v2024.09.18 AWS

Purchasing CHCNav products on
Alibaba, Amazon or eBay

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:

1. 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).
    
2. 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.
    
3. 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
    
4. 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.
    
5. 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
    
6. Counterfeit CHCNav Products: See [ https://chcnav.com/about-us/news-detail/warning-notice-regarding-counterfeit-products ]
        < click to expand
    
7. 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
    
8. 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.
    
9. 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 perpetual.
    
10. Firmware Options: Are all device firmware options enabled? (Constellations, modems, radios, cameras, tilt, Visual Survey and Visual Modeling.)
     
11. Language and function: If the kit includes a data collector, is the USA English version of Field Software included?
     
12. 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.
     
13. 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.
     
14. Radio Frequencies: can you change the default frequencies shipped in the device to match your FCC license?
     
15. 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.
     
16. 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 data collector GMS certified? (If not, it won't work with Google tools like GMail, Drive, PlayStore.) 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?
     
17. 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.
     
18. Repairs: iGage will not facilitate repairs for any equipment we did not originally sell.
     
19. 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.
     
20. 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, is not counterfeit and local service have absolutely no value to you, then you are the ideal Alibaba equipment customer. You absolutely should purchase equipment on Alibaba, eBay and Amazon!