Andy - Empire Tech Review

[Captain_B]

I was lucky and found IPCamTalk and was able to spend the time to read and learn. One of the first things I learned was Andy is the guy that could hook you up on the latest technology quickly and affordably. The dilemma I now faced was what cameras and NVR would be used for the unusual setup/conditions at the sight, meaning needing 600 feet of night vision with no man-made lights in the area, long runs of RG6, and wanting the latest AI out there. So, I reached out to Andy and sent him a list of the installation requirements (Camera to DVR lengths for cable runs, FOV and distance at night needed, etc). Andy sent me a list of what he would suggest:

2 SD6AL433XA-HNR Laser PTZs
8 IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E Bullet Cams
2 Hi-PoE Adapter for the 2 SD6AL433XA-HNR
1 NVR5216-16P-I AI NVR
Along with Junction Boxes for each camera

I checked out Andy's suggestions and said this would be perfect to start with and 5 minutes later money was sent via PayPal and 3 days later the cameras were delivered to the east coast of the US. I checked the packaging on each camera and it was perfect, and now that half of the cameras are installed (second half tomorrow), I can say, Andy made the perfect selection for the application. I could not be happier with Andy's customer service, knowledge of his products, and attention to detail, it was a true pleasure to work with a professional like Andy.

Now the bad news....I love the PTZs, I think I'm addicted, but, unwilling to go to meetings, Momma always said "I never liked a quiter". I would love to find an 8 MP PTZ that sees as well at night as the 433XA's do out at 600 feet.

Thank you Andy and thanks to all who take the time to post on IPCamTalk, looking forward to reading many more.

 

[samplenhold]

I would love to find an 8 MP PTZ that sees as well at night as the 433XA's do out at 600 feet.

Why 8MP? Just curious.

 

[Parley]

As far as 8MP goes there are a couple on the market. This one goes for around $1800, maybe a little less. Hikvision has one or two but they are pricier. In a few months Dahua will be coming out with one more and a lot of us are waiting to see the specifications. You can get a Dahua 4MP for around $750.

SD8A820WA-HNF_Datasheet.pdf (dahuasecurity.com)

 

[ljw2k]

If I was spending so much on CCTV I would want the full backup and support from the manufacturer's not a Chinese sellers Warranty & support.

Edit - deleted a few posts and sorry Op I thought this was a Public review rather a Private review,

 

[wittaj]

If I was spending so much on CCTV I would want the full backup and support from the manufacturer's not a Chinese sellers Warranty & support.

It is obviously different on your side of the pond and it is obvious you have it out for Andy. You seem to take a shot at him every chance you get.

In the US, an official Dahua camera can cost 2 to 5 times or more than what we can purchase them for from Andy 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 - Dahua Technology USA Inc

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.

 

[bigredfish]

I get better customer service from Andy in Hong Kong than I do at most every single American company I do buisness with, except maybe Amazon, and I pay a price for that service.

If the “authorized distributors” weren’t price gouging, and carrying 2 year old product, I might be interested in doing business with them.

 

[bigredfish]

I hate Amazon for destroying countless small and local businesses. They have become a monopoly. I really have few other choices unless I want to spend days running all over town to gather the same products. Admittedly I’ve become lazy in my shopping, just what Amazon counts on.

 

[samplenhold]

it is obvious you have it out for Andy. You seem to take a shot at him every chance you get.

As an impartial observer, I have to agree with @wittaj on this. While you usually do not specifically mention Andy by name, you do make comments on threads that show your contempt for him. Just my observation.

 

[ljw2k]

As an impartial observer, I have to agree with @wittaj on this. While you usually do not specifically mention Andy by name, you do make comments on threads that show your contempt for him. Just my observation.

No mate that is a very fair comment and can't argue with it but the thread is " A Review of Andy Empire-Tech " and this was my honest review. Are you saying I should not give my own personal review and just not post unless good review?

 

[wittaj]

@ljw2k - I won't debate the issue any further with you as it accomplishes nothing, other than to say a simple search under your username and "Andy" and "Chinese sellers" pulls up page after page LOL. Now granted some of your "chinese sellers" may be a more in general type of comment as there are many that one shouldn't purchase from due to hacked firmware that cannot be updated, but you have made it clear in posts that still exist and the ones you have deleted that you are not fond of him.

And I get it, NO COMPANY can satisfy EVERY customer; it just isn't possible, especially with the reputation that mates from the UK have of being complete you know whats and impossible to please LOL . One has to look at a company as a whole and make a determination for themselves. More people have been satisfied with Andy than not. YMMV and has and that is fine, but it shouldn't distract from the good posts that you contribute.

I believe at the end of the day from what I recall that Andy gave you full refunds and picked up the costs sending units back, so it can't be too bad. It isn't like he stiffed you over. Sometimes getting a full refund is considered good customer service. On this side of the pond, many places will charge you a 15% re-stocking fee on electronics.

If I went by every negative review I would never buy anything LOL. Especially with cameras as many people return perfectly working cameras due to operator error.

Amazon was brought up - yep I have great service from them as well, but there have been times that they delivered to the wrong house and whoever got it didn't place on my porch; they have lost a package; won't offer you a price match credit if what you bought goes on sale cheaper the next day, etc., yet I still use them because they tend to make it right and right or wrong their prices are lower than the mom and pop stores. But I have had a few instances where I purchased something and it didn't work and neither the seller or Amazon would take care of it.

Once I was trying to get out of being handcuffed to a specific mobile provider, so I bought an unlocked cell phone from an American company that was completely made in America. Had a 3 year warranty. Year 1 the phone had an issue. 8 months of going back and forth with an issue they finally agreed to let me send it in for warranty work AT MY EXPENSE for shipping. My phone was black and three months later they send me a white phone that was clearly a refurbished unit that suffered from the same problem that my phone was sent to them for, plus this one had a chip in the screen and the SD card slot wouldn't work, so I came out at a net loss. Fought with them the rest of the time to try to get a new phone and they back and forth'ed emailed until the 3 years was up and then they went silent. Now that is poor customer service.

My neighbor used to work for an authorized dealer and when it came time for him to purchase cameras for his own house, he bought them from Andy because not even the 30% employee discount could touch what he could buy them from Andy for. Add on where some manufacturers assign territories where distributors have an area that essentially makes them a monopoly for that area, and price gouging is real.

We have professional installers putting in Night Owl systems for goodness sake. In the land of the free, price gouging is real and you will find dealers here charging 5 times or more for complete crap, so they certainly do so with higher end gear and customers that don't want to be bothered with self-installing or purchasing.

Be glad that apparently doesn't happen in the UK...or maybe the market for cameras isn't as large as they are here so the opportunity doesn't exist.

 

[Flintstone61]

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Dahua or hikvision not make support or warranty for the end users, only come to distributors. By the way, the chips price increase so fast recently. Hik and dahua price will be increased on the way soon. I will
meet with dahua north American senior sales manager next Friday to talk about the price.
For cheap cams we exchange directly within 2 years warranty. Expensive ptz we send to dahua to fix up. Right now Europe and North America we can have local fixing.
We sold cams for around 8 years now, 99% guys here can install the systems without any problems, because they love do researching and guys here help each other.
I never ask guys here have to buy from us , if you find cheaper way sure can buy there.

 

[samplenhold]

but the thread is " A Review of Andy Empire-Tech " and this was my honest review. Are you saying I should not give my own personal review and just not post unless good review?

No I am not saying you should not give your own personal review. But this was not your thread. The OP was not asking for other reviews. He was expressing his positive buying experience.

I read your post as basically telling the OP that he was a fool for buying from Andy. I actually felt it was kind of insulting.

Now as @wittaj stated, you have been a good, contributing member here. I do not know you and only know of you by your posts here. I really do not care what your beef is with Andy. I have purchased all my Dahua cams from him and believe that he has been good to deal with. I have not had any issues with those cams. But I have not purchased a high end, expensive PTZ. None of my cams have cost more than $235. If any of my cams have an issue, I would most probably just buy a replacement. If it was DOA, I would expect Andy to take care of it.

And that is all I really want to say on this topic.

 

[ljw2k]

No I am not saying you should not give your own personal review. But this was not your thread. The OP was not asking for other reviews. He was expressing his positive buying experience.

I read your post as basically telling the OP that he was a fool for buying from Andy. I actually felt it was kind of insulting.

Now as @wittaj stated, you have been a good, contributing member here. I do not know you and only know of you by your posts here. I really do not care what your beef is with Andy. I have purchased all my Dahua cams from him and believe that he has been good to deal with. I have not had any issues with those cams. But I have not purchased a high end, expensive PTZ. None of my cams have cost more than $235. If any of my cams have an issue, I would most probably just buy a replacement. If it was DOA, I would expect Andy to take care of it.

And that is all I really want to say on this topic.

First of all I am sorry if I offended you it was not my intention. I did not know is was a Positive review only thread but it is an open forum and everyone's review should count even if mine is a bad review and won't comment further on this thread.

Regards ljw2k

 

[wittaj]

I did not realise the cost difference in the USA from a Official Distributor and China ,here in the UK it is usually cheaper if you get a trade account which most people can achieve especially if you are installing and configuring a system your self..

Let's take another look at the price gouging middle man in the US...

Average cost in the US for insulin is 8 times more than in the UK.

Average cost in the US for Epipen is 10 times more than in the UK.

Average cost in the US for 1GB of mobile data is 8 times more than in the UK.

So, yeah it is easy to see how a novelty item like cameras can be more expensive in the US by 2-5 times or even more. More power to you if you are able to get a trade account, which is a lot harder here as distributors pay premiums to guard their turf so they can then create a little monopoly to charge more. And that goes across almost all industries here. For example, try to open up a new car dealership and watch what happens if the same manufacturer already has a presence in the area! Probably why some "professional" installers can only install kits they can buy at Costco because they have been shut out in the area they are located in to install good cameras...

It is reasons like this why this site was created so that we do not have to rely on overpriced middlemen to accomplish what we want, yet still do so legally and law abiding. For example, the site will not tolerate people posting how to not pay for Windows 10 for example.

 

[samplenhold]

Wow, I wonder what the OP is going to think of all this. He has not been on since 3:12PM today.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Eyes wide open, that’s my motto, so be aware of what you are buying and from where and what the impact of that will be.

I purchased my cams from Andy and received 1st class service so can’t fault him.

In terms of warranty and support I knew what I was buying and from where so took that into account.

I do have an issue with one of my cams with the audio but I myself haven’t done anything about it as the video still works but that is my issue as I’ve not even mentioned it to Andy.

Would I buy from Andy again, hell yes, I’ve been meaning to get a couple of 5442 cams from him but basically haven’t had the time to get organised.

To the OP, glad you are still receiving exemplary service from Andy as is the norm with him.

 

[aralos1999]

I just want to add my 2 cents to the excellent service I received from Andy for my 2 2CD2347G2 purchase. Here in Canada, the price markup from the authorized distributors are even higher than that of the U.S. But the biggest problem is the lack of available stock. I have to wait 8 weeks last year to get 3 Hikvision cameras. Compared to 4 days by Fedex from Andy. Andy always responded to my email within hours, while the Canadian authorized distributors usually take 2-3 days before I get a response!

 

[SJGUSMC21]

I don't drink any kool-aid or put any man or woman on a pedestal. My dollar goes where I get the most value for it. I don't have a problem with someone giving an opposite view of a item or a seller, but if you do go against the grain, be prepared to suck it up. I have NEVER read anything bad about Andy. Granted, I haven't looked, but I don't feel a need to do so either. Again, if you poke the bear( and not saying that the bear should never be poked) be ready to deal with it.

 

[Phixer]

@ljw2k - I won't debate the issue any further with you as it accomplishes nothing, other than to say a simple search under your username and "Andy" and "Chinese sellers" pulls up page after page LOL. Now granted some of your "chinese sellers" may be a more in general type of comment as there are many that one shouldn't purchase from due to hacked firmware that cannot be updated, but you have made it clear in posts that still exist and the ones you have deleted that you are not fond of him.

And I get it, NO COMPANY can satisfy EVERY customer; it just isn't possible, especially with the reputation that mates from the UK have of being complete you know whats and impossible to please LOL . One has to look at a company as a whole and make a determination for themselves. More people have been satisfied with Andy than not. YMMV and has and that is fine, but it shouldn't distract from the good posts that you contribute.

I believe at the end of the day from what I recall that Andy gave you full refunds and picked up the costs sending units back, so it can't be too bad. It isn't like he stiffed you over. Sometimes getting a full refund is considered good customer service. On this side of the pond, many places will charge you a 15% re-stocking fee on electronics.

If I went by every negative review I would never buy anything LOL. Especially with cameras as many people return perfectly working cameras due to operator error.

Amazon was brought up - yep I have great service from them as well, but there have been times that they delivered to the wrong house and whoever got it didn't place on my porch; they have lost a package; won't offer you a price match credit if what you bought goes on sale cheaper the next day, etc., yet I still use them because they tend to make it right and right or wrong their prices are lower than the mom and pop stores. But I have had a few instances where I purchased something and it didn't work and neither the seller or Amazon would take care of it.

Once I was trying to get out of being handcuffed to a specific mobile provider, so I bought an unlocked cell phone from an American company that was completely made in America. Had a 3 year warranty. Year 1 the phone had an issue. 8 months of going back and forth with an issue they finally agreed to let me send it in for warranty work AT MY EXPENSE for shipping. My phone was black and three months later they send me a white phone that was clearly a refurbished unit that suffered from the same problem that my phone was sent to them for, plus this one had a chip in the screen and the SD card slot wouldn't work, so I came out at a net loss. Fought with them the rest of the time to try to get a new phone and they back and forth'ed emailed until the 3 years was up and then they went silent. Now that is poor customer service.

My neighbor used to work for an authorized dealer and when it came time for him to purchase cameras for his own house, he bought them from Andy because not even the 30% employee discount could touch what he could buy them from Andy for. Add on where some manufacturers assign territories where distributors have an area that essentially makes them a monopoly for that area, and price gouging is real.

We have professional installers putting in Night Owl systems for goodness sake. In the land of the free, price gouging is real and you will find dealers here charging 5 times or more for complete crap, so they certainly do so with higher end gear and customers that don't want to be bothered with self-installing or purchasing.

Be glad that apparently doesn't happen in the UK...or maybe the market for cameras isn't as large as they are here so the opportunity doesn't exist.

Andy is the man, great customer service, knowledgeable, quality products at reasonable prices and no BS.