gray market items?

[reemas]

im thinking about getting a rebel xt.ive found some good prices and they are said to be covered under full manuf. warranty inculding all parts and accessories. seems like a good deal to me.

but questions are:
1.) what is a gray market item?

2.) after or before receving the item, is there any way to check or confirm if the item is indeed canon original or gray market??


thanks all,
new to the forums and SLR

[pcasciola]

Gray market typically means it is not covered under the normal U.S. warranty because it is imported through some "un-official" distributors. If the Canon warranty card is missing, it's gray market.

[RDKirk]

im thinking about getting a rebel xt.ive found some good prices and they are said to be covered under full manuf. warranty inculding all parts and accessories. seems like a good deal to me.

but questions are:
1.) what is a gray market item?

Gray market means it was imported by someone other than Canon USA. It was imported by the retail dealer or some other entity, and therefore does not have the official Canon USA warranty. If it was a reputable dealer like B&H or Adorama, they will warrant it themselves--you would return it to them for service, and they would have it repaired either at one of many Canon-authorizes repair stores or at their own cost as a non-warranted repair at a Canon center.

Legally, Canon USA can refuse to do warranty work on a gray market item, but Canon's stated policy (according to Chuck Westfall to Bob Atkins) is to do warranty repair on any Canon item if purchased from an authorized Canon dealer (who also sells Canon USA imported equipment), with just the sales receipt as proof.

There is no quality difference in the equipment--it is all from the same assembly lines. Gray market equipment was just originally intended for export to Europe rather than the US. Sometimes Canon camera bodies will differ in name (for instance, "Rebel" is only used in the US. That camera is named "Kiss" in Japan and just goes by the model number in Europe).

2.) after or before receving the item, is there any way to check or confirm if the item is indeed canon original or gray market??

First, buy from a reputable dealer who clearly advertises equipment as gray or not. Second, if it has a Canon USA warranty card, it's officially imported.

[Andy_T]

Third,

watch out for shady resellers!

ALWAYS check www.resellerratings.com before odering anything!

There are a lot of tricksters out there (e.g. 'Royal Camera', 'A&M Photoworld' etc) that will put an offer in the newspaper offering the camera at a very low price.

However, when you order, they will try to convince you to order additional items (that they have taken out of the box before) that are grossly overpriced (e.g. it doesn't come with a battery ... get a battery for only US$ 300 :rolleyes: ) or tell you that the item you ordered is actually 'grey market' ... if you want to have the 'US version' (which is better, faster,etc. according to them), it will be $200 more expensive and so on...

Bottom line is that they will never ship the item at the price they quoted. If you steadfastly refuse ('YES, I want the grey market one, and NO, I don't want a battery, charger or cables to go with it') they will tell you that the camera is back-ordered and that you have to wait for 6 months to get it ...

So go with a legitimate seller. It's just not worth the hassle.

Best regards,
Andy

[pierrot]

B&H sell both "USA" and "Import" versions of a same item, and they are one of the trustworthiest sellers around.
First ones are "white" market, second ones "grey" market. Both types are manufactured in Japan, Taïwan or China, of course, and thus imported.
But the "USA" ones come with a Canon USA warranty, the "import" ones are imported by B&H from Canon Japan, and guaranteed by B&H (but actually serviced by Canon USA, too).
There is absolutely no risk in buying "grey market" gear from a well known reseller. And absolutely no difference in terms of quality of service. Even not in the way to benefit from tha warranty if needed : in both cases you'll have to return the defective goods to where you bought them. What happens then is transparent for you.

[PacAce]

B&H sell both "USA" and "Import" versions of a same item, and they are one of the trustworthiest sellers around.
First ones are "white" market, second ones "grey" market. Both types are manufactured in Japan, Taïwan or China, of course, and thus imported.
But the "USA" ones come with a Canon USA warranty, the "import" ones are imported by B&H from Canon Japan, and guaranteed by B&H (but actually serviced by Canon USA, too).
There is absolutely no risk in buying "grey market" gear from a well known reseller. And absolutely no difference in terms of quality of service. Even not in the way to benefit from tha warranty if needed : in both cases you'll have to return the defective goods to where you bought them. What happens then is transparent for you.
If you buy the "USA" version, you can send the Canon equipment directly off to one of the Canon USA repair centers for warranty work. You don't have to send it back to the store you bought it from and that will save you a couple of days in the repair turn-around time.