Hi everyone, this is my first post to the Autopia board so please excuse me if I make any first-timer blunders. I would like to thank and appreciate everyone for all the construtive feedback and emails I have received over the past few months (positive, lukewarm, negative, etc.) on the microfiber towels and hope I can offer my knowledge and experience on the subject to everyone.
1. Fraying + melting on corners on mint green only "microtouch" 16x16 towels. On some of the mint green towels from my last shipment, the manfucturer had a slight "irregularity" in that the stitching on the corners where the mfg did not properly seal the stitches and thus the stitching was prone to becoming slightly unravelled when washed in the washing machine. Fortunately, the microfiber fabric was unaffected and only the stitching was. I brought it to the attention of the mfg and their remedy was to slightly heat treat the corners so that the threads would fuse together so that the threads would not unravel. For any customers that have these towels and are not satisfied, please let me know and I will take care of it for you to your complete satisfaction, "no questions asked".
Now if the mfg remedy is unacceptable, then I don't know what to do with the mint green towels except:
A. Offer the mint green towels as "irregular" at deep, deep, discounted "Blow-out" price to move my inventory. I basically don't have any recourse on the mfg overseas so I am on my own. Anyone interested please let me know.
B. Don't offer the mint green towels.... privately curse the manufacturer, and "eat it" my inventory investment and consider this a learning lesson in life.
2. Tags on MF towels: I know the tags are a inconvenience to many of you because they are frequently unwanted and are cut off. In order to import these towels, the USA Customs Service requires proper labeling requirements for these towels which state the country of manufacturing and material composition. I have tags on my towels because I want to follow the law and am complying with the US Customs Service requirements. Otherwise, I would be in violation and my shipments may be confiscated, witheld, penalized, or ???? at my risk.
3. Bleeding on certain darker colored towels: Darker colored towels are sometimes popular because they hide the dirt. However, on certain darker colors the towels may be subject to color bleeding for the first few washes. After a few washes the color fastness goes away. All microfiber mfgs have this issue with darker colors. My recommendation is to prewash the darker colors like burgundy, dark purple a few times to "get the color out". If this is not satisfactory, then I suggest to stay away from darker colors.
4. Inconsistent thickness, plushness, color, etc. from color to color and towel to towel: From what I understand, it is difficult for the microfiber mfgs to completely make every towel from batch to batch exactly the same everytime. I can have the same style towel in different colors have varying degrees of thickness, plushness, etc. Considering that microfiber is a relatively small industry, it seems that the manufacturing of the towels is not down to an exact science yet where the quality can be uniformly consistent everytime.
5. Care of the towels: The towels will last quite a long time if taken care of properly. My method which is most time consuming is to hand wash in hot water with some laundry detergent. Then rinse in clean water until all the soap is gone, wring out and line drying. Now when I'm lazy, I just throw them in the washer and into the dryer. This is OK, but I don't think it's as good as hand washing. Do not use any fabric softener or bleach as this will damage the towels.
I apologize if this post is kind of lengthy but thought it is important to communicate this information to everyone and hope everyone finds something useful for their benefit and share along with their friends.
Thanks.
Tom Gong
JT International
