A troubling trend has moved to the forefront of the flash drive business: USB flash drive “shell” companies appearing to sprout up out of nowhere. These companies are rampant in mainland China because of the cheap materials on hand. Most flash drives offered through these businesses contain 2nd and 3rd tier flash memory, and, as if the low quality products were not bad enough, these companies also frequently lie about their location, because they claim to be based in the USA while actually basing everything in China. Here are 5 ways to check a company before buying their flash drives.
1. Confirm the business address.
Every reputable business has an address for an office, warehouse, or even a PO Box. If this address is not in their “Contact Us” section, something is amiss. Call the number provided, send them an email, do whatever you can to find out where they are located. If the language spoken on the phone is broken English or not English at all, chances are that they are not in the United States. Lastly, if a company will not share their address, do not trust them. If you don’t confirm an address, surprise shipping charges from China could be a very real possibility.
2. What are other customers saying?
Does the website have customer testimonials? Check over those testimonials for spelling errors or “canned phrases,” and then Google them. Do their published testimonials also appear on another company’s website, word for word? Then chances are the company either stole the testimonials or they are operating under multiple fronts. Scrolling lists of Fortune 500 companies & their logos are not testimonials, because anyone can put a list on a website. Call the companies mentioned, and inquire about the products they received. A company that lies on their website may also lie to their customers.
3. Pay Attention.
Below are a few quotes directly from several websites offered by these suspect custom flash drive companies. They all have numerous spelling errors. These types of errors usually tend to occur on non-reputable websites.
“Our custom printed flash drives are state of the art and always at the fore fromt of technology”
“we offer a large variety of our data dervices free od charge”
“Our novilty usb drives really encompass the unique, bizarre and just plane cool”
4. Ask for some details.
Details are often hard to view on a website because each order is different. A company at the forefront of technology will offer flash drives in sizes up to and larger than 32GB; a reputable flash drive company will also offer cutting edge 3.0 USB technology as an option. Flash drive memory products come in so many conditions, and an untrustworthy company could alter your order to save themselves money. Without your “dissecting” the drive and running thorough tests on the memory chip encased within the flash drive shell, you must trust what your wholesale flash drive company states regarding flash drive speed and chip quality. Many counterfeits abound within this technological niche. Confirming the details on your custom order will save you time and money.
5. What components are US based?
The nature of flash drives is such that not everything can originate in the US. The internal components come from the Pacific Rim, and many companies will also outsource for everything else. The product could be 50 to 5000 miles from the delivery address. CFgear prides itself on assembling, printing, data loading, and completing all the design aspects right here on US soil. Our factory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota is also our shipping address. If a box has a foreign part number or a simple sticker over the label, it is probably not US based.
The technology business is a crazy place. CFgear.com wants to be a lifeline for every customer. We answer questions about our products and other products as well, so call us out here in South Dakota at (800)371-1984. Your vote of confidence would mean the world to us.
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