U.S. vs. Chinese Manufacturers, who to choose?

This debate has been going on for a while and is prevalent in every manufacturing industry. The question is really left for each person to make for himself or herself. You must take a couple of things into consideration when you make your decision to go with an overseas company or with a local company. Do you want to buy something for cheap, with low quality, or pay a little more and have a quality product? Other things you want to take into consideration are the image of your company, repair costs, delivery time, potentially hazardous products, and legal ramifications.

Overseas companies have been infamous for making low quality inflatables that tend to break down much sooner than US inflatables. The reason for this is because usually in overseas countries like China or India there is no minimum wage and/or age laws, meaning companies tend to hire the cheapest workers. This leads to workers with no skills or experience producing your products, which in turn leads to defects and low quality production. Consumers of overseas products have noticed the difference and suffered the consequences of low quality products. One of the reasons for this is because overseas companies are not liable for any defective or non-safe products they make. There is no way for an individual or a company to get recourse from an overseas company for a defective product. This leaves individuals and companies that purchase from overseas companies vulnerable to lawsuits from anyone using their products. Normally if your products are purchased from U.S. manufacturers, than the manufacturer will be liable for any defective products, and their insurance will pay up. However, between international transactions there is no such enforcement or security.

Who do you ship your product to when you need a repair? That’s another question to ask yourself when purchasing from an overseas company or even a distributor of an overseas company. Sales people might mislead you by saying its made in the U.S., even though it’s not, so how can you tell if there telling the truth or lying? First and foremost you can tell by the price, if the price is surprisingly lower than other companies then they are either using low quality products or importing from overseas. A good question to ask companies is how long the warranty is on the product and what happens when there is damage or repair that needs to be done on it. No one in the right mind will ship their product back to China to get it repaired, it takes weeks to deliver and costs an arm and a leg to ship, so what do they do? They’ll usually end up going back to the U.S. based company for repairs and find out how much easier it is to work with someone who is local.

The image people get from ones products and services is what they’ll remember the most about a certain company. Also people tend to identify products or services based on the country of origin. U.S. is and always has been known for safety, quality, and customer service. Overseas countries like China have been infamous for making hazardous products, creating defective units, and using low quality materials. Usually people that tend to buy into the low price, low quality products, are usually the ones that give the same type of service. These types of companies are never successful in the long run, maybe for a short period, but never on a continuous basis. Customers always want to deal with companies that care for safety, security, and service. There are always price shoppers, but the trend of customer habits have moved towards a requirement for corporate social responsibility. This means they want to deal with companies that will look after their best interest at all times, whether it’s with safe products or good service, they are willing to pay the extra price.

So when considering to buy products from a US inflatable manufacturer or overseas manufacturer, ask yourself what type of product and service you expect to get. Then ask yourself what happens after you get your product, is there any technical support or help from the company or do you simply get a bill and a thank you. Try doing some research if you are not convinced and follow the examples of successful companies with the best customer service, and see what type of products they use. I can guarantee you they use the highest quality products or else they would not stay in business for long.