Equipment purchase in Canada vs. Aliexpress

[Napocensis]

Hello,


I have been reading the forum for a short while now, and I found a wealth of information. There are few gurus around here, but contribution from every user helps. Great!

I am on the market for setting up a system. I am planning to use a retired workstation from my business and run BI. (yes, I read the posts on power consumption of dedicated graphics card, but I do not feel like throwing away a server grade computer and then pay $ to get a refurbished i5/i7 computer).

For cameras, I have zero brand preference. From what I gathered so far, Hik and Dahua offer a decent value for dollar ratio.

I can purchase Hik products at a fairly good price in Canada through my regular business channels. They do cost 20%-50% more than AE, although some products push 100% more. Having full local warranty and a dedicated account manager is so much better than having to deal with an unknown seller on AE that may never respond to after-sale inquiries. Providing I still get a reasonable price, I prefer to support a local business.

Dahua products are hard to come by in Canada via local vendors. Before purchasing through AE, I have a couple of questions:

- from Canadian shoppers, what are the typical import charges for $150-$400 CAD? I realize sometimes stuff gets in here without paying duties, but I need to assume that DHL will do their job and collect taxes, in addition to GST/HST.

- Alex Dalhua is a given for Dalhua things. Does anybody know an Alex Hikvision?

- from people that purchased a significant numbers of cameras through AE: what is your typical percentage of DOA, defective, wrong products, etc in total? i.e. products that need to go back to China.

Thank you.

 

[aristobrat]

Alex Dalhua is a given for Dalhua things

Do you mean Andy (@EMPIRETECANDY)? He's been the forum's Dahua go-to guy since the Starlight series came out late in 2016. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that he's sold thousands of cameras to forum members here, shipping them around the world. He has an AE store, but he can also bill via PayPal if that's easier. He's done some creative things to get around import fees, but I'm not sure about the specifics of Canada.

IMO, a few things that gave Dahua an edge over Hik on the forum here:
1) Dahua had their Starlight series (which kick butt in low-light situations) ready months before Hikvision had their equivalent series (Ultra-Low Light) ready to sell.
2) An AE vendor (Andy) stepped up on the forum to provide OEM Dahua sales and support. He has been an active user on the forum here since fall of 2016. I haven't seen the same for an OEM Hik reseller.
3) Dahua has added a gajillion different models to the Starlight series, whereas Hikvision seems to be very slow at doing the same.

To me, one interesting Dahua thing (in terms of buying from a US business channel) is that even though the Starlight vari-focal turret has hands down been the most popular camera on the forum here since fall of 2016, it's still not available via any official US business channel. Not sure if the Hikvision Canadian market is like that...

 

[looney2ns]

Andy will provide support best he can. Of course you may have ship a defective cam back to him.
But think of it this way, if you are buying more than just a few cams, the savings is your support.
Meaning, if a cam from Andy costs $100.00 shippped, and one locally cost's $200, and you buy multiples, the savings soon add up.
If one of the cams goes bad (very rare), throw it in the trash and buy a replacement. Your still ahead.

You asked "- from people that purchased a significant numbers of cameras through AE: what is your typical percentage of DOA, defective, wrong products, etc in total? i.e. products that need to go back to China."

Very rare for wrong products. Andy has reported in the .01-.02% return rate. And some of those, were perfectly good cams, it was user error.
Email Andy at kingsecurity2014@163.com and ask about Ca customs.
EmpireTecAndy fast DHL shipping!!

There is enough activity on this board that if there was a problem with Dahua or Andy, you would definitely hear about it a multitude of times. Be sure to read the cliff notes in the wiki at the top of the page.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Andy will provide support best he can. Of course you may have ship a defective cam back to him.
But think of it this way, if you are buying more than just a few cams, the savings is your support.
Meaning, if a cam from Andy costs $100.00 shippped, and one locally cost's $200, and you buy multiples, the savings soon add up.
If one of the cams goes bad (very rare), throw it in the trash and buy a replacement. Your still ahead.

You asked "- from people that purchased a significant numbers of cameras through AE: what is your typical percentage of DOA, defective, wrong products, etc in total? i.e. products that need to go back to China."

Very rare for wrong products. Andy has reported in the 1-2% return rate. And some of those, were perfectly good cams, it was user error.
Email Andy at kingsecurity2014@163.com and ask about Ca customs.
EmpireTecAndy fast DHL shipping!!

There is enough activity on this board that if there was a problem with Dahua or Andy, you would definitely hear about it a multitude of times. Be sure to read the cliff notes in the wiki at the top of the page.

0.1-0.2% defective rate, not 1%~2%. We fully tested before shipping. So can make sure all senses with good quality.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

For the import tax, We can declare a cheaper price on the invoice to the customs, normally just pay a small amount tax.Cananda customs charge tax is value >25USd , seems like that

 

[looney2ns]

0.1-0.2% defective rate, not 1%~2%. We fully tested before shipping. So can make sure all senses with good quality.

Oops, corrected in my post. Old brain isn't what it used to be.

 

[Napocensis]

Yes, Aristobrat, I meant Andy.
&looney2ns - Never thought of discarding a defective camera... By the time I pay shipping back to China, and if i get dinged a second time on import charges, I may just as well go with a new unit.

Reading the forum, it makes sense to purchase from Andy if it's Dahua. So far, I only purchased inexpensive stuff off AE, and the experience has been neutral at best.
I was looking into Hikvision as just about everybody here carries Hikvision, and almost nobody offers Dahua. The original intent was to go with a mixture of DS-2CD2335FWD-I and DS-2CD2H35FWD-IZS. However, the Hik varifocal runs at around $330 USD in Canada, which is about twice the cost of the 5231 from Andy. Will likely reconsider and go with Dahua 5231 and 4231.