Bullcrap in a China Shop 2

I have resurrected this old deleted post in response to a reader’s comment on my “Don’t Make ‘Em Like That Any More” post. He was talking about Chinese goods and I agreed with the comment made and thought this old post deserved a second chance together with an update on what happened after.
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Do you remember a time when you slaved and saved to buy something for the home? You went without and watched your pennies until the day came when you had enough to pay for the electric carrot chopper or whatever it was you needed. And when you brought the item home it worked perfectly and went on working for years and years and years until the kids busted it or the paint wore off.

Not any more.

Most things you buy now are mangled together in China by workers who don’t even know the purpose of the thing they are helping to make. They use components from other Chinese sweatshops and glue it all together with stuff that wouldn’t stick to a blanket. By the time it gets to you it’s already passed the use by date and is beginning to shed bits.

Don’t be fooled by the brand name either. Even the trusted, big name companies have shifted manufacturing to China or wherever they can get the most impoverished workers and child labour to ruin their eyes or break their backs for bugger all. Brand name western distributors (that’s all they are now) have been maniacally snatching profits as fast as they can before the whole scam destroys what little reputation their name has left (like Cadburys and their Made in China, Melamine-laced Eclairs – I mean, Christ, don’t Cadburys bloody check stuff?)

But they don’t give a shit – the big bosses will soon be retired and sitting on a beach somewhere wondering what the poor people are doing apart from standing in line hoping to get money back on a useless carrot chopper.

The owners of the Chinese factories are just as blatantly venal. They ignore any kind of regulation designed to protect the health of those who work in, or live near, the factories and will ruthlessly cut corners on manufacturing standards. The result of this is that Australian shops are filled almost exclusively with the cheapest possible crap that may just get past the guarantee date before spontaneously falling to bits.

What brought all this moaning on? I’ll tell you what brought it all on, my bloody Ryobi line trimmer that’s what brought it all on.

Three years ago I had a Ryobi that, after many years of service, was on it’s last legs so I went to Bunnings in Brown Stains to get another. I wanted to avoid the Talon trimmers that I had been told were rubbish but Bunnings had a green thing (forget the name) that was recommended and quite cheap so I bought it.

It lasted about three months and then wouldn’t start so I took it back and was told it would have to be repaired because it wasn’t covered by a replacement guarantee. After about four weeks and a dozen phone calls I got it back and it lasted half an hour before I was, once again, yanking away like a demented onanist. By this time I was furious and told Bunnings where to insert it.

I paid the extra and changed to a Ryobi. I was convinced it would go on and on like the old one and I would one day bequeath my Ryobi to my son. It lasted 3 years then seized up and I have just been advised to buy another because it will be cheaper than a repair.

This time I’m shopping in Jimboomba so I won’t have so far to go when I take the bloody thing back. It will cost me $50 more to buy a Stihl but I figure I will save on petrol and phone calls.

What’s the betting though, when I get it home I will find a little label stuck to it that says “Made in China”.

UPDATE – 3 MONTHS LATER.

I went to Mitre 10 in Jimboomba and they had 3 line trimmers to choose from. These ranged in price from $90 to $300 but they all had one thing in common – Made In China stickers! Then I noticed one more thing they had in common – exactly the same engine! I don’t mean that 3 line trimmers had one engine between them of course, I mean that all the engines were exactly the same as each other – right down to the last bolt and cooling fin. Yes folks, the difference between the cheap trimmer and the ‘quality’, ‘big-name’ expensive one was the colour and design of the plastic cover bolted to a common unit. What a bloody con!

I had intended buying a Stihl because I heard they were good but I was then told that, though they lasted a few more years if you were lucky, the cost of repairing them was about the same as the cost of a new one. So I went off Stihls.

So what did I do? I bought the $90 one of course because I’ve got two just like it at home (Yes the busted ones at home also have the same engine unit – including my old Ryobi that went on for years.) If the grass hadn’t been so long I might have given the whole thing a miss and cobbled one good unit out of the two at home because one of them has a seized engine and the other has dodgy electrics. But I’m not fast when I’m working on things mechanical so it would take me a couple of weeks to do that and the grass was getting really high in the gully.

I got the new line trimmer home and tried it out. It works - though it’s harder to start compared to the Ryobi that has better electronics in the starting circuits. It is also noisier because it has a cheaper muffler. However, all these bits are interchangeable between the three units I have so I (confidently?) predict 10 years of use out of my store of spare parts. That should see me out.