Over the last 24 years, Darn It has seen its share of strange apparel inspection and repair requests, but have you ever seen any items come in like this?
1) “Please inspect and remove the BUGS from our sweaters!”
In 2010, we received a call from a retailer who had just received a shipment of women’s sweaters that was late and needed to get onto the shelves immediately. The only problem was when they audited the shipment in their distribution center, they found a few dead bugs stuck in the yarn.
In most cases, these sweaters would have been discarded, returned to the vendor or even destroyed. But in this case, the retailer called us and asked us to inspect and remove the bugs. In advance, we purchased gloves and masks to prepare for the project. When the 2,200 units arrived, our apparel inspection team inspected inside and outside of each sweater pulling 2-3 bugs from each sweater. We then re-packaged each sweater in new poly bags and boxes and shipped them back to the customer.
In our many years of operation, we have only had this request two times.
Pretty Gross…but problem solved!
2) “Please help…Our WIGS have MOLD on them!”
In 2015, a wig manufacturer overseas contacted us about 1,200 wigs that they delivered to a retailer in the US. They explained that the wigs had visible mold and a musty smell. They were hoping that we could help them solve this problem as it would take too long to re-produce these overseas and deliver them to the customer.
At first, we didn’t know if it was possible to help as we hadn’t processed wigs before, but after testing a few samples, we realized that our mold remediation process would work! Upon receipt, the team opened and discarded the packaging, hung the wigs on hangers, and immediately placed them in our two ozone chambers for 24 hours. This process also would bring back the original scent of the wigs. Upon removal from the ozone chambers, the wigs sat out for 2 days to air out. The Darn It Mold Remediation team then spot cleaned some minor staining. The wigs were then re-packed in new polybags and cartons and shipped to the retailer for sale on the web!
3) “HELP! We have 18,000 skirts with a GARLIC SMELL!”
Upon receiving a regular shipment of apparel at their distribution center, a retailer noticed a strong garlic smell in the trailer. They immediately pulled one box off of the truck, closed the trailer doors and parked it back in their yard. Once they opened the box, the realized that there must have been something else in the container on the water with these skirts. As it turns out, there were 6 pallets of garlic oil on that container and many of the bottles had broken along the way. For a month, the container was consumed with this garlic smell that it had made its way to the boxes and all of the garments.
The retailer had these skirts featured on their website and needed these for distribution ASAP. They called Darn It and after sampling a few dozen, we realized that we could help. In this case, the ozone process worked again. Except the smell was so strong, that we had to launder them first. In order to do this, we had to remove all of the tags, launder and then hang dry prior to ozoning. Once ozoned, we steamed and pressed the skirts, and then re-attached the tags/tickets. The garlic smell was so strong that we had to leave the pallets we hadn’t processed yet on the dock as no one in the building could have worked sniffing strong garlic all day. Once complete, they sat to air out for 3 days. We then inspected them and re-packaged them in new poly bags and boxes and then sent back to the retailer in time for the promotion!
Have you seen STRANGER quality THINGS come into your distribution center? If so, please share them with us! As always, please call Darn It first when you have any quality issue arise and we will get you pointed in the right direction.
Your Problem is our Business!
