Cotswold cameras

Kieran_89

Kieran_89

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Hi all,

Is this company legit? I take it because of their cheap prices, they are an importer of camera equipment in the UK?

Looking at the 16-35 GM for Sony and they are mostly £500 cheaper than anywhere in the UK.
 
Kieran_89 said:
Thought so, have you used them before? Avoid or are they pleasant to deal with?
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I haven't no. I rarely use grey importers, I normally resort to them when I can't source something in the country for long periods of time.

But I hear good things about them though on this forum.
Though I hear e-infinity is the cheapest one if the lot.
 
I have just had a look at their website and what popped up was an offer to increase a guarantee period for Nikon to 5 years. Nikon are well known for not honouring guarantees for their goods not imported into UK by them, I wonder how they get around that?
 
I vaguely remember them having a physical shop in Cheltenham. Strictly online now though.
 
darkroom12 said:
I have just had a look at their website and what popped up was an offer to increase a guarantee period for Nikon to 5 years. Nikon are well known for not honouring guarantees for their goods not imported into UK by them, I wonder how they get around that?
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It's probably a third party warranty rather than Nikon's own.
 
Retune said:
It's probably a third party warranty rather than Nikon's own.
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Yes probably there is a Nikon Camera on there but no Nikon Logo on the advert for the guarantee. Similar companies have a bit of a habit of being there one day and then boarded up the next. No not for me. It is all to easy to work from home with a business and dissapear. I wonder if they are registered at Companies House.
 
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Yes they are registered to that address. The Co. owner is David Fleet. Looking at google maps that address is a very nice detached bungalow, certainly not what you would expect as a business address.
I don't think I will ever use them.
 
Fixataion are approved Nikon repair shop, perhaps they will send the cameras there and just foot the repair Bill themselves?
 
You can see their accounts on the Companies House website and as far as some companies go their statement of accounts only shows a minimal amount.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Payments are taken by Cotswold Cameras Ltd company number 09101906.
Registered company Address
39 Swinderby Road
Collingham
Newark
Nottinghamshire
NG23 7PH
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I don't know about that, but they've definitely got a place in Cheltenham.
 
The Cheltenham shop is 'Cotswold Cameras'
Other businesses are called 'Cotswold Cameras limited' and 'Cotswold Cameras Company Limited'
There may well be more variations and other companies!
The Newark business (Cotswold Cameras Limited) has a value of minus £2,843 with no other financial details available.
 
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FWIW This is my experience with Cotswold Camera - I will try to keep it as brief as possible..

So December 2019 I decided to buy a decent Camera and after lots of research settled on the Nikon D500 , I looked online and was amazed at the Difference in prices ( I had NO CLUE what a grey product was ) anyway I settled on Cotswold Camera for the purchase, picked the D500 + 50mm Lens and paid Via Credit Card on 18th Dec 2019 ..

I was expecting the Camera within 2 weeks ,, Nothing came , No response to e-mails for weeks .. I contacted them constantly and eventually received an Automated response, still no clear explanation of where the camera and lens were or even if they had been posted.

4 weeks passed then 5 , 6 , 7 ... and I simply gave up with the thought that at least I paid by credit card and so decided to wait another week then start proceedings to recover the funds .. 3 days into the 8th week an email arrived to say the Camera and Lens had been dispatched .,

Eventually 9 weeks Later I received the Camera and Lens nicely packaged Phew

In my experience their customer care was horrendous to say the least ..

Would I buy another grey product ? YES I would
Would I purchase from Cotswold Camera ? absolutely NOT .. my decision is solely based upon their pretty much non existent contact with me , at one time I considered the possibility that I had been scammed ...

I have learned a lot in my first year of photography and most of that knowledge came via shed loads of research and from places like this ..
I take full responsibility it was my Naivety and not knowing about grey products as I’d never done anything like this before ..

Now that I’m a whole lot wiser and I fully understand the pro’s and con’s of Grey products I would do things a lot differently..

Coho-Blue
 
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