hypermegaglobal.net

I think I just found the title for the book I'll never write.

If you liked this, you might also enjoy engrish.com.

Update 17.03.2010: On a more serious note, China Law Blog has published an interesting article on manufacturing in China, naive Western buyers and expensive quality problems.

Should you ever find yourself in a similar situation to the one described in the post (sitting on US$500.000 of junk), there's an easy solution:

1. Ship the stuff back to China (if you're really good you might get the manufacturer to pay for the shipping costs)
2. Wait
3. Get replacements (which hopefully won't have the same quality problems, though they might have some new ones)

What happens in step 2? Either the manufacturer repairs the items (if feasible) or (more likely) unloads them on an unsuspecting new buyer (usually from the U.S. because "they never complain about the quality").

That said, it's entirely possible to buy high-quality items from China. While the first order we received from one supplier 8 years ago was 60% junk, this figure is down to about 0,5% by now.

BTW, "made in Germany" doesn't necessarily mean "less headaches solving quality issues", but I'll write about that another time.

Update 18.03.2010: I sometimes image they have regular meetings where they decide what to screw up next.

Mr. Zhang: "Here's your tea. Would you like to eat a little fruit?"

Mr. Liu: "Don't bother, tea is fine."

Mr. Zhang: "I must say, your last idea was brilliant. Our customers are furious and best of all, they still haven't figured out what's actually wrong with the LCDs. They just keep saying the displays are 'impossible to read from a normal angle'."

Mr. Liu: No, no, you're too kind. All I did was turn around the 2nd polarization layer."

Mr. Zhang: "Oh please, don't be so modest. I'm sure you've got another delightful screw-up prepared for this week."

Mr. Liu: "Well, as you know, we like to stick a number of superfluous labels on the product. So I thought, why not turn around the polarity label? Not only is this a homage to what we did with the displays, it's also rather ironic that it's right next to the 'Q.C. passed' sticker!"

Mr. Zhang: "You're a true master, Mr. Liu! Some more tea?"