I'm going to try to reply to everyone's questions/concerns. But I don't want to get in a flame war, so that will probably be all you hear from me on this.
First, Thanks to "DAOld man" or anyone else who stands up for our products. Just because something is Made in China doesn't mean it's cheap quality. In fact, Happs has moved some if its manufacturing over to China. And most of Ultimarc's stuff is made somewhere in Asia. Both these companies have strong reputations for quality, as I hope Dream Arcades does.
I really do go to China for QA, you have to in order to ensure the best quality. As a matter of fact I am there now. It's about 6am, I just flew in last night.
I've visited tons of factories here and selected the ones with the best quality, then I ask them to make changes and improvements as required. So most of our products are OEM.
We do stand behind our products, so if you have a problem just e-mail support. I can't promise we'll replace anything no matter how old. However, if you had a run of bad microswitches, which rarely happens, we'll replace them.
I can't tell you how many times I've had customers come to our shop and play one of our systems and say, wow you use Happs parts. It's really hard to tell the difference.
Still, I know some people have brand loyalty, and that's fine. Cherry switches really are nice, they just cost a lot, more than the ten cents we charge.
Lastly, we try to buy stuff that is Made in the USA, when we can. All of our kits are made in the USA. But sometimes the cost difference is insane, say 300%.
I hope I haven't offended anyone.
-Mike