Buying Canon gear overseas

mountainhouse

I believe Nikon USA charges extra to work on gear purchased overseas. Is there any similiar issue with Canon? For example, if I buy a piece of Canon gear while on vacation in the Caribbean, will Canon USA honor the warranty - assuming of course, that I have a valid receipt proving it's not grey market?

ziggy53

mountainhouse wrote:

I believe Nikon USA charges extra to work on gear purchased overseas. Is there any similiar issue with Canon? For example, if I buy a piece of Canon gear while on vacation in the Caribbean, will Canon USA honor the warranty - assuming of course, that I have a valid receipt proving it's not grey market?

It is my understanding that both Nikon and Canon have several regional markets that they sell to throughout the world. They customize the packaging and warranty to each marketing region. If you purchase in one region and try to get "in warranty" service in another region they may or may not honor the warranty and you may have to pay for services required which might otherwise be covered by the warranty in the region of purchase. Alternately you may have to send the items at your cost to the service center in the appropriate region and you may have trouble with customs in either or potentially both directions of shipping.

Also you may wind up having to pay duty on products purchased outside the USA when you try to enter the USA.

There is no absolute surety that you will be stopped or questioned regarding duty but you may be, as I understand the laws.

"Gray market" items are simply items purchased outside the local market region and the implications only apply to warranty and do not indicate any difference in the quality or suitability regarding the product itself.

I don't know what market or region the Caribbean belongs to. Canon Corporate lists the following market regions:

Americas
Europe/Africa/Middle East
Japan
Asia
Oceania

It is almost always to your advantage to purchase items in your home country to avoid hassles over warranty and hassles about duty. We had some discussion some time ago about whether or not it is a good idea to carry purchase paperwork with you to other countries and there were thoughts on both sides of the fence (as I recall.)

Manfr3d

The best thing you can do is call or email Canon/Nikon and ask them about their policy. Sometimes all they require is a worldwide warranty card (which you most likely only get from a reputable dealer) and sometimes they require you to show them you bought it in the country. Sometimes you need to send items for repair to the country where you bought (even with warranty card) and sometimes not. That's why it's best to ask them directly.

Photoskipper

As general rules, there are local warrenty and worldwide warrenty. Some product can enjoy worldwide warrenty for any manufacturing defects.

My experience is that most of the gears spoil or start to have problem only after the offical warrenty period. It makes me feel that those warrenty is useless at certain degree.

I used to order the Canon gears from NY and ship to my office outside NY so that it do not need to pay the 17% tax in NY. Then my friends ship it to Asia for me and I can save up to 20% of the cost compare to the price I suppose to pay at home.

For that 20%, it may covers the potential repair cost for the first one or 2 years. It works like the warrenty for me.

It may not apply to certain countries. Reader should check and study carefully before making any purchase overseas.