Buying Viofo A229 Pro in UK : Viofouk.co.uk vs Amazon store MycrocamUK?

[whitedragon101]

I am looking to buy the Viofo A229 Pro in the UK.

The main uk website Viofouk.co.uk = £269.95
MycrocamUK (an Amazon uk store) = £269.95

Any recommendations which I should buy from please?

(The ViofoUK Ltd Amazon store doesn’t seem to have any stock of the A229 Pro)

 

[Nigel]

For Black Friday, it is a bit cheaper on Viofo.com, with free shipping.
Not so easy to return if you needed to, but otherwise a reasonable option when it is not available in the Amazon UK Viofo store.

Note that viofouk.co.uk does not belong to Viofo, they are a distributer.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Any recommendations which I should buy from please?

1.)
What is the return policy from each retailer?
How many days?

2.)
Who pays for return shipping, (customer, or retailer)?
How much is return shipping cost back to Hong Kong?

There is only one official Viofo website, (Viofo.com).
All other websites are simply retailers.

 

[whitedragon101]

For Black Friday, it is a bit cheaper on Viofo.com, with free shipping.
Not so easy to return if you needed to, but otherwise a reasonable option when it is not available in the Amazon UK Viofo store.

Note that viofouk.co.uk does not belong to Viofo, they are a distributer.

I did think of getting it there but they don‘t include or handle the tax for you so it would almost certainly be stopped by customs and add 20%

 

[Nigel]

I did think of getting it there but they don‘t include or handle the tax for you so it would almost certainly be stopped by customs and add 20%

Contact them and check that...

 

[whitedragon101]

1.)
What is the return policy from each retailer?
How many days?

2.)
Who pays for return shipping, (customer, or retailer)?
How much is return shipping cost back to Hong Kong?

There is only one official Viofo website, (Viofo.com).
All other websites are simply retailers.

1) 30 days for Viofouk.co.uk and the other is an Amazon store so 30 days there too.

2) Return shipping to hong kong I would think would be a lot. I have emailed Viofouk.co.uk to ask if I had any problems will I return and warranty return to them direct in the uk.

 

[whitedragon101]

Contact them and check that...

Thanks. Have just message them to ask and left their chat bot my email for the response (live chat currently off line)

 

[Nigel]

Thanks. Have just message them to ask and left their chat bot my email for the response (live chat currently off line)

I'm not sure what the situation is currently, so let us know the answer please.

For the cheaper dashcams. they legally have to collect the UK VAT, so there will be no unexpected charges, but you need a good discount on the A229 Pro to get it under the UK VAT limit. I think they still sort it all out anyway...

 

[whitedragon101]

For Black Friday, it is a bit cheaper on Viofo.com, with free shipping.
Not so easy to return if you needed to, but otherwise a reasonable option when it is not available in the Amazon UK Viofo store.

Note that viofouk.co.uk does not belong to Viofo, they are a distributer.

what do think about the

MycrocamUK Amazon store? Are they a respected dealer for Viofo?

Amazon.co.uk

 

[Nigel]

what do think about the

MycrocamUK Amazon store? Are they a respected dealer for Viofo?

Amazon.co.uk

They appear to be, the only complaint we see is that they sell Integral SD cards instead of Viofo recommended cards, but as far as I know they are good cards. We don't see a lot of recommendations to use them, but that probably just means that there are never any problems!

 

[whitedragon101]

They appear to be, the only complaint we see is that they sell Integral SD cards instead of Viofo recommended cards, but as far as I know they are good cards. We don't see a lot of recommendations to use them, but that probably just means that there are never any problems!

Thanks

I was thinking I would get the SanDisk Extreme Endurance from Amazon. Wasn’t sure about buying the Viofo brand cards as they don’t show specs for write cycles and I’m assuming they are a rebrand of someone else’s cards.

 

[Nigel]

I was thinking I would get the SanDisk Extreme Endurance from Amazon. Wasn’t sure about buying the Viofo brand cards as they don’t show specs for write cycles and I’m assuming they are a rebrand of someone else’s cards.

The Viofo cards are very good industrial grade cards. If you are driving all day then I recommend them, if you are only commuting then they are not really needed.

Do stick to the Viofo recomended cars for the current cameras, there are lots of problems with some cards, often due to them slowing down when they get warm.

What memory card is recommended for a VIOFO dashcam?

Micro SD Cards play an important role in dashcams, but not all cards are suitable to be used in dashcams. The footage recorded by dash cams is saved on a micro SD card, which is an essential component of the dash cam setup. Here are some parame...

support.viofo.com

 

[whitedragon101]

The Viofo cards are very good industrial grade cards. If you are driving all day then I recommend them, if you are only commuting then they are not really needed.

Do stick to the Viofo recomended cars for the current cameras, there are lots of problems with some cards, often due to them slowing down when they get warm.

What memory card is recommended for a VIOFO dashcam?

Micro SD Cards play an important role in dashcams, but not all cards are suitable to be used in dashcams. The footage recorded by dash cams is saved on a micro SD card, which is an essential component of the dash cam setup. Here are some parame...

support.viofo.com

Whoops I meant SanDisk Max Endurance

 

[whitedragon101]

It turns out MicrocamUK Amazon Store actually have a phone number you can call and they picked up straight away.
They said they are an authorised UK Viofo dealer and that and warranty returns within the 18months can go back to them in the UK.

I have emailed Viofo to confirm but this looks good. An authorised dealer with the backup of buying through Amazon.
(Although their Accessories are a little more expensive than those on Viofouk.co.uk as there is no discount for buying as a bundle)

 

[Nigel]

It turns out MicrocamUK Amazon Store actually have a phone number you can call and they picked up straight away.
They said they are an authorised UK Viofo dealer and that and warranty returns within the 18months can go back to them in the UK.

I have emailed Viofo to confirm but this looks good. An authorised dealer with the backup of buying through Amazon.
(Although their Accessories are a little more expensive than those on Viofouk.co.uk as there is no discount for buying as a bundle)

Yes, normally I would recommend the Amazon UK Viofo store, seems to work well, as long as it has stock, and normally it has good prices.

 

[Barneyb100]

They are the same company, also, my Mini 2 doesn't work at low temps ( another thread) and UK have said to deal with China who have asked me to ship it back to China directly, so I doubt UK will deal with any warranty issues directly.

 

[DavidUK]

When buying an A119V3 the other day I noticed Viofo recommend only a few cards for that model, here: https://viofo.com/content/41-viofo-a119-v3-dash-cam-support/#:~:text=We recommend UHS-I U1,best performance of the camera.

A229 may be different of course.

One they don't recommend is Samsung Evo which I've been using for 6/7 years in two A119 cams (V1/V2) with no issues.
I noticed on here somewhere someone saying Sandisk are the most problematical cards. I finally bought two 128GB Samsung Evo Plus cards here: https://www.mymemory.co.uk/samsung-128gb-evo-plus-microsd-card-sdxc-sd-adapter-130mb-s.html
They were £8 each two days ago, plus 99p shipping. 5% discount for first purchase or via Topcashback.com

The V3 I bought is new from a private seller and the other card is going into an older cam so I don't have so many warranty worries. I did wonder though if Viofo have a 'deal' with Sandisk which means they recommend their cards or if Sandisk (and Viofo's own cards) are genuinely better? Difficult to argue with the manufacturer of course. Do Viofo make their own or are they another (Sandisk?) re-branded?

 

[Nigel]

One they don't recommend is Samsung Evo which I've been using for 6/7 years in two A119 cams (V1/V2) with no issues.

The V3 used to work fine with Samsung Evo cards, but Samsung cards have changed to new technology, which can cause issues, maybe with them slowing down to much in hot temperatures, so if you use your old cards then there will probably be no problem, but if you use new Samsung Evo cards then they are not recommended and may have issues.

If you have bought them, give them a try anyway, if there are any issues then it will stop recording and beep, and you will know that there is a problem.
The A119 V3 is only a single channel, so does not need the same performance as the 3 channel cameras, and the list on that page appears to be the same list as for the other cameras. Good recommendations, but maybe not absolutely necessary for single channel use.

Sandisk cards seem to have improved, seem to be the recommended ones now, if you get the right type.

Do Viofo make their own or are they another (Sandisk?) re-branded?

Viofo have their own cards, they don't manufacture them themselves, and I don't know who makes them currently, but they are some of the best available and I think manufactured to Viofo's specification. They appear to be much better than any Samsung or Sandisk, should have very long lives and are always fastest when benchmarked.

Their recommendations are based on customer support having to deal with customers having card problems, so worth taking note of!

 

[DavidUK]

When I bought some cards 6/7 years ago I seem to recall "class 10" was the in thing.

Viofo now say to get "UHS-I U1/U3 rating, high or max endurance" which is new to me. Are you saying the old class 10 may be better so as to match the card tech to the camera tech?

 

[Nigel]

Are you saying the old class 10 may be better so as to match the card tech to the camera tech?

I ran my A139 3 channel for a while with a Class 6 card, and it worked fine. Can't buy those any more!

Class 6 had a guaranteed response time to reads and writes, modern cards don't, the thing sending the writes is supposed to buffer until the card is ready, which could require a huge buffer if the card has slowed down to avoid overheating!

We don't actually need a fast card, we just need a card that always responds quickly, but that is not what modern cards are designed to do.

So, I don't really know what is good for dashcams these days, best to just follow Viofo's recommendations, and if you are doing a high mileage then seriously consider Viofo's own cards.