A defect caught inside a Chinese factory costs you a phone call and a few days. The same defect caught in your own warehouse costs you ocean freight, import duty, storage, a return label, and a customer who quietly starts buying from someone else. That gap — often ten to twenty times the unit cost — is the entire argument for inspecting goods before they leave China.
This guide covers what a pre-shipment inspection actually involves, when to book it, how to read the report, and what to do when it comes back with problems.
"Inspection" means four different things
Buyers often use one word for services that happen at different moments and answer different questions.
| Type | When it happens | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Factory audit | Before you place the order | Is this a real factory, and can it make my product? |
| During production inspection (DUPRO) | 20–40% through the run | Are the first units correct, before the factory makes 5,000 more? |
| Pre-shipment inspection (PSI) | Production finished, goods packed | Does this specific batch match my specs and quantity? |
| Loading supervision | Day the container is loaded | Did all approved cartons, and only those, get on the truck? |
If you can only pay for one, pay for the pre-shipment inspection. It's the last moment where your money is still held back and the goods are still inside China.
Timing: the mistake that wastes the whole inspection
A PSI is only valid if it covers the complete order, and most inspection companies require at least 80% of the goods to be packed in export cartons. Inspect two days too early and you've inspected a sample that isn't your shipment — the rest of the run may come from a different crew, a different dye lot, or a thinner roll of material.
A timeline that works:
- Tell the factory at order confirmation that a PSI will happen and that final payment depends on it.
- Ask for the packing date in writing. A WeChat message counts, as long as you keep it.
- Book your inspector 3–5 working days ahead. Agencies fill up around Chinese New Year and the October holiday.
- Do not book the container until the report passes. Once the container is at the factory door, your bargaining position is gone.
What an inspector actually does
Over a few hours, a typical inspector will:
- Count cartons and compare them with the packing list
- Pull a random sample from the batch, not from a neat pile the factory prepared
- Check against your spec sheet: materials, dimensions, color, weight, hardness, finish
- Test function — charge it, run it, drop it, fill it, pull the zipper, submerge the seal
- Read labels and markings: barcode scan, country of origin, warnings, age grading, care labels
- Inspect retail packaging, inner boxes, inserts, and manuals
- Run a carton drop test and check carton printing and shipping marks
- Photograph everything, including the defects they find
You receive a report with a pass or fail for each line item, defect counts, and photos, usually within 24–48 hours.
AQL, without the ISO manual
Nobody checks every unit. Inspectors work from a sampling standard, normally ISO 2859-1, general inspection level II. You set acceptable quality levels — commonly AQL 2.5 for major defects, 4.0 for minor ones, and zero tolerance for critical defects such as safety issues or the wrong product entirely.
| Order quantity | Units inspected | Major defects (AQL 2.5) | Minor defects (AQL 4.0) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 501–1,200 | 80 | 5 accept / 6 reject | 7 accept / 8 reject |
| 1,201–3,200 | 125 | 7 / 8 | 10 / 11 |
| 3,201–10,000 | 200 | 10 / 11 | 14 / 15 |
| 10,001–35,000 | 315 | 14 / 15 | 21 / 22 |
A report that reads "passed, 8 minor defects" is normal. A single critical defect fails the inspection, no discussion.
Who to hire
| Option | Typical cost | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek, TÜV, QIMA | $300–500 per man-day | Widely recognized; useful if a bank or marketplace wants the paperwork; slower to book |
| Local inspection firms | $120–250 per man-day | Fine for simple products; quality varies a lot between firms |
| Your sourcing agent's QC team | Often included, or $80–150 | Fast for follow-up visits, but only trustworthy if the agent isn't paid by the supplier |
| You, over video call | Free | Only useful for counting cartons; easy for a factory to stage |
Whichever route you choose, ask for the inspection checklist in advance and confirm the inspector is working from your spec, not the factory's version of it.
Build the checklist before you build the order
Not sure what to measure? Start here and add anything that has burned you before.
- Quantity per carton, cartons per pallet, total cartons
- Product dimensions and acceptable tolerance
- Material and weight: grams per square meter, wall thickness, steel grade
- Color checked against an approved Pantone or a physical sample
- Logo placement, spelling, and print quality
- Function test per unit type
- Battery, motor, or electronic performance
- Labels: barcode scan, country of origin, warnings, certificates
- Retail packaging, inserts, manuals, included accessories
- Carton drop test, carton markings, shipping marks
- Safety requirements for your market: CE, FCC, CPSIA, FDA
Tricks worth knowing about
Factories that plan to cut corners rarely do it in the visible layer.
- Staged cartons. The inspector is shown the good stack. Ask them to pull from the back of the pile and from more than one pallet.
- Good first units, weaker later production. This is why DUPRO plus PSI beats PSI on its own.
- Material substitution. Thinner fabric, recycled plastic, lower-grade steel. Photograph the material spec, and for high-value orders ask for a lab test.
- Short shipment. Count cartons on the report against the packing list, not against what a warehouse manager tells you.
- "We'll fix it before loading." Get the fix, the date, and the re-inspection in writing. It often doesn't happen.
- Container booked before the report. Once the doors are sealed, your only remaining tool is a dispute.
Cost, and how to tie it to payment
Third-party inspection runs roughly $120 to $500 per man-day plus travel. Most consumer goods orders need one man-day. Against the cost of a failed shipment, that is small.
Pair the inspection with your payment schedule. A common structure:
- 30% deposit at order confirmation
- 70% released after a passing pre-shipment report
Suppliers who trust their own production accept this every day. A supplier who refuses is telling you something useful.
When the report fails
You have four realistic options:
- Rework and re-inspect. Costs another man-day. Works well for packaging and assembly problems.
- Accept with a price reduction. Reasonable for minor cosmetic defects you can still sell through.
- Ship only the approved portion. Useful when part of the run is genuinely good.
- Cancel and recover the deposit. Check what your contract and payment method allow before you reach this point.
What you should not do is ship on a promise, or hope the defects look smaller after 30 days at sea.
Don't stop at the factory gate
After a pass, someone should watch the loading: count cartons into the container, photograph the empty container and the sealed doors, and record the seal number against the report. Ten minutes of video is enough when the cartons are already marked and counted. This closes the gap between 'the goods passed inspection' and 'the goods that passed inspection are on the boat.'
Running this in Mandarin, on China time
If you don't speak Chinese and you sit eight hours behind, this process is slow to run alone — chasing packing dates on WeChat, briefing an inspector who needs a clear spec, reading a report full of abbreviations, arguing about a rework date. Globesino handles sourcing, factory checks, pre-shipment inspection, loading supervision, and delivery for overseas buyers, so the report reaches you before the container leaves rather than a problem reaching you after it arrives.