We’re actually shocked when we hear stories of other contact decorators who fail to perform this simple service for their distributors. When your shipment arrives, we open the boxes and confirm that we have received the garments you ordered.

We follow a fairly straighforward process. When we receive your order we produce a receiving slip used by our warehouse personnel. First, when the shipment arrives we open each box and verify that the items in the box match the wholesalers packing slip. Here is our process.

• If the order is for a small quantity of items – say 96 pieces in various sizes (10-S, 28-M, 36-L, 16-XL, 6-XXL), we will count the order in the following manner. We will locate the stack of Small shirts and count each shirt to make sure there are 10. We will locate the Medium shirts. Likely there will be three stacks of shirts – two stacks that presumably contain 12-M shirts each, and a short stack of four shirts. We will make sure there are two stacks that appear to have 12 shirts and we will count the short stack to make sure there are four shirts. We will not count each shirt in the stacks that presumably hold 12-M shirts each because we assume there are 12 shirts in each stack. However, if the stacks do not appear to contain all 12 shirts we will count each shirt to be sure. For the 36-L shirts, we will verify that we received three stacks of shirts. We will assume there are 12 shirts in each stack. For the X-Large, we will make sure the short stack has four shirts in addition to the presumed one dozen stack. Finally, for the XXL, we will count all six shirts.
• If the order is for a large quantity of items – say 1,000 pieces (100-S, 300-M, 400-L, 200-XL), we will count the order in the following manner. Assuming the shirts are in factory cases, we will first sort the boxes by size (these boxes have the manufacturer’s logo on the side and a label with the size and color shown). If this is a t-shirt order, most suppliers put 72 pieces in a case. We therefore expect to have one case of Small shirts (72), four cases of Medium shirts (288), five cases of Large shirts (360), and two cases of X-Large shirts (144). In addition to the cases of shirts there will likely be another two boxes that hold the balance of the shirts. The first order of business is to open the boxes and locate these “mixed sizes.” Following the procedure noted above for a small quantity order, we will verify that we have all of the shirts that didn’t come in a case (28-S, 12-M, 40-L, 56-XL). If these “mixed sizes” match, we will put the order on a pallet and assume the order is complete.
• As you can see, we do DO NOT count every single garment that arrives. It simply isn’t practical. Our experience tells us that shirts in factory cases are almost always in even dozen stacks. And cases are rarely packed in error. Years ago, we weren’t so trustworthy, but today the factories are nearly perfect. However, the wholesalers aren’t necessarily that precise. So our warehouse personnel are well trained and experienced enough to recognize when we need to be more precise in our counting. If the shirts aren’t in factory cases, we have to be more precise. If the stack of shirts is sloppy, we have to be more precise. If the shirts are in odd quantity stacks, we have to be more precise. We are intentional about our counting practices. Are there circumstances where a presumed dozen stack of shirts didn’t have 12 pieces? Yes, it has happened. But it is rare. If you need a level of service that requires us to count EVERY shirt, we can do that. That level of service will incur an additional charge. Please talk to us for more information.

Next, we verify that the items received match our receiving slip and, therefore, your purchase order. Assuming everything matches, we label your order and put it on the shelf or on a pallet awaiting production. On the off-chance that it does not match, we notify you of the error and wait for you to advise on how to proceed.