We left the big inspection agencies to work for the buyer instead.

Who we are

Inspectors, not an inspection company

Everyone here came out of the established third-party inspection agencies, and everyone here is on our payroll — salaried inspectors, not freelancers booked for the day. We learned the work at those agencies: AQL sampling, defect classification, audit protocol, report discipline. That training is the reason a report from us reads like an agency report rather than a set of phone photos, and we are grateful for it. What we did not like was what sat around it: the layers a buyer pays for and never uses, the week it can take to get a visit approved, and a reporting format that describes findings but is not allowed to tell a buyer what to do about them.

So we built something narrower. SSTI has one job: to be the person you would send yourself if you could get on a plane. We go to the factory, we look at the goods, and we tell you what we saw and what we would do about it.

Why our inspectors are based where they work

Each of our inspectors is based in the region he covers, and lives there. This is not a detail of scheduling — it changes what we can tell you. Someone who has worked a cluster for years knows which workshops in it actually produce, which names are a showroom with a rented sign, and which factories quietly push work to a subcontractor when the season gets busy. That knowledge is not in any checklist and cannot be acquired by driving in for the day.

It also removes a cost. A large agency dispatching an inspector across a province is paying for a day of travel before anyone reaches the factory floor, and that day is in your invoice whether it is itemised or not. When the inspector is already there, it is not.

Paid by the buyer, and only by the buyer

This matters more than it sounds. A sourcing agent earns on the order itself, so the order completing is worth money to them. A large agency may have the same factory as a client on another account. In both cases something other than the goods has a stake in how the report reads.

We charge for an inspector's day and nothing else. We do not source for you, we do not handle your payments, we do not mark up your goods, and we take no fee from your factory. Nothing sits on the other side of the scale when a report is written, which is the only reason an independent report is worth anything. Every report keeps observation and recommendation separate, so you can see both what was found and what we think it means for your order.

What we do not do

We are not a laboratory and we do not issue accredited test certificates. Where a shipment requires accredited chemical, electrical or safety testing for a destination market, that belongs with a testing laboratory and we will tell you so rather than take the booking. We are also not a sourcing agent and do not find suppliers for a commission.

What we do is the on-site work: verifying that a supplier is what it claims to be, watching a production run while it can still be corrected, checking finished goods against your standard before you release payment, and standing at the container door on loading day.

How we charge

USD 130 per man-day, anywhere in mainland China. Travel, photographs and the English report are included — one number, quoted before you book, and the same number whether the factory is in the next district or four provinces away. Large international agencies typically run USD 250–350 per man-day with travel billed on top, which is exactly why a remote factory costs more with them and nothing extra with us.

We can price it that way because our inspectors are already spread across the country rather than dispatched from a handful of regional offices. There is no long-distance travel in the cost, so there is nothing to pass on to you.

A re-inspection after rework is charged as a normal visit at the same rate. The day rate covers one visit; a second visit is a second day. We would rather say that plainly than offer a discounted "second look" and recover it somewhere else in the invoice.

What does not happen is a number that changes after the fact. No fuel line, no report fee, no weekend supplement, no distance surcharge. A quote that grows between the booking and the invoice is the thing buyers in this industry have learned to expect, and it is the easiest promise for us to keep.