Someone over on the adoption.com China forum posted an excellent question.

Can anybody suggest good questions to use to interview adoption agencies with?

And some great responses:

The first thing I would do is call or e- mail as many agencys as you can. They are all really good at getting info to you quickly.(if they are not, don't want to use them) Some of these packets are filled w/ tons and tons od information. Many will have dvd's also. A lot also had references. Call them! I actually met a few great people doing that. After you weed thru that call your top ones w/ a few questions. The right agency should jump out at you!

A great piece of opening advice! If you are at the very beginning of your agency research, by all means, contact as many agencies as you can. But don't forget, every agency is going to put its best foot forward. No agency is going to tell you they had unhappy families, that a referral fell through, that fees went up....they are going to paint a rosy picture.

Once you have found a handful of agencies that pass the "sniff" test in your book, start seeking out personal opinions from people who have actually used them. And DO NOT limit yourself to the families the agency lists as references. I know there are families listed with our first agency who would give it glowing reviews; however, I can list about 10 families off the top of my head that would tell you to run as fast as you can in the other direction, and 6 or 7 more that have filed a complaint with the state licensing agency. So that gives you a good example of how sometimes getting all the information takes a little work beyond calling the families on an agency reference list.

So in talking to the agencies, what should you ask? Here are some ideas:

Fees-any portion refundable, under what conditions? Guarantee they won't go up? Are they due at once or in payments?

Children available-sex, age, health, race

Timeframe-for a family starting the process now, what do you expect? What has been the timeframe for families travelling right now? Is there anything going on in or out of country that might impact our adoption?

Communication-how long to return calls, emails...many agencies have a 24 hour rule.

Travel-arranged through agency? In-country support? Travel with group?

I would highly suggest you check out the forum I linked to above for a terrific discussion.