Recommend Photo shops NZ?

[hania]

My daughter currently lives in New Zealand and I thought it would be cheaper & quicker to buy her some camera equipment for Christmas in NZ rather than have it shipped from the UK.

I found photowarehouse.co.nz and tried to place an order but my credit card payment was declined. I contacted my credit card company who said my card was fine and no request for payment had been received for authorization.

Any idea why & can you recommend any other company?

[ThomGascoigne]

Cheaper to buy from USA then UK or NZ. Try B&H they can ship to Australia within 5 days, Not sure about NZ but I'd assume same.

[hania]

Cheaper to buy from USA then UK or NZ. Try B&H they can ship to Australia within 5 days, Not sure about NZ but I'd assume same.

Thanks - shall try them.

[joeseph]

best take into account importing goods over a reasonable amount will attract 12.5% GST (tax) I suspect anything over NZ$700 would come in for attention, not sure what the exact figure is but somewhere around that.

Photowarehouse isn't the most popular place for some reason (I think they're a bit expensive, and not the most helpful)

Couple of great places to look at though:
www.aucklandcamera.com - have a very good store and real people to talk to.
www.progear.co.nz - also a great bunch of guys and a bricks&mortor store and reasonable prices too.

both in Auckland - whereabouts is your daughter?
another place to check out NZ pricings is www.pricespy.co.nz which is basicly a web search engine for NZ gear - mostly I.T. but also covers camera gear. There are a fair amount of parallel-import companies so best prices need to be taken with a bit of caution in that the warranty for parallel imported stuff is always with the shop that they're bought from. it has been known to happen that a retailer shuts up shop, leaving any potential warranty claim high & dry. There's a whole gaggle of Kiwi's on POTN so feel free to ask away about any particular outfit as I'm sure someone will have something to say about any of them..

cheers

[xarqi]

Excellent post by joeseph - I concur fully with all of the points he made.

[tim]

www.wps.net.nz is the local store I use, but photo warehouse is good too. It's good to buy bodies locally, to get local support and warranty. Canon lenses all have international warranties so no bother there. www.photo.co.nz is another reliable store.