**I wanted to bring a matter to the attention of the Community:
First, I am a Security professional with lots of experience in all aspects of Electronic Security since 1984.
Secondly, as a business owner you must have the ability to purchase “wholesale” and sell “retail”, I do not feel that I need to explain this.
I found the Western Digital ReadyView product and contacted Support to ask questions regarding “Wholesale-Pricing.” I thoroughly explained that I am a WDC customer, and that I have been purchasing WDC hard drives for my surveillance equipment for many years. Much to my surprise, according to the WDC rep, I can only purchase this readyview product thru retail distribution. Now as you can see, $349.00 is a very good RETAIL price for a 4 MP 4-Channel NVR with 4TB HDD (VERY GOOD). Now this presents a conflict of my code of ethics in consideration of “Industry Standards.”
So I must first present the following question as a **Statement,
Why should I continue to purchase product from a company that steps directly into my industry to compete with me, and refuses to offer the same products of competition to my company so that I can profit alongside them? Again, why should I continue to purchase Western Digital Surveillance Drives to build into my recorders (NVR, DVR, XVR) when they are in fact selling a product directly to my customers at a “Kick-Butt-Price”, when in fact they are not offering this same product at a dealer (“ME”) price???
I am a business owner, to remain in business I must make a profit. Western Digital is working against me using this structure of competition against me.
So, I have sent a descriptive message to WDC Support and wait for someone to tell me how I am able to buy this same product for the same price of $349.00 then turn around and sell it for WDC’s ADVERTISED price of $349.00 and make any kind of profit.???
So until I am provided with a wholesale price from WDC on this ReadyView product, I will no longer purchase their products. By the looks of things in the community discussion, the ReadyView product has problems anyway.!
Is that the best you can do? “Should be able to use this link”??? No explanation? Is this for wholesale pricing?
My very own (consumer’s) perspective here:
$200 for 2MP set is a better deal, I purchased 2, then one more for extra cameras. Maybe things are better (for consumers) in your area, but I was unable to find a professional installation service, let alone reasonably-priced. Spent many hours installing the cameras (about 8 so far), a professional might be able to to do it sightly better and/or slightly more efficiently, but I would never expect less than a $1000 bill for the installation service of this kind alone. Basically, equipment costs represent a smaller fraction here. Even if you were able to negotiate $50 off $200 with WD and then pass on ALL those savings to me, I would’ve ended up paying $1300 instead of $1400 in the best case scenario. Basically, unless your rate is like $25/hour, this is not a big point. Especially if WD is thinking about discontinuing the line. But you are totally within your right to stop buying their HDDs, I would probably do that in your position if other drives provide equal quality/value.
I’m with you on this one, their NVRs and customer support is awful. their NVR’s are best used if you flip it over and use it as an ashtray as it’s complete trash. You’d think a big company that’s been in the business for many years creating drives and other network equipment would produce an affordable unit (as their using their own drives anyway) with an easy to setup GUI and not having to jump thru hoops just to reconnect one of THEIR camera’s after you put it into a different port after you uninstall the system for resale for another location. I must have hit the refresh button 100 times, rebooted several times and only 2 out of 3 cameras came up (one of which now has a moisture bubble behind the glass lenses LUCKY ME).
I made sure the passwords, usernames and IPs were on point INCLUDING ports bypassed and still doesn’t want to work. Sad they can’t produce a simple Linux based NVR system is beyond me. I will be purchasing Seagate drive moving forward and never again with WD. the amount of time and money they cost me with their makeshift systems is simply annexable. They need to void their agreement and get smacked with a class action lawsuit for their retail crimes of selling junk to consumers.
