I think I would re-examine my other vendors. To get more than 5% off grade in any load means you are working to sort his lumber, but not getting paid for it. Does the vendor reimburse you for the time to separate out the off grade, band it and ship back?
Selling and buying on grade is so basic: it is fundamental. And you are trying to get moldings? You gotta be kidding. They are doing you no favors.

Maybe they thought they were selling molding stock to Home Depot... LOL

Sorry, someone had to say it.

I buy units of #1 common and it looks nothing like that. Annoying knots that have to be graded out yes but dead flat. I would agree that they have a stikering/stacking problem and someone is not placing clubs over the stickers and they are destroying the entire unit of material below while its being air dried. Even the worst boards off a mill dont do that and absolutely not 30-40% of a unit. If your mill is pushing stock like that buying FAS is not even going to solve your issue.

Either change suppliers as mentioned or just start rejecting entire packs if they look to have a high percentage of junk like that. Unless your buying their dead lowest grade (which is nuts for molding) like you say, thats firewood.

That's not acceptable. Your distributer accepted it. Therefore, he own's it. You don't own it. It was delivered to your door. Reject it.

I had an issue with Atlantic plywood many years ago, where their guys had a habit of trashing at least 1 sheet of my shipment with their forklift when loading the truck.

I rejected every damaged sheet. Then had them stop by and deliver the single replacement sheet by itself on the next truck later in the week.

After 4 times and a couple of phone calls they have never delivered me a damage sheet.

Personally, I would be concerned about the long term stability of all of the other wood in that delivery. It could be one bad apple or the canary in the coal mine.

As another molding manufacturer, I'd send all of that back. As others have said, firewood. Unless you're paying for firewood and expecting FAS.

Dale Skipper:

You never did say what grade of lumber you are purchasing. Warpage like that shown would, at least for me, call into question the quality of the entire bundle.

Have you taken a moisture meter to any of this lumber? If you rip the boards, do the rips twist and bow or do they stay straight? It has the appearance of improperly dried lumber. Since I don't know the stacking order, I can't say for certain whether the horizontal stripe is sticker stain or metal banding shadow, but that would be an indicator as well. If it is sticker stain and it is deep, that should be a warning also.

If, beyond the twisted pieces, the lumber is sound and usable, you might have the supplier's rep stop by and show them what their product actually looks like, and ask them to rebundle their stock based on your needs. It might cost more at that point, and if you are shopping on price, it might negate any savings over any other supplier.

Perhaps, as others have stated, you continue to receive this level of quality because you do not complain about it. If, upon discussion with the vendor, the product quality does not improve, then it is time to find another supplier, assuming that you can, given your locale and the current availability of certain materials.

Good luck.
TonyF

Yes, I would return it. Over the years I have had many "bad" shipments of lumber, on the other hand I have had shipments that were way better then I expected. Your supplier accepted a bad shipment and is trying to "just pass it on" . It is unfortunate that as time goes by it seems that there are fewer and fewer suppliers. They either go out of business or are bought up by bigger companies ( to reduce competition) Of course with fewer suppliers in competition with each other they no longer really care about "quality" anymore, if you don't like go somewhere else is their motto. I once bought a railroad car of 4/4 poplar to make trim out of. It was supposed to FAS and when I got it unloaded it and started going through it it was at best #1 common. Well it just so happened that one of my salesman was making the rounds with his vice president and he said "that is a good amount of lumber you have there" and I asked him what do you think of it ? Is it FAS or number 1 common? He looked at it and said that ain't no FAS, its barely #1 common. He had no idea that his company sold it to me! ( I wonder what he would have said if he had known) Well needless to say I got a very good credit from that company.

With the lumber you shown it is like my sister's daughter. She was a little plump and not to good looking. Well my sister and her husband keep letting her get married until finally some suiter did not bring her back. That lumber will be out for delivery quite a few times until finally one day it won't be brought back. Over the years I have sent quite a few back, and I have accepted my share that I should have sent back. There is a fine line between being troublesome customer, and being a knowledgable consumer.

Hi Folks,

Sorry for the delay in my response. To clarify our suppliers know that we are insanely fussy and demand only the best 4/4 Poplar. I buy only FAS and it must be bright stock, not stained Poplar. I also don't beat up our suppliers on price. I'm the kind of person that would rather pay more for quality. So it's never been a price issue. I don't moisture check often, but I have wondered if perhaps moisture plays a role in getting boards like this.

Thank you all for our feedback.