A locksmith called recently and asked where he could purchase a specific electronic code machine. The machine is manufactured in China and is approximately half the list price of other available electronic code machines. This locksmith reported that the Chinese company which formerly advertised the low-cost machine no longer showed it for sale on their website.
Similar questions surface regularly about Chinese transponder programming tools. Several foreign internet sites advertise programming tools at a fraction of the cost of major programming tool brands sold in North America. Both the key machine and the programming tool pricing is so low that it has obviously attractd the attention of some locksmiths.
The intention of citing these situations is not to question the quality or usefulness of goods made offshore. Many manufactured products sold at Wal-Mart are made offshore. However, if you have a problem with a product from Wal-Mart it can be easily returned. Dealing with a manufacturer or distributor who is thousands of miles away is a different issue. Lost time and high shipping costs are a given.
Another situation discovered recently concerns an offshore high security lock manufacturer. In this case the products were being sold through distribution. A locksmith who had been selling this competitively--priced product line for a number of years was informed by his distributor that they would no longer be stocking this high security product. After checking with the high security lock company, it was found that the local distributor had an assigned keyway which was not available anywhere else. High security products and key blanks will now have to be special-ordered from the lock manufacturer and then billed through the same non-stocking local distributor.
Low cost, lessor known products are often not the best products to sell either for you or for your customers. Major brands have usually been in existence for a long time and have a track record you can check on. Buy from a dependable distributor and work closely with them so that surprises can be kept at a minimum.
