D600: Is mine a grey import?

If the paperwork says Nikon Europe, then there are no warranty issues.

More worrying is the fact that it appears to have been opened. I'd not be happy with that.
 
Traubrey said:
All sorted, packed up and waiting collection.

Decided to call my local Nikon dealer who did me a good deal on a new D600 with a grip. He even registered the camera for the 2 year warranty whilst I did some shopping.

He looked at the photos I had taken of the one from Amazon and confirmed there was something amiss about it for a supposed UK supplied model. When I opened my new D600 box it only served to confirm it.

The real added bonus was that whilst I was waiting for him to confirm he could match a deal my eyes started wandering across the stock of Nikon gear behind the glass. After spending a day looking and calling about the increasingly rare 16-35mm lens with no luck (4-6 week lead time) one was sat there. I had a double take moment as my brain could not quite compute there was a hens teeth lens to buy. He even did a price match against Wex price for their non-existent.

So, what started out poorly has ended well.

Thanks for all your input. Let's hope this camera is worth it. :)

Have a good weekend.
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Excellent news, apart from it being an even more expensive day :clap:

Hope you enjoy your new lens as well as your new camera :thumbs:
 
Grey imports are imporst sourced from outside the EU, anything bought from within the EU gets a Nikon Europe warranty which Nikon will honour in any EU country.
 
Pookeyhead said:
If the paperwork says Nikon Europe, then there are no warranty issues.
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If the paperwork says Nikon Europe and it was not sourced from a UK supplier there is only 1 year warranty.

That would be an issue for me.
 
admirable said:
Sorry that's incorrect
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No it isnt, i bought a D300 about 3 years ago from that french based company (cant remember their name) and it was repaired on 3 seperate occasions by Nikon UK, twice through Lehmanns and once direct with Nikon UK themselves, i registered the camera on my Nikon pro account and it was never even questioned as the camera was bought in the EU, "grey market" equipment throws an error on the Nikon website when you try to register it.
 
Gary Coyle said:
No it isnt, i bought a D300 about 3 years ago from that french based company (cant remember their name) and it was repaired on 3 seperate occasions by Nikon UK, twice through Lehmanns and once direct with Nikon UK themselves, i registered the camera on my Nikon pro account and it was never even questioned as the camera was bought in the EU, "grey market" equipment throws an error on the Nikon website when you try to register it.
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I'm guessing your camera failed in the within the EU warranty period (1 year) and would have been repaired under the EU warranty. This still applies now if it fails in the first year it's covered, if it fails in the second year Nikon would not repair it as it was sourced from a non UK dealer.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Yes, but at the time Nikon weren't offering the 2 year warranty anyway on the D300.
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In that case you had a parallel import, not a grey import as the item you bought was the same spec/conditions/warranty etc as a UK sourced item.
 
admirable said:
But they are different, if you buy your D600 in France you only get 1 year warranty. If you buy it here you get 2 years warranty.

It doesn't matter if it's Nikon or Nissan, a grey import has something different between the UK supplied product and the imported product.

With a parallel import the spec is exactly the same.
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You really seem to enjoy being obtuse for no good reason. :shake:
It is NOT a GREY import as the UK is part of the EU.
Pentax's central distribution hub is in Belgium, chances are Nikon is similarly set up for logistical and cost reasons, rather than each country's ports (sea or air) receiving a separate shipment from the parent company's manufacturing plant(s) or warehouse.

Bringing cars into it, Honda UK defers to Honda Europe, where again in Belgium, parts are warehoused and shipped out on a 24 hr turnaround service.

The ONLY difference between the EU boxed versions, for completely logical and usability reasons, is the plug/mains cable.
All the paperwork will be in multiple languages for one very simple reason - efficiency, as it's one file to print off when stock is low.

If only you knew as much as you think you do, you'd not look silly arguing black was white.

As for France having a 1 year warranty - I don't think that's correct as the EU has a minimum mandatory 2 year warranty on all electrical/electronic devices.
We're slightly different in the UK due to Sale of Goods Act, but the onus on proving faulty from the outset switches to the buyer after 6 months, so it could be argued the Continent has it better.
 
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You may be right about the warranty in France/EU all my repair work was carried out in the first 2 month of ownership anyway.

There have been plans in place to bring the UK and EU into line with their elec regs, we work off 414 volts transformed down to 240 for domestic and the EU work off 385 transformed up to 220 volts, the plans will see everyone using 230 volts, you will see on many UK electrical items 230 volts
 
Yeah i thought that, haven't we been 230 for years?
 
PJ S said:
You really seem to enjoy being obtuse for no good reason. :shake:
It is NOT a GREY import as the UK is part of the EU.
Pentax's central distribution hub is in Belgium, chances are Nikon is similarly set up for logistical and cost reasons, rather than each country's ports (sea or air) receiving a separate shipment from the parent company's manufacturing plant(s) or warehouse.

Bringing cars into it, Honda UK defers to Honda Europe, where again in Belgium, parts are warehoused and shipped out on a 24 hr turnaround service.

The ONLY difference between the EU boxed versions, for completely logical and usability reasons, is the plug/mains cable.
All the paperwork will be in multiple languages for one very simple reason - efficiency, as it's one file to print off when stock is low.

If only you knew as much as you think you do, you'd not look silly arguing black was white.

As for France having a 1 year warranty - I don't think that's correct as the EU has a minimum mandatory 2 year warranty on all electrical/electronic devices.
We're slightly different in the UK due to Sale of Goods Act, but the onus on proving faulty from the outset switches to the buyer after 6 months, so it could be argued the Continent has it better.
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Now that we're reduced to the personal insults it'll not be long until I'm out of this thread or it gets closed.

As I have said in post 39 a grey import has something different about it compared to the same item purchased in the UK. It doesn't matter how small it is but there just has to be something different. You have admitted that there is a difference in the plug/mains cable and yet you don't agree it's not a grey import.

I'm quite happy to bring cars into it. It's not too long ago that a VW Golf SE imported/sourced from Germany did not have rear electric windows whilst the UK version has rear electric windows as standard. This made the German version a grey import. If it had rear electric windows as standard it would have been a parallel import.

I'm not sure you are grasping the difference between grey import and parallel import.

As for the French two year warranty, the Nikon website would suggest you are incorrect on that point too.

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/service_support/Support_2_Warranty.page

First time I've ever been on the Nikon site..............no worries, I was wearing gloves as I typed the 'N' word in the address bar. :lol:
 
Twist ;-)
My 'grey import' D600, bought from Hong Kong has a UK adapter.... I think it varies really...
 
rjbell said:
Yeah i thought that, haven't we been 230 for years?
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Not as such, weve been in discussion for about 20 years about getting EU wide standards, as all our 240 volt equipment falls within allowable tolerances it can be listed as 230 volts, however it is still in reality 240.

Only chipped in about this as only this morning i was told about it in a H&S meeting by our companies head of Electrical Maintainance
 
Traubrey said:
...I'm more happy now as a local shop gets my money and i have peace of mind. Paid a little more but it was worth it...
Ray
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If you were more concerned about the local shop than the cost shouldn't you have bought it there in the first place? :thinking:
 
This is an interesting topic guys as something quite strange happened to me this week.

I bought a D600 from Panamoz back in October 2012 and only got around to adding it along with a couple of other lenses (both bought second hand) to my Nikon account online this week, just in case I ever need to call upon the NPS service. I entered the serial number and purchase date (9/10/12), assuming that Nikon would flag my camera up as a grey import.

Much to my surprize I recieved an email back from Nikon the next day quoting this:

"Dear Mr. Dafis,

Thank you for your custom and choosing Nikon, we can confirm that your item has now been successfully registered; please find enclosed your certificate for second year warranty cover.

Kind Regards,

Nikon UK Service Dept."

The attached Warranty certificate then quoted the purchase date as the 1/1/2013 and that the 2nd year warranty would run from the 1/1/2013 to 1/1/2014. BUT, they also have a caveat that "The original purchase date will need to be verified by providing a valid VAT receipt or other evidence when requesting warranty service."

I wonder if they would still proceed with the warranty when they see "Panamoz" on the receipt??
 
Jackwow said:
If you were more concerned about the local shop than the cost shouldn't you have bought it there in the first place? :thinking:
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What I actually wrote was I am happier now because the local shop gets my money. It was phrased as a bonus as I like to support independent shops. When the price was £200 different it is much more difficult and impossible to justify but Nikon are now helping out with some offers (hence the deal). I paid £75 more but was happy to as I have peace of mind and they sold a camera, grip and lens for nearly £2,500. Everybody won.
 
Aledafis said:
I wonder if they would still proceed with the warranty when they see "Panamoz" on the receipt??
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They might disallow it for warranty repair upon the Panamoz receipt being submitted, but the receipt is only to show the date the item was purchased, since that's when the warranty will start, not when you bother to register it - although Nikon make it a stipulation to do so within 30 days to benefit from the 2nd year's coverage.
 
Aledafis said:
I wonder if they would still proceed with the warranty when they see "Panamoz" on the receipt??
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Looking at the Nikon website I think you will struggle?

When making a warranty claim you must provide proof of purchase, European warranty card (provided in box) and extended warranty certificate (which will be received after registering within the welcome pack).

 
PJ S said:
They might disallow it for warranty repair upon the Panamoz receipt being submitted, but the receipt is only to show the date the item was purchased, since that's when the warranty will start, not when you bother to register it - although Nikon make it a stipulation to do so within 30 days to benefit from the 2nd year's coverage.
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To be honest I really hope that I never need to use the warranty, but it would be great if my 2nd year warranty was worth anything.:shrug::shrug:

Just to add to the whole charger issue, my Panamoz sourced camera came with a UK 3 pin plug.
 
Aledafis said:
This is an interesting topic guys as something quite strange happened to me this week.

I bought a D600 from Panamoz back in October 2012 and only got around to adding it along with a couple of other lenses (both bought second hand) to my Nikon account online this week, just in case I ever need to call upon the NPS service. I entered the serial number and purchase date (9/10/12), assuming that Nikon would flag my camera up as a grey import.

Much to my surprize I recieved an email back from Nikon the next day quoting this:

"Dear Mr. Dafis,

Thank you for your custom and choosing Nikon, we can confirm that your item has now been successfully registered; please find enclosed your certificate for second year warranty cover.

Kind Regards,

Nikon UK Service Dept."

The attached Warranty certificate then quoted the purchase date as the 1/1/2013 and that the 2nd year warranty would run from the 1/1/2013 to 1/1/2014. BUT, they also have a caveat that "The original purchase date will need to be verified by providing a valid VAT receipt or other evidence when requesting warranty service."

I wonder if they would still proceed with the warranty when they see "Panamoz" on the receipt??
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Never actually needed to show proof of purchase but im a Nikon Pro services member and my gear is all registered direct with Nikon, obviously that doesnt apply for items ive bought used.

Some folk get Nikon Pro services membership mixed up with Nikon Pro user membership, 2 totally different things.
 
admirable said:
Looking at the Nikon website I think you will struggle?

When making a warranty claim you must provide proof of purchase, European warranty card (provided in box) and extended warranty certificate (which will be received after registering within the welcome pack).
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See my post above
 
Gary Coyle said:
Never actually needed to show proof of purchase but im a Nikon Pro services member and my gear is all registered direct with Nikon, obviously that doesnt apply for items ive bought used.

Some folk get Nikon Pro services membership mixed up with Nikon Pro user membership, 2 totally different things.
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Aha! I've just found out that I'm one of those folk!:withstupid:
 
I've also had a look in the camera box, and it looks like my camera was destined for the European (UK) market even though it came via Panamoz, the instruction manual is in English only and is about A5 in size (and about 15mm thick!), the ViewNX2 CD/DVD is an "EUR" disk and although I don't have a warranty card, there's a leaflet that outlines the "Nikon Europe Service Warranty" in just about every language I can think of (except Welsh ;-))

So, by the looks of it, I have a D600 destined for the UK, via Panamoz, but without the European warranty card. Which is exactly what I paid for so I mustn't grumble.

Cheers
Aled
 
Gary Coyle said:
:lol::lol: Just re read your post where you say NPS member, bang my head for being a numpty. :bonk:
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Yes, that should have said NPU!

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/pro/Pro_NPU.page

Which clearly states

"As a member of the Nikon Professional Users Scheme* , you can take advantage of many benefits. This is different to our Professional Services Scheme for professional photographers."

Oh well, it still gets me a magazine with pretty pictures every few months.
 
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admirable said:
Now that we're reduced to the personal insults it'll not be long until I'm out of this thread or it gets closed.

As I have said in post 39 a grey import has something different about it compared to the same item purchased in the UK. It doesn't matter how small it is but there just has to be something different. You have admitted that there is a difference in the plug/mains cable and yet you don't agree it's not a grey import.

I'm quite happy to bring cars into it. It's not too long ago that a VW Golf SE imported/sourced from Germany did not have rear electric windows whilst the UK version has rear electric windows as standard. This made the German version a grey import. If it had rear electric windows as standard it would have been a parallel import.

I'm not sure you are grasping the difference between grey import and parallel import.

As for the French two year warranty, the Nikon website would suggest you are incorrect on that point too.

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/service_support/Support_2_Warranty.page

First time I've ever been on the Nikon site..............no worries, I was wearing gloves as I typed the 'N' word in the address bar. :lol:
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Regarding VW domestic specification differences, you could then apply the same to any TV destined for the French market, since they operate on SECAM standard, not PAL nor NTSC, but no-one would ever claim a Panasonic/Sony/Samsung Plasma/LCD was a grey import, would they?

Applying that to this scenario would be akin to saying all products destined for the EU, need to have a slight difference in package contents in order to work as intended.
Again, as I've pointed out, with the UK being part of the EU, the difference in plug type within the box cannot constitute it as being seen as a grey import.


Not sure I get where you're going with the VW analogy/example. :shrug:
I referred to Honda UK having to accept models that Honda Europe decided the European market was getting. Anyone wanting an Accord Euro R had to GREY import it directly from Japan, although some were assisted with acquisition, depending on who you were, and who you knew at Honda.

All that aside, I fear we're disagreeing on a false premise!
I've held a belief grey and parallel were separate entities based on being approved/sanctioned by the manufacturer or official distributor - but it would seem the terms are interchangeable and referring to the same action of importation without the consent of the Trademark/IP holder (the manufacturer).

http://www.inta.org/Advocacy/Pages/ParallelImportsGrayMarket.aspx
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/.../iturraldegonzalez_raul_200911_LLM_thesis.pdf - page 38

On the basis this is getting too complicated to resolve and has taken the thread off topic far enough, I'm bowing out, and retract my previous comments besmirching your character.
 
Grey/gray market and parallel market are the same thing.

Anyway, don't know if this is of note, but a mate asked me to find a D7000 battery charger for him and everything, including the one on the Nikon UK website, shows a charger with a two-pin plug on the flex. I know the one I have had a three- pin on the end.... strange.
 
specialman said:
Anyway, don't know if this is of note, but a mate asked me to find a D7000 battery charger for him and everything, including the one on the Nikon UK website, shows a charger with a two-pin plug on the flex. I know the one I have had a three- pin on the end.... strange.
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That's just like the packs of cold meat that used to have 10 slices but now have 7, or the ever shrinking curly wurly. Nikon can save money but still charge the same amount for it even though they've chopped 1/3rd of the pins off! :lol: :p
 
And why not, doesn't need earthed.
 
if it is a return and has been tried out it will have had the date and time zone set before it could be used.
out of the box an untouched nikon will require these fields to be set before use.
register with nikon, then send an e-mail to them asking if it is grey or not. they will usually respond within two days.
 
Traubrey said:
Hi

Thanks for all your considered responses.

Called Nikon and they said the warranty card shows it is European stock, thus it is not a grey import.

The 3 pin adapter means that it was either sourced in Europe or was destined for the European market.

They confirmed that something is not right with the amount of paperwork that was rattling around in the box. Possibly a returned item.

It is definitely going back as something is amiss.

Thanks again. Helped to put my mind at rest. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ray
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evan47 said:
if it is a return and has been tried out it will have had the date and time zone set before it could be used.
out of the box an untouched nikon will require these fields to be set before use.
register with nikon, then send an e-mail to them asking if it is grey or not. they will usually respond within two days.
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specialman said:
Grey/gray market and parallel market are the same thing.

<snip>
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No, grey and parallel are different though the terms are often interchanged and in the photo market technically there are no 'grey' imports - they're all parallel.

A grey import, such as in common in automotive markets, is not the same spec. Eg motorcycles that have kph speedos and headlights that dip the wrong way were common in the 90s. It has nothing to do with where they've come from.

In fact we're talking about parallel imports here as the actual product is 100% identical in all markets. Chargers etc may vary by territory, but that's all. The only other difference is Canon (and others) markets some DSLRs as Rebel and Kiss specifically to combat this problem, unsuccessfully it seems, but apart from that the actual cameras are exactly the same.

Edit: interesting comments from Nikon re registering cameras with them. It looks like checking every product on registration isn't worth the admin hassle but when it comes to a warranty claim they will do the check then, and if you can't come up with the right answers you will have to pay. It's all a bit of a mess, and getting messier.
 
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HoppyUK, it seems terminology and common reference to grey/gray and parallel is a minefield in itself.

HMRC see it like this:
"Goods manufactured with the consent of the right-holder, but marketed without such consent, sometimes also referred to as 'parallel trade' goods."

My head is starting to hurt :lol:
 
specialman said:
HoppyUK, it seems terminology and common reference to grey/gray and parallel is a minefield in itself.
HMRC see it like this:
"Goods manufactured with the consent of the right-holder, but marketed without such consent, sometimes also referred to as 'parallel trade' goods."

My head is starting to hurt :lol:
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Certainly is, but grey or parallel or whatever is not really the key question - the important point is whether the UK distributor will carry out warranty repairs FOC.

And the answer to that a) varies by manufacturer, and b) changes. The only 100% guarantee is to provide a recepit from a retailer with both a UK address and a VAT number. Anything less than that is governed by legislation and also distributors' discretion - the bit that changes.

In recent years, distributors have, generally, tended to turn a bit of a blind eye to grey/parallels to keep customers happy, and for example, if you've come from Japan to the UK for the trip of a lifetime you need to get your broken camera fixed pronto. Those kinds of customers will always get looked after I think.

But the wave of purchases now coming in to UK buyers/residents is turning into a flood. The UK distributor has not received a bean of sales revenue from them, and neither has Her Maj's coffers received any duty or VAT monies. Understandably, patience is wearing thin and, I expect, will wear thinner as this trade grows.

Manufacturers could sort it all out if they really wanted (they know full well the supply routes these goods are taking) and the government should really plug the loopholes that allow goods to be sold perfectly legally without paying VAT. Probably all tied up with EU legislation, but this problem is not just common to the UK.
 
Does it matter if it was imported or not. The warranty is European right? So does it make any difference.
 
z101 said:
Does it matter if it was imported or not. The warranty is European right? So does it make any difference.
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Most of this grey stuff originates from outside the EU, mainly East Asia, Hong Kong etc. Some sellers appear to be concealing the source and also swap out foreign language handbooks. Chargers are usually multi-voltage and it's an easy 99p job to change a 2-pin lead for any third-party UK plug with a figure-8 socket.
 
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