Mad in China = Crap

[thehawk]

For one I am getting sick of the quality levels of products that have been made in China. It's getting pretty ridiculous IMO. In the last few weeks I have purchased products from Logitech, JBL and Sony - supposedly good brands and certainly above average in their pricing and yet I have had to return goods from all of them due to poor materials or build quality.

Logitech (between a friend and I) - 4 sets of speakers where cables or plugs have failed out of the box.
JBL - Speaker that resets volume to 0 every few seconds.
Sony - 2 sets of headphones that had one side fail after 4 weeks.

Seems impossible to get good products unless they are made in Japan.

Edited by thehawk on Thursday 30th October 22:46

[DieselJohn]

thehawk said:

Seems impossible to get good products unless they are mad in Japan.

Then you are in luck, because they are mad in Japan.

[lionrampant]

But we love them for it.

[speedy_thrills]

thehawk said:

Seems impossible to get good products unless they are mad in Japan.

Mad or made? People pay for what they get, the quality of Chinese made goods is still appalling but they are very cheap.

Because of the way the Chinese run their businesses and we choose to buy from them their quality control is dire to non-existant. They don't really have any concept of quality or becoming trusted suppliers.

[eharding]

DieselJohn said:

thehawk said:

Seems impossible to get good products unless they are mad in Japan.

Then you are in luck, because they are mad in Japan.

Indeed. I won't purchase electrical products nowadays unless they are certified as either 'Tap-Dancing With the Pixies In South Korea', 'Howling at the Moon in the USA' or, proudly, "Bats In The Attic in the UK"

[thehawk]

speedy_thrills said:

thehawk said:

Seems impossible to get good products unless they are mad in Japan.

Mad or made? People pay for what they get, the quality of Chinese made goods is still appalling but they are very cheap.

Because of the way the Chinese run their businesses and we choose to buy from them their quality control is dire to non-existant. They don't really have any concept of quality or becoming trusted suppliers.

That's the problem - they aren't cheap to the consumer. And the products are well designed and sound good for what they are intended for, but are let down by poor quality.

Much the same happened to fashion items, used to be able to buy Boss shirts that were actually made in Germany or Italy for £150, then overnight they started to be made in China In the same factory that ran an order for Next the previous week). I guess it's alright for the mass market that buy things for the label, but those of us who want to buy quality it sucks.

[SS HSV]

Actually I must disagree. China do make excellent quality 'CE' stickers.

As for the products that pertain to hold this accreditation I can't say the same

[Yertis]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I occasionally wonder what the chinese must think of us - why the hell would we want to collect eight examples of a locomotive whose only difference is the number on the cabside..? (and the presence or otherwise of the snifting valves)

[collateral]

Massive generalization?

In other news, peanuts for monkeys, welcome to globalization

Edited by collateral on Thursday 30th October 23:21

[jimbo_m]

Yertis said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I occasionally wonder what the chinese must think of us - why the hell would we want to collect eight examples of a locomotive whose only difference is the number on the cabside..? (and the presence or otherwise of the snifting valves)

But Bachmann was there first, got in on the China act before Hornby- both companys models were massively improved by the move though.

[308mate]

I cant agree with this OP. You can get goods manufactured to any standard of quality you like in china.
Your gripe in those cases should be with the brand owners, not the factories. They will build to a price or a standard which can be closely monitored if need be. It seems your faith in those particular brands is misplaced.

[Nolar Dog]

Agree with 308.

There are plenty of very high quality manufacturers in China.
You get what you pay for or what the company you're buying from has paid for.

[Ordinary Bloke]

Well his happens to be an important topic for me, so I'll throw in my 2p:

If you have a choice, buy stuff made in Europe. Keep the jobs in Europe. UK if you can.

If you have no choice, buy stuff with a European brand name. UK if you can.

If you don't care, and are happy to buy Chinese branded Chinese made goods, then don't be surprised when, in your old age, there are no jobs in Europe, your children/grandchildren have no job, you have no pension, and everything you own has lead paint on it, and blows up after 12.5 months...

IMO...

[Mars]

My brother is an importer of goods from China. He has a Sourcing Agent out there and has visited many of the manufacturing towns and regions. He reckons it is difficult to get the Chinese to build anything with any due dilligence because they are so conditioned to working for a piece-rate.

He has taken receipt of items in the UK, massive amounts - we're talking containers - only to find they all need rectification work.

It's so bad they are now investing in a warehouse so they can receive the goods IN China, check them out, and reject them before importing them into the UK.


Still, as he keeps telling me, there is absolutely no way he could get the products made in the UK without paying massively more for it.

[thehawk]

I'm not tying to start a discussion regarding globalisation or taking jobs offshore, I'm perfectly happy with all my gadgets and computer bits over the years from Thailand, Malaysian, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, Philippines etc. And that's generally why the China made stuff stands out because I have never had problems with Asian made goods.

btw, I wanted English speakers a few years back. the Kef sounded OK, but I was damned if I were to spend £3K on them as they were made in China (actually they seemed a bit flimsy, but I put that down to them being demo speakers - veneer coming off, broken connectors etc). Monitor Audio got my business because they were made in the UK.

[GavinPearson]

FWIW to me the most disappointing thing about China is the low value they place on human life, and the consequences it has when they cut corners.

Lead in paint was considered the tip of the iceberg.

Recently we had melamine in milk.

What's next????

Personally I would like to see mandatory testing of all food products & chemicals, with some penalties that made the effects of this highly unpalatable for importers of goods that prove defective to the point where they endanger people.

1st offence - clupable managers plus entire board of Directors spends a week in jail, company foots bill for time in jail. Massive compensation for all 'victims'.

2nd offence - clupable managers plus board goes to jail for a month & pcompany ays for it, plus pays out compensation.

3rd offence - clupable managers plus board goes to jail for a year, etc.

4th offence - company wound up. clupable managers go to jail for 20 years.

It may seem a little reactionary but it would not take long to make sure that product safety was treated with a degree of seriousness.

[V8A*ndy]

My problem with stuff "made in China" is manufacturers move production there, the quality goes down by a large margin and yet the customer still pays the SAME price.

I have had a few problems with a sound reinforcement manufacturer who recently moved production to China. Stuff is generally poorly made compared to it's pre china products/versions and much more unrealiable.

[Badgerboy]

One of my old companies manufactured in China, and the amount that was rejected for the UK market was crazy. It took a complete re-structuring of the departments, and training of the line managers. It was found you simply can't let people get on with their job, you have to watch them like hawks continuously. A classic was a product turning up in the UK, and finding that the trim was the wrong colour. Seemed they had run out of that particular colour, so an enterprising production manager decided to swap it for one he had in stock without consulting anyone. Had to bin the entire shipment.

It's crazy and quite sad. Most of the Chinese workers, given any degree of freedom will either steal, do no work, or F it up. And this was in a nice factory (Better than our UK one!) and the pay was higher than most places in the area. There are very switched on people there, but they are a very small minority and hard to track down and get in thr right position. I wonder if its the mindset the Government has instilled in them.

[scorp]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Quite often products are developed in the west, along with their production processes and then exported into China, so not entirely "made in china".

[Correct Change]

Anyone wearing Specsavers spectacles are more than likely wearing product of China.