Disappointed with Viofo for Abandoning A129 Duo Owners

Don't kid yourself, the margin the seller makes is not great

Manufacturers aren't starving selling their products. And if Alibaba is to be believed, buying in bulk quantities offers nice discounts on most products.
 
Don't kid yourself, the margin the seller makes is not great

To build upon this point, China is no longer the "bastion of exploited labor" where workers make less than $100 / month. But the average wage of $1000 USD a month / $12,000 USD a year is still about 1/3rd of developed countries. Making costs far lower than if it were made in the United States or Western Europe.
 
Wages are lower, living costs are even lower

Correct, BUT products being manufactured in China are resold on the world market to developed countries. Meaning if a worker makes $1000 USD a month (1/3rd of a developed country), the product assembly cost is still cheaper. So if I take that Viofo A129 that might cost 30 or 40 USD to assemble, and then upcharge it to resellers at say 60 or 70 USD per unit, the profit margins are still quite nice on a product that sells for $160 USD to the consumer.
 
Doesn't matter which country it is assembled in, the Japanese sensor is the same price, the Taiwanese lens is the same price, the Korean super capacitors are the same price, even the Chinese case is the same price, ... OK, maybe not in USA with Trump's trade tariffs!!!
 
Doesn't matter which country it is assembled in, the Japanese sensor is the same price, the Taiwanese lens is the same price, the Korean super capacitors are the same price, even the Chinese case is the same price, ... OK, maybe not in USA with Trump's trade tariffs!!!

Buying in bulk lowers production costs. The cost of a Japanese Sensor or Taiwanese Lens per unit is much lower if buying 1000s of units. Walmart pricing standard goes into affect. You buy enough quantity that manufacturers make money off bulk versus a lot per unit.
 
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What's your point, economy of scale means anything gets cheaper the more of it there is

Exactly. So profit margins increase because the manufacturer building the Viofo buys large amounts of parts. And resellers that buy in bulk are also given bulk pricing. Making profits higher for anyone reselling large amounts of Viofo Cameras. And Viofo seems to be a popular brand worldwide.

So I truly doubt the best resellers of Viofo cameras are making less than 40 or 50% profit per unit. I.E. Buy them at like 60 or 70 and able to sell for double.
 
Exactly. So profit margins increase because the manufacturer building the Viofo buys large amounts of parts. And resellers that buy in bulk are also given bulk pricing. Making profits higher for anyone reselling large amounts of Viofo Cameras. And Viofo seems to be a popular brand worldwide.

So I truly doubt the best resellers of Viofo cameras are making less than 40 or 50% profit per unit. I.E. Buy them at like 60 or 70 and able to sell for double.
So how much profit do you think comes from Thinkware and Blackvue cameras, given that they provide inferior image quality but cost several times more?

If you think they make 400% or 500% proffit than maybe that explains how they can afford great customer support, even though they don't appear to do so!
 
Buying in bulk lowers production costs. The cost of a Japanese Sensor or Taiwanese Lens per unit is much lower if buying 1000s of units. Walmart pricing standard goes into affect. You buy enough quantity that manufacturers make money off bulk versus a lot per unit.
The sensors and lenses cost their manufacturers roughly the same whatever the quantity, there is only a saving in sales, postage and packing, I suspect the bulk discount on those two items is very small, and if you are buying really small numbers, you do it though a distributor who buys in bulk and sells at a small profit. Although for the lenses I think one of the reasons for Viofo's great image quality is that the lenses are specially made for Viofo, designed specifically for the camera and thus have a premium price anyway, the premium dashcam brands maybe can't afford to do that due to lower sales quantity!
 
The Viofo fanboys here are laughable! - - I don't care how someone gets to their bottom line, but I do care about how they treat their customers and if their products work as intended!

The fact is Viofo treats their customers very poorly.
What do I mean by that? I mean a newer customer like Valkyrie can't even get replies to his questions after weeks of submitting them to Viofo!!!. And sadly, Valkyrie is not alone! This happens to everyone! (see Valkyrie's post below)

And the G-Sensor in parking mode with the Viofo A129 does NOT work, period. I don't care how much their lens costs them or how they ship or sell their products. I care that the dash cam either works or it does NOT work; the FACT is that the G-sensor does NOT work with parking mode, period!

All you Viofo fan boys will always be Viofo fan boys. Some of you (Nigel, etc...) get free products from Viofo so it's clear why you are Viofo Fan Boys. And that's fine...but perhaps you should add a notation to your sig line telling people here you are a little biased.

And for the clown who's running around on the forum asking, "Did they promise you something".... pleasssseee!!!! When you take your car to your mechanic to get if fixed and your mechanic says, "It will be ready by 4pm." Guess what??? It will be ready by 4 pm. A "promise" is implied when a "bonafide business" tells you something. So, lets stop being goofy and playing games with semantics!

This problem with the G-Sensor sensitivity in parking mode goes all the way back to February of 2019; surely they could have fixed this problem by now, but instead they are focusing on putting out their new products which will also have problems!!! - - Viofo is known for putting out half-baked dash cams and firmware; this is not a secret! - I of course did NOT know this prior to making my purchase. Had I known this, I would have bought something else.

And maybe the guy who compared the Viofo Dash Cam to a Ford Pinto was right! - - Would you have bought a car that you know might blow-up if someone rear ended you? Of course not!!! - - And would you buy a dash cam from a Company that doesn't reply to customer problems/questions (eg. Valkyrie) or buy a dash cam that doesn't work as intended.... probably not!!! - - If you are hoping to get a dash cam that has a g-sensor which works in parking mode, this is not the right choice!
 

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The Viofo fanboys here are laughable! - - I don't care how someone gets to their bottom line, but I do care about how they treat their customers and if their products work as intended!

The fact is Viofo treats their customers very poorly.
What do I mean by that? I mean a newer customer like Valkyrie can't even get replies to his questions after weeks of submitting them to Viofo!!!. And sadly, Valkyrie is not alone! This happens to everyone! (see Valkyrie's post below)

And the G-Sensor in parking mode with the Viofo A129 does NOT work, period. I don't care how much their lens costs them or how they ship or sell their products. I care that the dash cam either works or it does NOT work; the FACT is that the G-sensor does NOT work with parking mode, period!

All you Viofo fan boys will always be Viofo fan boys. Some of you (Nigel, etc...) get free products from Viofo so it's clear why you are Viofo Fan Boys. And that's fine...but perhaps you should add a notation to your sig line telling people here you are a little biased.

And for the clown who's running around on the forum asking, "Did they promise you something".... pleasssseee!!!! When you take your car to your mechanic to get if fixed and your mechanic says, "It will be ready by 4pm." Guess what??? It will be ready by 4 pm. A "promise" is implied when a "bonafide business" tells you something. So, lets stop being goofy and playing games with semantics!

This problem with the G-Sensor sensitivity in parking mode goes all the way back to February of 2019; surely they could have fixed this problem by now, but instead they are focusing on putting out their new products which will also have problems!!! - - Viofo is known for putting out half-baked dash cams and firmware; this is not a secret! - I of course did NOT know this prior to making my purchase. Had I known this, I would have bought something else.

And maybe the guy who compared the Viofo Dash Cam to a Ford Pinto was right! - - Would you have bought a car that you know might blow-up if someone rear ended you? Of course not!!! - - And would you buy a dash cam from a Company that doesn't reply to customer problems/questions (eg. Valkyrie) or buy a dash cam that doesn't work as intended.... probably not!!! - - If you are hoping to get a dash cam that has a g-sensor which works in parking mode, this is not the right choice!
You have raised very valid points but Oh boy, I haven’t seen someone ranting so bad for so long on different treads seeking for the smallest opportunity to rattle. I don’t think you are helping at all anymore, in fact you are now part of the problem to the point that viofo feels they don’t need to take your claims seriously, affecting the rest of us. I can only imagine what your wife has to put up with every single day around you. Does she get a chance? When will your campaign end? You need to understand there is no perfect dashcam in the market and Just look at the problems the other higher priced cams have (overheating issues and poor image quality) and they are struggling fixing as well...
 
You have raised very valid points but Oh boy, I haven’t seen someone ranting so bad for so long on different treads seeking for the smallest opportunity to rattle. I don’t think you are helping at all anymore, in fact you are now part of the problem to the point that viofo feels they don’t need to take your claims seriously, affecting the rest of us. I can only imagine what your wife has to put up with every single day around you. Does she get a chance? When will your campaign end? You need to understand there is no perfect dashcam in the market and Just look at the problems the other higher priced cams have (overheating issues and poor image quality) and they are struggling fixing as well...

Opinion as you
@StrayCam is angry with reason and is right, but the solution is not to make a daily smear campaign.
I think that viofo is the first interested in solving the problems.
 
Sorry EGS, but I'll continue to put this topic out as long as Viofo continues to ignore us A129 users!

Btw, back in Aug, I stayed off of these threads for nearly a month giving Viofo the month they told me they needed to fix the problem. At the time, it seemed "reasonable" that they needed that time to "do their work". I did not make any posts during that time. I "trusted what Viofo had told me"... My bad!!! - - And now they've told Sdeel7491 something similar, but only a month or so later. I guess their thinking was if it got me off of their back, it could certainly work with Sdeel7491...

Btw, this particular thread,
"Disappointed with Viofo for Abandoning A129 Duo Owners"

...was not started by me. It was started by HonestReview. It turns out, lots of customers are "disappointed with Viofo"!


The problem formerly on these threads with people posting about Viofo is "no one would say anything negative" about Viofo. They either work in the same town and/or have some allegiance to Viofo (free equipment, etc...). Had someone like me been vocal about the problems with Viofo when I was researching dash cams, I would have purchased something else. - - But Viofo's problems were hidden back then. Now, they are not...

If I were Viofo, I'd fix this problem for the benefit of all "current Viofo customers". Of course, that's just "crazy me" thinking!
 
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So how much profit do you think comes from Thinkware and Blackvue cameras, given that they provide inferior image quality but cost several times more?

If you think they make 400% or 500% proffit than maybe that explains how they can afford great customer support, even though they don't appear to do so!

Markup has to cover costs. When I say a Seller might make 60 or 70 dollars a camera, that's gross and not net. Gross being the profit before taxes, wages, etc. Even said, I highly doubt the Chinese Company spends more than $30-40 making each Camera.

And the Cameras sell for around $60-80 depending upon bulk quantity. Course the A119 is the only one listed, but it's a fair enough comparison. https://www.alibaba.com/product-det....galleryofferlist.normalList.1.742b27e9mgTH55
 
Mind you, PRICE is only being discussed since the argument was made that profit margins aren't as lucrative as one thinks.

Viofo makes a good product. People will pay more for products that are SUPPORTED and FUNCTION as intended. Thinkware and Blackvue command twice as much than Viofo. So if paying more for a Viofo means problems are resolved in a timely fashion, and support is receptive, I think most would shell out a bit more money.
 
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