NOTICE: This comment was excerpted from an existing discussion: Hikvision Marketing Across America
We regularly work with some competing integrators, all of whom have tried to price Hikvision products at our request for a couple of our smaller projects. Each integrator expressed frustration at not being able to obtain pricing in any kind of timely manner. One told me that they can't get price lists because they were told by their Hikvision contact that "prices change almost daily". One of the integrators has decided not to pursue any further dealings with Hikvision because of the inability to obtain timely pricing and at least one separate poor support experience in which they stated they were unable to get in touch with a live person at Hikvision's U.S. support group.
I think Hikvision has a good product offering, and for certain their pricing is beating many of their competitors. If they cannot deliver on the support (pre- and post-sale) for the products they are marketing, however, they will find themselves less than successful (in my opinion).
BTW, I'm posting undisclosed out of respect for the integrators I mentioned above. We're an end user with hundreds of cameras (several different brands), multiple NVRs, etc. I'm not a Hikvision competitor or "hater" trying to hid behind anonymity.