tenses again :-(

[Hanka]

Hi,

I am still really confused about tenses. Could you please explain the change of meaning as a result of different tenses in the following sentence and tell me which tenses are best and why:

The materials will be returned after the company confirmed/has confirmed/had confirmed that the work was accepted/has been accepted/had been accepted and that no defects were/have been/had been found.

Thanks a lot!!!

Hanka

[David L.]

Firstly, explain : is it "the company" that did the work, or did it contract out the work to be done for it? This makes a lot of difference.

[Hanka]

The company contracted out the work to be done for it.

[e2e4]

[David L.]

The materials will be returned after the company...

confirmed - this is past tense, when in fact the company hasn't confirmed that the work is acceptable yet.
/has confirmed -correct
/had confirmed - this is another form of a past tense and not correct

that the work was...

accepted/has been accepted/had been accepted
The first two are possible:
was accepted - someone is going to inform the company that they have inspected the work, and are satisfied. In effect, the sentence would be: The materials will be returned after the company has confirmed the work was accepted by our production manager as meeting our quality standards. The implication is, that the company is confirming that yes, the work was accepted by the production manager.
The materials will be returned after the company has confirmed the work has been accepted by our production manager as meeting our quality standards.
BUT NOT: The materials will be returned after the company has confirmed the work had been accepted by our production manager as meeting our quality standards. There is an ongoing process of checking going on - 'this will happen after it has been checked that that has happened'.

and that no defects...
again, the first two are possible:
and that no defects were - when we have confirmed that the work has been inspected, and that on inspection, no defects were found.
However, because there is long process going on here, the second is preferable:
...and that no defects have been found.

[Hanka]

Great! Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!

[kiranlegend]

David, What difference it makes if the company itself did the work or it contracted some outside agent to get the work done?