A ChipChecker European customer requested one of our Quality Control Engineers (QCE), to conduct a surprise inspection on a Chinese company who they had a pending P.O. with, valued at USD36,345. The customer informed ChipCheckers QCE that it has been 7 days since he placed the P.O., so the parts should be there. It was the same old story, the Chinese supplier stating emphatically, " the parts will be in our office in 3 days". Our QCE decided to use the element of surprise, he knocked on the unsuspecting suppliers door, when they opened the door they were a bit shocked to see our tall 200 pound Caucasian QCE, towering in their doorway. When our QCE was asked what he needed in broken English, he told them he was a representative for our European customer and was there to inspect the 17 reel order. Our QCE related that, "This is my favorite part of the day, to see the look on their faces knowing that they had just spoken with the European customer, knowing he was in Europe and unable to inspect the IC Chips he intends to purchase, and then they see me his representative towering in their doorway".
They invited our QCE in as they had no choice, and immediately started scrambling and running around like "chickens with their heads cut off", after about 15 min they presented a box that had two reels inside. Before inspecting the two reels our QCE reminded them there are supposed to be a total of 17 reels. They looked at our QCE and said, "the other 15 reels are at their other office, but on the way to them", a little voice inside the head of our QCE said, "hmmm why do they hold two of the reels here and the others somewhere else?" The QCE opened both reels, the first thing he noticed, was that reels were not original factory reels and that there was no moisture sensitive strip inside, also the box was not an anti static box though the printing on the box stated that it was. After a few hours, and countless cups of Green Tea the rest of the reels appeared in nine boxes. After examination it was determined that out of nine boxes only four reels were of acceptable quality so the P.O. was reduced from USD36,345 to USD7,651.
In a matter of just a few hours ChipChecker's resourceful Quality Control Engineer saved our client USD28,694 and ensured that the Chinese company was aware they could not sell fake IC Chips to the European company.
