I own a designer t-shirt company. We design in New York and send the graphics to Taiwan, where they actually make the t-shirts. When the boat comes back loaded with t-shirts, it's ready for distribution. The garment labor in Taiwan is inexpensive and it is reliable but one day, one of the stores I distribute to in L.A. called me up and said that all the labels were put on backwards. As you can imagine, it wasn't a huge deal that if customers wanted to see the size they had to pick up the tag, but I had to reassure him. I said, "Mark, don't worry, it's not a big deal, I'll call the factory and tell them-" "No Dave, I don't want to wait. If this stuff happens once, it's bound to happen again. It makes us both look bad. Look, I know of a quality control inspection warehouse in L.A. They do good work, they offer labor services, apparel alterations, and general manufacturing quality control. I'm going to send this shipment there and tell them to reverse the labels. You're going to pay for it." What could I say? Mark is one of my main West Coast sellers of our designer shirts, I couldn't tell him to suck it up. I said, "Okay."
The next week Mark called me again. "Dave did you get the bill for the garment labor?" "Yeah, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting." "Good," he said, "I really think you should switch to working with these guys. They offer the lowest prices and they're so reliable. I don't know who you're using to ship the shirts from the pier to my store and others like it, but chances are they probably aren't as good as these guys." "Hmmm." I rubbed my chin, thinking about my general dissatisfaction with this whole experience while keeping in mind the fact that this new company barely charged me more than my original truckers did, while doing an added service. "Maybe you're right, Mark." Plus, if I use these guys as manufacturing quality control, I won't have to get stressed out about making Mark feel okay and holding his hand.
It's been three months since I've been working with this quality control inspection company and I must say I'm pretty satisfied. Mark's was a good recommendation and I sent him a thank-you note for it. We continue to do good business.
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