New clutch and brake levers

Friend phoned this morning as usual, normally to wind me up but this time, just for a change, to have a good moan......
He is rebuilding a bike for a customer and bought new handlebar clutch and brake levers. There is apparently only one word to describe them. It has 4 letters, begins with S and ends in T. Apparently the body that clamps on te bars is manufactured in brass but the levers in some super high tensile steel. The pin locating the lever is threaded.....after a 20 mile ride the thread on the pin has worn into the brass enough to effect clutch lever action..... He is trying to sort them out by manufacturing new pins with no thread where they go through the brass but in trying to open up one hole and thread the other in the lever the next size up had, when he phoned me, broken two taps and was NOT a happy bunny. Some distributor / importer is going to get a serious bollocking on Monday and rightly so......
Yet another example of cheap S**T made in India or China for peanuts and flogged in the UK at vast profit ? My money is on the distributor being one I have not used for decades.........

I avoid using Japanese style levers on British bikes. I've found that the older Tommaselli levers which were used on Ducatis look the part, especially if the brake lever is the Lockheed master.