Quality Control. Where's the evidence?

[Hobby Kid]

Does anyone have any actual hard evidence of any quality control or lack of it from any China company? And not just China. Has anyone viewed any official documents on q/c regulation, heard a whistle blower's story, seen with their own eyes firsthand accounts on the factory floor or discussions in the board rooms?

We hear a lot of dissatisfaction with items bought from China and it's always led to the 'no quality control' argument. China makes and sells millions of things every day. I'm sure out of the hundreds of products I've bought only a handful are sub standard. For example, last year Kanger's replacement heads for their Protank took a nose dive but did anyone enquire why? What I do know is it led to a plethora of assumptions that it must be that there isn't any quality control in China or at Kanger. Someone earlier mentioned the word "trend". There isn't always a quality reason behind one of them.

 

[UncleRJ]

I do know that AngelCig turned away their first shipment of the Hanna Modz due to some QC issues.

 

[jack]

The only real q.c. I have heard of is as UncleRJ stated , a vendor turning away a certain batch of product. The makers in China may have q.c. , and their
standards are lower than ours .

 

[State O' Flux]

Quality Control. Where's the evidence?

Good question Hobby Kid. "Hard evidence" may be hard to come by without a good bit of research and possible personal investment in time and money.

An example of a little research...

Alibaba, who is the leading business to business/e-commerce interface in China, has a program they call "Gold Supplier", where the company in question pays a (not cheap) premium and submits to an on-site inspection. If they pass that inspection, they get to display the Gold Supplier label on their Alibaba page.
It's not exactly the BBB, but it's a company attempting to provide a level of quality. Infinite is an example of this status... although they're only on their first year.

(Smok is a 4 year Gold Supplier, AnyVape is a 2 year, some vaping product companies you've never heard of are 5-6 year suppliers... and Innokin - big, super popular Innokin - is (surprisingly) only a 3 year Gold Supplier)

Again, using Infinite as our example... they also meet the RoHS safety compliance and CE conformity in a variety of product groups. Do they meet ISO 9001 standards for quality? Nope... not that I can tell. That would certainly be a nice feather in their cap.

What does this mean to us? I suppose it means that, in the case of Infinite, they seem to have an interest in meeting base world standards for a level of quality. Is it confirmable? Probably not much beyond where I've gone in the last 30 minutes.

I'm not particularly interested in researching beyond this point, but more "information" is readily available for anyone curious enough to follow the trail.

 

[Hobby Kid]

@State O' Flux that's a good start. There's a tv program on here atm called "How safe is your house?" where they take apart pieces of houses and check the parts integrity. A lot of household products e.g. mains switches have CE marks on them which the manufacture simply made themselves.

My brother in law's company has an ISO inspection each year (I think it's yearly). It's quite expensive but he says his company gets a lot more work that way. But I think there are businesses which aren't prepared to spend that sort of money.

 

[Hobby Kid]

QC marks of approval like the CE - it's like they're on a par with items businesses sell which say they're "reconditioned". I'm always suspect of that term.

 

[State O' Flux]

Yessir... I'm suspect of just about anything and anyone these days. As easy to "clone" a mark or label as it is an entire product. From vape gear to Patek Philippe wristwatches to Eames chairs... if it's popular - it gets forged.