Gear Talk > Camera Talk

Grey imports & warranties

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ColinM:
 Having looked at a few of these recently it appears that

* You can either buy through an approved supplier in your country and receive Nikons own manufacturers warranty
* or if you buy a grey import (e.g. imported by someone else directly from Hong Kong) you then rely on that supplier’s own warranty, 
with the possible lottery of who they will choose to handle repairs and problems and also what the turnaround time would be
It seems that by making this choice, for the kit that grey importers choose to supply, large up front savings can be made. I guess the risk is how long you’d be without your kit if problems do crop of up later on?

Anyone care to comment, or point out other aspects to consider?

Birna Rørslett:
The practice differs from region to region I presume. In my country the national dealers tend to accept the warranty as being local  thus repairs also are handled locally, other countries might fall back to the world-wide warranty thus requiring the faulty gear to be shipped back to the country of origin.

Any initial saving in the purchase thus might be lost later if something goes amiss.

ColinM:
Thanks Birna.

This came up when considering a D500 and walkabout zoom.
Since we’re talking about the risk of a fault not spotted in manufacturing QA for a known model, I can see why some people take the gamble.

But in effect, it appears that Nikon are selling their goods with an insurance policy to local retailers, but allow the sale of the basic product without insurance to specific channels in Hong Kong.

Akira:
Having encountered factory defects of the products of virtually all of the known manufacturers, I avoid at least grey market lenses and cameras.

Roland Vink:
If you do buy a grey market/parallel import camera or lens, only buy from a reputable dealer, and check their after-sales guarantee carefully. For complex the items, there is more to potentially go wrong, so I would lean towards the approved supplier who can better deal with any issues which occur. For items which are relatively simple or cheap, it might be worth taking a small risk and save a bit with a grey market supplier.

For what it's worth, my D600 (the model with shutter-splatter problem) was a parallel import. In the 5 years i had it, it continues to perform flawlessly, and I only needed to give the sensor a wet clean once, which I did myself.

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