subject: Beware of Cheap USB Flash Drives [print this page] If you're looking for cheap USB flash drives, in bulk, to print your company logo on then whilst you're objectives are laudable you need to be really, really careful you don't end up with a "pup" that will damage rather than enhance your brand.
Given one of the primary objectives of buying and distributing USB flash drives customised with a company logo or brand is to create brand loyalty, brand awareness and a to ultimately get people to trust your company and place their business with you its incredibly important that the flash drives reflect your company's quality benchmark.
There are cheap USB flash drives in the market and you don't have to search too hard to find them. Suppliers that offer them are pretty easy to spot because their quotes normally stick out like a sore thumb. If you've gathered a number of quotes and the prices are all broadly similar but you get one that's cheaper and not just a few pennies cheaper but significantly cheaper then alarm bells should ring. At this point if you are interested in taking the quote further then ask a few probing questions including:
Does the quote specify that you are being offered "new" Grade A flash chips. If this is not made clear then check and ask if the price is for recycled or Grade B chips. These chips are poor quality, they might work for a limited time but they are prone to early failure and they're likely to have very slow data transfer speeds.
Beware of flash chips that are "masked" this is a technique used by some unscrupulous suppliers that magically turns a 128MB flash chip into a 1GB chip. The "labels" on the chips will suggest it's a 1GB, it will even show on a PC as a 1GB but if you try and store more than 128MB of data it will just fail. This is a particularly difficult scam to spot because you're not going to find out you've got a problem until your customer shouts.
Check all of the costs are included and that you're not going to get presented with a long list of "incidentals" including print set up, origination, international freight charges, data-loading and local shipping.
As a final safety net buy from a recognised and reputable supplier that has a proven track record and can supply good customer references. If in any doubt follow up the references and speak to previous customers.
Find cheap flash drives seems like the right thing to do and to a degree it is because understandably no one wants to pay over the odds but there is a fine line between carving out a good deal and getting cheap, inferior goods that are going to reflect badly on your business.
