Product Inconsistency: Irritating

There is nothing more annoying to me than product inconsistency.  When I find something I really like, I want to be able to go out and buy more of them, and have them be JUST like the one I bought that I liked.  Now, I do realize that (thankfully) we still (mostly) have humans making our products, wherever they live, and that humans in general create inconsistency.  I get that.  I expect small differences, but what I am talking about are vast differences between the same products.


I have come to expect it from clothing, just because there are a lot of variables in the manufacturing.  You have variation in everything from the threads that make the fabric, the dying process, the stitching, the machines used to piece the fabric together, and simply the fact that someone doesn't try on every garment of clothing to give an opinion on how it fit compared to the one before.  Who hasn't found a pair of perfect jeans and gone back for a second pair exactly like the first, only to find that they fit completely differently?  What is a little less excusable to me is complete and total product inconsistency in a "hardline" product, like in this case, my new stainless steel enameled plates.

Because I am a little cuh-razy sometimes and I like to plan my parties based on a theme no matter how small, I decided that Sporticus's (or Sporticus' based on which manual of the Harbrace you use since they have now changed the s' to s's because people are too dumb to be able to learn the difference anymore, but I digress) family birthday dinner would be centered around some specific cupcakes at our new fancy cupcakery. The Maple Bacon cupcakes with the dark chocolate cake, maple frosting, and teensy piece of applewood smoked bacon on top, and the Rocky Top cupcakes with their chocolate cake, salted caramel frosting, chocolate drizzle, and marshmallow on top just all of the sudden made me want to do a little "camping theme" for some reason.  To make this even more ridiculous (hey, I'm not shy) we are only having the grandparents over.  We're talking 10 people total.  But it is too hot for s'mores, and camping party stuff on Pinterest was too cute for me to stand, so I'm gonna just carry on with what this is actually about now.  There's a connection.  I promise.

When I started planning my theme, I decided that some enameled stainless steel dinner plates would be really cute .  While this may seem over the top, I have been looking for a couple of years for some plates for us to use when we eat on our patio. I just always feared that one of my good plates would get dropped and broken.  I had already decided that I wanted to avoid plastic, especially melamine, and that is what seems to be the easiest to find, so I had not found anything I liked up to this point.  The enameled stainless plates were going to be perfect for the party, the patio, and many years to come.  After looking online, I found that the ones I liked the best were from GSI Outdoors.  I found varying prices in various places, so I ended up ordering red and blue plates from a camping website and green plates from Amazon.  I love the color combo.

Yesterday, the plates arrived via two separate UPS trucks within 30 minutes of each other, because that's super-efficient.  The green plates came first, and they were exactly what I wanted.  They were well made and looked great.  When the next truck/box arrived, I opened it to find more perfect red plates, and also blue plates.  Not perfect, well-made, looked-great blue plates.  Just blue plates.  The difference was shocking.  I immediately pulled out my packing slip, sure that they had sent the wrong thing, but it was correct.  I noticed that the labels on the blue plates were different, but they still said "GSI Outdoors."  TriDad  is knowledgeable when it comes to product codes and what not, and when he started looking he noticed that the blue plate codes were completely different than the red and green plate codes.  And then, a shocker.  Red and Green plates (the GOOD plates) were made in........you guessed it.  China.  The crappy plates were made in......Mexico.

Now, let me tell you how majorly different they are.  The blue plates are about 1/4 inch smaller in diameter than the others, and the inside "hump" between the rim and the flat part of the plate is completely a different design. This keeps them from stacking neatly.  GAH!!!  The worst of all is the paint/finish.  The red and green plates have a super smooth finish with no flaws.  The blue plates have lumps where the paint has run and clumped up.  They look really cheap and, well, just plain crappy.


I  searched around online to see if I could find actual blue plates made in China since clearly they were the better-made plates.  Because that is not weird at all.  Every picture I could find, though, would visibly show the uneven finish.  I was baffled and a little bummed, to say the least.  I decided to call the company directly to inquire about this (they only sell wholesale).  Sure enough, all of their blue enamelware is made in Mexico, and red and green is made in China.  I asked if I could get Chinese blue plates.  The response, oddly, was "Unfortunately, no."  

If anything, I guess the phone call helped me to realize that any continuous searching would be fruitless.  The customer service representative was very, very friendly, nice, and helpful, so that was a bright spot in my morning.  I am still left with the dilemma of either choosing one color and just getting all plates in either red OR green so I can be happy with the product consistency, or choosing to live with crappy Mexican lumpy plates that make my colorful eye happy.  Either way, it messes with my chi.  It will depend on which issue I think I'll get over the quickest.  How about a vote??  If you have made it this far, what would you do?  Keep the three colors or pick just one?