Pics, references ,security practice,brewing experience, customers service and T/A will always be requested day 1. Sure not all the requests will be met most of the time. But the one thing I look for is how a lab deals with the initial shit storm. Legit labs have nothing to hide so they tend to keep calm and take it on the chin. The frauds get defensive and most tell a whack story to provide them street cred.
Will say I did grind on PPL pretty hard. But he handle things well and stayed professional. So props to PPL but this doesn't mean shit can't change tmrw
Edit- Also for the guys who scoff and think the "Vetting" process is useless I say 15!!!!!!!! The number of labs/resellers that either never got off the ground. Went bad or got banned over the last 365 days now. Lol