Sample until you can sign one
Pay the sample charge, expect two or three rounds, then sign a sealed sample and size set. Bulk is judged against it.
NUMBER: sample charge and time (the factory’s)DEFINITION: sealed sample, AQL
Budget sampling as a line and as a period of weeks: it is charged, it is normally two or three rounds, and each round is a shipment and a review. It ends when you sign a sealed sample, the physically approved garment, signed by both sides, that bulk is judged against. A photograph does not settle an argument; a sealed sample does. Approve a size set too, not just one size, because a fit that is right at medium and wrong at extra large is a whole size curve of returns.
The sample charge and turnaround are the factory’s numbers. No published figure covers them. Ask for both in writing with the first quote; the office writes them into every quote it returns.
What a bad answer looks like: “samples are free for a serious buyer, about a week or two”, with no charge and no turnaround date in writing, or a charge that appears only after the samples have shipped.
