Importing your CCTV equipment

[Securityman 0]

I interested in importing CCTV cameras and digital video recorders from China or Korea, analogue at this stage, for commercial and residential applications. They would be a range of internal and external cameras across a number of different uses.

 

The reason is to increase my profit margin and offer something to differentiate my company.

 

Is anyone doing this? Who can you recommend as a good quality company? I get regular spam from Longse, Cantok and many others and I'm sure there must be some decent suppliers in China, if only I knew who?

 

Can you help?

[tomcctv 187]

Hi. The price might be cheap but it's not going to increase your profit margin. Most of the time it will eat into your profit.

 

You as a installer at the moment buy from your supplier. Any problems and you can exchange quick.

 

 

It's easy getting units from china ..... It's getting returns sent back that's the problem and expensive.

 

 

Then there is also the massive increase of your insurance...... At moment it's as installer ..... Price goes 10 fold as a supplier.

[Securityman 0]

Some good points there thanks. I'm only looking to import and sell to my own customers and not supply the industry.

Has anyone got any examples of where its worked well ?

[luckyfella 0]

How would you honor the warranty on a camera if one you sell is bad out of the box? And these chinese companies want you

to buy in bulk for the most part. Are you ready to spend alot of money to have inventory on hand? I know I wouldn't order from you if you said it would take 3 weeks cause your ordering it from china.

[Securityman 0]

These are the questions I'm exploring as theres plenty of opportunities in China, its just a case of finding them.

 

In answer to your question about stock and costs, and then doing the maths thats an easy answer. The local costs for an average camera, say a Hik Vision analogue camera is 10x that of a potential imported camera, so stock and costs isn't my concern. There's plenty of margin to be made to cover all of those style issues. In fact I could swop out a faulty camera or DVR at my expense and it would still be more economic than using local suppliers.

 

I agree that bulk buying is required, but that means I always have stock at hand so your suggested 3 week delay for stock wouldn't happen.

 

The question I'm looking for answers to is the quality of a Chinese supplier. Get that right and the other issues don't occur.

 

Can any one help and name some good companies?

[tomcctv 187]

I agree that bulk buying is required, but that means I always have stock at hand so your suggested 3 week delay for stock wouldn't happen.

 

 

you will only need a bad batch DVR or cameras. then you have to spend money.

 

 

don't make the mistake of thinking china will give you good RMA support.

 

 

In fact I could swop out a faulty camera or DVR at my expense and it would still be more economic than using local suppliers

 

 

what do you do with faulty equipment then ?????? you have to pay for sending back ...... and you also have to pay to have it sent back to you. how much would you charge for say a $199 recorder .. (cost to you ) ???

 

what warranty can YOU give to your customer

[Securame 0]

Buying from China is not just googling "china cctv" and buying from the first web page you can find. It takes time, it takes patience, and you need to find suppliers you can trust. You will buy junk sometimes that will end up in the garbage. You will get products that might be ok one time, but not the next time. You will make mistakes and (hopefully) learn from them. You will have to invest not just time, but money.

 

If you want to do it from home, go ahead ant try longse, cantonk, or from any one of those that fill up our spam boxes daily. If you want to it right, you can go to CPSE 2013 to be held in Shenzhen Oct/29 to Nov/1, you will meet and get to know more suppliers that you could ever need.

 

http://www.cpse.com.cn/index.php?lang=en

[luckyfella 0]

If you think someone on this forum has a reputable chinese distributor that they buy in bulk and resell themselves, and are going

to tell you the name, you are crazy, lol. My suggestion to you, if you want to do this, and do it right, is to pick a manufacturer

that you like, and is a chinese manufacturer, such as Dahua. Contact Dahua directly, and tell them that you are licensed and insured distributor here in the United States and ask them how to become a reseller of Dahua.

[Securityman 0]

These responses are the obvious ones that occur to me when I consider this option. It would be easy to turn away and say they are all poor suppliers. But does anyone have direct experience of the poor service mentioned or is it all generalisations.

Thanks for the details on the expo that's one good idea worth considering.

I have had a few responses from LinkedIn where the company Longse you mention was given a good recommendation . One company said in 3 years hardly any failures. Only downside was lack of English but product good.

 

If I did go ahead any warranties offered would be in line with the market I work in.

 

Again, I'm looking for direct experiences with Asian suppliers.

 

Thanks for all your input so far, it makes for a good debate. With the huge amount of low cost suppliers there must be some good ones out there.

[tomcctv 187]

But does anyone have direct experience of the poor service mentioned or is it all generalisations

 

 

its the reason I answered your post.

 

 

If I did go ahead any warranties offered would be in line with the market I work in

 

 

it would have to be YOUR warranty.............. say a customers dvr goes down after a month...... its you out of your pocket to replace.

 

 

you will never make money from installing no name china brands.

[ak357 0]

These responses are the obvious ones that occur to me when I consider this option. It would be easy to turn away and say they are all poor suppliers. But does anyone have direct experience of the poor service mentioned or is it all generalisations.

Again, I'm looking for direct experiences with Asian suppliers.

Thanks for all your input so far, it makes for a good debate. With the huge amount of low cost suppliers there must be some good ones out there.

 

Securityman do you really believe people here on forum will release name of their suppliers

I think it's kinda naive

nothing personal

[Securityman 0]

Yes I do think some people will give help when asked, just as some won't. This is a forum for sharing, just witness all the info people give out on here generously and freely. LinkedIn connections also freely gave advice.

 

With regard to warranty costs etc that will only impact if I drop my sell price.i.e ?

$500 camera with 100% markup =$1000 sell & $500 profit. $150 camera with 100% markup = $300 sell and $150 profit.

The business case is sell at $1000 and buy at $150 in this example.

 

I recently installed 15 Hik Vision 3MP WDR external cameras on a Hik Vision NDVR. I've had 3 camera failures in 3 month and all under warranty so no install issues.. Even the cheap camera have to go some way to beat that.

 

That's why I'm considering is there a different way.

[tomcctv 187]

Linkedin is also full of what looks like good china suppliers.

 

I can understand what you want to do ...... But it does involve a lot of work and a lot of time wasting......and money..

 

 

Just take your 100% markup .....

 

$150 camera sell $300 ......goes faulty in 2 months .......profit gone ....... You can't over price cheap products.

[Securityman 0]

Thanks Tomcctv.

 

My contacts on LinkedIn are fellow security professionals, not the Asian companies touting their wares.

 

One of my competitors here in New Zealand is importing CTring DVrs for example. Ive never heard of them but they seem to be OK from what Ive seen and he's doing well.

 

But it s like looking for a needle in a haystack finding the decent suppliers. And just to be clear, Im not looking for cheapest, just better priced than what I'm paying locally.

 

From a customers view point they've never heard of Hik Vision till I turn up. But at the moment its three cameras at $1000 cost each gone wrong.....profit just about gone

[Isofia 0]

Yes, when choosing a reliable&long-term supplier ,it need take some time. A Not good supplier may waste your time&money to involve in the solving products problems&returning issues.

It's a opportunity for inspecting locally: Choose several maybe trusted Supplieier frist,and then come to CPSE 2013(Oct.29--NOV1), visit their factory to make a comparison. You can see the company truth not Ads. . It is better than what you do only by google,network.

 

I recommend you foscam,&Hikvision or Dahua, which are better than Longse.

And our company and I also participate in CPSE. If you come,and need any help, you may contact me. I will do if i can help you.

[marvincctv 0]

Hi

 

Not only you but also a lot of CCTV man think the cargos from Longse and Cantrok all spam. They using the cheapest raw material, and leave off all protection circuit. Lens are also the cheapest. How could you to get one qualified products with all worest parts.

 

If you want to order from Chinese factory directly, you'd better know the working way of cameras firstly. And only order 1 or 2 pieces sample before order in quantity. Then fix the sample out of your office for 3-6 months test. If the samples can working fine after half year, you can trust this supplier.

Before you order in quantity, you must know what you need, then let your supplier know what you need clearly. Don't hold only several USD price different, several USD can make you avoid big trouble from after-sell service.

 

 

 

Technology discussing is welcomed. Any problem about CCTV

[marvincctv 0]

Another important point is you must begin to learn how to repair camera.

 

Even the fault rate of our cameras is very low, but some installers' head is totally different compared with 10 years before, some of them short of experience and education, all kinds strong problem happened in the last 3,4 years. With you description and photo, we can know where is the problem, then we can make one instruction about how to repair. But you must do it by youself. Or the shipping cost is too high to be accpeted.

 

Regards

 

Marvin Young

[epcjay 0]

I currently order from China suppliers and have ordered from over 5-6 suppliers.

 

From experience, they all pretty much produce the same stuff, I took it a part, inspected the housing, inspected the chip. The soldering work on some looked like they were not meant to last long. I specifically wanted 700TVL CCD cameras, and all of them came with Sony Effio-E 4140 chips. Now they could be fakes, or they can be legit. I have no way of knowing.

 

Now how much does a 700TVL w/ 25 LEDs w/ OSD Dome, plastic indoor camera cost locally? I found they were $110USD + tax a pcs here

Out of the 5-6, I am currently working with 1-2 vendors. The cost for me is 70USD$ + 5$ import tax each, DHL shipping - 9 Days from China.

 

If I have time, then 4 weeks regular postage, $55 each

 

As for RMA experience, yes its a drag to send it back. The vendor allows me to take apart the specific part and send it back. It's really the CCD board, or the IR board that I need to send back if it becomes defective. Housing rarely becomes defective if ever.. It's small enough to pass for letter mail here, which gets to them in a week.

 

The vendor is good for cameras, doesnt mean its good for DVRs. I order them separately.

 

Good luck