- Tel: +86 150 0312 5825
- E-mail: l.wang@sino-marble.com
The truck is in your driveway. The driver is waiting. The installer wants to start. This is the moment most delivery problems are decided — not in the factory, not on the ship, but in the ten minutes after the crates come off the truck. Check three things before anything gets opened or installed: count, condition, and color. Ten minutes now saves a stalled job later.
Have the quote and the packing list on hand before delivery day. You need two numbers: how many boxes or crates should arrive, and how many pieces are in each box. If your supplier sent a dry-lay photo of your order before packing, keep it on your phone — it is your reference for what the stone should look like. Clear a dry spot to set the crates down. Stone left on wet ground or in the rain starts the job with a problem you did not order.
Count every box and crate against the packing list while the driver is still there. A missing box found on day one is a phone call. A missing box found halfway up the wall is a stalled job. If the count is short, write it on the delivery receipt before you sign — "received X of Y boxes" — and tell your supplier the same day. Do not sign a clean receipt for a short delivery. The receipt is the record; what you sign is what happened.
Walk around each crate before opening it. Look for cracked wood, crushed corners, wet spots, and broken seals. A crate that arrived damaged usually means the stone inside took a hit. Photograph any damage before you open the crate, with the delivery receipt or the crate label in the frame. Photos taken after the stone is unpacked and stacked do not prove when the damage happened. If a crate is badly damaged, open it with the driver present and check the top layer together.
Open one box per item — one box of flats, one of corners, one of each mosaic style. Hold a piece next to the approved sample. Natural stone varies from batch to batch, so do not expect an exact match. Expect the same range: the same base color, the same kind of veining, the same finish. If the color is clearly different — a different base tone, a different pattern — stop and call your supplier before the installer opens more boxes. Wet a corner of one piece with a damp cloth: water darkens the stone to close to its sealed color, and shows the veining the way it will look installed. That is the fastest honest check you have.
Count the pieces in the opened boxes and compare with the pieces-per-box count on the quote. Then check the edges. Thin stone chips in handling no matter how well it is packed; a small number of chipped pieces is normal, and that is what the 10–15% overage in your order is for. Set the chipped pieces aside and keep count. If the breakage is more than a few pieces per box, or if whole corners are smashed, photograph everything and report it the same day. Keep the damaged pieces — do not throw them away. Your supplier needs to see them to make it right, and a photo alone is not always enough.
Three rules. First, report it the same day, with photos and the box count. Waiting a week makes every claim harder. Second, write it on the delivery receipt and keep a copy — that paper is your record of what arrived and what did not. Third, do not install damaged stone and do not install a short order hoping the rest will turn up. Installed stone is accepted stone. Keep the problem separate from the good material, keep the installer working on the good part, and let the supplier fix the rest.
That's the whole check. Count the boxes, look at the crates, open one box of each item, and report anything wrong the same day. Ten minutes at the driveway, and the job starts on solid ground.
If your delivery arrived short or damaged, send us the photos and the packing list. We will tell you what we can replace and how fast.
— The Sino-Marble Team
