Every buyer sourcing from a country they have not visited faces the same problem: the supplier's website looks professional, the photographs look real, and the prices look good. So does a fraudulent one. These are the checks that actually separate a manufacturer from a website, and they take about an hour.
1. Verify the company legally exists
Turkish companies are registered and the registration can be checked. Ask for:
- MERSİS number — the central trade registry number every Turkish company has.
- Tax number and tax office (vergi numarası, vergi dairesi).
- Trade registry number and the registry office that issued it.
- Chamber of commerce registration certificate — a current one, dated this year.
A manufacturer sends these without hesitation, often in the first reply. A company that treats the request as unusual is telling you something.
2. Separate manufacturers from traders
Both have a place, but you should know which you are dealing with, because it determines who you talk to when a machine fails.
Ask where the factory is and ask for photographs or a video walk-through of the production floor with the machine you are buying in it. Ask for the address of the plant, not the office. A real manufacturer will also name the components they buy in — motors, compressors, control panels — because those are branded parts they are proud of.
A trading company that is open about being a trading company is fine, and often useful when you want several product types in one shipment. A trading company presenting itself as a factory is a problem, because the after-sales chain is longer than they are admitting.
3. Check the documents the goods will actually need
This is where most problems surface early. For machinery going to the European Union, ask for the EU Declaration of Conformity and confirmation that a technical file exists. CE marking on the control panel means nothing on its own; the declaration is the document that carries legal weight. Until 19 January 2027 machinery is covered by the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, and from 20 January 2027 by the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.
For food-contact equipment, ask for food-grade material certificates for the stainless steel. For pressure equipment, ask which conformity route was used. A manufacturer who exports regularly answers these in one e-mail. One who has never exported will change the subject.
4. Ask for references in your region
Ask for two customers in your country or a neighbouring one, and contact them. Suppliers who export properly have these and will share them. It is worth the two phone calls: the questions that matter are whether spare parts arrived when needed and whether anyone answered the phone when something broke.
5. Test the after-sales answer before you order
Ask three specific questions in writing:
- What does the warranty cover, for how long, and who pays freight on a replacement part?
- Are spare parts held in stock, and how long does a part take to reach my country?
- Can a technician travel for installation and commissioning, and on what terms?
Vague answers here predict the relationship after the invoice is paid. Get the replies in writing and attach them to the order.
6. Protect the payment
Check that the bank account is in the company's own name, matching the invoice exactly. Confirm bank details by telephone, never from an e-mail alone: intercepting a thread and sending amended account details at the moment payment is due is the most common fraud in this trade. For a first order of significant value, use a letter of credit, or a deposit plus balance against shipping documents. Arrange a third-party pre-shipment inspection and make the inspection certificate a condition of the final payment.
7. Warning signs worth walking away from
- A price far below every other quotation for the same specification.
- A bank account in a personal name, or in a country unrelated to the supplier.
- Pressure to pay quickly because "the price expires today".
- No physical address, or an address that is a residential flat.
- Refusal to provide registration documents or a declaration of conformity.
- Photographs that appear on several unrelated websites — check with a reverse image search.
What a straight answer looks like
A supplier worth working with will give you the registration numbers, the factory address, the conformity documents, two references and a clear written warranty, and will not object to an inspection before shipment. None of that is a favour; it is ordinary export practice. If you are starting a sourcing project, send the specification and ask for exactly those items alongside the quotation. The replies will sort the list for you faster than any amount of website reading.