As I sit here waiting for my machine to arrive after 5 sets of photos over many months announcing that the machine is finished and further scrutiny of those photos, I am concerned that many Chinese sales people do not know sufficient English to assemble an accurate machine description for the buyer. Having discussed my requirements with a sales person with 'good' English, I have found that the simplification and truncation in the contract by the sales person has resulted in a machine that I must review repeatedly to get most of what was agreed to. The factory's attitude is that 'this is not our responsibility' reeks of poor business practices. This has been followed by a series of avoidances, viz., my HDD crashed and I have lost our discussions; my English is not so good; numerous delays to correct problems like a black, not a green ground wire. In fact the company that I have used is a well respected CNC manufacturer in Jinan, but I am left wondering if all of the texts and emails were actually read by this sales person, whether his English proficiency and use of translation software was sufficient to enable him to construct an accurate contract/invoice in the first place. Chinese courts prefer the contract to be in Mandarin, not English and the factories rely on this fact and others to defend their position. I believe that this series of deceptions are standard ploys to conceal the fact that it costs a factory more to customize a machine than to sell a standard assembly line unit. Once the machine is out of the factory, you are stuck with what they have made for you.

In my case, the sales person tried to rush the machine build to get it out of the factory, but got caught in the act because the photos showed the errors and I have been forced to focus on each photo to see what it shows and does not show and then hire an inspection company. It is very noticeable that the attention to detail dropped off once I had paid the deposit for the machine. Best make sure that the contract/invoice contains everything you want and that nothing is truncated or omitted. Sales staff without the above proficiency, technical knowledge and customer relations can find themselves in very hot water. It's nice watching people back-pedal! Then for some insane reason, this person sent me info about their new product range and prices for sale items! Look at my other posts, put 2+2 together and make sure that every detail that you want is included in that contract in long hand!