I found the same receiver that iGage sells for $8,000 on
Alibaba/Amazon for $3,675. Should I purchase it from Alibaba?
Yes! You absolutely should purchase that receiver from Alibaba.
Clearly iGage is ripping you off by providing the product with local
service, support, repairs and returns!
Alibaba listing from September 1, 2024
But perhaps you should consider:
- Quantity: The $3,675 price is for quantities larger
than 1,000 units. The quantity 1 price is $5,150 plus
international shipping (shipping is probably about $450 without
poles) and there is a 25% tariff ($5,150 * 1.25 = $6,450 + $450
= $6,900).
- Tariff is collected by the shipping company prior to
delivery to you. It is currently 25% of the purchase price.
Typically there will also be a small additional fee (~$20) for
clearance documentation.
- Shipping: a wide variety of shipping options are
usually quoted on Alibaba purchases. For a CHCNav i89, without a
prism pole, the following range of shipping options are
available:
2-day FedEx International Priority: $457
38 days expedited: $504
26 days JYC Standard: $320
67 days LCL Ocean+ExpressUS: $98
- UHF Radios: If the device is built for the non-USA
market, it may have a China domestic market UHF Radio. The UHF
radio may not have any broadcast modes that are legal in the USA
(i.e. 12.5 KHz at 9600 baud). The radio may not have the ability
to broadcast an FCC ID. The radio may not be FCC certified. It
may be illegal to import the device into the USA. Radios
applicable for use in the USA cost more than standard radios
which is one reason the China domestic market receivers cost
less.
- Cell Modems: If the device is intended for non-USA
market, it will likely have a Chinese band cellular modem as
they cost considerably less than an USA compatible modems.
Typically, the China specific LTE 4G cell modems only support these
bands:
China Market B 1 2 5 7 8 20
These modems may work in large USA markets, like city downtowns.
However, in rural markets there will not be a
compatible band and the devices will report no-service
available.
In the USA you need these bands:
ImportantATT B 2 4 5 12 17 29 30
ImportantVZ B 2 4 5 13 46 48
ImportantTM B 2 4 5 12
ImportantSprint B 25 26 41
Many/most GNSS devices intended for sale in the USA use
the Quecel EG25-G modem which work well almost everywhere:
EG25-G: B 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 12 13 18 19
20 25 26 28 38 39 40 41
- Geofencing: Non-USA devices are geofenced and will
not work in North America. If you purchase a geofenced device,
it is not possible to purchase a registration code to convert it
for use in the USA. Foreign dealers do not know that the
devices they are selling are geofenced, nor do they
understand that they will not work in the USA. If you are
considering purchasing a receiver, prior to purchase, send the Serial Number and
the Registration code from the web interface of that receiver to
support@chnav.com and
ask:
which options are enabled
if the device is geofenced allowing operation the USA
when the registration expires
- Different GNSS engine: all of the CHC receivers are
available with multiple OEM GNSS engines choices. For example,
the i83 is available with a low quality 525-channel, a
624-channel, a older Septentrio engine, a 1408-channel Unicore
engine, or a Trimble BD990 engine with or without the MaxPro/ProPoint
option. Which do you want? Which will you get? How will you know
what you have received?
The wholesale price of these OEM engines varies from $9 to
$2860. Obviously, this changes the equipment price. The
performance of GNSS receivers under heavy canopy is directly
related to the quality of the GNSS engine in the receiver.
- Registration expiration: devices targeted to the USA
market normally have permanent USA enabled registration numbers.
It is common in the China domestic market to sell devices with
1-year activations and require subsequent yearly maintenance
purchases. Ask if the registration is perpeptual.
- Firmware Options: Are all device firmware options
enabled? (Constellations, modems, radios, cameras, tilt, Visual
Survey and Visual Modeling.)
- Language and function: If the kit includes a data
collector, is the USA English version of Field Software
included?
- Support: CHC has no meaningful direct support in the
USA. You will need to contact the support agents in China for
assistance. iGage will not support equipment we don’t sell.
No exceptions. Neither will the other USA dealers. An Alibaba
Chinese seller most likely will not have the ability to provide
you support. Neither CHC or any Chinese dealer will be able to
answer any USA survey related question. Chinese dealers are box
pushers: they buy boxes and push them across a shelf and ship
boxes--just like Amazon. They have absolutely no knowledge of
equipment operation. Support and service are not possible.
- Hardware support: we will not support any devices we
do not sell. This includes radio channel programming, firmware
updates, and any other questions about operation. No exceptions.
If we find out that you have purchased outside of our channel,
we will Blacklist your company. See
below for the reasons.
- Radio Frequencies: can you change the default
frequencies shipped in the device to match your FCC license?
- Returns: If you purchase equipment in China and there
is an issue, it is not possible to return it to China for
service without paying the import duty into China. The supplier
will not provide prepaid return shipping. Alibaba allows returns
on products costing less than $3,000 to a USA warehouse, above
$3,000 the return is negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Returns
for items that are not defective or 'not received as advertised'
probably won’t be accepted for USA based return by Alibaba. The
descriptions of products on Alibaba makes it impossible to know
what you are purchasing.
Google "alibaba
trade assurance reddit" to find extensive reports and
reviews of Alibaba's Trade Assurance program. Bottom line: a bad
joke.
- Kitting: exactly what is included with your purchase?
It is a single head or a pair? Is there a data collector
included? Does the data collector have the USA version of Field
Software included? Is the internal modem in the data collector
appropriate for use in the USA? Is the internal UHF radio legal
for import into the USA? Does the kit include poles? Are you
willing to ship the poles, which are oversized, by international
air freight? (Be careful, the freight on range poles can be 5 X
the cost of the poles!)
Usually, there is a picture of a data collector with software
shown on the advertisement, but there is no mention of the data
collector and field software in the product description. How
does this work when you complain that you did not get what was
shown, but you got what was listed?
- Field Software support: we (iGage) will not support
field software used on devices that we do not sell. This means
if you purchase hardware outside of our channel, and purchase
LandStar 8 from our channel; we will not support the field
software or the hardware. We would end up spending considerable
time supporting the hardware, which we probably know nothing
about.
If we mistakenly sold you field software for use with equipment
that we did not sell, please contact us to return the field
software. We will purchase it back, then Blacklist your
company and be done with you.
- Repairs: iGage will not facilitate repairs for any
equipment we did not originally sell.
- Getting Blacklisted: when
we Blacklist your company, we will not sell you equipment in the
future. We will find it very, very difficult to support
equipment or software that you previously purchased from us as
we have no way to know that we are supporting the equipment we
sold or random equipment you purchased online. Because there are
so many options available within a single hardware package, we
won't have a clue how to help you with equipment that we don't
sell.
Your decision not to have iGage support or service your
equipment was made when you purchased equipment
elsewhere. You made this decision and it is unreasonable for you
to be dissatisfied with iGage.
- Paying for support: Purchasing equipment from another
dealer, then asking iGage for support and service is exactly the
same as a survey customer taking a low-ball surveyor's offer,
then calling a competitor and demanding that they answer
questions about a survey they did not perform. A new survey
needs to be performed and paid for.
Same for equipment support and service. It will cost less to
return the equipment to the original place of purchase and buy
new equipment from iGage than it would cost to fix-up the
existing equipment. Our hourly rates for equipment that we sell extremely
are reasonable. Warranty service is included in the purchase
price of equipment we sell.
For equipment we don't sell, our outrageously high
hourly rates reflect the fact that we have no experience with
your hardware. Our out of
channel hourly rate is so high that we are embarrassed to
mention it.
So, yes. If purchasing equipment that works in North America, is
legal to operate, has local support and local service have
absolutely no value to you, then you are the ideal Alibaba equipment
customer. You absolutely should purchase equipment on Alibaba and
Amazon!
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