Pre-Shipment Inspection Services
When buying goods in bulk from other countries, it is best to make sure the quality of your goods is ensured. Some people opt to buy a sample from their overseas supplier first to determine the quality of the goods before making a bulk order but if you can spare the budget for it, we encourage you to also look for pre-shipment inspection services.
What are pre-shipment inspection services? Well, as the name implies, it is a service that allows you to check on the state of your goods before they get shipped for import or export. This is a step normally taken by buyers, suppliers or agencies to:
- Check the products for any defects
- Issue a report for import and billing
- Check the quality and quantity of the goods
- Ensure that your goods arrive at their place of destination in compliance with technical specifications, quality standards and contractual agreements.
Once the product has passed the inspector’s evaluation, only then will it be packed into shipping containers and sent off to leave the country. Otherwise, the supplier must replace or fix every product that has the defect. Further checking may be required to see if there are any more defects aside from the one seen in the random sample which could cause delays depending on how extensive the damage is.
Pre-shipment inspection services does not only include product inspections. Some places offer more than that and might include:
- Witness tests
- Witness sample management in the factory
- Visual inspection
- Ensuring appropriate handling during loading
- Packing and marking checks
- Dimensional inspection
- Checking the stowing, fastening and wedging of transport
- Verifying the number of packing cases and marking against contractual specifications
- Documentation review
Some agencies already include these in their pre-inspection services while others may only conduct them upon request. Therefore, you need to discuss with your pre-shipment inspection service provider about the what they offer so you can get a grasp of what to expect during the inspection report. Do not hesitate to ask them about their process so you can see how thorough they are when doing their inspections.
Pre-shipment inspection services are worth the money you pay for as the potential costs and time you could save down the line is monumental. The benefit of being able to fix or replace the goods with the defect before it even leaves the supplier’s doorstep could prevent a lot of stress since you no longer need to think about trying to get a refund or needing to buy more of the product to replace the defects.
You can also feel assured that, not only are your products are packaged properly which reduces the chance of damage during shipment, you also ensure that you get what you ordered in its full amount. Scams are rampant nowadays so everyone needs to take caution. Be sure to consider using pre-shipment inspection services in the future for it is better to be safe than sorry.
If you need importing goods to Malaysia service, you can contact BGST Sdn. Bhd. and speak to their representative. They are very experienced in managing the import and export of goods to all over the world.