Not sure why you single China out. It can be any vendor. I bought an intervalometer for my camera for $30 2 weeks ago. Took 8 days. Works great. Done the job. Chinese brand and shipped from china.
Bought some clothes from UK. Never arrived. Amazon refunded.
Amazon is great. But any vendor can be as dodgy as any eBay seller.
I think the point is that the "from China" is actually unneeded information. Worse, it can help build xenophobia.
Consider, the story is just as powerful with "I ordered from a vendor who had a ton of negative reviews for not delivering products." Even better, that instructs to start paying attention to reviews, and not origin of vendor. :)
Nah man. Amazon is full of crappy quality Aliexpress/Futian Market dropship Chinese vendors. It is an actual problem. Point it out. Stop making lame comments like you feel it is racist.
China has a well known problem with not honoring other country's intellectual property. I don't see how it's racist at all to comment about the negative effects of a countries IP policies. Were not talking about Chinese here, were talking about the IP government policies of China
It's rather amazing how when you call out people's preconception they hold strongly, you'll easily get downvoted here, regardless of how well founded or supported that preconception is.
If the original comment had mentioned how the purchase was from a black vendor, or a gay vendor, people would be up in arms about what that unjustly implies, and how without any sort of data to back that it's just stereotyping (at best). Do it for China, where people already have a strong preconception of the types of vendors present, and all that rational separation of anecdote and data and needing to justify your statements goes right out the window.
This isn't to say you can't call out vendors from China if you suspect they are a problem in higher proportions than other vendors. The original comment could have included "I suspect this may be a problem exhibited more often from vendors from China, but don't have data to back that up" or more strong statements with some data, but did not. Instead we have a statement that only adds to the comment when combined with your own preconceptions, since it adds nothing to the circumstances of the described situation without your own preconceptions.
Ordering from a black/gay vendor is not as unrelated as ordering from a different country, with different consumer laws and regulations.
> rational separation of anecdote and data and needing to justify your statements
No statement was made though. An anecdote simply provided additional data, and you objected on the basis of what people might assume.
> but don't have data to back that up
You might also assume that from no data being provided, and indeed, no claim being made.
> we have a statement that only adds to the comment when combined with your own preconceptions
or allows another thread on the topic to emerge, in this case if it's relevant that China was involved, causing someone with knowledge on the topic to comment.
There is a huge statistical difference in product quality from Chinese brands. Making this more than just random antidotes. Japan and even the US had a relatively brief period of making low cost crap, but China can't seem to move up the manufacturing quality ladder.
If you manufacture in China you find huge legal and social issues with maintaining quality. It's still possible just far from the default.
If you manufacture in China you find huge legal and social issues with maintaining quality.
I've read, without adequate if any sourcing, that this is a pattern that's at least centuries old, specifically, building things to the required specs, then backing off on quality until the buyer complains....
If so, it's interesting it survived the harshest decades of Communism and the attempts to do away with the old ways, then again, it could well be aligned with the incentives that were force back then. Although I'd hate to be issued a weapon or ammo that was from a factory running along those quality lines. Although back when we were allowed to buy ammo from the PRC, that sort of thing was not apparent from what I remember, but I'm not sure I would have noticed since I was never in the market for those particularly types.
Farnell seems like a weird vendor to pick out as being slow or unreliable. I've always been amazed by the delivery of stuff I've ordered from Farnell - often you can order it at 7.50pm and it'll be there the next morning. In fact in probably 50+ orders I've never had one go missing or arrive more than a day late.
Bought some clothes from UK. Never arrived. Amazon refunded.
Amazon is great. But any vendor can be as dodgy as any eBay seller.