Help with a decision

[DalyanJC]

I am looking at purchasing a D5100 with the 18-55vr kit lens (I already have a af-s 70-300mm vr lens as I used to own a d40X before I sold it) when I return to the UK for a week at christmas, and I am trying to decide whether buying a grey import is going to be much of an issue to me regarding the warranty as I only get back to the UK a couple of times a year.

Because I live in Turkey I am able to claim the VAT back if I purchase from somewhere like Jessops or John Lewis etc and after taking the VAT off it would be about £540. However I could order online and get the camera for about the same price as this but from what I have read here it would probably be a grey import.

Buying here in Turkey the same camera costs about £740.

So do I go the shop route and go through the VAT reclaim or go the grey import route.

Thanks for any input.

 

[JohnN]

If its the same you may as well get it from a shop, although wouldn't you have issues with warranty from Turkey - sort of like a grey import in reverse?

 

[Yardbent]

a 'UK shop' will have stock for you to buy on-the-spot

an order to XYZ.com may mean they import themselves, and you wait 2 weeks

 

[DalyanJC]

If its the same you may as well get it from a shop, although wouldn't you have issues with warranty from Turkey - sort of like a grey import in reverse?

That is my dilemma as I normally only get back to the uk for a week at a time if I did have a problem I wouldn't be able to get it fixed before I flew back here. So I would probably have to pay to get any problems fixed here in Turkey regardless of where I bought it from.

I have never done a VAT reclaim before so don't know how easy that is to do.