We have this discussion ALL THE TIME. This time it was furniture, last time it was jackets, who knows what it’ll be next time. But each time we have to sit down and talk through all the issues and find out where the problem is. Sometimes its a timing issues (missed deadlines usually incurre penalties), sometimes it really is a cash issue and sometimes it’s just they don’t want to do it. This time it was the latter–they didn’t feel like they were getting paid enough to do additional work. We did everything we could to work with them and finally threatened to cancel the whole order–that was really our last card to play. They’d just been stuck with some other cancellations and we were expected to pay for some % of the project that week. They did the work and we paid them a larger % than we were originally scheduled to. It didn’t hurt us to help them, and they did the work for us as originally contracted.

It’s true a lot more often than I’d like to admit, but we are often paying more (or at least the same amount sooner) than we had originally contracted for just to get the original order fulfilled–and we’re happy about it. Welcome to China.

I’m curious. How did you guys respond to the “Your prices are so low and your QC so strict that we can’ t afford to paint this 1/2 order?”

Also, great stuff. I enjoy your postings a lot.

Ben

I’m a new follower and “old China hand”. Love the blog, love this piece. Just added SRI Blog to my blogroll, and am using this essay as an entry into some cultural issues I’ve been discussing in my blog: http://www.jasonpatent.com/culture-savvy-blog . Would love your thoughts and reactions.

Keep up the great work and observations.

Jason

Really excellent stuff.