What I understand from the metallurgist is that it is not actual hardening but only the heating is done by induction method instead of an oven.
The quenching is still performed in liquid as mentioned by you.
I have no pictures about the hardening line but the bars are on a roller bench and are treated one by one so hence the ends of the bars collide with other bars or with the steel table construction.
Before using a hot rolled bar, the ends are nearly always sawn and in this case, a piece of 50 mm should be enough to cut of the ends for the circular surface cracks.
If we would have know in advance, we would have negotiated sawing of such ends. Some mill do this standard but other mills do not sawn off such ends standard.
I hope you will be able to accept the bars as they are and settle our invoice soon.