In this article
- The ten-minute check, in order
- What a GSTIN tells you, and three things it doesn’t
- Documents worth asking for, and the ones that prove nothing
- Checking BIS and ISI claims
- The signals that predict trouble better than documents
- What “verified” means on a marketplace, including ours
- If something goes wrong anyway
- The short version
Check four things before the first order: that the GSTIN is active on the GST portal, that the legal name against that GSTIN matches the name on the quotation, that the address is one you can find on a map, and that there is a landline or a company-domain email behind the mobile number. Ten minutes. It removes most of the risk, not all of it.
We run this check on every seller who applies to list on VendorStocks. The most common reason an application goes back is not fraud. It is that the name on the PAN, the name on the GST certificate and the name on the bank account are three different versions of the same firm, and nobody inside that firm had ever noticed.
The ten-minute check, in order
1. Get the GSTIN in writing. On the quotation, on a letterhead, in an email. Not read out over a phone call. A supplier reluctant to put his GSTIN on a quotation has answered your question in the first minute.
2. Look it up on the GST portal. Search Taxpayer by GSTIN, on the government site. Four fields matter: registration status — it must say Active — legal name of business, trade name, and constitution of business. Note all four.
3. Match the legal name to the quotation. This is the step everybody skips and the one that catches the most. Sometimes the difference is innocent, a trade name that differs from the registered name, which is normal and visible on the portal. Sometimes the GSTIN belongs to a different firm entirely and the person quoting you has borrowed it. The portal shows you which.
4. Check the PAN inside the GSTIN. A GSTIN is fifteen characters: two digits of state code, then the ten-character PAN of the entity, then an entity number, a Z, and a check digit. If your supplier has also given you a PAN, characters three to twelve of the GSTIN should be exactly that PAN. When they are not, stop and ask why before you do anything else. Most buyers in this trade do not know this and it is the single most useful trick in the article.
5. Check the state code against the address. The first two digits are the state of registration. A Karnataka supplier quoting on a GSTIN from another state is not necessarily a problem, but it is a question — it changes your place of supply and therefore your tax treatment.
6. Find the address. Put it into a map. You want a commercial or industrial address that exists. A godown, a shop, an office. A registered address that turns out to be a residential flat is not disqualifying on its own — plenty of legitimate traders run lean — but combine it with anything else on this list and it matters.
7. Look for a landline or a domain email. A firm with a website, a company-domain email and a landline has made a commitment that a mobile number and a free email account have not. This proves nothing by itself. It shifts the odds.
That is the check. Seven steps, all free, all doable before you reply to the quotation.
What a GSTIN tells you, and three things it doesn’t
An active, verified GSTIN tells you the entity exists, is registered to trade, is filing at least well enough to stay active, and is who it says it is.
It does not tell you whether the supplier holds the stock he says he holds. Registration is not inventory.
It does not tell you whether he is financially sound. A firm can be perfectly registered and three months from closing, and the portal will not show you that.
And it does not tell you whether the goods are genuine. A GSTIN proves the seller is real. It says nothing at all about what is inside the carton, which is a separate problem with a separate check.
Documents worth asking for, and the ones that prove nothing
| Document | What it proves | What it doesn’t | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| GST registration certificate | The entity is registered, and in which state | Stock, solvency, product authenticity | GST portal, Search Taxpayer |
| PAN | Legal identity of the entity | Trading capability | Must match characters 3–12 of the GSTIN |
| Cancelled cheque / bank details | Where money goes, and in whose name | Nothing about the business itself | Name must match the GST legal name |
| Udyam / MSME certificate | Registered small-business status | Size, capability, reliability | Udyam portal, by registration number |
| BIS licence number | That a licence exists for that product and manufacturer | That your carton is under it | BIS Care app or the BIS site |
| Manufacturer authorisation letter | A relationship with the brand, on paper | That it is still current — these expire | The manufacturer’s regional office |
| Photograph of a shop front | Nothing | Nothing | — |
| A nice “About Us” page | Nothing | Nothing | — |
The last two are on the list because they are what nervous buyers ask for, and they are the two that carry no information at all.
Checking BIS and ISI claims
If a seller claims BIS certification on a product where it is mandatory, that claim has a licence number behind it. Ask for it. BIS publishes a lookup, and it will tell you the licence holder, the product and the standard.
What that gives you is confirmation that the licence exists and who holds it. What it cannot give you is confirmation that the item in your carton was made under it. That is why licence verification is a pre-order check and physical verification is a post-delivery check, and neither substitutes for the other.
Two practical notes. The licence holder is a manufacturer, not your dealer — a dealer sending you “his” BIS number for a product he did not make is either confused or hoping you are. And an ISI mark moulded into plastic is far easier to fake than a licence is, so treat the mark as the weaker evidence.
The signals that predict trouble better than documents
The documents catch the obvious cases. What actually predicts a difficult order is smaller and harder to file.
A quotation with no letterhead and no GSTIN on it. A price meaningfully below everybody else’s for the same make and model with no explanation — a genuine reason exists sometimes, old stock, a cancelled order, a scheme, and an honest seller will tell you which. A seller who will not put a dispatch date in writing but keeps saying on the phone that it is ready. Bank details in a name that does not match the firm, with an explanation involving a brother-in-law. Pushback when you ask for a proforma before payment.
None of these prove anything alone. Every one of them is worth one more question before you release money.
The strongest single signal, for what it is worth: how a supplier answers an inconvenient question. Ask him what happens if the consignment arrives short. A good supplier has an answer, because it has happened to him. A bad one tells you it will not happen.
What “verified” means on a marketplace, including ours
Our verification badge means a person at VendorStocks checked a PAN, a GSTIN and a business address against government records before that seller could list anything. That is a real check and we do it on every seller.
It does not mean we have walked through their godown, looked at their books, or can promise they will dispatch on time.
We keep that wording tight in our terms deliberately. A badge implying more than it checks is worse than no badge, because it moves your due diligence onto the platform without moving any of the risk. If something goes wrong with a seller on our platform, we will share transaction records, communication logs and the verification documents we hold, because that is genuinely useful and it is what we can honestly offer. What we cannot do is guarantee an outcome, and any marketplace telling you otherwise has not read its own terms.
So run the check yourself as well, even on a verified seller.
If something goes wrong anyway
Raise it with the seller directly and in writing, on a channel that keeps a record. Most problems in this trade are ordinary problems — a short consignment, a wrong variant, a delay — and most sellers fix them when asked clearly.
If that fails, gather what you have: the RFQ, the quotation, the purchase order, the proforma, the invoice, the delivery documentation, the photographs. If you bought through a platform, most of that exists already. If you bought over WhatsApp, this is the moment you find out what you do and do not have.
If the amount justifies it, you have routes under Indian law — the Consumer Protection Act, the Sale of Goods Act, ordinary contract law — and for a B2B purchase those are real options rather than theoretical ones. But they run on documents, which is the whole argument for having the documents before you need them.
The short version
Seven steps, ten minutes, before you reply to the quotation. GSTIN active, legal name matching, PAN sitting correctly inside the GSTIN, state code sensible, address findable, landline or domain email present, licence number checked if a certification is claimed.
Then ask one inconvenient question and listen carefully to how it is answered.
Related reading: Genuine vs counterfeit switchgear · What documents you need to get verified as a seller · Who should not use VendorStocks
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