[Asia Portico]

I am new to this forum so I'll take this opportunity to make my first contribution. I have been living in China for the last 3 years, and have often heard common misconceptions about the Chinese way of doing business.

Before moving to China, I was working in the clothing sector, importing two European brands and having to travel extensively in Europe for work. I moved to China to pursue Chinese language studies and on finishing my studies went straight into Trading. My job requires frequent factory visits and we have occasionally encountered scam operations. A typical scenario is a broker or a trader pretending to be a factory. Another similar case we sometimes come across is this... These people do have a factory and they go to lengths with making well-presented brochures of their products saying they have all the required standards/certifications. On visiting the factory (after frequent postponements) you will discover that the huge factory presented on the brochure is not there. Instead you find this small rusty warehouse in the middle of nowhere (usually in the countryside where there is minimum government control), a few machines that make only part of the products. Eventually you find out that most of the product range is bought from a neighboring factory. It's difficult to realize in such cases unless you visit. In cases like these it is easy to receive the product but with different specifications. We stress the importance of proper purchasing contracts when buying from China and make sure the signed contract is based on sample specifications you already received.

But what I really would like to mention here and hopefully open to discussion is the different way westerners conceive of service as compared to the Chinese. What bothers me is how easily the Chinese get away with bad service. And this is due to, I believe, the sales oriented approach. Its the numbers that matter and not the quality of the service. Starting from something as simple as making a phone call can sometimes be an infuriating experience where you're left waiting on the phone and suddenly the line is disconnected. Nobody calls you back. You call again and you ask to be connected to the foreign dept. If it does not exist, you explain to the person answering why you're calling. Without any notice, she/he passes you on to somebody else where you have to start all over again. This goes on for 3 times usually until by the 4th you are told to call the manager on his mobile coz he/she is outside. I sometimes try to ask for the manager directly but instead I get a persistent voice asking why I can't explain to him/her why I'm calling. Anyway, this is the light side. What really gets to you is agreeing on a specific time for delivery of goods and when the time approaches, this starts extending week after week. Usually the reason is overpromising. While they are busy giving you promises they cannot deliver, they are also doing the same to others. Suddenly a large batch of orders could come in and you can forget your next month delivery. I find the Chinese to be the 'yes' people. Nowadays I always take a yes as a maybe. They do love to save face and they would say anything to get you to make the order with them. E.g. "Do you have Rohs certification?" "Yes, of course." "Could you send me a copy?" "eeerrmm...I am outside at the moment, I will send it later" This certificate is never delivered.

As traders and inspectors, we go to great lengths spending time and money to make sure manufacturers are reliable and trustworthy. Another case that comes to mind is the exclusivity issue. If you have an exclusivity agreement with a supplier make sure terms are really clear. One manufacturer told us that he won't sell to any other buyers from this same market (where we had agreed on exclusivity) unless a new potential buyer would agree to buy at a higher cost price!!