Grrrrr...Milwaukee, what a con.

[Adam W.]

I was in the market for a new expensive drill, so it was Milwaukee for the first stop as I have a few of their drills which I'm happy with, plus they were made in America, which I like.

I looked at the websites, I looked at all of the photos of the drill I wanted on the internet and all seemed OK with made in America labels nice and visible. I looked at Milwaukee's Europe website and all looked good for a quality, premium priced product.

Got the drill, opened the box and the damned thing is made in China....it's going back.

Why can't they put made in China on the product description on the web instead of hiding it ?

 

[Etaf]

most are made in china now - I found that some of my dewalt have made in italy and some nothing .....

 

[Adam W.]

I even read the Milwaukee story.....no mention of Techtronic Industries from China.

 

[Droogs]

That's due to them playing on their Amrican heritage in the US marketing and knowing they wouldn't sell anything to the yankees unless they belive it is American made.

 

[Spectric]

Got the drill, opened the box and the damned thing is made in China....it's going back.

You will struggle to find anything that is 100% no China. Even if the item states it is made in say Mexico you will find that is has component parts made in China because if we were to remove everything from China we would end up in the dark with no power, no heating and little else.

 

[AJB Temple]

However, Adam has a point and I agree with him. We in the west have sleep walked into exporting jobs to China and created a dependency on them, seemingly not caring that it is financing a communist regime that allows or enforces worker conditions that are not acceptable in western factories. There is no meaningful IP protection either. I agree it is difficult to avoid goods that don't have some Chinese components, but at least making an effort is laudable if we wish to protect our own economies. Well done Adam I say.

 

[Adam W.]

I guess complacency rules the day, but I think we're walking into a good hiding in the not to distant future.

 

[mwinfrance]

I'm just wondering where all the devices that people ( who want to avoid Chinese made equipment ) are using to post here ( and elsewhere on the internet ) are made?

 

[Adam W.]

You have to start somewhere and if I could get a computer made in Europe, I would and I don't mind paying the extra.

 

[Blister]

I'll give you £30 for it ( If its the one you were very pleased to buy a couple of weeks ago , Corded )


Some companies say made in ------- when all that is done is assembled in -------

 

[Adam W.]

The cheapo secondhand one is out on site, it's the new expensive one I'm disappointed with.

The cheap one will probably get stolen anyway, so it's no biggie and it doesn't have made in China on it anyway.

 

[Noel]

I'm just wondering where all the devices that people ( who want to avoid Chinese made equipment ) are using to post here ( and elsewhere on the internet ) are made?

Sheffield made phones and PCs of course.

Seriously, as said, hard to avoid. Pleasantly surprised to discover Makita still manufacture some items in Telford.

 

[Spectric]

From experience this has all been driven by greed, companies used to have product development that was a big overhead and employed a fair number of well paid people. The company boss was always looking at ways to cut cost and make more money so they started by outsourcing the odd components and getting some components made abroad but this just continued until they no longer needed product development and just brought the whole system in either as a complete item or as a collection of parts that just needed assembly. They seemingly placed too little value on interlectural property rights and eventually the overseas manufacturer decided to cut out the middle man and sell the product directly so the company boss eventually lost everything.

It really all started when we closed our car industry and the Indians purchased all the machinery and tooling.

Some examples, pumps from the midlands made in India but also available direct from other sources cheaper, undercutting the original company.

Digital encoders from Uk but made from parts from Japan and Taiwan, soon available from several other outlets just in different packaging.

They even do it to each other, Isuzu diesel engine but not as it first appeared because that was a chinese copy right down to the cam box with Isuzu cast in
and many years ago the Chinese were in court with Toyota over some copyright and they just simply stated that because they did not reconise Toyota as a brand regarding this component then copyright did not exist.

It is a clash of culture and as Adam has said we are going to come off worse.

 

[Adam W.]

I emailed Milwaukee in the US after I bought it. I got a reply from the bloke and he said it was made in CN.

That took a while to realise CN isn't in America. I thought it might be Connecticut in the beginning but no it wasn't.

Addendum.......

And lo, it's got made in PRC on it, not made in CN, so he's being a bit economical with the actualité.

He's just been sent a message advising him on its imminent return and the reason why.

 

[Fitzroy]

From experience this has all been driven by greed, companies used to have product development that was a big overhead and employed a fair number of well paid people. The company boss was always looking at ways to cut cost and make more money so they started by outsourcing the odd components and getting some components made abroad but this just continued until they no longer needed product development and just brought the whole system in either as a complete item or as a collection of parts that just needed assembly. They seemingly placed too little value on interlectural property rights and eventually the overseas manufacturer decided to cut out the middle man and sell the product directly so the company boss eventually lost everything.

It really all started when we closed our car industry and the Indians purchased all the machinery and tooling.

Some examples, pumps from the midlands made in India but also available direct from other sources cheaper, undercutting the original company.

Digital encoders from Uk but made from parts from Japan and Taiwan, soon available from several other outlets just in different packaging.

They even do it to each other, Isuzu diesel engine but not as it first appeared because that was a chinese copy right down to the cam box with Isuzu cast in
and many years ago the Chinese were in court with Toyota over some copyright and they just simply stated that because they did not reconise Toyota as a brand regarding this component then copyright did not exist.

It is a clash of culture and as Adam has said we are going to come off worse.

I think the challenge is who's greed? In the end everything that is made is bought by a consumer, very very few consumers are willing to pay a greater price for something they see as a commodity, that's why the middle of Lidle is so popular. To unpick the global economy and the opportunity to reduce costs and product prices through the wage arbitrage between UK/EU/US and China/India etc you have to unpick the whole consumerism culture. Businesses respond to customers ie society, and society has decided what it wants, the edge case person who is willing to pay extra for made in UK/USA is irrelevant to big business.

 

[Adam W.]

@Fitzroy That's fine, but it's the deliberate attempt to conceal the fact that it's made in China which gets my goat.

 

[Yojevol]

I emailed Milwaukee in the US after I bought it. I got a reply from the bloke and he said it was made in CN.

That took a while to realise CN isn't in America. I thought it might be Connecticut in the beginning but no it wasn't.

Addendum.......

And lo, it's got made in PRC on it, not made in CN, so he's being a bit economical with the actualité.

He's just been sent a message advising him on its imminent return and the reason why.

If you insist on sticking to your principles get one of these:-

There's a good chance it actually was made where it says

Brian

 

[Daniel2]

The ship had already set sail quite a while ago.

 

[IZZY]

@Fitzroy That's fine, but it's the deliberate attempt to conceal the fact that it's made in China which gets my goat.

It seems that the best way is to assume "made in China" unless otherwise informed and even then take it with a large pinch of salt.

 

[Jacob]

However, Adam has a point and I agree with him. We in the west have sleep walked into exporting jobs to China and created a dependency on them, seemingly not caring that it is financing a communist regime that allows or enforces worker conditions that are not acceptable in western factories. There is no meaningful IP protection either. I agree it is difficult to avoid goods that don't have some Chinese components, but at least making an effort is laudable if we wish to protect our own economies. Well done Adam I say.

It's hardly new. We have been exploiting cheap markets/labour overseas since the late middle ages, and impoverishing our own workers in the process.