Buying components from China

[moty22]

I bought several components from China and most are used, even IC's, and about 30% of them are defective. Am I the only one to have this experience?

 

[Ian Rogers]

Nope!!! The word "Cheap" gives it away.... I bought two encoders... England £120.. China £27... End of story really!!!

 

[moty22]

Nope!!! The word "Cheap" gives it away.... I bought two encoders... England £120.. China £27... End of story really!!!

Thank you Ian. If it's any conciliation for you at least you have learnt your lesson quickly. I let them sting me several times, I should have looked at the "datasheet" after the first time.

 

[Ian Rogers]

I have bought things from China... small DSO ... Works good... PCB's seem to be fine! TFT screens work ok!

It just seems to be pot luck!... The old saying "If it looks too good to be true" comes to mind!!

 

[audioguru]

I think that buying components directly from China is the same as buying components from ebay. Is ebay in China?

My electrical utility company did not want to spend a fortune building additional electrical supply stations because electrical power demand was rising due to inefficient incandescent light bulbs.
So they gave away for free compact fluorescent light bulbs. They were from China and some caught on fire and dripped burning melted plastic. They recalled and replaced them.
The Chinese manufacturer of the bad ones stole the certification number from a competitor so the bulbs were never certified and were made TOO CHEAP!

My city replaced all the traffic lights and street lights with LED ones from China. I lost count how many times they replaced over and over the defective ones on my street. I asked the workers and they said of course they were Chinese but THEY WERE CHEAP!

I have many Chinese solar garden lights. They are outside in the garden where everybody knows it is sunny and it rains sometimes. Their solar panels and LDRs get sunburned and the batteries, resistors and LEDs rust away in no time. THEY WERE MADE CHEAPLY and some were given away for free by my electrical utility company.

20 years ago I bought a high quality Fluke DMM made in USA. Then my boss bought a much CHEAPER Chinese one from Radio Shack. His failed the next week, they could not fix it and none were available for replacement. Mine still works perfectly today.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I bought several components from China and most are used, even IC's, and about 30% of them are defective. Am I the only one to have this experience?

I've bought many components from China, I've NEVER seen one that's been used, all have been brand new.

I've only had one faulty item, that was an Arduino Uno (which didn't work at all), and I'm currently awaiting a replacement for it.

 

[moty22]

Thank you guys. It is interesting learning from your experiences. I agree with audioguru on the quality of Chinese products, it's the minority though.
If you pay less and you get less quality it is somehow justified and even useful in cases of single use or so. If you get a product that is very different to the description it is pure dishonesty of the sales person.
audioguru, in Europe we don't have the choice to buy incandescent light bulbs anymore. It is a shame because it doesn't increase the efficiency. To make those florescent light you require much more energy but the "good thing" is that it pollutes the air in China. We just have to hope that that butterfly wont flap his wing in China and send the pollution to here.
The more important fact is that the incandescent light bulbs used to add heat to the European houses that need heating most of the year, now those houses use gas from Russia to replace that missing 200W, so we didn't save much energy or pollution. Some physicists try to calculate the exact savings in energy but they couldn't crunch the numbers.
My personal opinion is that it is obvious that we don't save any energy with all the energy saving devices, and we don't save any pollution by having our TFT or Arduino sent to us all the way from China, it is only making some rich people richer. I want cheap honest component in my local shop.

 

[ericgibbs]

I've bought many components from China, I've NEVER seen one that's been used, all have been brand new.

I've only had one faulty item, that was an Arduino Uno (which didn't work at all), and I'm currently awaiting a replacement for it.

hi,
I buy lots of small electronic modules from China via Amazon, apart from the poor documentation I have no problems.

Its wise to just to check the accuracy of the component/pins screen printing on the PCB's, but it doesn't take long to figure it out.

E

 

[gary350]

There are several people on Ebay claiming to be in China. I bought about 15 items to build a project all items all claimed the parts are from China.

One package arrived in 3 days return address from Ohio.

Another package came in 4 days from North Carolina.

A 3rd package came from Wisconsin in 5 days.

The other 12 items all took a month to arrive from China.

You probably bought used parts salvaged from old TVs from a seller claiming to be in China. You need to report those sellers to Ebay liers need to be removed from Ebay. If someone wants to sell used salvaged parts they should be advertised as Uses Salvaged Parts with their correct geographical location.

I notice some sellers have their return address listed as United States. That is probably OK for people that live in other countries because they probably would not have a clue where Tennessee, Iowa or Utah is. I wanted to bid on an item the other day seller said pick up only and his location was listed as USA. I emailed the sell and said, I will be there tomorrow about 12 noon to pick up the item what is your address. The seller was 2000 miles from me. I told the sell that was his fault not mine put your correct location on ebay.

 

[moty22]

There are several people on Ebay claiming to be in China. I bought about 15 items to build a project all items all claimed the parts are from China.

One package arrived in 3 days return address from Ohio.

Another package came in 4 days from North Carolina.

A 3rd package came from Wisconsin in 5 days.

The other 12 items all took a month to arrive from China.

You probably bought used parts salvaged from old TVs from a seller claiming to be in China. You need to report those sellers to Ebay liers need to be removed from Ebay. If someone wants to sell used salvaged parts they should be advertised as Uses Salvaged Parts with their correct geographical location.

I notice some sellers have their return address listed as United States. That is probably OK for people that live in other countries because they probably would not have a clue where Tennessee, Iowa or Utah is. I wanted to bid on an item the other day seller said pick up only and his location was listed as USA. I emailed the sell and said, I will be there tomorrow about 12 noon to pick up the item what is your address. The seller was 2000 miles from me. I told the sell that was his fault not mine put your correct location on ebay.

Thanks gary350 I think we are tuned to the same frequency. I tried my best to report the corrupt dealers to ebay but looks like those dealers are very valuable to them so they take their side. ebay know that the system they have to protect us is useless, the system of sending back to China a faulty part can't work 'cause it costs too much to mail it back. ebay know that we choose to just throw away the faulty part, it is good for ebay because they get the commissions for the first buy and the buying of replacement.
The Chinese sting is to send you first a good part and when you come back for more they send you rubbish, I think they use a system and it's not luck.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I suggest your problem is with buying off Ebay?

 

[moty22]

hi,
I buy lots of small electronic modules from China via Amazon, apart from the poor documentation I have no problems.

Its wise to just to check the accuracy of the component/pins screen printing on the PCB's, but it doesn't take long to figure it out.

E

Thanks Eric. You have better experience than mine with the Chinese, but I have to count also the fact that your motto is "Good enough is perfect"
I will try Amazon.

 

[gary350]

I bought 4 rechargable batteries that would not stay charged for more than 10 minutes. I complained and had a full refund in 20 minutes. They did not want the batteries returned.

I had a problem with 1000v 50a bridge rectifier 10 pack for $5 free shipping, they are only good for 15 amps max then they go up in smoke even with a large heat sink. I have not complained about the bridge rectifiers but maybe I should.

I buy lots of China parts these are the only problems I have had.

 

[moty22]

I suggest your problem is with buying off Ebay?

You seem to be successful. How do you buy your bits from China?

 

[moty22]

I bought 4 rechargable batteries that would not stay charged for more than 10 minutes. I complained and had a full refund in 20 minutes. They did not want the batteries returned.

I had a problem with 1000v 50a bridge rectifier 10 pack for $5 free shipping, they are only good for 15 amps max then they go up in smoke even with a large heat sink. I have not complained about the bridge rectifiers but maybe I should.

I buy lots of China parts these are the only problems I have had.

The batteries that wouldn't stay charged is similar to what I get often and what I describe as used parts. Half of the parts I get have problem of this sort. Comparing to the experience you guys have I'm starting to suspect that maybe my name is a swear word in Chinese.
All the IC's I received (DIL) the pins are 90 degrees to the plastic like they where bent to push into a socket, in new IC the pins are about 105 degrees to the plastic.

 

[Paul_L]

I learned my lesson buying cheap 5% resistors off of EBAY. None of them were 5% a good portion of them were closer to the next value up on the standard resistance value table. I needed a 1.1 k. and ended up using a 1k that actually read 1.09k. Somehow I doubt Amazon is any better.

 

[ericgibbs]

Thanks Eric. You have better experience than mine with the Chinese, but I have to count also the fact that your motto is "Good enough is perfect"
I will try Amazon.

hi moty22.
My full motto is: " Good enough is Perfect ", good enough means it meets the Clients specification.!

If I pay low/cheap prices for a product that will meet the required specification for a particular project. that's good enough.
For a safety critical project, I would pay as much as is needed to meet that specification.

If you try Amazon be sure to read the previous item buyers comments, especially the bad ones

Eric

 

[moty22]

I learned my lesson buying cheap 5% resistors off of EBAY. None of them were 5% a good portion of them were closer to the next value up on the standard resistance value table. I needed a 1.1 k. and ended up using a 1k that actually read 1.09k. Somehow I doubt Amazon is any better.

This is similar to my experience that make me think that those dealers sell mostly defective components that don't fit the description.

 

[ericgibbs]

If your projects need quality products you should buy from suppliers such as RS Components or Farnell.
You obviously will pay higher prices, but their products are quality assured.
E

 

[moty22]

hi moty22.
My full motto is: " Good enough is Perfect ", good enough means it meets the Clients specification.!

If I pay low/cheap prices for a product that will meet the required specification for a particular project. that's good enough.
For a safety critical project, I would pay as much as is needed to meet that specification.

If you try Amazon be sure to read the previous item buyers comments, especially the bad ones

Eric

I thought that using only part of your motto will suit my campaign better.
I read reviews often, they do help. If you read the reviews in BAGGOOD you will notice that most of them were written by the same person who uses certain style, I look for fake reviews too.