China megarant

Trying to avoid China rants because the feeling is that once they begin they will take over the blog permanently! However a bunch of people have written and commented that they enjoy seeing the reality of manufacturing in China... so, well they convinced us to release some of the pressure that's been building up!

Disclaimer: there are a lot of positive aspects to Chinese culture, but these are usually only evident if you interact with locals on a personal level and if you speak the language.

So the rant is focused on how hard it is to "get stuff done", and how hard it is to live without all the comforts. This is from the perspective of someone looking to come to China to set up production, and is only one facet of what you can find in China...

Ok here we go.



First the manufacturers...

- LED guy totally messing with us and caught flat out lying several times, he still hasn't sent the LEDs we paid for. After saying he was "making them" for 2 consecutive weeks, it turns out he hasn't even started. At this point he tried to convince us to order a much larger quantity saying he'd send the samples with the large order. No way. What's the point of getting samples then? Big enough of a mistake to pay in advance for the samples, and that's why he's been playing with us for weeks. Such guts to try to get a larger order.

So we asked for a refund and he started begging for another chance after we already caught him not knowing the very basics of his product (common anode/common cathode), with wrong spec sheets, and lying repeatedly. This is the Yin/Yang depressive LED guy you read about in previous posts. We sent him 70 emails already to try to get these LEDs, so - enough is enough. He tried to say, "order a big batch then if you don't like the products, I will refund you for sure". We just kept answering him to send the money back and now he is no longer replying to emails. Luckily we didn't order a big batch so we haven't lost much money. But his behavior is still outrageous! If you deal with China, you should never, ever, under any circumstance, pay in advance without seeing and testing the goods. We usually abide by this rule but in this case given the product is so ubiquitous and easy to make, we made an exception which we regret.

- Talking about unreliable companies, the PCB assembly factory had told us the PCBs don't need to be panelized. We asked them to confirm this with engineers. They said they did. So we went ahead and ordered the brand new white and gold PCBs. But finally when we visited the factory it turned out they DO need to be panelized so we have to throw away our PCBs and do them again with them! They didn't even offer to create them free of charge to rectify their mistake, but at least we got them to match our Korean price. So we can reduce the number of international shipments in our manufacturing chain by one. For this reason we didn't insist too much on having them shoulder the cost of their mistake. And also we don't want them to get annoyed and tell us to go somewhere else given that it's not easy to get a company with nice machines to assemble for us. So we will take the cost of their mistake and proceed. Another problem with them is that they had confirmed over 5 times that they would order components for our product with their company's credit card in order to have the invoice for VAT refund. Even confirmed with the CEO that same morning. Turns out they don't have any such card! So we couldn't order the components. They are now getting a credit card because we befriended the CEO - stay tuned. Number 3, they said their engineers had reviewed the board design and it was not a problem to manufacture. However now it turns out a couple of components need to be moved a bit - so another reasons the boards have to be recreated. Finally, the CEO was supposed to arrive to our place by 10:30 but didn't. At about 11:10 we paged one of their employees on Skype and he said the boss was still at the office. Then called the boss who said he was already on the road but would arrive 2 hours later (when the trip by car is only an hour and a half). Eventually they arrived together, over 3 hours late, both the boss and the employee who was on skype. So no, he wasn't on the road, he was late and lying. Can't complain. They have the machines, we need them.

Bottom line, most Chinese manufacturers think nothing of giving out incorrect information which many times results in monetary losses, and do not feel they have to be responsible for what they say, even when you try to confirm multiple times. The effort that goes into keeping everything together is the price we pay for building in China (which is the only way this product can ever be born). If you want to buy reliability with money, you can go elsewhere. But in China, either you get very lucky (like we did with Jason) or you will have to be eternally vigilant.

Of course bad companies are everywhere and for sure in the West you don't always get lucky. But usually when we hit a real roadblock with a supplier we call a similar company in the UK just to pick their brain and oh... the difference!!! It's like... they're so focused, and they know everything, or if they don't they actually look it up and provide references and examples! Oh, sir that's because you are overmolding with silicone, try polyurethane. Low voltage directive applies to devices without the lower voltage limit set forth in article such and such because this is a radio controlled device! Wow... ANSWERS people. ANSWERS.

Note: when a screw-up is being born, the words you will hear are "fang xin" (relax, don't worry) and "mei wenti" (no problem). Be extra extra careful if you ever hear these words especially if spoken convincingly. One way you can cover yourself is to make it clear that a screw up will result in a monetary loss for the other party. Sure, smuggling components from hong kong is "no problem", just relax. "Oh, so you will PAY for X thousand dollars of components if they are seized by customs?" -- yeah, ask that... and now the conversation is, hmm you're right maybe we should do the VAT refund :)

Comic relief (a true "China Moment"). Just a few days ago we were trying to get some heat shrink tubing with particular characteristics. We mailed 10 companies on the net and waited for replies. Out of the few companies that replied, a certain Grace told us that a 3.2mm diameter heat shrink tube would be perfect for our 3.5mm cable. When we told her no, look the diameter's got to be larger than the cable diameter, she replied:

"Yes.The initial diameter of 繝ｻ謦ｰ・ｽ・､3.2 is 3.3+0.3.It's suitable for you."

Not quite sure what that meant, so we told her, no, look - 3.2 is less than 3.5, please send the larger one.

"You can put your mind at ease.繝ｻ謦ｰ・ｽ・､3.2 really suits you."

Oh ok, I guess we'll just relax and put our mind at ease then. 3.2 really suits us, because a 3.5 cable can fit in a 3.2 hole. Great!!! Look, do not under ever circumstance allow yourself to be appeased in this way because "don't worry" becomes "sorry sir" very very quickly and you're the one who will take the loss and delay.

Ok, enough on the suppliers' front. Now the living problems...

Today there was a black out. Few days prior to that the water was disconnected by mistake. There's mold growing all over because it's so humid and the walls aren't waterproofed (we know a bit about waterproofing now!) - a simple cold turned into a 4 week bronchitis (which just healed fortunately) and after two 1-week rounds of antibiotics and almost panicking with doctor friends advising by email it could be tuberculosis, finally changing the bedroom fixed the problem. Mold can cause respiratory problems of all sorts. Renting an apartment which is considered very expensive by Chinese standards does not guarantee the quality of the infrastructure (water, electricity, sanitation, service).

We've got nice furniture and a clean kitchen (in fact much much cleaner than the terrible ones in older Chinese homes), but the smell of other people's food comes in from outside and they almost always cook impossibly spicy food so that you can't enter the kitchen due to the spicy vapors entering your nose and throat and causing massive coughing. When they cook, the kitchen is off limits.

The cleaning lady leaves everything wet. After she's done the floors are covered with water and soap bubbles. If you tell her to dry the floors she tells you that they will dry by themselves. In an ideal world they would, but you will still walk over them in the meanwhile and carry the dirt under your slippers all over the house. Also, the humidity is so high here that water does not dry by itself before 24-48 hours have elapsed. If you call someone to clean your house here, you should specify that they have to clean under the tables and bed and chairs because by default this is not done, so when you move any furniture there's a whole ecosystem to be discovered underneath.

A few days ago we were waiting for a delivery. The delivery guy called saying his car was broken and asking if he could come tomorrow. We asked him what, are you a company? He said yes, he's like a local fedex. So - come on you're a courier company how can you say something like that. Get another vehicle and deliver our stuff ok? After seeing that we couldn't be convinced he came over. Took him less than 5 minutes which makes the car problem highly unlikely. Most likely he was too tired and trying to skip the night deliveries...

This point is not related to China... the incorporation lady is actually from the west but she's lived in Thailand for a long time and she's got an attitude! After the second time we tried to confirm about some paperwork she started writing in CAPS and became quite rude.

"I DID. What part of that did you miss in my last message? CONFIRMED THAT A BANK OF CHINA STATEMENT WILL BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT TRANSLATION."

After that we have only heard from her assistant. We always confirm at least twice on all important stuff since people tend to try to reassure you without really being certain there won't be problems. Yes, sometimes we're a bit pushy. But we're trying to make everything perfect, and that means both the product and the process. We don't like variables and don't want to have problems after leaving China - so we really insist on doing things the right way and triple checking everything. In this case, we have to go to Hong Kong with a bunch of papers to set up the company's bank account and the last thing we want is for them not to accept the documents which would mean we have to go back and forth to Hong Kong one more time. Each time we come in we need a new visa which takes days which requires us to stay at a hotel... so based on this we tried to be really sure; but she got offended... Really odd. Anyway she knows all the legal stuff, and other companies offer less guarantees and are even worse, so after doing some more research we decided to proceed with them even though this episode was quite worrying given that they handle a very important part of our structure.

Now the worst thing about living in a Chinese city is the pollution. If you ever need to go outside - which we don't recommend at all - you should definitely train yourself to hold your breath while you're running. Because most vehicles leave such dense black smoke clouds behind that you will not be able to just walk by. You will have to run. And you won't want to breathe while you do it either. It's that bad. If you stay inside a car that's fine. Taxis are dirt cheap but you can't always find one.

Restrooms: do not plan to use one outside of the home. You can be in an expensive restaurant, an expensive shopping mall, an expensive hospital. They are all the same. Approach the restrooms carefully - by the time you come within a 15 meter range you will start to faint because of the odor. Paper is not thrown in the toilet bowl (there is no bowl) but in a waste basket near the "hole" because the pipes aren't large enough and can get stuck. Needless to say the contents of this basket are thoroughly disgusting to think of, let alone smell - but most Chinese take this stuff out in a plastic bag just like we throw out our regular garbage. Possibly, people in the future will also see our kitchen trash cans with utter disgust. Everything is relative... but the waste basket really is terrible.

Trips to factories must be timed very precisely (breakfasts, lunches, stops) because restrooms cannot - must not - be used.

All right, there's a lot more but this should be enough for the first China Megarant!

On the positive side you already know what's great about staying here. We can make friends with factory big bosses and utilize equipment that costs more than a house, and in the west we would never be able to do this especially with our tiny market size.

We're really excited about being here and making all the progress and at the same time can't wait to finish up everything and ... get out !

Comments