Recently I had an issue with a product and so I contacted the company for support. While there were a lot of choices to buy cheaper items from foreign companies, I decided to go with one based in North America here precisely for this reason in the event I needed support. I wasn’t disappointed as the response was prompt and they quickly provided me a fully paid shipping label to return the product for a replacement.
It’s a reminder how when you buy something it’s good to be frugal in wanting the best value. But in these cases you have to remember that the customer support is part of the value too. Especially for expensive items like a piece of electronic. Paying that extra $20 for a company with local support just makes more sense if the products are virtually identical and assuming the cheaper company would say charge you for after sales support.
This should be a given, but with economic uncertainties it’s easy to forget as we simply focus in getting the price upfront price without factoring in if something goes wrong.