COO China

[Firebrick43]

I'd almost be worried about a bait & switch with a return to Amazon. You think they're checking someone isn't swapping tools?

They don't check returns at all. Many times they don't even put them back into the warehouse but just pallet and auction them off.

But amazon reviews is rife with people that received used tools via amazon.

 

[Steve_P]

Zen, your points are valid for somethings like, for example, a wrench. Where the steel is either up to snuff of it isn't. Hell man I sold TTOPTUL for four years because the quality was outstanding and the price ridiculously low. But Li-Ion batteries are a different story. 1) There is the safety factor. I really like my house and I don't want to burn it down. 2) You can't tell if the fake (and by that I mean the ones that are packaged as being authentic and not sold as a Wing-Wang battery compatible with Makita which to me is fair as you know you're buying **** to begin with and paying a low dollar amount for it.) The only way manufacturing is returning to America is if American's are willing to lower their standard of living to pay for the stuff we would then make in America that had previously been made in China for 1/2 the price. Are you willing to pay twice as much for a Milwaukee drill made in Wisconsin as you currently do for one made in China. My guess is that you are not.

On batteries, obviously only buy them from an authorized retailer. I use DeWalt and they have a list of authorized retailers on their website, so I'm sure Makita does also. When someone buys a Makita (whatever) brand battery on Ebay, there's a good chance it's counterfeit- Project Farm did this in one of his tests. Same with ball bearings. I've said this before, but SKF has an entire group that does nothing but chase after counterfeiters, even going to industrial suppliers and hardware stores in China.

Manufacturing labor is ~30% the cost in China vs the US. Manufacturing jobs aren't coming back to the US for lower cost items- they're now leaving China for Vietnam since they are willing to work for ~ half the Chinese wage. In addition, Americans have had decades of buying cheaper imported goods and now expect to buy a vacuum for $100- they're not willing to pay $200 for a USA model, let alone the $500 it'd cost. The Chinese are willing to work in a forging plant (hell) for $6 an hour. I live in a $7.25 minimum wage state and every fast food restaurant in my town has a sign out trying to hire at $13/hr and up. There's no way anyone here is going to work for $15 in a forge if they won't work at Hardees for $13.

In terms of total cost of goods produced per year, at constant dollar value, the US manufactures more today than in 1970. Now we do it with 30% of the people. Part of this is also that we're selling more Boeing jets instead of making socks- we're making higher cost goods. Manufacturing in the US peaked in ~1970 as a percent of the total workforce and then started declining. What happened in 1970? NAFTA ran off all the jobs? No, the six-axis robot began to be introduced in automotive manufacturing. Yes, a lot of jobs left the country for lower cost locations, if not, a pair of good quality USA made socks would cost $10, but automation killed a lot of jobs in the automotive sector; a robot can do the job of 3-12 people in a three-shift operation and the payback can be a few months. And they don't show up hung over, call in sick...

 

[Ohio Andy]

If it’s the latter, I’d expect the OTC website to update their photos quickly. Currently, they still show the same photograph as Amazon.

Whenever I’ve seen a tool offshored, the manufacturer has usually been careful to avoid setting any expectations about the country of origin.

I'd almost be worried about a bait & switch with a return to Amazon. You think they're checking someone isn't swapping tools?

I've seen that happen when I've had used like new, but you'd like to think they wouldn't do it with absolutely new.

That said, very real possibility.

 

[Vinny]

I've seen that happen when I've had used like new, but you'd like to think they wouldn't do it with absolutely new.

That said, very real possibility.

I bought a Lisle brake piston tool, brand new, that came with the jaws bent and pieces missing recently. I'm not surprised it happens.

 

[zendriver]

How many humans do you need in a built-in-2024 power drill or wrench factory?

Ask SBD.

They know the drill (no pun intended)

 

[cbarnes1824]

Serious disconnect

I work at the OTC plant. These are definitely still made in the United States. I saw some passing through the packing area this week. I have seen some issues with country of origin on Amazon on some other OTC tools also.