The complaints that come up most often on woven fabric from India are shade variation, GSM and width below specification, shrinkage, weaving faults, short roll lengths, late delivery and moisture damage in transit. Almost all of them are preventable with a clear specification, a mill that has been visited, and inspection before the fabric leaves. None of them is unique to India, but the distance makes them costlier to put right.
A fabric claim rarely has a single cause. Usually a loose specification let the mill interpret the order its own way, nobody checked the goods before loading, and the problem surfaced only on the cutting table thousands of kilometres away.
The complaints and where they come from
- Shade variation: rolls from different dye batches or a drifting continuous range, with no shade banding or spectrophotometer check.
- GSM and width short: finishing stretched the fabric or the mill used a lighter yarn than quoted, and the specification gave no tolerance.
- Shrinkage: inadequate sanforising or compacting, or a fabric that was never meant to be washed in the way the garment is.
- Weaving faults: broken ends, missing picks, slubs, reed marks and oil stains, usually from poor greige inspection or a mill grading against a loose points system.
- Short roll lengths: rolls shorter than the packing list, or many short pieces and joins in one roll, which raises cutting waste.
- Late delivery: approvals that slipped, capacity oversold, or a festival shutdown nobody planned for.
- Moisture damage: polythene wrapping torn or missing, containers loaded in rain, or long waits in a humid port during the monsoon.
Controls that prevent them
Put the specification in writing with tolerances for GSM, width, shrinkage, fault points per hundred square metres and minimum roll length, and have the mill sign it. Visit or audit the mill before placing the first order, so you know its dyeing and finishing capacity rather than its sales pitch. Approve lab dips and a pre-production sample, and keep sealed references.
Inspect before loading, not after arrival. A roll inspection on a four-point system, with a sample of rolls measured for width, GSM and shade, will catch most of the list above while the mill can still fix it. Ask for a photographed packing list and for loading supervision in the monsoon months.
When a complaint does happen
Document it quickly with roll numbers, photographs and lab results, and raise it with the mill while the lot is still fresh in its records. A mill that was inspected before loading has far less room to argue, and most will offer a rebate or replacement if the evidence is clear. Keep a second approved mill so that a dispute does not leave you without supply.
How we help you avoid the list
We audit the mill before the first order, send sealed samples to an NABL-accredited lab, inspect rolls before loading and supervise the loading itself, with a weekly update throughout. We also keep one backup mill for each fabric. If you have had one of these complaints recently, a free 20-minute sourcing review is a good way to work out which control was missing.