Six orders from the same supplier over eight months, every one independently tested, and the consistency is the part worth reporting rather than any single result.
Reporting this the way I would want to read it: what I did, what it cost, what I can actually verify.
Red flags, in rough order of how much they should worry you: no verifiable address, no batch numbers, prices far under market, vendor-commissioned tests only, pressure toward irreversible payment, and shipping with no temperature control.
A caveat about community reputation: it is a lagging indicator. Reports arrive weeks after orders, so a supplier can look excellent for a month after quality has already changed.
What I am trying to establish is how people are distinguishing a supplier having a bad batch from a supplier on the way out. If the honest answer is that nobody knows, that is a useful answer and I would rather have it.
SteveThurs said:Six orders from the same supplier over eight months, every one independently tested, and the consistency is the part worth reporting rather than any…
That is correct as far as it goes, and here is where it stops going. The useful checklist is about verifiability rather than presentation. Independent test results commissioned by buyers rather than by the seller, consistency across multiple batches over time rather than one flattering report, a physical address and a company registration that resolve, batch and lot numbers on the actual labelling, and a shipping practice that matches what the material needs. Everything a good-looking website provides is cheap to fake; none of the items above are.
SteveThurs said:Six orders from the same supplier over eight months, every one independently tested, and the consistency is the part worth reporting rather than any…
I disagree that testing history is decisive. It tells you what a supplier did when they were being watched. Continuity of behaviour under stress — a late shipment, a failed test, a complaint — is more predictive than any run of good results.
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Shop Reference StandardsThis one has a reasonably settled answer, so here it is. Prices dramatically below market are the strongest single signal, and the reason is arithmetic rather than suspicion. Synthesis, testing, and cold-chain shipping have floors. A price well under the floor means something was skipped, and the two things that get skipped are testing and content.
Dr.RaviCardio said:The useful checklist is about verifiability rather than presentation.
Adding a me-too, because a thread of one person's experience is not much use. The detail I would add is minor and it is already implied above.