Hikvision Reviews 352

Worst support I’ve ever experienced.

Guys your sales contact form on your website is garbage, why make it so difficult for someone to seek advice for a potential purchase. I will take my business elsewhere. 20 mins going around in circles no thanks.

Unbelievable, got a costumer support and tech team and even when you state you got no longer a chap coming, partly as he was dreadful and blocked you from everything so you can't even change the timer that has got wrong, they tell you to get somebody out. Great for £100 plus. All I needed is help to unlock the system. Get more help from the internet

Hikvision support Europe is non existing, unless you join there partner program and let them decide wear you bye from. If you don´t do as told, you can go f..k yourself seems to be the attitude. Now we gonna change from 12 years with hikvision to another brand that is not connected to this dictatorship-company.

I recently invested heavily in a professional 16-channel Hikvision system, but it has a fundamental, fatal flaw that every homeowner needs to understand before buying: it does not back up video to the cloud.

Here is what that actually means in the real world. Let’s say a burglar breaks in at 3 AM whether you are at home asleep, or even away on holiday. The system detects them and sends a notification to your phone with a couple of still pictures. If you are asleep, or your phone is on silent, you miss it. Meanwhile, the thief unplugs your DVR and steals it. When you wake up, all you have are those still pictures. There is no moving video. Why? Because when you click the app to view the footage, your phone physically connects back to the DVR in your house to stream the video. If the criminal has already disconnected the box, your phone has nothing to connect to, and you see nothing. Even if you woke up in time to watch the video live on your phone, it doesn't save it—once the thief walks out with the DVR, your evidence is gone forever. What is the point of a high-end security system if a thief can just unplug it and erase their crime? A cheap £30 doorbell camera handles this better.

The "Authorized" Dead End
Hikvision operates behind an "Installer Only" wall, refusing to provide direct support to the people who actually pay for their products. You are forced to use an Authorized Installer, but the system is so poorly designed that my installer—even after consulting Hikvision’s own technical department—was completely unable to provide a working cloud video solution.

The Expensive "Solution"
I eventually found a workaround, but it means wiring ANOTHER box into the system (creating another potential point of failure). You have to spend £240 upfront on this box just to achieve cloud backup in the first place. On top of that, it costs around £5 per camera, per month to upload the alerts. For a 16-camera system, you are looking at £80 a month! Even for two or three cameras, it is wildly expensive for something that should simply be included with the base DVR.

The Bait and Switch
To add insult to injury, older Hikvision systems used to allow you to upload to Dropbox or Google for free. Hikvision intentionally disabled that system to push their own proprietary Cloud—but their cloud isn't even available.

The Verdict
There are plenty of amazing systems available these days. Don't make the same mistake as I did and find one that IS secure !!

The poorest customer service possible. Try to get some help by phone and wait 30+ minutes to get someone on the line. Then I'm told they won't help me reset my doorbell password so I can use it with my HanWha/Wisenet NVR. I do recommend buying HanWha instead. The e ir service is top-notch!

AVOID AVOID AVOID. Its bad enough that the support is awful and the reviews here are shocking but I bought a £200 camera plugged it in and connected to the Hikvision App and it came up with a warning "This camera has a security issue that might allow access to your network download the update immediately" I went to the page on their website for this issue to find my camera missing so I emailed Hikvision, they asked for proof of lots of things which I got together and then I got a reply back we do not assist customers please use an authorized engineer. I emailed back and and said it was a brand new camera and there is a security issue surely they should assist, all I need to know where the firmware was and they replied to say they would not assist. They then emailed to say the case was closed. As this is a security issue they warn about and the response received clearly indicates that Hikvision do not care about their customers security.

Having purchased a new Accusense CCTV box with hard drive, there was a constant bleeping, which I could not eliminate, contacted support to ask for help and they refused as I was an end user, so I had to pay and get a local company to come in and look at it ! absolutely awful customer service. Happy to take your money when you purchase but don’t want to give you any backup help even for the simplest of things that would’ve taken two minutes over email or the telephone!

HIK are selling total junk, rubbish.
Out of 4 outdoor cameras 3 have failed due to condensation in the lens. They are 3 years old.
My recorder failed after only 3 years. I will NEVER go near HIK again.

Has to be the worst camera system on the market

We had Hikvision cameras installed a few years ago. They are playing up and we were having trouble locating an installer to help. We contacted multiple installers who said they would not work on Hikvision systems and when I contacted Hikvision for help, they could not have cared any less or offered any less help. I regret the purchase and am now having to fit the bill to replace the defective system with a reputable one.

The starter pirtion size was very small,Paneer lababdaar was sweet and dal makhni tasted stale.
The staff were pleasant .
I will nor recommend it to anyone 🙏

Terrible customer support; when you need to reset a device password, it's very difficult to contact Hikvision or a partner.

Bought a house in Belfast with Hik vision security camera recording system.
Couldn’t access mobile app to monitor on mobile phone as previous administrator still registered on system. Contacted Hik vision for support .Below is the reply cut and pasted from email.

“Thank you for your email to Hikvision UK & Ireland. As an End User of Hikvision products we would recommend you contact you point of purchase/installer for all technical support. If you do not have an installer we would recommend you to contact one in your local area.

Hikvision CCTV equipment is commercial graded product and should be installed and maintained by a Hikvision recognised partner.

We do not directly support End Users with Technical issues, we support Professional Installation Companies and Distributors only, who then in turn will support their Clients.”

In other words ZERO CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Don’t buy their products !!

It is actually 0 rating but unfortunately TrustPilot do not have that option. I am owner of device and bought it from reseller which installed it. After some years of usage installer company went out of business and they went with my admin password. Because support is non existent I am unable to reset it ( I need admin password to unbind device from the previous company account ). I have sent many mails via their so called SADP tool but I got no response at all. That effectively bricks my device out of any usage and there is no way to get it back.
So when you:
1. Buy device and somebody else installs it and bind to their account you actually lease equipment regardless that you bough it at full price.
2. You do not own admin account - you do now own device.

Misses human events but never misses rain. I get 20 alerts when is raining but dont get an an alert when ive had a delivery

They dont deserve even a single star.
Post purchase no installation or demo service given. They dont even ans d calls once they get money.
Dont buy its a scam

Unprofessional Authorized installers- Had a quote from one of these Authorized installers We, they quoted CCTV and Doorbell so much higher than the market price. They said it would be okay for them install if I buy my own devices, so I did. These guys came onsite struggled to install, so many calls to Hik Tech support. Hik does not answer any calls from the end consumers. Their vetting of these authorised installers is POOR. It is a mess really as we end consumers cannot talk to the tech support and authorised installer rip you off.

Hik connect is unreliable and keeps going offline
If this is an example of chinese manufacturing I won't be buying any chinese products in future

The warranty is next to useless. Imagine selling security cameras, then when it fails, which is apparently common for the several hundred pound ANPR camera, they tell you to take it down and have no cameras for up to to 2 weeks while they attempt to fix! Crock of dung!