Grey Market

[ekessle]

I was at the Canon Lyndhurst repair location today and I heard the tech and the main counter rep state that they identified a camera as Grey Market and weren't going to repair it under warranty.

I have no skin in the game. I don't know if the person who's gear it was convinced them to do it as there were no other customers in the service center that I could see. Perhaps other locations are different or other techs are different. I am sure some people have had success.

Do what you will with this information.

Cheers,
-e

 

[Random Orbits]

I don't know how many people expect warranty repair for a grey market item that was clearly sold in a different region. The difference for me is that Canon will still repair it, even if it is grey. Nikon won't. I had a friend who had to furnish receipts before NikonUSA would repair her D800 that was damage by attaching a 3rd party grip; I don't think she mentioned attaching the 3rd party grip, but she had to pay for the repair. But the key difference is that Nikon would not touch it until she showed proof of purchase from an authorized dealer.

Personally, I've never had issues with Canon servicing any of my camera gear (dozens of Canon items over the years), but I've also never REALLY had a problem happen during the warranty period either. I had a 20D whose plastic pin under the hot shoe got stuck down. It was fixed under warranty and got stuck again (right after the warranty expired), so from then on I had to use an external flash. Subsequent models replaced the nylon pin with a metal one.

My 5D3 and 5D4 were bought grey, and Canon has serviced both (again, issues popped up outside of the warranty period).