5 Year Warranty Hikvision And Dahua - New Norm For Surveillance Cameras?

JH
John Honovich
Sep 04, 2016
IPVM

Both Hikvision and Dahua now are offering 5 year warranty to dealers (Dahua just added this now, Hikvision has had it for a while).

In the past 3 years has been the norm (with a handful of exceptions).

What do you think? Vote:

Other thing I wonder - what is the cost of adding a 4th and 5th year warranty? The risk that cameras start breaking in years 4 and 5 are certainly higher than 2 and 3. So it is a value to buyers but certainly a cost to manufacturers? Anyone have any stats about their cameras failing in years 4 and 5?

Related: IP Camera Failure Rates

JR
Jeff Russo
Sep 04, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Is this being offered to all dealers or just those with large yearly orders? As far as I remember from hikvision, the standard was two years and would jump from 3, 4, or 5 years based on quantity.

U
Undisclosed #1
Sep 05, 2016

I believe long warranties are simply a marketing tactic and are of very little benefit to the end user.

  1. How many people would keep adequate records to be able to claim back the warranty after that amount of time? Most likely both the end user and integrator will not know where they product was purchased from after 5 years.
  2. What will the Device be exchanged with? The general product availability of a Dahua or Hik device is about 1 year. In 5 years time will devices still be backward compatible?
  3. Will the integrator back the 5 year parts warranty with a 5 years labour warranty? If not then the end user is going to be paying a significant amount of money to get the benefit of the warranty. e.g. Camera fails after 4 years. End User calls integration company and must pay for someone to come and diagnose the fault. ($200?) Camera identified as faulty, then removed and returned to distributor for replacement/repair. ($200) Integration company returns to site to fit repaired/replaced camera ($300). If it is a low cost $100-$150 camera it might be cheaper and easier to change it over on the first visit and throw the faulty one away. Additionally, prices of cameras are dropping consistently every year, a $150 camera will most likely only be $80 in 5 years time.
  4. If the camera is purchased through a dealer who no longer distributes Dahua/Hik in 4 years time how will the warranty be proven and claimed.
  5. There may also be problems with identifying who is responsible for this additional warranty. There are commonly deals made where distributors are given an additional 1-3% of cameras on every Purchase Order and in return they take the cost of warranty on. If distributor has made this type of deal and is no longer distributing the brand (Dahua Cheerleader Slowly Drifting Away To Hikvision) who will take care of the warranty?
  6. Could this be used as a way to differentiate between Hik/Dahua Brand and OEM variants. e.g. OEM gets 1 year warranty, Brand gets 5 year warranty. OUCH!!
  7. As for Dahua adding 5 year warranty this is most likely just to match Hikvision and ensure that the integrators and distributors are not losing sales because of this small difference between Hik and Dahua. In the end Dahua and Hik must match or better each other on virtually all points like this. It reminds me a little of the MAD Doctrine but substituting Dahua and Hik as the superpowers.

Overall i see this type of thing as a low cost marketing tool which is made to simply give the sales people of the manufacturers, distributors and integrator a point of differentiation which will generally provide zero benefit to the end user.

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U
Undisclosed #2
Sep 05, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Is this only for <insert precious stone/metal> level dealers?

Dahua apparently hasn't update their webpage.

Are they full warranties, or do they pro-rate the final years? (or give you the trade-in value)

MB
Matt Bischof
Sep 05, 2016

Our five year warranty is extended to all registered Dahua Dealers (Partners), and changes will be reflected on our website sometime this week.

As a registered Dealer Partner, you will have the advantage of working exclusively with a Dahua Authorized Distributor to receive an extended five year warranty on all Dahua USA products, special discounts, rebates, demo discounts, marketing materials, product training, Dahua lead generation forwarding, event sponsorship, and other member benefits.

Need special pricing to help you get that next bid? Our Dealer Program participants receive special discounts on projects that are registered with an Authorized Distributor.

Signing up is fast and simple- Just start by filling out a short registration form you can easily obtain from your regional Dahua sales manager (I am glad to point you in the right direction), or by contacting dealers.usa@global.dahuatech.com .

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MB
Matt Bischof
Sep 05, 2016
This new 5 year warranty will be on the following Dahua products: All IP and HDCVI product lines including camera and storage as well as PTZ. As always, registered Dahua Partners (Dealers) will also be afforded a one year advanced replacement (over the counter) warranty from any authorized Dahua distributor as well.
U
Undisclosed #2
Sep 05, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Is it retroactive?

MB
Matt Bischof
Sep 05, 2016

I will advise here on the specifics of the warranty terms when they become public.

JH
John Honovich
Oct 29, 2016
IPVM

I will advise here on the specifics of the warranty terms when they become public.

Matt, are the specifics now public?

Avatar
John Bazyk
Sep 05, 2016
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

We offer lifetime warrantee on almost everything we install with the purchase of a maintaince agreement. The only thing we don't cover is running new cable if cable is damaged in remodel or by lightning, and of course natural disasters, fires and acts of God.

We try and buy from companies who offer a 3 or 5 year warranty to help support this.

Anytime we have a service call we go out with additional parts that might need replacement. So we replace on the first visit. Bring the bad part back for repair or replacement if under warranty. Part goes back in truck stock for emergency replacement.

The only system we don't offer this on are fire alarms due to the massive number of different devices we have out there.

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JH
John Honovich
Sep 05, 2016
IPVM

Bring the bad part back for repair or replacement if under warranty.

Jon, thanks. If the part is discontinued, what happens? Has that been an issue? Do they replace with something or do they keep an inventory of discontinued parts for warranty?

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John Bazyk
Sep 05, 2016
Command Corporation • IPVMU Certified

Most parts that are discontinued can still be repaired either by the manufacturer or by a third party vendor we use. If not, most of our systems for intrusion, access and video are backwards and forwards compatible so we can replace with current part number. We have stock of refurbished discontinued parts on hand for when we can not replace a new part with an old system either due to code compliance or compatibility with the existing system. For common parts, we often purchase several when we're notified of discontinuance.

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MM
Michael Miller
Sep 05, 2016

@John. I assume the "lifetime warrantee" lasts as long as your customer is paying the yearly maintenance agreement. On average many years do your customers pay for the maintenance agreement? Does this scale for larger IP camera / access control systems? Say 50+ doors and 100+ cameras?

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Jon Dillabaugh
Sep 07, 2016
Pro Focus LLC

Hik offers a 3 year warranty for normal purchases. They offer 4 years to Gold level dealers. They offer 5 years to Platinum/Diamond level dealers.

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Carlo Kuijer
Sep 08, 2016

60 months warranty for installers / integrators starting from invoice date was already a standard ?!

No matter what grade installer / integrator your are. Personally find that a stupid system, keep the big big and the small small ! how thought this up ! In my believe the smaller installers can become bigger and large installers smaller ....

In Europe we have been seen demand go up to 120 Months periode as well.

There is only one problem with the warranty by manufacturers, installers / integrators don't communicate about this very often to end-users. Product defects are additional cost for most installers that are operating in a low margin markets thats constantly under pressure. Driving up to the end-user cost more then, as a example, a new camera. Welcome to the wastelands or as we called this, a throw away culture.

Solution is registration by end user directly at manufacturer site. but thats something the market is not willing to do, due to direct contact between manufacturer and end-user.

At the end it will come to this supply model, M2W2I2E migrates to M2I2E followed by M2E

(Manufacturer to Wholesale distributor to Installer / integrator to End user)

It's not something manufacturers prefer but are forced doing so to survive in this market.

So conclusion, A new Norm ! no it was already in place before they even where born.

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