Re: [Leica] Black Hole? Now grey market

[Michael Gardner <mlgardner99@earthlink.net>]

Maybe I'm wrong but I seem to remember that not all that long ago,
official Leica dealers,at least in the US, wouldn't be caught dead
selling grey market Leica gear.  It would seem reasonable to expect that
Leica USA would frown on any of their dealers peddling grey market along
side the Passport stuff.  At some point ( maybe after Herr Cohn assumed
the helm at Solms?) grey market started showing up everywhere.  Don
Chatterton, Tamarkin, etc. all have grey as well as Passport.  This has
to be with the consent of Leica  and may well have been seen as a
strategy to boost flagging sales.  It simply makes it a buyers choice:
save a few bucks and you pay for repairs or buy official and get the
good warranty.  This change in policy has to have boosted sales overall.

Mike Gardner

John Collier wrote:
> 
> A grey market lens is not a lens sold with an international warranty. A grey
> market lens is sold without any official warranty whatsoever.
> 
> The distributor buys product from Leica AG and profit from the sale of that
> item is used to pay for a number of expensive services we benefit from. The
> expense of maintaining parts and staff to service the cameras is one of
> those expenses. The distributor gets reimbursed at a unprofitable rate for
> warranty work done and is subject to penalties if excessive an amount of
> warranty work is claimed. In other words, the distributor does not make any
> money on warranty work and is lucky to break even but most likely loses
> money on each warranty repair. Again, part of the profit from the sale of
> the item is used to cover this cost.
> 
> Now how this next bit comes about is a mystery to me (perhaps Joseph or some
> other importer could enlighten us?) but some how people are able to buy
> product from Leica who are not official distributors (or the official
> distributor is somehow allowed to sell the item with no warranty). They
> maintain virtually no staff or any other expensive services that official
> distributors have to. This enables them to sell the product at a
> significantly lower price than any official distributor can. Leica must be
> complicit in this I do not know how else it could happen.
> 
> So there are three scenarios for an newish item that needs repair:
> 
> ONE - You bought if from the official distributor in the country you are
> trying to get it repaired in. There should be no problems and service should
> be reasonably expeditious depending on the quality of the distributor
> (Canada is fortunate). Leica AG will be billed directly.
> 
> TWO - You bought it from an official distributor but are trying to get it
> repaired through another country's official distributor. The repair
> department will verify with the other country's distributor and will bill
> the other country for the repair which will then be passed on to Leica AG.
> The work will not be as high a priority as there own warranty repairs.
> 
> THREE - You bought it grey market. The distributor will verify that the item
> is grey market. You will be billed for the full amount of the repair at
> retail rates not warranty rates. The work will be low priority.
> 
> Now, what should be happening? Leica should only supply official
> distributors and get rid of any distributors who sell any gear without
> warranty (again I do not know how this is happening). Leica should create a
> "professional sales" category where service is given number one priority at
> any official distributor in the world. This would not apply to mere mortals
> such as myself but professionals who are accredited by various sanctioning
> bodies.
> 
> John Collier
> 
> > From: "Frank Filippone" <red735i@earthlink.net>
> >
> > If the lens were grey market ( International Warranty)