The cheapest place to fix a quality problem is the factory floor, before goods are packed. The most expensive place is your warehouse, after your customers have them. This guide covers what an inspection actually involves.
Once a container leaves the factory, your options shrink to claims and arguments — and claims across borders are slow, uncertain and rarely worth the paperwork. Before shipment, a failed check means rework, replacement or re-production, done locally at the factory's cost (if your contract says so). This is why the inspection must happen before the balance payment leaves your account.
You can't check every unit in a 10,000-piece order, and checking 10 units proves nothing statistically. AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit) sampling solves this: a standard table tells you how many units to check for your batch size, and how many defects are allowed before the batch fails. AQL 2.5 for major defects is a common default for consumer goods; stricter levels apply for regulated products. You don't need to master the tables — you need to write the AQL level into the contract so there's a number to hold both sides to.
Three realistic options: the factory's own QC (necessary but not sufficient — they grade their own homework), a third-party inspection company (independent, per-day fee, good for high-stakes orders), or your sourcing partner (accountable to you, familiar with your spec, present at the factory). Any of the last two beats none of them.
A failed inspection isn't a disaster — it's leverage, if you still hold the balance payment. Standard remedies: defective units reworked or replaced, a discount for accepted defects, or re-production of the failed portion. What you cannot do is discover all this after paying and shipping, which is precisely why the sequence contract → deposit → production → inspection → balance → shipment exists.
Every order we handle gets pre-shipment inspection against the approved golden sample: photos, videos and measurements sent to you, and the balance payment recommended only after you're satisfied. Third-party inspectors are welcome on top of that for large orders — we coordinate access.
That's included in every Supply666 order. Tell us what you're buying.
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