Tests 1–4: paper trail
- Published specs: full tables on every product, or a "call for details" wall? Hidden specs hide something.
- Sample policy: free and encouraged, or reluctant? A supplier afraid of your hands is telling you about the product.
- Freight transparency: landed cost quoted to your ZIP as its own line, or "free shipping" baked invisibly into inflated material? You’re paying freight either way; the question is whether you can see it.
- Warranty reality: years stated, backers named, full document available pre-purchase, exclusions in print.
Tests 5–7: operational truth
- Stock, verified: ask where your rolls physically are and when they’d ship. Vague answers now become blown install dates later.
- Cut policy: cut-to-length from 15-ft rolls, or fixed rolls where you buy the waste? Direct money.
- The phone test: call with a technical question (infill spec for a specific product works). Whoever answers, and whether they know, is the after-sale support you’re really buying.
Grade us while you’re at it
We built EGD to pass these seven on inspection: specs on every page, samples free, zone rates published, warranty decoded on its own page, and (805) 225-3387 answered by people who know the catalog. Run the same hour of tests on us and anyone else quoting your project; the spread between suppliers will make the decision before price does.