Apple cuts off supplier Pegatron for student labor violations

[Sorenson]

14 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Yep, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a deliberate move by Apple to seek out a positive headline for once.

There's definitely a cynical way of looking at this. However, at the end of the day this is still a step in the right direction. 

[StDragon]

25 minutes ago, ThePointblank said:

The problem from my experience dealing with Chinese companies is that often, they'll say and promise one thing, and will do their damn best to hide the true situation, or deliver something that falls far short of what was promised.

 

And when you confront the company about the issue; they'll often just ignore you. And if you cut them off, they'll just shut down the company, and restart it again almost the same day, and you're back at square one trying to figure out if the new company you've started working with is going to pull the same stunt with you again.

 

There are some Chinese companies that do actually care about their reputations and try to produce quality goods, but those companies are few and hard to find.

Which is exactly why you QC/QA batches with independent verification. This is not just restricted to the electronics industry.

[eeeee1]

"Now that we got some love, time to find another cheap child labor factory."

-Apple

[S w a t s o n]

Fun Fact: Pegatron is ASUS's oem/manufacturing division it spun off

[PlayStation 2]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Vishera]

2 hours ago, ThePointblank said:

The problem from my experience dealing with Chinese companies is that often, they'll say and promise one thing, and will do their damn best to hide the true situation, or deliver something that falls far short of what was promised.

 

And when you confront the company about the issue; they'll often just ignore you. And if you cut them off, they'll just shut down the company, and restart it again almost the same day, and you're back at square one trying to figure out if the new company you've started working with is going to pull the same stunt with you again.

 

There are some Chinese companies that do actually care about their reputations and try to produce quality goods, but those companies are few and hard to find.

I have experience in that area,first of all you need a leverage on the company - and if something happens you have to be extremely aggressive and don't be afraid to threaten them and be quick to "pull the trigger".

You need to do background checks on the company,ask for samples,test the samples,order products in small batches and pay only after it arrives and tested (It's a deal breaker for most factories though).

Don't forget to be aggressive and cautious with them,otherwise they will do whatever they want.

 

One time (in the beginning) i made mistakes,forgot that i had a leverage and the dispute continued for almost a year with the factory just saying some stupid excuse every time i contacted them (being a naive and a nice guy won't help).

When i remembered about my leverage i immidieatly used it with extreme aggression - the factory was concerned about it and we negotiated a kind of acceptable deal:

I will get 85% refund and they will keep the remaining 15% for "shipping costs" which the shipping part have never happened,regardless of that i knew that was the best i can get from them and the 15% loss was something i could live with.

Ever since i have never had such an incident happen again.

[Video Beagle]

Now, after making yourself feel superior for sniping about Apple, go on to another thread and complain about how companies aren't getting enough new processors and gpus made so you can buy them, post about black friday deals you can't wait to use, and about the new gaming platforms you're getting.

 

 

[Orange1]

21 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Yep, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a deliberate move by Apple to seek out a positive headline for once.

My thoughts precisely, its a good PR move on Apples part to shine the light and get good PR.

[ThePointblank]

7 hours ago, StDragon said:

Which is exactly why you QC/QA batches with independent verification. This is not just restricted to the electronics industry.

Oh, we did that. Small tests orders for the first batch often came in fine, exactly like the samples, with third party lab testing verification, but when we asked them to repeat the production run with no changes, there are changes.

[Master Disaster]

10 minutes ago, Video Beagle said:

Now, after making yourself feel superior for sniping about Apple, go on to another thread and complain about how companies aren't getting enough new processors and gpus made so you can buy them, post about black friday deals you can't wait to use, and about the new gaming platforms you're getting.

 

 

OK, but only after you tell us how those 2 things are in any way connected to each other.

[Video Beagle]

37 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

OK, but only after you tell us how those 2 things are in any way connected to each other.

Really? You have no idea how your desire for cheap and plentiful product is connected to worker conditions in China?

[Master Disaster]

14 minutes ago, Video Beagle said:

Really? You have no idea how your desire for cheap and plentiful product is connected to worker conditions in China?

On principle I agree with you but you've got your principles mixed up a bit. There's nothing about Phones, CPUs, GPUs or any other consumer electronics that qualify as cheap. Heck these days they're not even plentiful but that's an entirely different topic.

 

I can understand why sweat shops exist, to be clear I'm not saying their existence is OK but I understand why a manufacturer providing clothing at a few cents/pence per item including shipping would use cheap labour.

 

iPhones cost the high end of 3 figures, the top models push 4 figures, Apple have a market value of over $1 Trillion. There's no real excuse/justification for Apple to need forced labour.

 

Edit - And to not single out Apple, that applies to all consumer electronics manufacturers.