disadvantage of grey set

[lcheowl]

You can still bring it there, just that they have the rights not to service it for you.

For Canon body and lens, and Sigma lens, whether it is grey or non-grey, they will still service for you at their normal rate stated in the web site. However for the non grey set, if it is still within the warranty period, it will be foc.

 

[konstrain]

i was just told by my friend that his 17-55 had some problems and he brought it to csc. the personnel told him his set is parallel import and retains his lens for investigation purposes. they even asked him where he bought his lens from.

as he's just a user, he doesn't even know that his lens was without local warranty.

For Canon body and lens, and Sigma lens, whether it is grey or non-grey, they will still service for you at their normal rate stated in the web site. However for the non grey set, if it is still within the warranty period, it will be foc.

 

[lcheowl]

i was just told by my friend that his 17-55 had some problems and he brought it to csc. the personnel told him his set is parallel import and retains his lens for investigation purposes. they even asked him where he bought his lens from.

as he's just a user, he doesn't even know that his lens was without local warranty.

As far as Canon is concerned, the warranty only applied in their own country, let say you bought the body or lens from canon Malaysia, and you brought to Singapore Canon for servicing, the 1 year warranty is not valid in Singapore, you have to pay the price stated in the web site, but will be FOC if you bring back to Malaysia for servicing if it is within the warranty period.

 

[edutilos-]

i was just told by my friend that his 17-55 had some problems and he brought it to csc. the personnel told him his set is parallel import and retains his lens for investigation purposes. they even asked him where he bought his lens from.

as he's just a user, he doesn't even know that his lens was without local warranty.

I don't think they are investigating where he bought it from... The usual procedure is to take the lens and assess how much repairs will cost, quote the customer before proceeding.

The only thing is that they will not do it for free since the lens is grey, there will be no local warranty.

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

I understand, but given that the customer may not have known that he was purchasing a grey set, i.e. no deliberate decision was made to get a product not meant for the local market... While this can be conveyed, the refusal to service grey products could be seen as unreasonable. After all, in this case a camera is much more complex compared to say a CD. I can see why a local music distributor refuses to entertain customers who have purchased a grey market CD - after all, it's a CD, and it's not from me - end of story... But for the camera, you can look at the body, replace the parts that are causing the complaint that the customer has highlighted, and charge the time and parts (even with a small profit) to them.

I guess it really depends on what the local entity views itself as - if it's part of the global Nikon brand, then certainly a Nikon product from China shipped to Singapore as a grey product is still coming from Nikon the brand.. I don't think it's fair to argue that all grey sets are by necessity factory rejects. But of course, if the company's primary priority is to ensure that it controls the market and the sole source of Nikon products is itself, then that's another story altogether. By creating an unconducive environment for grey sets, it ensures that maximum profit from Nikon product sales is achieved as there will be reduced competition from external sources.

Well, you feel that refusing to service a grey product is unreasonable, and I feel the same. But that is only my opinion.
All I'm saying is that I agree with the statement that the service centre has the right to refuse to service a grey set, for whatever reason it can come up with to justify.
As stated by others, there are numerous possibilities why a service centre would take such a decision. I merely hypothesized on one.

And nowhere did I state grey set = factory reject... please do not misquote me.