Buying yarn, step 7 of 13
Negotiate
Price, validity, tolerance, the delivery schedule, and how claims will be handled.
The levers are the negotiation, and each one is a mechanism you can ask about by name; these are the clauses to settle in writing before the price is agreed, in plain words:
- Count and tolerance. The count as singles and resultant, the ply and the twist direction, and the plus or minus you accept on count, on twist and on the blend ratio. A quotation that names the count and no tolerance has not yet said what it is selling.
- Validity and the schedule. The date the price expires, the delivery dates it is tied to, and what happens to the price if a delivery slips past the validity, because a price is only fixed for the dates it names.
- Lot and package. One lot per count and per shade, the cone weight, the packing, and a test report per lot from a named laboratory. Ask which lot the sample cone came from; the delivery must come from the same lot, or from one tested to the same figures.
- Weight and claims. Whether you pay on conditioned weight or on the weight loaded, the window for a claim on count, strength or evenness, who re-tests a disputed lot, and whose instrument is final.
What a bad answer looks like: “tolerance as per industry standard” with no figure, or a mill that will give the price on the phone but will not put the validity date and the lot in writing.