Yorkie, I certainly didn’t read Mike’s comment as a slur on the service of the retail shop who eventually replaced your battery for you.
Mikethewatch has a vast amount of experience in this area and I read his comment as to what forum members might expect to receive from purchasing cheap batteries from other dubious sources.
Perhaps if the comment had been expressed in a slightly different way, then there would be no confusion in my mind. Apologies if I took it the wrong way.
The majority of electrical equipment in most homes today emanates from China and their success is possibly an indication that they must be doing something right. We cannot rubbish their products now as we did in the past. Must also bear in mind that there is also a load of poor quality British goods!
Very true and well said Yorkie!
I worked in quality assurance for a major UK importer whose goods were primarily sourced from China and Asia. All goods are sample inspected when they arrive in the country, prior to shipment, samples are received by the importer and checked for quality. Take a typical garden chair for example, the wood has to be a certain thickness, a certain density, treated for pests, tested to meet all the BS and EU safety standards. The wood must have traceability, and be sustainably and ethically sourced, the workers paid a minimum hourly wage or realistic piece work rate. Now that doesn't mean the Chinese don't pull the wool over our eyes from time to time, but anything brought into the UK legally rests on the importers/suppliers shoulders, a dodgy transformer from a Christmas tree that hasn't been safety passed in the UK that could burn someone's house down, or a settee with banned azo dyes which could burn the skin, such issues are less commonplace these days.
Having travelled the world somewhat last year, I found myself in Papua New Guinea. It was interesting to see the differing quality of goods in a typical hardware store over there. The goods were more expensive, yet lesser quality, a metal bedframe for example in the UK must meet a minimum material thickness for strength, I recall the example I looked at being very thin, and the powder coating paint flaked badly. I think it just went to show all-in-all we can expect better quality of imported goods over here due to legislation and quality assurance practiced by those who supply the major retail corporations in this country.