How to check up on a business

Shopping
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1stAustralia. Who are they?
How do I check on a company that claims to be supporting a charity or other causes? I was considering making a purchase from this company but something seemed nqr about their website. I tried searching for an ABN without success. I won’t be purchasing from them now because the lack of information made me suspicious.
How best do I check out the bona fides of a company?

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Looks to be a US company but maybe somewhere in Asia?. So many currencies! They have a US (as well as an Australian) address noting street addresses can be mail drops, but they take Discover cards - all but unknown and mostly useless in Australia although very good in the USA and the parts of Europe they are accepted.

From their web site, ‘the package usually take from 2 - 4 weeks to arrive at your door and the shipping is totally FREE!’. Then 'duties and taxes are calculated and changed <sic> by customs officials in your country. ’ ’ If your item has not arrived within 45 days for apparel products and 60 days" What service!

Looks like an international order taker, very Asian ‘command’ of language, not so much a stocking entity. No phone just an email form. I would keep a very wide berth from them.

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According to whois.com the domain is registered in the USA which seems to be where their website is hosted. The domain registration is through a bureau and says nothing about who actually owns the domain or the company. There have been many changes of IP address.

According to ASIC 1stAustralia is not a registered Australian company name. Their website says nothing about who they are except they are owned by Love Australia. According to Dun and Bradstreet it is a small Oz company but details are paywalled. ASIC doesn’t know Love Australia. However Love Australia Designs does exist. Possible they are the same.

The language in the site puffery is grammatically correct but seems not to be of a normal native speaker of either Oz or the USA, I suspect from Asia but it could be marketdroidish.

Their Facebook page features lots of koalas and Oz images as well as comments that they are improperly selling aboriginal material but are not aboriginal.

The Australian contact address is described as an apartment by Ray White. Who knows what that means, it could be somebody’s cousin who collects mail.

They give no phone or contact email.

I cannot find any reviews on Product Review or similar.

Whoever they are they have not been around long under that name and have gone to some effort to not be identified.

I would not deal with them.

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As @syncretic mentioned, it would seem that 1stAustralia is selling fake Australian aboriginal products. Apropos of which, there is a change.org petition to shut down 1stAustralia for cultural appropriation.

So it would seem that you made the right decision to not deal with them.

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Thanks for providing link to change.org petition.
However l would also like step by step instructions to check bonafides of Any company.
How to check local tradies? How to check online stores? Who to notify if find dodgy companies?

Thanks
WenD

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For tradies, most States have registers that can be searched to see if any notices or actions have been taken against them, for example, in Victoria information can be found here…

With tradies it is imperative that they are licensed and have appropriate insurances. Referrals from friends and relatives are also a good way to secure one less likely to be ‘dodgy’. For bigger jobs such as renovations, new bathrooms/kitchen etc it is also wise to ask for references or contacts of previous customers to interrogate about the tradies performance. If they won’t provide details, this may indicate there are problems. Choice has also covered…

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You could start with following the steps that I did above, I don’t say it is comprehensive but it will get you going. It takes some work because some make it hard by using various names. It is quite legal to use a business name that is not the company name.

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Some simple searches such as…

  • ABN company search to see if they are registered to operate in Australia
  • IP searches to see where their business website is hosted and domain registered
  • Company trust/scam websites to see from web trawelling the risks of dealing with the company
  • internet searches of the company and parent company to see what experiences other customers have had
  • information on the company website…such as do they provide physical business address, phone numbers etc. Search each of these and check that the physical address exists

The ACCC also has this information as well. .

And this is useful to…

Unfortunately many consumers don’t do any basic checks and get burnt online by the ‘if the price is too good to beleive, then it possibly is and is a fraudulent or scam business only there to steal your money’. Many consumers try and find the cheapest price online, but cheapest from an unknown foreign business is a recipe for disaster if one doesn’t do some due diligence before paying for a purchase.

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Thank you to all those who responded and made suggestions about how to check out companies and trades people. Like @Wend I would be very interested in a step by step guide explaining how to do this. I wonder if this is something Choice might consider worth undertaking?

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Thanks everyone

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