In the US, an official Dahua camera can cost 2 to 5 times or more than what we can purchase them for from Andy
@EMPIRETECANDY here because the official US distributors want you to go through their professional installers or want you to buy in quantity, so we pay a premium markup. Neither of which most of us here want to do. Maybe some pockets of the US folks can get a good deal from an authorized Dahua dealer in the US, but most of us don't.
Further, any issues would have to go through the distributor and Dahua US will not talk to us. And for the few cameras we would be purchasing from a distributor, I doubt the customer service would be very good.
Warranty & RMA
us.dahuasecurity.com
How many people here in the US are saying they are getting great deals on Dahua cameras purchasing from authorized Dahua US dealers here?
How many with official US Dahua cameras are running firmware more recent than what Andy gets for us?
In my experience with electronics, they poop out immediately or within a year. Andy's warranty takes care of that and he showed it with a recent member here that was up on the 1 year and sent back a camera and Andy sent him a new one not some refurbished unit.
In a rare instance a camera poops out after one year, the initial savings I have from purchasing from Andy can buy me a newer camera and I still come out ahead...
The few times I have had a longer warranty on an electronic, it was a painful process and long and drawn out and then they send you a clearly refurbished product. For warranty, I want either my unit fixed or a brand new unit and not someone elses that broke and they fixed.
Your best bet is to buy from Andy here on his Amazon store or directly from him.
Loryta and Empiretech are Dahua OEM sold by Andy. Some of my cameras I have bought from Andy from his Amazon store come as Dahua cams in Dahua boxes with Dahua logos, and some are not logo'd - I think it depends on how many cameras Andy buys if he gets them with the Dahua Logo or not. But regardless, they are Dahua cams. If you get a camera that has Dahua on it, then the camera GUI will say Dahua; otherwise it will simply say IP Camera but looks identical except without the logo.
And the firmware we get from him is actually better because many members here provide feedback to Andy and then Dahua makes modifications to the firmware and sends back to him and then he sends out to his customers. These have been great improvements that Dahua doesn't even update their firmware and add to their website. So many of us are running a newer firmware than those that purchase Dahua cameras through professional installers. Smart IR on the 5442 series is one such improvement. Autotracking on the 49225 is another. Almost every other vendor the 49225 is not autotrack.
Regarding customer service from a manufacturer - we are not the user that Dahua and Hikvision is targeting so you will get the same service from either manufacturer (which is nonexistent). They have made a business decision to target the professional installers and authorized distributors of these cameras. I suspect many of them have been trained on all the settings or have installed enough to know what to do. But if you as an individual have an issue and call either company up for support and they will tell you to talk to the vendor you purchased from, if they even acknowledge you.
Contrast that with consumer grade stuff sold at the big box stores. You can call a Night Owl or Arlo or Reolink or Lorex or
Amcrest or DLink or Google Nest or Ring and speak to a representative (now whether they can help you or not is another story), but they will not tell you to talk to Best Buy where you purchased it...and several of these cost the same or more as Dahua or Hikvision...
We are just fortunate enough to be able to get our hands on these brands.
So it comes down to vendor reputation and taking care of their customers and for the majority of us,
@EMPIRETECANDY does that.
