The phantom product and our first sample, part 1

As we begin to ramp up our sourcing blog and bring you, the reader, up to date information on interesting products being produced in the Pearl River Delta, we set our sights on a WI-FI surveillance camera.

WIFI Camera

This camera was to be the panacea of easy home security. The wireless camera should be able to sit anywhere in your house or office and come to life upon sensing motion. The camera would have an IP address and sit on your wireless network as if it was a computer. From any computer on the internet, you would be able to log in to the feed and monitor your home. We had to get one to try it out!

What followed was all to typical in China and so although we did not wind up successful in acquiring a sample to review, there is an even more important information that can be shared. Our experience trying to locate this camera illustrates exactly the challenges in sourcing from a country like China and hopefully lays down for the novice some things to watch out for. And for those with more experience in sourcing, perhaps you can gleam a chuckle if you have had similar experiences.

The first problem we encountered was that this same WIFI camera appeared to come from numerous sources at AliBaba. To find out who actually made the darn thing, we first eliminated vendors that had offices in NanShan, Futian etc and focused on vendors who actually had industrial space in Bao An, Buji, etc. These were more likely to be actual factories as opposed to trading companies or resellers. A few calls later and we narrowed it down to a factory in Buji that claimed to be the factory that makes the WIFI camera. We made an appointment the following day at 10:30am to go visit.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a nice enough Chinese sales representative who appeared quite new. We asked to have a look at the WIFI camera that we had seen on their AliBaba webpage but it appeared the gentleman was being a bit elusive, unwilling to allow us access to the product we had discussed on the phone the day before. He goes off to discuss with his boss and came back with the following answer: This product was made under a special order for a customer and only 20 were made, before the customer decided not to follow through with the order. What we were hearing was quite shocking. Here is a product that is blasted all over AliBaba, appears to be sold by numerous vendors and this factory who over the phone claims to make it in their own Buji factory, is now saying that it doesn’t exist. Were we being cheated?

Not to ruin the trip and since we were really interested in the concept of WIFI cameras in general, we asked what other products they have that may be of interest to us. Unfortunately they didn’t have a single camera that sits on a WIFI network. They did however have a nice range of 2.4ghz cameras and we asked to see some. We found this product interesting because of its weight and quality appearance:

2.4ghz Camera - Front

2.4ghz Camera - Side

Since one of the goals of this website is to review products for you all, we asked for a sample. Again we were met with some resistance. The salesperson was new and claimed he wasn’t authorized to give a sample. Mind you we were not demanding a free sample. We were willing to leave a deposit and return the item later. We were also willing to buy the sample outright if necessary. Nonetheless the salesperson insisted he needed to talk with his boss and the boss was not available until tomorrow. He would have to get back to us. A bit frustrated about the apparent waste of a trip out to this factory, we left, thanking him for his time and telling him we would contact him tomorrow.

Sure enough the following day the salesperson invited us back to pick up the sample. We would need to leave a 450RMB deposit, but that it would be reimbursed upon either an order or the return of the sample. Another trip out to the factory, 2 hours away, and we had our sample in hand.