Both of you are wrong..
China well the large cities are much faster paced than us. I suggest you spend 6 months searching for products there
then explain their economy and how they work.
1. The Chinese do things much like Mexico there is a guy up top padding his pockets and grunts under him/her usually living in the factory compound making a dollar or two a day.
2. If you get any customer service from them consider yourself lucky. They do not feel bad about sending out bad or non working parts/pieces as long as they get paid. It is almost like they have no forethought of the future. Its the same service there for the locals or who ever buys kits etc, Unless you are holding money over their head like a big account.
3. They live totally different than us and can care less for the most part on how we do business.
4. They have an odd sense of business , BUT it works in their culture. its always cheaper, cheaper cheaper.
5. Americans (for the most part) Will pay almost anything for high quality.
6. If you want something on the cheap and know enough about the product to fix it if it is shipped bad then by all means buy from China.
7. If you need customer support and handholding then buy bionx for $1200
We usually don't run across quality problems in our society a product is a product. Apple or PC.
In china there are 4 qualities for everything.
food has a #1, #2, #3, and a #4 quality.
all products are the same they all have different qualities. Not all products are created equal.
China is completely different from all of Asia. The Chinese do business different from western countries.
The number one thing to remember is that Chinese can care less about the rest of the Western World, they have no desire to be like us and they don't want to nor do they have to conform to the way we do business.
Philip does very very well for himself and has no headaches with customer support, demanding customers, stupid customers.
He manufatures a good middle end e-bike kit that costs him around $45-$50 to produce and thats the way he likes it, don't waste your time trying to change China to the US they are their own country.
People that havent traveled think that every country looks at us the way we do as the #1 country in the world and everyone should follow our lead. They laugh at this and continue to do business the way that they have for hundreds of years.
Because we are American or Canadian or whatever does not mean we are special or that they are. But believe it or not they do not think as we do, they do not do business as we do and will not.
If I had $300k to spare for a campaign I could put every single Californian on an e-bike, I can truely see this. But working directly with the Chinese is not an easy task. I can buy a container load from Philip then the next day he wants to charge me full price for a pack of NIMH batteries lol..
You can spend all day telling them why thats dumb but they will never understand, they will never get it and they can care less.
Now.....
If someone here was to start a small campaign... TV, You Tube, create a huge Buzz.. Then went to Philip with a large order to be created to YOUR specifications you would get a flawless top quality product.
Then they would fill your order to your specifications then go right back to making middle end products.
Its kind of hard to explain but say for instance you were building a house from the ground up, I personally would buy middle end to high end all the way through. But the chinese buy low low end for everything then for the finishes they would go mid to low and grind them on their prices lol..
Its just a different culture, they calculate everything, screws, wire, even damn rusty spring that hangs out of the hub lol.
I am ranting lol because I have been banging my head against the wall for years dealing with the chinese.
Good luck!
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