Follow On TwitterCustomer Stories – Exploiting Chinese Labor
Every now and then, we get a customer that drives us totally insane. While it isn’t fun to deal with these customers, working with these difficult people make for great stories to tell our friends. This particular customer that I’m writing about was a very headstrong lady that gave us a really hard time about our products.
Customer: “Yes, I’m interested in your linen towels. Where are they from?”
Me: “Many of our products are from Asia. These particular towels are made in China.”
Customer: “Hmm, China huh? Do you happen to know whether these towels were created from exploited Chinese laborers?”
I was taken aback by the question and needed to gather myself a bit before answering.
Me: “No ma’am, I’m not aware of any illegal labor practices that were used in the creation of these towels.”
Customer: “Did you know that [insert random percentage here] of Chinese laborers are exploited? They work all day for pennies on the dollar. They don’t get any vacation and are forced to work in a horribly dirty and unkempt environment? I had a friend who is a photographer that visited China and came back with all of these photos illustrating the poor conditions that some of these Chinese people have to live through. <........continues on like this for another few minutes.....> How do you know that your products were not created in this way? Are your laborers being treated fairly?”
Me: “Well, we have visited our vendors and have seen a few factories and we’re not aware of any workers being mistreated in the fashion you have described.”
At this point, I just wanted to get off the phone. I didn’t think this lady was going to buy anything and she just wanted to tell me off.
Customer: “It just disgusts me that stores sell these products at the expense of millions of poor chinese laborers. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the products you carry were made from exploited labor”
Me:” ……Like I said ma’am. I don’t believe that …”
Customer: “Okay whatever… How much do you charge for these linen towels anyways?”
Great, now she’s going to tell me that we are charging too much money when the poor Chinese laborers make only pennies a day.
Me: “$14.99 for 4″
…..Long Pause….
Customer: “Give me 5 sets”
When she finally decided to purchase them from us, I was so shocked that I thought that I had heard her incorrectly. After obtaining the necessary information to process her order, I was relieved to be finally done with this lady. Though when I tried to hang up, I got this.
Customer: Shame on you for selling these products!
At this point I was so confused but relieved to finally be done with this nightmare transaction. Was she for or against Chinese products? I guess we will never know.
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As long as one, small, 5’1″ 95 lbs. lady in China can outproduce by 4 to 1 products one large 6′ 5″ 265 lbs man in America, and be satisfied with a bag of rice for her deeds, the American economy is doomed. An American lady sent her child to China for “Advanced Stem Cell Therapy” and the child regained her sight! The treatment was not available here in the U.S.A. because our doctors are too “primitive and behind the times” This illustrates that we no longer have the intellectual superiority we once had in the world. This fact dooms our economy and our schools to third world levels. With the riches of the world at our finger tips, we have slipped into a stupor of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and alcohol induced bliss – our children value super-computers designed for games, not science, a choice made by corporate leaders such as Microsoft, to protect their precious patents and sell us ‘Windows Pablum’! and adults build McMansions, a testimony to our daughters, of whom, one in four have STD’s? Instead of currently possible “Zero running cost, Zero upkeep” survival oriented practical dwellings, economy builders for certain. We drive metal clad V-8 gas guzzlers by marketplace choice while the rest of the world chooses small, fast, practical diesel and diesel/electric, carbon fiber and space age plastic vehicles that go farther for less oil. Our cars are killing our economy – we send out too much cash each day to pay for oil, and do too little trade to balance the situation. The Fed’s can beat themselves silly with frantic manipulations but until the basic conditions change, we are on a road to self-destruction. We can no longer support huge military costs. The Chinese are not paying cash out the way we are. The final bill for this nonsense is added into the cost of every product we produce and we are overpriced in the marketplace now! God help America, she needs you now!
Uncle B, you sound a little bit like some of Steve’s customers.
Perhaps she’s simply fed up that she can’t buy something made in the US? Many of us realise that buying local is better for the planet and our local economies. Think of it like fertilizing the field you live with.
Sure, shame on who?
She probably read somewhere that people have been exploited in China by a company and then came to the conclusion that many companies are following the same practices. I wonder how common it is to have people in China exploited for their labor?
-HIB
Hey HIB,
No clue. However I did visit the factories and the conditions seem fine to me though I have no idea how much they actually make.
I recently read an article that talked about how Chinese workers don’t consider their work to be exploitation at all. In fact, they consider themselves fortunate to have made the move from the country to the city, and feel that this is their ticket to moving on up. You have to remember that someone else’s standard of living doesn’t necessarily have to match your own.
Hi Jon,
While I was getting a foot massage one day in China, I had the opportunity to speak with the masseuse. Even though she only gets 5 holidays a year (no weekends off), she’s quite happy with her job and her current living situation. When I told her that I get weekends off including 4 weeks of vacation a year, she nearly flipped. So you’re correct, exploitation is all in the mind.
That was a nice read.