Inspection before it leaves

Bulk is inspected before it leaves, by an independent inspection company that you pay and that reports to you. That last part is the whole point: an inspector paid by the party who wants the shipment to leave is not an inspector.

Agree the standard and the acceptable quality level in the order rather than at the door, and agree who pays for a re inspection if the first one fails. Then make sure the inspector is checking the six things that matter on home textiles, because a general goods inspector will not know to.

• Size against the grid, measured, in centimetres, after the agreed wash allowance, on a real sample of pieces rather than one.
• Weight per piece against the specification. On towels this is the fastest way to detect a cloth that has been thinned.
• Shade against the sealed sample, under the one agreed light source, and shade to shade across the lot as well as against the sample.
• Construction, counted rather than believed: ends and picks, on a piece taken from the cartons.
• The retail pack complete: artwork, barcode, care and fibre labels, size marking, inserts.
• The cartons: pieces per carton, markings, gross weight, and that the cartons are strong enough for the voyage.

If the inspection fails, it fails. Goods that ship on a promise to fix them later do not get fixed later. Where the order came through this desk we take the argument with the mill from there, and the inspection report is yours whatever it says.