Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I hate to open the official/grey debate again but :-) Buying a camera from any official distributor through their regular dealers will give you an official warranty honoured world wide. The passpost warranties are actually insurance schemes and each distributor offers their own as insurance laws vary from country to country (one reason away). So if you require service during the normal warranty period, any distributor's repair depot will be able to help you. If you require service only available under the terms of your passport warranty, then the item will have to back to the repair depot of the distributor it was purchased through. Grey market is something entirely different. Some one with deep pockets, our grey marketeer, orders a ton of stuff from Leica. Leica agrees to sell outside their normal distribution channels because they are greedy. Our grey marketeer has lower costs because they have little or no staff, no parts, no minimum stock, no area reps, no or minimal repair depot, no advertising: none of the things required by Leica from their official distributors. I have heard, though I do not know if it is correct, that Leica is no longer dealing, or slowly eliminating dealing, with grey marketeers. This is a smart business strategy in my opinion. A good deal of ill will has been generated in the past by people who were disappointed in the difficulty of getting warranty service after purchasing grey market goods. John Collier On Oct 24, 2004, at 6:06 AM, Karen Nakamura wrote: > I guess I'm a victim of the "don't buy grey-market" propaganda from > Leica NJ. They had me convinced that cameras bought outside the USA > didn't come with Passport. That's certainly the case for Asian Leicas.