[V8] Harbour Freight. NAC

[John Bysinger]

I dunno about harbor freights purchasing/labor practices, but I personally
have given up on them as a source for purchases of any kind.  I have
attempted to buy from them twice, both experiences were amazingly less than
satisfactory.  I encountered everything from rude customer service reps, to
deleted orders, to improperly charged CC's.  And in the end I never received
either order, and am currently in the process fo trying to get the second
one cancelled and my money back.  (8 months of back-order lies and other
issues is enough for me.)  Sure their prices may be lower, good luck
actually getting what you buy.
</rant>

-John
1990 v8q

-----Original Message-----
From: v8-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v8-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf
Of Buchholz, Steven
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 6:49 PM
To: 'v8 at audifans.com'
Subject: RE: [V8] Harbour Freight. NAC


... frankly, not fully from this end!  Are you saying that the "playing
field" between the US and Europe is different?  Don't they have comparable
labor and environmental laws to the ones manufacturer's in the US have to
deal with?  In fact, we may have the more lax laws ... in a meeting today I
heard that at a tool we're installing in Germany (the thing costs around
$20,000,000 so we're doing our part to help the balance of trade! ;-) one of
the install engineers is unable to go in to the site because the labor laws
there force time off after so many contiguous days on the job!  The other
amusing nuance here is that nowadays you hear talk about people buying new
Chrysler Hemis ... which are largely made by Mercedes (I can't vouch for the
validity of such statements, just pointing it out as a sign of how grey the
boundaries are).  We all know how diversified the automobile manufacturing
world is ... Japanese manufacturers build vehicles in the US and ship them
back to Japan!  I don't think it's a US vs. Europe or US vs. Japan question
... the other example Dave mentioned was a US company!  It all comes down to
an overall "fairness" factor ... in quotes because it isn't really properly
descriptive.  In the Wal-Mart case it is a situation where the corporation
could give a whit about its employees ... it pushes the limits on labor laws
and forces concessions from the same governments that will be forced to pay
health costs for the folks who are employed by the company but do not even
earn a "living wage" ... we can vote with our pocketbooks ... and Wal-Mart's
purse is growing every day ... but it gets precious little from me.  It's a
bunch more difficult to stay away from products made in China, almost
everyone seems to need to go there in order to compete at all.

I'm kinda considering not hitting the send button on this ... but as Dave
said, you've struck a nerve ... we too are farming out a good bit of our IP
development to India.  At least in my case I know that the tools we build
physically leave the docks here in California ... oops ... Kaleefohnia ...
funny, now that he's the Gov, even Ahhnold's accent is improved ...

Steve B
San Jose, Kaleefohnia (USA)
>
> He says while driving a driving a german car...and demanding
> oem parts....and
> .........
>
>  see the irony?
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