I broke my 30,000 2 year old sofa recently. Since it was past its warrenty I decided to take a crack at fixing it. I’m a pretty handy guy. I’ve done cabinet making and I briefly tried my hand at a furniture shop so I know a little about furniture and carpentry.
This sofa was made of pallet wood and used car tires cut into strips. I swear to god there’s not a nail or a screw in the entire sofa and none of the wood is bigger than an inch thick. The thing is, it’s a nice looking sofa that lasted 2 years. I don’t know if I should be pissed or in awe.
I’m doing a little mental inventory of all the appliances and "stuff " that i
I’ve bought here the only things that havent broke are the things I brought back from America.
I think my standards for quality go down the longer I’m here. I’m starting to see IKEA as the benchmark for quality and “WORKING HOUSE” as good enough
Funny I have seemed to notice the same type of problems. I can honestly not remember one thing that I bought in the states that ever broke except for 1 old age item ( one TV and it was 9 years old) or misuse on my part, but since I have got hear almost a year ago I have had to take back a digital camera, DVD player, Phone, TV, and CD player. All these items were brand new and the same brands I bought in the states such as sony, panasonic, etc, and none were on the cheaper end.
I told my wife that I will never purchase an electronic device in Taiwan again, we just got her sister to send us one of the new DVD camcorders from Tokyo so I will see how this one goes.
The funny thing is, the stuff IKEA sells here is crap compared to what they sell in the U.S.
I was astounded to see that almost all of the items in the IKEA here are different from the ones that are available in IKEA in Seattle. They have “Billy” bookcases in both, but looking at the chairs, the tables, the lamps, the . . . almost all of these are different, and of considerably cheaper construction, here.
I suppose it’s only logical that IKEA would have a low-end line for its stores in poor countries like Russia or PNG, but Taiwan is not a poor country.
Good topic. I was going to start one about hot water pots. I wish I could find one that lasts more than 18 months. The last one I got lasted only a few months before it started to boil continuously - very dangerous. Luckily we were at home or it would have boiled dry and who knows if the automatic safety feature would have worked.
So we took it back to the store (Chuan2 Guo2 Electrics - they have branches all over Taiwan) and a week later they phoned us to tell us it was unfixable and that we could choose another one. We did so and tried to pick the best one, paying the difference in price. One month later, it’s bust. It wouldn’t heat or dispense water. We’re still waiting to hear from the store.
Can someone please tell me a superior quality, safe and durable brand of hot water pot? I don’t care how much it costs, I just want to be able to use it for three to four years without it malfunctioning. I might go for one of those large ones which dispenses hot, cold and warm water. Anyway, all and any suggestions welcomed.
I bought two rechargeable batteries from my digital camera. One made and assembled in Japan, the other also made in Japan but assembled in Taiwan.
Guess which one died after only nine months?
[quote=“Spack”]
Can someone please tell me a superior quality, safe and durable brand of hot water pot? I don’t care how much it costs, I just want to be able to use it for three to four years without it malfunctioning. I might go for one of those large ones which dispenses hot, cold and warm water. Anyway, all and any suggestions welcomed.[/quote]
Japanese “Elephant” brand (Da Xiang)
And is it just me, or is even the quality of food in international chains worse than it was back home? Good god, the chicken at KFC in Taiwan is dipped in so much grease it’s inedible. My mind ain’t playing tricks on me, fast food in Taiwan really does taste worse.
[quote=“Tempo Gain”]
Japanese “Elephant” brand (Da Xiang)[/quote]
Can support that - my Elephant rice cooker is soon to celebrate its 15th birthday.
[quote=“Spack”]Good topic. I was going to start one about hot water pots. I wish I could find one that lasts more than 18 months. The last one I got lasted only a few months before it started to boil continuously - very dangerous. Luckily we were at home or it would have boiled dry and who knows if the automatic safety feature would have worked.
So we took it back to the store (Chuan2 Guo2 Electrics - they have branches all over Taiwan) and a week later they phoned us to tell us it was unfixable and that we could choose another one. We did so and tried to pick the best one, paying the difference in price. One month later, it’s bust. It wouldn’t heat or dispense water. We’re still waiting to hear from the store.
Can someone please tell me a superior quality, safe and durable brand of hot water pot? I don’t care how much it costs, I just want to be able to use it for three to four years without it malfunctioning. I might go for one of those large ones which dispenses hot, cold and warm water. Anyway, all and any suggestions welcomed.[/quote]
Might also check the water you’re sticking into the pot. If you’re putting mineral water into the pot it’s going to make that pot boil continously, esp. the cheap ones. Mineral water has a different boiling pt than distilled/pure water, which makes these pots go nuts.
[quote=“MaPoSquid”]The funny thing is, the stuff IKEA sells here is crap compared to what they sell in the U.S.
I was astounded to see that almost all of the items in the IKEA here are different from the ones that are available in IKEA in Seattle. They have “Billy” bookcases in both, but looking at the chairs, the tables, the lamps, the . . . almost all of these are different, and of considerably cheaper construction, here.
I suppose it’s only logical that IKEA would have a low-end line for its stores in poor countries like Russia or PNG, but Taiwan is not a poor country.[/quote]
I’ve had so much IKEA crap fall apart. And if it doesn’t fall apart, it becomes discolored.
Speaking of appliances, I’ve always bought S. Korean appliances and they’ve never given me any problems.
[quote=“Flicka”]
I’ve always bought S. Korean appliances and they’ve never given me any problems.[/quote]That’s funny, since I’ve regretted the purchase of every single Korean-made appliance I’ve bought. Prices are good, and the things will work for age, just perhaps not in the way they were intended to. Finish and fit of parts is crap, motors are noisy or the cases buzz… Generally a tacky feel to them.
You get what you pay for. I try and buy only Japanese now, but check the stickers. If it doesn’t say ‘Made in Japan’, it wasn’t… (and even then, sometimes they aren’t)
I can also recommend the Elephant/Zojirushi brand. We have one of their hot water dispensers that we’ve used pretty much continuously for two years straight and never a problem. Has a nice big “MADE IN JAPAN” stamped on the front. 
I have a Zojirushi rice cooker which has been going strong for about four years now. No issues with it at all.
I hate to piss on your bonfire guys, but I have never had a problem with any stuff I have bought in Taiwan which was made in Taiwan. Maybe I’m just lucky.
Damn. Shouldn’t have said anything.
:help:
Edit: Come to think of it, clothing is far below par. I bought a shirt one week for just under a 1000NT (OK, its cheap). Some buttons fell off during the first week and there were holes appearing after two weeks in the seams. Shoddy.
I think because there is so much crap here that crap is considered the “medium for which all others are to be judged”. something marginally better than crap is average and something average is considered high quality.
I also think that name brand goods like sony and panosonic arent much better. I bought a walkman that had a sticker on the back thta said " not for sale in the u.s.a" I think we get a lot of grey market goods that wont pass quality control in other contries.
onething that is better herre is the warrenties seem pretty enforced. I always bring things back. I should have brought the sofa back. I just couldnt stop myself from ripping it apart.
By the way, does anyone ever return food at resturants. I got a taco salad at Swensons last week that was bad. the waitress said I couldnt return it becasue I already ate some.
I called the manager and he was gracious about it. he took it back ,gave me a free drink and a discount on the rest of the food.
[quote=“Dangermouse”]I hate to piss on your bonfire guys, but I have never had a problem with any stuff I have bought in Taiwan which was made in Taiwan. Maybe I’m just lucky.
Damn. Shouldn’t have said anything.
:help:
Edit: Come to think of it, clothing is far below par. I bought a shirt one week for just under a 1000NT (OK, its cheap). Some buttons fell off during the first week and there were holes appearing after two weeks in the seams. Shoddy.[/quote]
On the other hand, I have bought NT$100 t-shirts and NT$300 shorts that I am still wearing over a year after I bought them.
Vannyel, you must be one slim dude. I do not fit in any stuff here. And now all my shirts brought from home are broken and I have to wear … (see avatar).
I can also recommend the Elephant/Zojirushi brand. We have one of their hot water dispensers that we’ve used pretty much continuously for two years straight and never a problem. Has a nice big “MADE IN JAPAN” stamped on the front. :)[/quote]
You guys piqued my curiosity and I checked the one in my hotel room. Lo and behold, it is a 3.0 Liter Zojirushi (non-turbocharged, by the looks of it…).
People here want stuff as cheap as possible so that’s what the market supplies. And you get what you pay for. Unfortunately it can be extremely hard to get decent quality anything here, as importers, knowing Taiwanese low expectations (if it looks good it is good).
Two pieces of advice about water pots. The first is never buy the “stainless steel” or chrome lined pots. Even if you never scrub the inside, the cheap ass metal will start to flake off in no time. If you do scrub them, you’ll be drinking very hard water. I would only recommend the teflon lined water boilers. The best, as mentioned above, seem to be made by Zojirushi.
The second piece of advice is not to put straight tap water into a teflon lined water boiler. Always run it through a Brita-type water filter. In both HK and Taiwan, the water is all from reservoirs and rivers. Even if it is clean enough to drink, it is generally much harder than water that’s pumped from the ground. If you boil it unfiltered, you will soon have a thick film of very hard stuff on the interior of your water boiler. To get it out, you’d have to scrub it so hard and with something so abrasive that you will also damage the surface of the teflon, thus turning your expensive Zojirushi boiler into something no better than a $400NT job.
We run our water through a tap filter before putting it in the boiler. My mother-in-law does not. She ends up buying a new Zojirushi every two years because the teflon gets rotted and rough. We’ve been using ours for about five years, but the inside is still completely smooth.
I fucking hate Ikea in HK. As mentioned above, though their stuff is of higher quality than what most local stores sell, it is completely inferior to stuff they’d sell in N. America and Europe. We bought a mattress from them about half a year ago. It came with a ten year warranty. After three months, one side of it started to sag badly. We called them and they sent out a couple of guys to take pictures of it. The guys said that pretty much every mattress of this model that they had sold had the same problem. They said that the Customer Service Dept. would call us within four days. After 8 days of waiting, we called them. The guy on the phone was completely fucking clueless and told my wife that we were the only people who had a problem with that model mattress. He had no idea if or when they would replace our mattress and said he would have to call back in a few hours. He never called back. After two more weeks, my wife called them again and immediately insisted on speaking to the department manager. For the first fifteen minutes of the conversation, that manager couldn’t get a word in edge or any wise on my wife. The new mattress, a different and much more expensive model, was delivered the next evening. We’ve written complaint letters to Ikea and the HK Consumer Protection Council. I actually think I could get better service from a local company. We were already pissed off that such an expensive mattress was defective, but if they had replaced it in a reasonable amount of time, we wouldn’t have gotten so pissed off. Because their quality sucks, I’ll never buy anything from them again. Because their response to a quality problem was so limp, I will tell anybody who’s shopping for furniture to avoid them.