it is sad to hear that you have such poor experiences with china. i am part of a management team that runs a chinese plant and let me tell you, it is with great effort and pain that we are able to produce quality products. the internet has opened up a whole new way of scamming. i'm not saying that they are out to trick you but that they simply don't need to be responsible for their actions. we deal with suppliers that are happy NOT to sell to you as there are many other people out there that are easier to work with. when you catch them cheating, they simply ask "so what now?". some of them will laugh it off with a compliment "you're pretty smart". the attitude is simple "i do what it takes to make myself money. you pay me so little so i have to cheat you. if you catch me at it, so what? what are you going to do? sue me?" in china the whole attitude is caveat emptor. don't come whining to me because you didn't see the tractor all the way into the container and something went wrong. don't whine at me that your little itty bitty canopy has a weetty bitty cracky in it. don't yell at me because i decided to change some parts because the stock room was so messy that i couldn't find the one on the BOM.

there is a reason why trading companies based outside china are still so prevalent. that is that chinese (mainlanders) are tough to deal with. even those with higher education, speak excellent english and have posh offices aren't to be trusted. of course, as in all areas of the world, any rash generalization would be... well.. rash. i've had the privilege of working and dealing with wonderful chinese as well. but even they grow eyes in the back of their heads.

caveat emptor - a chinese rule of thumb!</p>