WHY ME ?!?!?!?!?!

[ikill4food2 0]

**UPDATE 12-22-05**

 

CCTVIMPORTS - Just Called me --- I spoke with a Very nice lady named Heidi (everyone at this company has always been nice) ... She was MORE THAN helpful and was willing to do whatever necessary to correct the problem.

Very glad they called --- It really does make things better, and it's like someone said earlier ... things could have been worse!

 

 

 

 

I appreciate everyones input and suggestions ... Thanks again!

 

 

**UPDATE 12-22-05**

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently posted a problem with 2 cameras I received from cctvimports.com earlier this week ...

 

Little did I know ,I removed it too soon from the forum...

 

I orginally ordered 2 of the 9100ex - 1/3 Sony Ex-view Day/Night cams from cctvimports.com along with several other goodies for an install I had scheduled EARLY this week... All I have to say is now I am GLAD I tested them before installing!!!

 

***

 

**WAIT*** - I first need to mention that I placed this order via their website ... After waiting a couple of days I decided to call and check the status of my order - only to find out that they had *NO RECORD* of it ... I had an email confirmation order # from them, a total, and I had paid via Credit card!!! Even after providing this information - They still had NO record, good thing I CALLED!!!! - Little did I know, that was only the start of problems...

 

ALSO - QUICK NOTE - THIS WAS MY *FIRST* Order with cctvimports.com

***

 

Turns out ,**BOTH** 9100ex model cams would shutdown after 10-15 minutes usage while in IR - NIGHT mode ... like they were overheating or something because of the IR lamps ---- I could unplug and wait 5 or so minutes -- then reconnect and repeat the same problem ... HOWEVER -- When I powered these cameras using 12v without the IR's coming on ... there was no problem whatsoever .. ALSO, If I powered with 24v - there were no problems at all - day or night mode.

 

So, here I had 2 cameras that would operate in 12v or 24v in DAY mode - BUT - when the IR Lamps came on for longer than 15 minutes in NIGHT MODE using 12v - they would shutdown, only 1 lamp would be lit and camera would loose video output all together (like a protection mode or something) - BUT - GOOD FLIP SIDE OF THIS - 24v Day or night IR mode everything worked GREAT ... so I was stuck with using 24v which I HAD NOT PLANNED ON USING PER THIS INSTALL!!!

 

 

Ok ... I figured no problem, will call them Monday morning and swap out for new FULLY TESTED units ... well ... I spoke with their technician JOHN and slowly explained EVERYTHING to him - step by step , all the different tests I had run to help determine the problem (used different power supplies, tried higher power settings as well, etc. etc. etc.) ... All I had was 1 SIMPLE REQUEST --- PLEASE test 2 and see if they were free of this problem ... to make a loooong story short (on top of me ALWAYS having to call them back) - John tested the cameras they had and CONFIRMED the same problem I was having with the cameras he had IN STOCK.

After asking for an RMA#, I sent the 2 bad cams back via UPS RED- NEXT DAY AIR - *EARLY AM* -- cost me $68 ... !!! After explaining that I needed to get this resolved ASAP or else it would -- *now it will!!* -- cost me more!!!!!

Now here we are, Today - I received 2 cameras - same model - that did EXACTLY the same thing as the first 2 ... Even AFTER being assured by their technician JOHN that he had FULLY tested and hand picked the ones he would send out for replacement ...

Too make things worse, I had to PAY for 2 more of these cameras just to get them shipped that day IN HOPES of saving the install job I had lined up (I can semi-understand this - but Hell, I actually have established an Wholesaler account with this company -- and this was the best they could do *AFTER* they had originally LOST my order on their website & SENT Defective cameras ).

FYI - My order still DOES NOT show up on their website to this day.

 

Nothing worse than having to keep calling back the same person that said they would contact you -- even after you have expressed the importance of needing to know "Something" - "Anything?" ASAP ...

 

Talk about a hood wink ... I guess I will call in the morning and BEG for 24v power supplies since the 12's I ordered with these models actually DO NOT work with the cameras ... TALK about a bad batch !!! Man , Ever feel like if it's gonna happen -- it will happen to you ?!?!?

 

 

I have spoken with another member familiar with these cameras and runs them 12v - never had a problem ---- ... well guess what ,... BINGO !!!!

 

 

... Sorry to vent guys, BUT - I have been "Involved" with customer service/satisfaction from just about every angle you could imagine ... everything from working as a cashier at K-mart to becoming a Police Officer. The cause of the problem is history, it is the SOLUTION that is in the intrest of ALL parties involved.

 

I stated EXACTLY what the problem was and the time frame it should occur in ... I mean, How hard could it be to do this simple task I ask before sending me a camera at $300 a pop ??? Not to mention, I am worried now that my CREDIT FOR RETURNING THE 2 Cameras will not be applied to my Credit Card as promised by John - he would take care of it "Personally". I used Visa, so I can get them involved if necessary.

 

Guess I will just start importing everything from now on. Hello ShenZhen!!!

 

DBA Computer Services

Richard Sweat

Lakeland, TN.

Edited December 24, 2005 by Guest

[rory 0]

Sometimes when using 12VDC you will require up to twice as much current with IR on, or at least more than if you were to use 24VAC, so a higher MA 12VDC power supply should fix this ..

 

For example, i'll use an Extreme CCTV EX82 Day Night IR camera. With 24VAC a 1A power Supply works, if using 12VDC however one needs 2A.

 

What Power Supply are you using, exact model if you have a link to it, or specs as in amps and outputs, isolated or not, etc.

 

Rory

[ikill4food2 0]

Hello Rory,

 

 

Thanks for your reply ...

 

I have tested quite a few other 12v supplies for this ... Including the 3 - 12vdc REGULATED supplies I received from them ( 500ma, 1000ma, 1.7ma) ... VST man runs this camera on 500ma 12vdc and has no problems ... it helped to know it wasnt my power supplies.

 

It is a bad batch of cameras ... Even their Tech at the company confirmed it with the cameras he tested , they told me they never had the problem before with this camera - Which I believe per VST_Man... but there is now a confirmed problem ...

 

--- lucky me!!!

[ikill4food2 0]

I just wanted 2 darn cameras that would work on 12v as stated!!! I REALLY wanted them after sending the first 2 BACK!!! DARNIT!

 

M fear is that if I go ahead and use them with 24v ... that obviously SOMETHING is wrong in the voltage circuitry and ONE DAY down the road - they will go out and then I will be stuck !!! --- So , I fear a bad design right now if it doesn't work as it should with BOTH voltages ...

 

I sure don't wanna climb back up the poles and replace them 12 months from now !!! especiially if there is something - not quite right with them to begin with --- Ya know ?!?!?

[rory 0]

what camera is it? OEM cameras come messed up alot of times, I had it with the Provideo 637ex's remember .. they claimed and they used to be Exview color, then in a batch i got of 10, they had changed them to regualr color which couldnt see anything ..

 

what brand are they?

 

Rory

[ikill4food2 0]

Rory,

 

This is the model 9100ex --- you can find it at cctvimports.com ... It is a Sony 1/3 Ex-view chip Day/Night camera ... check it out ... it is an Ex-view camera for sure ... It is a knock off of The Speco day/night cam ... I would dare to say Pro-video ... but it doesn't say either brand ... BUT- it is IDENTICAL to the SPECO HT-7815DNV ---

 

Although this camera (the one I have) does not say any brand names on it ... it DOES -- 100% for sure have an MECHANICAL IR filter and a HEATER -- and LOOKS identical to the speco model ... It ALSO has EXACT same specs as the Speco model ... So I do know for sure it is a TRUE -- Day/NIGHT IR Camera with the MECHANICAL filter ... BUT --- I have already confirmed all of this and researched it FULLY ...

 

 

I justt want 2 of them that are going to WORK THE WAY THEY SHOULD --- without having to worry if they will crap out on me because of some voltage problem I knew about to begin with ... ya know ???

[Jasper 0]

I can hear the frustration in your posts.

 

When you’re in the situation where you can easily lose a job or account because of one of your suppliers and that happens, it is time to find a new supplier.

 

I can’t tell you that amount of times I quite using a supplier because they cannot get me the equipment when I need it or they say they tested something and then I receive it not working.

 

I know you’re in a bind, but I would probably get the equipment from someone else. I had this same situation happen no to long ago and I will be damned if I am going to give my money to some company that is causing me to lose it.

 

I hope you get this worked it, because I know how aggravating it is.

[rory 0]

Ok then like i said it is an OEM camera, they dont "always" work, the Provideo is OEM also, they change their things, the batches come bad sometimes also .. i have a Day Night dome here identical to one Someone else on the forum had and sent me a second one to test here ... his sees in low light, mine doesnt .. its OEM ...

 

no quality control is the problem with OEM ..

 

this is why you pay 1/2 the price of a name brand ...

 

Its jus the risk we take buying at a cheaper price for a no name product .. doesnt mean most of them dont work ... they may have got a bad batch is all.

 

Rory

Edited December 22, 2005 by Guest

[ikill4food2 0]

Trust me ... I WISH it were somethinig I was doing wrong or that i could FIX --- I could probably save my INSTALL JOB !!!! BUT --- I can only HOPE they understand I have been sent YET ANOTHER set of BAD cameras ... This $%@$# really bites ... I am REALLY leaning towards importing from the people I have been negotiating with in Shenzhen ... It would be worth the extra steps to have hardware on the shelf & ready-to-go ...

[ikill4food2 0]

Rory,

 

Yes, I see what you mean ... Doesn't do any good though ... Bad deal to begin with I guess ... Thanks anyways.

[rory 0]

With Distributors, especially in Miami, who resell even the big brand names, i have got bad cameras from them, as simply they never test the products before they send them. Though with a name brand such as GE, for an example, they should do that for them before they even leave the factory, but still it happens, even the name brands such as GE, etc, can get a few bad ones ..

[rory 0]

no problem, now you see why i generally use name brands though, cause if i get a bad product, takes me 1 week just to get the initial product here from the US, then to send it back and get another one .. well .. you can see it could be frustrating

 

Otherwise if i deal with OEM i need to buy quite a few of them to make sure the few that will no doubt come bad anyway, i have a majority of good ones in stock.

[rory 0]

ohh can i tell you about the stress ive had over the past 3 months on an IR day Night job .. i think i will anyway, and im talking expensive name brand gear ... ill wait a minute then do a write up ..

 

Rory

[ikill4food2 0]

Thanks Jasper ...

 

Exactly the spot I am in ... Really having to pull my sleeves up to keep these people waiting ... It just amazes me everytime I go looking for a decent deal and or supplier --- it's one thing after another ...

 

That is why I am VERY tempted to just throw mine towards a large container and import the hell out of inventory! And maybe .... Here is a thought ... TEST - BEFORE I SELL THE PRODUCT TO THE END USER ~!!!

 

That would be just too customer friendly wouldn't it ??? Why that might even mean people would get what they ordered on time and ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO USE IT WHEN THEY NEEDED IT ?!?!? Hey, They might Even COME BACK FOR MORE ?!?!? --- (Excuse my sarcasm - just too good to be true unless I do it myself)

[scottj 0]

If suppliers tested every single camera before they shipped them out to you, then you wouldn't buy it from them due to the price point. Adding people adds expense, adding expense means increasing margins, which means we eventually are no longer competitive. (especially when the average consumer/end user tries to get Ebay pricing as a comparison). Major label products fail just the same as OEM, makes no difference. You just have to take a chance and keep trying products till you find a nice "fit" from a quality and price standpoint. The only analytical way to find a product is if you were given the MTBF data on a product to do your own comparison, even that is sketchy at best. Think of your camera ordeal as a very inexpensive sample, it could have always been far worse.

 

Scottj

[Jasper 0]

The worst problem here is that the guy told him he would test the equipment and apparently didn’t. Now he has two more bad cameras. That is where this was handled wrong.

 

The guy could have told him he didn’t have time to test it. He is in this bind because he trusted his supplier to do what he asked. There is no excuse for that. All the other stuff you said Scott, I agree with, but not this guy saying he would test something and leaving this guy in a bind by not doing so.

[rory 0]

he probably tested it with the IR off..

[Jasper 0]

Yeah, that might very well be the case?

[securitymonster 0]

Did you ever get a refund? I stopped using CCTVIMPORTS after my first couple orders with them. They sell the same cameras that you can find anywhere else. They don't manufacture a thing and they make money.

 

Make sure you get refunded all your shipping money, all of it! They are moving into a big huge "NEW" warehouse next month, they can afford it!

[Jasper 0]

I recently returned a camera that was not the camera I ordered.

 

Not only did I not get what I ordered, but they didn’t credit me the shipping charges for sending it back.

 

 

See, now you got me started.

Edited December 22, 2005 by Guest

[rory 0]

okay so my write up .. ill keep it short .. doing 3x Sanyo Day Night box cams with Extreme UF500s and UF100 .. anyway the new sanyo's working well, but the old one cropped out in the move, images started degrading etc .. so I went and bought a new camera locally, a GE Day Night Exivew Box, and a Computar 5-50mm AI lens .. the old Sanyo set up was over 5 years so I got the new camera just in case ..

 

now it took over 1 month for the parts to arrive to start with (order started maybe 1 month and a half before it all arrived), a set back on Extreme CCTVs IR side .. they had some large orders and took a while to "build" the gear .. then the UF100 was "too" much IR so that just held things up more getting it to work as well IR requires Night time pitch black adjustment .. learnt alot "more" about IR beams since then ... can you say solarize ...

 

Anyway, so i got the new GE camera, and a new Lens .. no matter what i do it looks like crap .. finally pulled down the old sanyo and leave the client with no camera in that location (poored with rain and got drenched so just had to pull down everything) and found out the Sanyo cam (over 5 years now) was good, the New Computar Lens was good, but wet so needs a clean with the new lens clean kit i got today (though cant see the marks through the focused lens anyway), and the New GE camera is bad, or at least it just doesnt work with that lens, i may try one last thing with it before sending it back . the old lens that was on the old sanyo was bad also, a Tamron, but it lasted 5 years (tamron lens is also backwards compared to other lenses, focus is on the front, zoom on the back. .. at least as far as the settings go).

 

So basically the job has been going now for 2 months or so and its only 3 cameras with addtional IR ... though most of that time was waiting for parts, and then the labour part which included removal of old systems and installation of new system on steel poles. Spent alot of time on a couple of the IRs that either the bulbs blew or didnt fit right in the location ... fixed for now and bulbs all changed, those bulbs also took another week to get here

 

 

Needless to say its stressful at the least ... now, another older camera just cropped out .. when it rains it pours ..!! Its a Dome cam been up for over 5 years also, on no line conditioner for 3 of those years .. not too mention in that time I also tore apart all the older outdoor cams (EX82s) and cleaned them up completely .. most have been there 4 years while one has been there 1 year, a few of them on or near the ocean.

 

I still gotta get this last DN camera up and focusing 24/7 ....with the IR at night as well ..

 

I did 2 burg alarm jobs in 1 day that paid more than double this job did when i got paid for it some 2 or 3 months ago ... so basically ive been working for free, or the love of it if you can call it that ..!

 

And when is christmas now ..??

 

Rory

[ikill4food2 0]

Rory,

 

NO ... I MADE 100% SURE I went step by step and told the technician what steps to take to reveal the failure with the cameras ... He actually to me he "Put them in a box" for the amount of time it took for the cameras to "Shutdown" and reveal the same EXACT problem I was having ... So , YES, he did confirm the SAME problem I was having with some of his cameras off of the shelf ... As well as, Telling me that he "MADE SURE" the two I was being shipped were free of this problem ...

[Jasper 0]

I know that if I was you and that happened to me I would be done with them.

 

Unless there was some way they could make it right?

 

But if it cost you a job or account they can’t make it right.

 

So you just make sure they don’t ever put you in that position again.

 

Thank god the parts I ordered from "Censored" were for family or I would really be upset; like you are. Don’t let them cost you anymore money.

 

Like I said if they can make it right, than great, you can come back and write about it.

 

But as it stands now I would be looking to buy from someone else. JMHO.

Edited December 22, 2005 by Guest

[rory 0]

just FYI i went through 4 miami distributors in 4 years . .. for similar or other reasons ..

 

though, i cant mention names.

 

Alot of it actually had to do with them not responding to emails ... i cant stand that ..

 

rory

[Jasper 0]

Yeah I understand. I probably shouldn’t mention any names either.

 

These company’s need to make every effort to make things right though.

 

Statistics show that one unhappy customer will tell on average ten people, who in turn are very unlikely to do business with a company based on your experience.

 

That was before the internet.

 

But in fairness I will edit out the company name and just contact them once again to let them know they need to make things right.

 

I wouldn’t want somebody to talk bad about my business. So I will remain silent, at least in public regarding my experience with a particular company.

 

That’s just good business.