I just put "motorhome" into Temu

I've lost count of how many LED lamps I have bought from IKEA and have failed. Others also failed and none close to the stated multi-thousand hour life.
latest one to fail is one in a bedside lamp that went a couple of days ago.
Bougt all mine from china, only one falled in many years, ikea only sell sh one t from what i see in the store.
 
We bought some LED tech very early on, cost us £8 each for GU10 spotlamp back in 2010. 1 failed after a couple of weeks but the other 30 or so are still going strong and entering 14 years of service, the ones in the kitchen are on pretty much most of the day every day too so have already done about 35-40 thousand hours! Seems the Chinese quickly realised that they needed to build in obsolescence and everything we've purchased since seems to only last about a year. The cheap (£1) ones from Screwfix seem reasonable considering the cost.
Give you a tenner for the valve amp. 😂
 
It's not a straightforward argument though, is it? It's certainly not right that people are being and have ever been used for slave labour, but if that's where your pittance of an income to support yourself and your family comes from, would you rather it continued or be ripped away on the basis of easing people's conciences?

Personally, I've never used Temu, and almost certainly never will because although there's no guaranteed way to avoid Chinese products, I don't want to buy what will likely be dangerous tat.

Given that things are what they are, I think it's just comes down to personal choice.
 
It's not a straightforward argument though, is it? It's certainly not right that people are being and have ever been used for slave labour, but if that's where your pittance of an income to support yourself and your family comes from, would you rather it continued or be ripped away on the basis of easing people's conciences?

Personally, I've never used Temu, and almost certainly never will because although there's no guaranteed way to avoid Chinese products, I don't want to buy what will likely be dangerous tat.

Given that things are what they are, I think it's just comes down to personal choice.
Much of the tat you buy in pound shops or ebay is as you say, some other stuff is of qood quailty, hard to sort out, but i dont buy of any sites anything expensive so quailty is not a worry, just bought last week 2 18650 rechargables batteries for a work lamp, £12 all in from the bay, ferk knows where the really came from, cert was not from england factory.
 
Said ultrafire on them, had some in the past and seem ok.

Ultrafire is very often copied as they're so popular. Weight can be a giveaway...

They may still be OK, just don't leave them unattended when charging.
 
......... a lot of stuff comes from China, is rebranded and has a UK name and address on it these days so you just never know for sure but each to their own.
I went round the Triumph motorcycle factory last year. They make nothing. They assemble parts from all over the world, and admittedly they do machine mating surfaces of crankcases, gearbox casings and so on, but they manufacture nothing from scratch. Then they stick a Union Flag on the tank (flag and tank made in BongoBongo land) and call the bike British. Then they charge twice as much as an equivalent Royal Enfield motorcycle, made in India in a factory where they do actually make stuff. There is a lovely youtube video on the Royal Enfield factory in India. You will be impressed.
 
I had contract production at a factory in Wuhu province East of Shanghai, In the 10 years I worked with this company I saw the employees self satisfaction grow, When I first visited prior to contract they went to work on bicycles, After a few years the production assembly workers I used had electric mopeds.
.
Not all factories, companies are tarred with the pay low wages with Victorian conditions, this was apparant when I visited in the early 2000s.
.
We did not choose the cheapest quotes, we visited factories to see first hand conditions, you may say we only saw what they wanted us to, true, however we had a mandarin speaker whom did not disclose that fact when there..
I only saw one plant that I did not approve instantly. Percentage wise although not on western standards, in the main were on decent local standards. Wildebus has hit the nail on the head most do treat decently, My 10 years of hands on business with them with multi visits to the factory stands for something. Staff always happy when we visited to see new production samples.
.
Temu prices, well we certainly could not compete with that, there is a lot more than the cheap labour issues, Chinese big brother works in many difficult ways, bulldoze the competition then saturate the market.
.
enough said.
.
 
Temu buy from third parties and just get the goods posted to you, i do wonder what the % profit is, very hard to find out where many goods come from these days, anything i look at says china.
My outboard engines are made there but owned by a Usa co, my supply agent has been out many times and says factory is as clean as a canteen with happy workers, every engine is water tested before being drained and packed for shipping, even the Ukraine army now use them.parson b.jpgparsun a.jpgparsun c.jpgparsun army.jpg
 
Chinese prisoners (criminal or political) are made to work. China is one of the most corrupt countries in the World and there will be backhanders and dirty dealing going on to line peoples pockets. I spent some time in China and saw how the system works.
A lot of white goods in the USA are made by prisoners
 
On a cruise recently we called in at two ports in Chile. Each town had a typical large shopping Mall. They were owned and operated by Chinese companies, or one Chinese company. I couldn't believe the prices of bikes in the outdoor / adventure shops - a bike like mine which recently cost me £1600 was selling for $240 US. My bike has an aluminium frame with carbon forks, hydraulic disc brakes, alloy wheels, 27 gears and so on. This one was just the same. I went in and asked the chinese girl if that was the right price. She couldn't understand English so she pulled out her phone, tapped an app and gestured me to speak. "Is that the right price, $240?" I asked. She nodded and said yes. I said , (into her phone so it would speak her language) "I can't believe it, I paid $1600 for my bike in England, the same as that but a different colour". She just laughed and shook her head in disbelief.
My wrongoing was that I did not buy two of them and wheel them on to the ship. I didn't realise we could take bikes on to the ship. I tried to upload a photo here but apparently 6mb is too big and I don't know how to downsize it on an Apple.


If you look at the world view, there are several instances of where China is doing grand engineering works for countries around the world, getting those countries into debt to China. It's a subtle way of taking over a country. I think Taiwan is an example and I wouldn't be surprised if the same is being done in Chile, of course these shopping malls are putting small shops out of business. We didn't see any other outdoor / adventure shops in the towns we visited.
 
A lot of white goods in the USA are made by prisoners
And from what I have seen of them, so are their RVs. What a pile of carp. I was looking in a brand new one at a show. The second-hand tea chest wood that they made the bed base out of had a 10" splinter sticking out, ready to pierce some innocent passer-by's femoral artery. The red tassels above the drapes were peeling off where their glue was melting. Doors didn't fit and the appliances were just 'orrible.
I don't think the UK imports them now. Does anyone know? Does anyone care?
Actually now I think about it, yes, you can if you have a mountain of money and less than two brain cells. The Erwin Hymer Centre imports those curvy Aluminium Airstream caravans. I was chatting to a salesman and asked him who buys these? He said people who already have one, they all belong to the "mine is bigger and better than yours" club and so when theirs gets a year old, they trade it for a new one. They have far too much money and when they have bought every useful thing there is, they come here and buy an Airstream. They tow them with their huge Chevrolet V8 trucks. The salesman clearly had no respect for them but obviously was happy to relieve them of the wieght of their overburdened wallets.
 
Last edited:
I wanted a set of 3 stick coils for my Triumph Thunderbird and the cost in the UK was £165, I ordered a set from China for a Honda CBR600 which was 4 coils and the cost including postage was £28 and my bike is running really well on these and I also have a spare coil.

John.
 

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top