>>1177856>In China it is your own fault if you get cheated. They are perfectly capable of being competent, but they will rip you off if they can.In china, they have a saying that very roughly translates to "you pay for what you get". It's similar to the American expression "you get what you pay for", but is taken a little more seriously.
For example: Let's say I want to buy a steel bike frame out of 8/5/8 Reynolds 853 tubing. Normally, this would cost me, say, $1200 at retail from a reputable western brand. Maybe $600/ea when bought in bulk at wholesale prices.
I find a factory in China, advertising custom built frames for $100. I ask if they can make me a special frame with 853, they say "hmmm, special steel 125 dollar". Holy shit deal of the century, right? I sign that paperwork and get the frame shipped to me. But when I receive the frame, it's clear that it's made out of straight-gauge, hi-tensile gaspipe.
To the factory, they've done nothing wrong. The agreed-upon spec was an inconsequential as the smalltalk you make with a car salesman. The negotiated price was the *only* thing that mattered; they didn't rip you off because "you paid for what you got" and you should not have expected something more valuable than what you were paying.
Of course, this runs smack dab into the american/western culture where the text of the deal/written specifications are the thing that actual matters. Things have gotten a lot better in the past 5-10 years - electronics and injection molding factories in particular know how to deal with westerners now - but the chemical and structural materials companies still sketch the shit out of me. You never know what you're actually going to get.
I trust companies like Spesh and Trek, even if I don't know what chink factory the frames are coming from, because they have QA departments and reputations to uphold. I don't trust unbranded or chink branded frames with too-good-too-be-true prices.
