K100d or Canon powershot

[airconvent]

the low cost are due to grey sets. The local agent needs to support the warranty with a service centre and staff. the parallel importer need not. hence they can sell lower and still maintain the margin and worse, use the paying local agent's service centre to support their stuff. this is because all manfacturers support international warranty. so as long as they get a receipt stating it was bought overseas physically, it will be honoured.
situations not honoured is when you bought from online store...

 

[swing123]

the low cost are due to grey sets. The local agent needs to support the warranty with a service centre and staff. the parallel importer need not. hence they can sell lower and still maintain the margin and worse, use the paying local agent's service centre to support their stuff. this is because all manfacturers support international warranty. so as long as they get a receipt stating it was bought overseas physically, it will be honoured.
situations not honoured is when you bought from online store...

i wonder why can't shiriro complain to Pentax about the existence of this grey set sellers in Singapore, somemore doing it on sizeable scale basis...unless the distribution agreement that shiriro entered into with Pentax is not on "exclusive" terms......

being a sole distributor in a particularly country, i guess one will not tolerate the grey set importer leeching on its service center et all for obvious commercial reason....

 

[creampuff]

the low cost are due to grey sets. The local agent needs to support the warranty with a service centre and staff. the parallel importer need not. hence they can sell lower and still maintain the margin and worse, use the paying local agent's service centre to support their stuff. this is because all manufacturers support international warranty. so as long as they get a receipt stating it was bought overseas physically, it will be honoured.
situations not honoured is when you bought from online store...

The local agent needs to provide service support, but isn't this a condition for being awarded the distributorship by Pentax in the first place. Why would buying from an online merchant not be subject to international warranty as long as the paperwork is in order? If I buy from say Amazon.com, there is no warranty available? This is surely not the case.

i wonder why can't shriro complain to Pentax about the existence of this grey set sellers in Singapore, somemore doing it on sizeable scale basis...unless the distribution agreement that shriro entered into with Pentax is not on "exclusive" terms......

being a sole distributor in a particularly country, i guess one will not tolerate the grey set importer leeching on its service center et all for obvious commercial reason....

This is a globalised market. There is nothing illegal nor improper for the existence or sale of grey imports here. Grey importers are exploiting a gap in the market and their presence should get the local distributor to "wake up their idea" and do more to promote the products they are distributing locally. Ask yourself why the grey sellers can offer a good price? Not providing an authorised warranty is but one factor, but perhaps the grey importer were willing to commit to stock a larger volume and hence got an even lower unit price.

Pentax like any other company appoints a local agent to render service and minor repairs. Having more grey sets in need of local service should in no way make a difference for the local agent as they are rendering service on behalf of Pentax. If you were Pentax, why would you make a distinction between servicing a warrantied or grey camera or lens? The only difference is that if the item is out of warranty, it is liable to a service or repair fee.

Shriro would do well to beef up the availability of Pentax equipment among their authorised dealers. Just take a look at their list and ask yourself whether half the retailers on the list have ready stock of Pentax stuff sitting on their shelves. http://www.shriro.com.sg/authorised.htm

 

[swing123]

This is a globalised market. There is nothing illegal nor improper for the existence or sale of grey imports here. Grey importers are exploiting a gap in the market and their presence should get the local distributor to "wake up their idea" and do more to promote the products they are distributing locally. Ask yourself why the grey sellers can offer a good price?

I think it's pretty obvious isn't it....grey set importer need not bear the cost of maintaining service center, the marketing and promotion costs.....why would shiriro spent more money on promoting and marketing to spearhead the demand of Pentax cams when knowing that the return from those monies spent will partially benefit the others......

take Nokia for example.....their marketing model during initial stage in various countries used to be through authorised distributor who has exclusive rights in that country......due to the popular demand of nokia products, the so call grey set importer started mushroom-ing.....ended up with the distributor unwilling to spend more marketing monies despite Nokia subsidising part of promoting costs....Nokia subsequently changed its marketing model to its present set up that Nokia will be the one who wholly repsonsible for the marketing and promotion costs but in return, there is no more exclusive distributorships.....from Nokia point of view, there is no difference between local set or grey imported set, coz after all, still made by Nokia and profit from it.......i think canon is operating on the same model in most countries.....

it's chicken and egg for pentax....can't blame shiriro or even the previous distributor, JJ......

dun get me wrong, as a consumer i am more than happy to have wider and cheaper alternative in the market, as you correctly pointed out, this is free market.....

 

[creampuff]

Pentax as a brand will continue to be a small player unless the local distributor spearheads an aggressive approach in marketing, advertising, distribution, service and pricing of Pentax products. If I may I say so, the lacklustre efforts thus far is not going to put Pentax even on par with the likes of Sony, much less Canon or Nikon here. Pricewise, why is it that Pentax products can be found cheaper outside Singapore and with ready stock availability? All I can say is they can do a better job.