Grey Market
What seems like a good deal at first glance often hides another story beneath the surface. Our suppliers are authorized distributors.
Legitimate Canadian products come with different instructions, warranty cards and accessories than versions intended for sale in other international markets.
Grey Market Online Shopping
What seems like a good deal at first glance often hides another story beneath the surface...
Photo Service only does business with distributors approved by the manufacturers, regardless of the location of their head office. Canadian distributors are the only ones to provide after-sales service and technical support for these products. While legitimate goods are imported and stocked by our distributors, imported grey goods have often changed hands multiple times. Often, imported grey products have been removed from their protective packaging and stored in less than optimal conditions, which can affect the performance and life of the product. In addition, miscellaneous components in the product packaging may not be original contents, such as charger, battery, wiring, etc. If they are replaced to be sold separately, those that replace them will be of very low quality.
You can easily imagine that it is common practice and much easier for a reseller outside Canada to send a product that has already been sold but repackaged to a Canadian customer than to a customer in their own country. It is much easier for a merchant to dispose of the returned product by taking it out of the country than to sell it in their own country.
In summary, grey importers can or may only offer lower prices than legitimate retailers due to questionable practices.
Grey market words to watch out for
Grey market products are usually sold online at a discount. Watch for the following words which often indicate that a product comes from the grey market.
- Imported model
- EP (Professional Edition)
- Warranty via reseller
- Warranty/International version
- Grey market
- USA dealer warranty
- Out of market
- Direct import
- USA dealer coverage
- Reseller warranty
Grey market products may contain a limited dealer warranty, but are NOT covered by our distributors' Canadian warranty. Any product purchased from an unauthorized Canadian retailer will not be repaired under warranty regardless of the repair required. If you have any doubts regarding your possible purchase of products, contact us. Any product with a missing or invalid serial number is considered a “Tampered Product” and therefore any manufacturer warranty is void. In fact, equipment purchased from B&H OR other retailers in the USA such as Amazon Center Drone or Amazon Maple Leaf, OR any other merchant reseller not authorized by the manufacturer such as retailers on Best Buy's Market Place in Canada, are not recognized by the distributor, therefore no Canadian warranty will be covered and charges will be applied to any repair of these products.
In summary
- You are not covered by any warranty.
- Manufacturers do not recognize the grey market.
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