What should a tag supplier be able to tell you?
Eight answers, all known to whoever manufactured the tag and none commercially sensitive. How many a supplier can give tells you how many steps they are from the factory, and each step is a place where a substitution can happen without anyone noticing.
The eight questions
| Question | What it protects against |
|---|---|
| Which chip reference? | Substitution between deliveries |
| Which NFC Forum tag type? | Tags no phone will read |
| How much usable free space? | Content that does not fit |
| Which substrate? | A tag that dies in the environment |
| Which adhesive, for which surface? | Tags on the floor in three weeks |
| Are the tags individually tested? | Dead tags arriving in the batch |
| Are they supplied blank and unlocked? | Tags you cannot write |
| Will the specification hold on reorder? | A second batch behaving differently |
Why these eight
Each corresponds to a failure that is expensive and silent. None of them shows in a photograph, and none of them is discovered until the tags are in your hands or on a wall.
The tag type and the blank unlocked question are the two that stop a deployment dead rather than shortening its life. A tag that is not a Forum type will not read on phones, and a tag arriving locked cannot be written at all.
The reorder question is the one people forget. A deployment that grows over two years needs the second batch to behave like the first, and nothing about the packaging will warn you if it does not.
Reading the answers
A specific answer to a specific question is what you want. A chip reference, a tag type, a number in bytes.
"NFC compatible" is not an answer to any of the eight. The phrase is unregulated and appears on products that no phone will read.
"We can find out" is a reasonable answer once and a warning if it is the answer to most of them. It means the supplier is relaying, and relayed specifications drift.
An answer that changes when you ask again is the most useful signal of all, and it is worth asking the same question twice a few days apart on a large order.
What to agree before ordering
Put the chip reference and the tag type on the purchase order, not just in the conversation. It converts a claim into something a delivery can be checked against.
Agree what happens if the delivery does not match, before it does not match.
Agree a sample from the actual production run rather than from stock, where the quantity justifies it.
And agree that you will verify on arrival. A supplier who is comfortable with that is telling you something, and so is one who is not.
Frequently asked questions
Is it unreasonable to ask all eight?
No. All eight are known to the manufacturer and none is sensitive. Asking them is ordinary diligence on any order large enough to matter.
What if I am buying ten tags?
Ask the first two and read a sample. The full list earns its time at quantities where a bad batch is expensive.
Should I ask for a datasheet?
Ask for the chip reference and find the datasheet yourself. A supplier who names the chip has given you more than one who sends a marketing sheet.
Does a good answer guarantee a good delivery?
No, which is why verification on arrival matters. The questions raise the odds and the check confirms them.