Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Quality checks from China don't mean anything

When I lived in Kyrgyzstan I came up witha rule of thumb that held up pretty well: If it looks good and it is good it is Turkish, If it looks good and it is complete crap it is Russian, if it looks like crap and it is crap it is Chinese.
I still live by that. The children had gotten some early Sinterclaus presents(the Dutch Santa CLaus, he comes on the 5th) one of them was a remote control car for Lucas. We put in batteries in the car and the remote . Lucas trying getting it to work and the only thing that would happen is the wheels turned. Ellen, the mom, pointed out that something smelled like it was burning. I brushed it off at first til I saw the brand new car go up in smoke. We paniked not wanting it to explode in the house. So, I picked it up by the antena and chucked it out the window. It continued to smoke for while. When it calmed down Ellen went out to inspect it. She ws scared t touch it but I from the comfort of the house incouraged her to check it out. She eventually picked it up and opened it the car was extremely hot, she opened it up and the batteries were the right one. She looked for the problem and could find nothing, all she found was a quality check sticker from China.

2 comments :

  1. Anonymous said...

    so you're saying I should sell my chinese stocks? I'll keep that in mind.

    Hope all is well as you prepare for the holiday....are you still celebrating Christmas on the 25th too?!
    It's almost my golden birthday!! It won't be the same without you...I'm hoping to go bigger than my 21st! haha
    Take care hun, I miss you!
    ~Slutz

  2. Anonymous said...

    sometimes products made in china will have passed all the necessary tests, quality standards, & whatnot, but then the factory will switch something [like the approved paint to cheaper, not-lead-free paint] after a while. pretty shady.