omurgurd, it is a question I have a whole qualified answer for and don't even worry about speaking while ignorant...
Your issue is a lack of cultural ignorance. The average Chinese person is no smarter than any other average person on the planet. There are just a lot of them.
Population density will often drive a few things into commonality that are kind of shocking to people who do not live in overpopulated areas. Not gonna cover all of it, but it what is impacting you here is that you are no longer an important client on any level... until you are.
I buy things from China regularly, and have found the cheapest way to get what I want is to get an agent, or a concierge service in china to help out.
I am lucky that the guy I have still has the big contract with my old company so most things I ask him to get costs me like 3-5 bucks extra. Seems pricey? buy 200 items for a project and get ripped off 10 times, ignored and have to beg for a bloody order number so you can pay 10 times, and get 10 items held up in customs because you had shite paperwork. Then multiply those by the hours in a month and you have a start for the cost on your project. You are not paying for intelligence you are paying so you don't have to understand the culture.
The importance thing is key here. You make arrangements with a person in China who sits a desk. You are the least interesting thing in the world, because there are a BILLION people in his country that have less hassle to ship things to. Also, you are american/european/not chinese and therefore, less important.
Oh, and this is all without getting a box of rocks, or just ignoring your paid invoice until you complain and they send a delivery receipt to the Law Enforcement whom you finally got to respond, and the officer closes the event because he saw you had signed for the package.. .Only it isn't you and the receipts is for a business address in Ukraine that got bloody bombed into oblivion over a year ago. But it was paper and that officer closed the case with a statement of "lying american tried to slander good business" *actual event from 2 weeks ago* my agent was not available to buy this product because it was a diff city. so my attempt to save 50 bucks turned into me getting completely burnt for 200.
I have had this happen on the normal web sites too (AliExpress and AliBaba) I purchase by setting up an invoice on the shared account my agent logs in to finalise the purchases and does whatever he does to keep me from getting burnt.
The cultural battles you have are hard to understand, and as well as I understand them, they are harder to explain.
If you call and are gonna order enough merch that it involves a container to ship, you are *starting* to be interesting, because unless there is the option of re-occurring containers, you are not there yet. I have only gotten to re-occurring containers and I know they accept, but do not like me so far.
That beneficence granted by the weight of your dollars is decreased because:
you are not chinese, therefore, less important.
It is nearly impossible to increase social standing by selling you a piddly x amount of goods, therefore time should be spent on another client.
You have absolutely no ability to negatively impact their lives, call the cops? I will make up paperwork that is pretty thin and the cop will *ALWAYS* side with me unless you represent an agency that the cop would not want to oppose.
Now that is just because you are calling long-distance.
From what I have seen, and this one is less a hard statement than a posit from observation. After sales support is only given when it might lead to additional sales, or if they are in an environment where they have someone to enforce them responding to you.
I bought a laser engraver from Amazon. It was directly shipped from a local warehouse and worked great for 6 weeks, then, no more laser, just motion. I am good with a screwdriver and can read a meter. Problem is.. Laser diode no longer firing despite getting signal and power. Not fixable on my end. Put in a ticket, turns into months of "I need more information" meanwhile the client I have that I am using this device for is no longer a profit center, I am renting time on someone elses kit. in the last week before the 6 months after buying mandated support window of Amazon I literally get "You need to send in proof of the problem" I have sent 8 videos while I diagnosed the problem. Not enough for a new laser head.
Last day of support comes and goes, in the last 6 days they fail to respond to any communication.
Christmas is here, pause most my business to love my remaining child.
After the holiday I am held up a bit, still mad about the waste of time, finally end up filing a final complaint with Amazon. This one goes up the ladder, stage 4 person calls in fraud department person, who looks over my case gets angry, gets me a complete RMA and hands me a 100 discount coupon on buying another engraver, I hear back later that they are very angry at me, They are no longer allowed to use Amazon direct (this is where you warehouse in amazon buildings and they handle the last mile) I am informed in very angry terms that they are kicked out of the buildings and have to remove all of their merch by end of month, and it is all my fault for complaining to Amazon.
It does not even startle me. I was waiting for that shoe to drop the minute I got my RMA number. I have seen this all before. I found a way to harm them, and they thought I was their puppy to kick.
Find an agent, or stick to sites that have rules they enforce. Alibaba has a segment available that offers protection INVEST IN IT. AliExpress has similar rules, but I can't speak to how well they work, I have not had an issue yet. The 2x I had problems and the seller on Alibaba tried to screw me, insurance kicked in and I was referred to another vendor that would honor original deal and should the insurance forward the payment for me. I highly suspect the enforcement group has deals in place with a group of vendors.
On cultural ignorance: A good friend of mine paid off his college debt by going to Japan for 2 years and teaching English to Japanese Sararimen, he had a contract with a good company and after his first 6 month term was given a gym membership (this is a HUGE Honor in these circles) So, first day off, to the gym to get a run in on the treadmill, on the machine, earphones on because his japanese is not up to following the news on the telly. Seconds later gym manager runs up demands he remove the headphones. Reason? "If I let you have personal audio, then people will want to be able to eat in here."
serious WTF moment, I hear this story many years later. I ask the chap at the time that I shared an office space about it. He was a consultant from Japan.. I told him the story and he looked at me like I was a bit slow, and said "you don't understand what happened?"
Because in my head, earphones and dinner are in different files. In his head they were not, it was simply in the file "what you can do in a public space"
Taught me, a transplant from another continent who has spent time in the military on 3 continents, and a LOT of countries, who became a consultant a lesson. Luckily before all that travel.
"you do NOT understand thier culture, learn to accept it and just try to work within the framework of Let the romans be in rome."
