visit my company and talk about my jewelry and shipping. I don't know if that is a ploy to get me to trust them or what. Has anyone else been contacted like this from China?
Yep 
I received an email from the same area of China a few
months ago… They wanted tobuy my racing related jewelry… You
know… Nascar type stuff .etc… I never responded as I immediately
thought this was some kind of scam … or , someone wanted to copy my
stuff… My thoughts were that they did not have Nascar or any
general car racing in China as far as I know…So it could only be a
scam. Daniel Grandi