" Gray Market" ?

[NMyTree]

What does "Gray Market " mean?

I was skimming through some Parasound gear on ebay, and saw someone selling a Halo piece, and he claimed it wasn't refurbished or Gray Market.

I guess I'm naive here, but I have no idea what that means.

[Kevin P]

I think "gray market" means it wasn't sold by an authorized Halo reseller, and thus ineligible for warranty service.

[David Meek]

Correctamundo Mr. Kevin. Having been the victim of a gray market purchase, I can sincerely tell you it isn't something you want to do if you can avoid it. If your purchase is $100 or so then that's one thing, as you can probably stand to replace the item if it breaks. Mine was almost $3000 and it has hurt when I needed to have a repair done.

FWIW, I was part of a group purchase started on another forum (several years ago) and the rat bast**d pulled several of us in.

[NMyTree]

Thanks guys. Appreciated!

I wasn't looking to or planning to buy anything on ebay, I was just looking around. I came across that auction and was puzzled at the term.

I have been enlightened :B

Sorry to hear that happened to you David.

[Kemp]

We have a company here called Hi-Fi Corporation that only deal in gray products. The latest name they give this same products is "Parallel Import". What happens in a lot of cases is that they would get the product from somewhere which doesn't use the same power that we use (230v) and then just replace the power supply with the cheapest they can get. Needless to say that sometimes when you walk past shop, the repair queue seems longer than the buy queue. Some people just wouldn't learn in the endeavour to save an extra buck in the short term.

[Lex]

I bought a Nikon digital camera once from online, and instead of an owners manual it camed with a xerox copy of the manual and a CD-R of the installation disc. I was really ticked off about that. At least the camera was ok though.

Oh, the reasoning I guess is, they can't trace anything on the product without manuals in languages. At least I think that's what it is.

Lex

[Cowanrg]

how does that saying go again, i think its something like "you get what you pay for."

[mark4x4]

Gray market products are products manufactured for other countries. Many of the products may look the same on the outside but they could have different specs. Even if the product is made for the US market many manufacturers will only honor the warranty if it's purchased from an authorized dealer and many on the internet are not. Some will honor the warranty just as long the product is made for the US market. I would check their policy before you buy, saves allot of heartache. Manufactures know what market they are made for by the serial number of the product.

Regards,
mark4x4

[posix]

I thought warranties were international?

What happens if you move to singapore for a few months and buy a piece of kit there, then you go back home and after a few months something breaks? You telling me your local distributor can refuse to repair it under warranty? Yeah, right...

[Andrew Pratt]

Posix...that's exactly what would happen for most companies...if they stuck by their guns. If you look at the warranty wording most state that they are regional and not valid outside that region.

[spirited]

Grey Market

When I was a photographer, I often thought about buying my Nikon stuff over the net and save some money. I called Nikon to know if the warranty would be honored, and they told me that if it breaks don't bother bringing it in. The reason being Grey Market items are ILLEGAL in Canada.

[ThomasW]

I thought warranties were international?

Actually they are and .....

When traveling I've purchased photography gear (Cannon and Nikon) from overseas retailers and brought it back into the US.

I've never had any problems getting service.

[posix]

"Gray market" is only marketing speak by local distributors.

It is PERFECTLY legal for you to buy stuff from abroad and bring it back into the country where you live. That is exactly why CUSTOMS exist - to make sure you paid your dues to your homeland. If it was illegal they'd just confiscate all your gear, now wouldn't they?

I'm sure if you have problems with warranty to consult your local citizens advice bureau or just tell the manufacturer that all your future correspondence will be dealt with by your solicitor and listen out for any unarticulated noises coming from the other end of the line. But make sure you're polite at all times.

One thing that they MAY decide to do is tell you to turn to the local distributor of the country where you purchased the goods for help. Cars, for example, are one area where they could possibly do that (ECU set-up for local petrol/gas or whatever excuse they can come up with) but hi-fi...hmm difficult.

Gray market definition:

ONE area where an item may be declared a grey market item (and rightly so) is for example where a product is aimed at a particularly low per-capita income market and the price is highly reduced so people can afford it.

If an amp, for example, costs $100 in the us, it might be something closer to $20 in india. Now if a large us-based retail chain decided it doesn't want to deal directly with the us distributor and pay the $100 price but instead go to the indian distributor and pay $20 per item and bring back the kit (loads of it) to the states that would mean gray market. THAT'S where they could refuse to honour your warranty but in that case I would assume the guarantee would be given by the retailer and not the manufacturer/distributor. But that's corporate stuff, nothing you as a consumer should concern yourself with. You can always sue the bastard you bought the kit from and get satisfaction

[spirited]

Grey market

Posix, I think you misunderstood me. Grey market items are ILLEGAL for sale inside Canada. You can bring in whatever item you want from around the world. When I asked Nikon a few years ago about honoring the warranty on a camera or a lens, they said: Don't bother bringing it in.

[posix]

Oh yes, sorry, that could be the case. There's a well-known "Silhouette" case in europe as well which talks about the same thing. And that's fine.