Neptune wrote:
That is because the factory knowing I will reject if not up to Wessex high standards (I rejected 25 tubas in January) make very special effort to get everything right.
Even without knowing the total number of products inspected, I find this number of failures to be alarming.
My immediate response to this is that if the factory KNOWS that you have high standards and will reject sub-standard products, I wouldn't expect to see them providing you with 25 unacceptable products in a month (or two months, or six months, or a year). This means that 25 products (apparently in a given month, or "batch", or shipment, or whatever) are making it past the MANUFACTURER's quality control process, and so that in fact they really aren't making much of a special effort to get everything right. They're throwing it all on you to weed out products they know are inferior. And of course, in one way or another, this increases your own effort and expense, and risks your own reputation.
To some degree the failure rate from the manufacturer doesn't matter -- so long as the bad apples are weeded out by the vendor and sent back, and so long as this doesn't add to the expense passed on to the customer. But the higher the manufacturing failure rate, the higher the probability that things will slip by the vendor's secondary quality assurance processes. And it also tends to erode buyer confidence in the overall quality of products, even if they've made it through whatever QA process is in place.
I see this as THE biggest weakness of the Chinese manufacturers at the moment. (Decades ago it was the biggest weakness of the Japanese manufacturers.) I am deterred in purchasing a Chinese product as compared to, say, a used American or European or Japanese product, at least in part because of the knowledge of this QA problem and the consequent knowledge that what I buy may turn out (despite my best efforts and the honest intentions of the vendor) to be a lemon that will -- at best -- involve me in returning the instrument or coming to some compromise on price and repair with the vendor. And remember that this is coming from someone who already owns two Chinese instruments and is considering purchasing a third. About the only thing that can overcome this concern is if a vendor will warranty for ALL return/repair/exchange costs. And even then, there may be (substantial) time lost in the process.
This is something that the Chinese really need to address if they want a larger share of the market. By itself, "inexpensive and probably okay" will work only for a certain (and non-risk-averse) demographic.
I've no teacher as I live in a rural area and there aren't any 
