Buying "imported" at B&H instead of USA

[thekingb]

Hello everyone,
I have always bought USA warrantied lenses from B&H. Today I finally read the article on B&H's site that explains imported lenses versus USA warrantied lenses. See below for the link. Now I am wondering whether it makes any sense to buy the more expensive USA warrantied lens. If B&H warrants the imported lens for the same one-year period of time, shouldn't that be good enough? B&H is unlikely to go out of business anytime soon.

What do you think?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpCenter/USGrey.jsp

[HDNitehawk]

I wonder if you are a CPS member how grey market items would be treated after the one year warranty is up. Would they repair and still give discount.

I would trust B&H, but I still get the non import version when I buy.

[cyoung315]

I know I'm the new guy here with tons of questions but I'm big on word usage. That said, why does B&H use phrases like "... in almost every instance ..." and, "In most cases..." when explaining or attempting to explain the differences between Grey Market and US warranty covered items? The middle man involvement when warranty work is required seems like a potential annoyance with respect to time and possibly shipping expense, unless you have another lens to shoot with in the meantime. I'm left to wonder if its worth saving $20-$30. Now if the savings is in the hundreds of dollars, by all means, color me GREY!

[thekingb]

I'm left to wonder if its worth saving $20-$30. Now if the savings is in the hundreds of dollars, by all means, color me GREY!

Good point. In many cases the savings is small, and sometimes with rebates the USA version is actually less. But for some lenses (the more expensive Ls), the savings could be hundreds of dollars. The 70-300L, for example, is $100 less if you buy imported. I guess I'll have to make a game time decision when I'm ready to purchase a general purpose zoom.

[Dr Croubie]

One thing I've noticed when browsing (i've never bought lenses from B+H, only about $1k of tripod gear), is that whenever they have rebates or sales, it's only on the genuine USA stock, and with the rebate they end up cheaper than the grey-imports. So if you want something, and you don't need it straight away, it seems to be worth waiting to get the genuine stock cheaper-than-grey in the next sale.

That said, for me it's a non-issue, because I'm buying from Australia, so if I did buy from B+H I get no warranty anyway. There's a shop over here called JBHifi that have just started doing grey-market importing, and they're offering the same deal, no Canon warranty but JB warranty for a year. I can't comment on service here, but when my 7D needed fixing in The Netherlands, I called Canon and they said I *had* to go to the shop, so whether it's a shop-warranty or Canon warranty, it wouldn't have made a difference to repair turnaround-time.

Canon Aus CPS also won't recognise it for membership, you have to provide local-shop receipts for everything (ie, you can't even buy a few second-hand bodies to qualify, it has to be full-price over-inflated-Aus-price from a registered dealer), plus having to provide business details and whatnot. In short, CPS Aus is *only* for the top of the top pro photogs over here, no hobbyists allowed...

[Raid]

One thing I've noticed when browsing (i've never bought lenses from B+H, only about $1k of tripod gear), is that whenever they have rebates or sales, it's only on the genuine USA stock, and with the rebate they end up cheaper than the grey-imports. So if you want something, and you don't need it straight away, it seems to be worth waiting to get the genuine stock cheaper-than-grey in the next sale.

That said, for me it's a non-issue, because I'm buying from Australia, so if I did buy from B+H I get no warranty anyway. There's a shop over here called JBHifi that have just started doing grey-market importing, and they're offering the same deal, no Canon warranty but JB warranty for a year. I can't comment on service here, but when my 7D needed fixing in The Netherlands, I called Canon and they said I *had* to go to the shop, so whether it's a shop-warranty or Canon warranty, it wouldn't have made a difference to repair turnaround-time.

Canon Aus CPS also won't recognise it for membership, you have to provide local-shop receipts for everything (ie, you can't even buy a few second-hand bodies to qualify, it has to be full-price over-inflated-Aus-price from a registered dealer), plus having to provide business details and whatnot. In short, CPS Aus is *only* for the top of the top pro photogs over here, no hobbyists allowed...

Dr C
Was only just reading about this subject (we call it parallel imports), so here is the state of play.

http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and...l-imports.aspx

I hope that they free up our market so that Aus stops getting screwed.