The "4 Fitted Camera's + Dvr For A Grand" Question!!!

[Guest]

Low quality kit = loads of free visits to sort out. End of profit.

Either spec it up or walk away, its not worth it.

What if an incident isnt copied to hard drive, the owners cannot persue the criminal. Next solution is to sue the installer.

Your choice but i`d think very carefully if you were to use cheap equipment.

[arfur mo]

All fair comments and appreciated. However, as a small business, walking away from 15-20K of work at a decent margin which will keep me busy for a month seems a little crazy!!!

This is not to win repeat work and raise prices in future, its helping a community.

My question was more for commenting on products in the low price bands and whether there are actually any half decent product out there that wont go on fire within 4 weeks of fitting!!!

Mike

hi mike,

as a fellow small buisnessman i would advise great caution, it may seem lucrative but the call backs may prove to be your undoing, and an expensive problem 9 - 10 months later whith little 'fat' to carry you over.

personally as an example we can all buy pirs for

[Mike J]

Thanks All

A good mix of answers here for me to chew over!!!

My thought as a small business is that its not work I can knock back. Although I am relatively new to CCTV, I have sold and installed access control for many years and I have seem so many occassions where poor quality product was blamed when actually it was poor quality installation. I can only assume its the same in CCTV.

For example, I like to learn about things and my first system was a favour for a friend and I assembled an 8 camera DVR by assembling a budget PC, 2 x capture cards off eBay and 8 mini domes from Ebay. Total cost would have made me

[baywatch]

Hi Mike

Regretfully I agree with the others.

Yes you can make a small profit at a grand but if you read the posts on the returns policies of the cheapest suppliers you will see how you could soon be in trouble.

Just a few faulty units & return problems (without all the return visits) will result in you being out of pocket & have a name for supplying rubbish.

Can you bunch Merit Lilin & LJD together ?

[arfur mo]

Hi Mike

Regretfully I agree with the others.

Yes you can make a small profit at a grand but if you read the posts on the returns policies of the cheapest suppliers you will see how you could soon be in trouble.

Just a few faulty units & return problems (without all the return visits) will result in you being out of pocket & have a name for supplying rubbish.

Can you bunch Merit Lilin & LJD together ?

back

QFA,

although to be truethful the LJD Leviathan and Collossus are good bits of kit. if you have trouble with them they have to go back and athe RMA proceedure is woeful.

i started using ezCCTv, bumped into at ifsec, they build systems based on geovision cards, give excellent tech help and you don't need a fixed ip or special software to access remotely, and they always answer the phone

i compare others with the likes of Paxton Access, and ezCCTV are in the same league ie of high quality, quick response and a totally professional manufacturer who are a pleasure to have contact with, not just dis-affected high volume box pushers with a sales team on bunus.

regs

alan

[SystemQ]

Hi all.

(I'm not posting this for business but to make an important point, if you feel its not approriate ask Dave to delete it from this thread)

The impression I get here is that it is believed lower cost will be less reliable than higher cost.

Although there are situations where this is the case it

[Mike J]

Thanks Paul

That is exactly the kind of sense I wanted to hear so please message me your web address so I can get details on this unit.

Having thought the situation over now, its not business I can knock back and recommendations and refferal business is always possible here if the job is done well.

Thanks everyone for your comments and I will let you know how it all goes. It will either end up here or in the horror stories!!

Mike

[secboy]

Thanks Paul

That is exactly the kind of sense I wanted to hear so please message me your web address so I can get details on this unit.

Having thought the situation over now, its not business I can knock back and recommendations and refferal business is always possible here if the job is done well.

Thanks everyone for your comments and I will let you know how it all goes. It will either end up here or in the horror stories!!

Mike

Mike, good solid advice from Paul wish you all the best with the job--good luck.(just as an indication have a look at www.securicorp.com--dont know them but it gives an idea)

[Doktor Jon]

I tend to agree with a lot that System Q has written.

There used to be an old adage in electronics, that the more you build in, the more there is to go wrong, and yet the situation in the CCTV marketplace is that we use some fairly complex equipment, which in terms of reliability, is generally much much better than often the price would suggest.

The cost to produce equipment in Far Eastern factories is very low, and by the time it arrives on our desks (benches), it can be considered as unbranded c**p, or branded quality, when in many cases the PCB's have actually come off the same production line.

Be under no illusion, there is an unhealthy amount of cheap junk sloshing about, but if you can find reliable products, delivered by companies that actually understand what good service is all about, then it is often possible to produce good results at much lower cost than one would normally expect.

Whether a job is taken on as a loss leader, every job is an experience, and if something isn't learned from it, than that constitutes a loss in my books.

Where an individual installer considers that there is insufficient margin on a job to even warrant getting out of bed, I can sympathise and relate to that position (been there ... bought the T shirt!), but if a job's worth doing for any other reason apart from the bottom line, then I have great respect for that position too.

Good luck with the job Mike J - hope it works out o.k. for you!

D.J.