Having worked as an engineer in manufacturing and other aspects of the technology sector for the better part of 20 years, I have a lot of experience with product quality. One thing that really gets under my skin is poor quality with an apathetic attitude toward fixing it.
When I buy a cheap product, it’s usually a patch to get me through a situation until I can justify the expense of the more expensive product. I expect poor quality when I buy the lowest price, after all, I bought cheap crap.
I get upset when I buy a higher-end product and it turns out to be expensive crap. In my mind, there is no excuse for selling garbage, and poor quality product is essentially selling garbage. Poor quality coupled with poor customer service is unacceptable, especially when the decision to spend extra money was made based upon the company’s reputation.
Consider the long-term impact of poor quality: loss of reputation, loss of repeat business, and potentially the loss of the business of your customer’s network. I was recently charged shipping and handling to get a product repaired. This was a product 9 months into a three year warranty. Shifting the cost of poor quality to the customer sends a very negative message. I doubt I will buy from that company again.