Well there's your first bit of hookyness right there............issuing VAT invoices with a VAT number that belongs to someone else! Very norty
I take it you didn't see my previous post. VALIDHURST are HDEW it is mentioned all over their website including in there terms and conditions. Validhirst Ltd T/A HDEW Cameras. This is a very normal business practice I do this myself our holding company name is completely different form the businesses we trade under.
Also worth noting that HDEW have been around for 30 plus years. I think though that you seem to have other reasons for wishing to discredit them so maybe you should contact HDEW directly, ask for Paul he is the managing director and can answer any questions you might have.
It is also possibly unwise on your part to defame there company name in this way, they will likely see this thread as several of there members of staff are members here and I dare say there could be potential legal issues here with what you have said about them.
It is also possibly unwise on your part to defame there company name in this way, they will likely see this thread as several of there members of staff are members here and I dare say there could be potential legal issues here with what you have said about them.
Hell no! Absolutely not worth it! It's a totally false economy. You don't get a proper warranty [regardless of what they tell you] and even if you do, if it's not a genuine product, no sane repair centre will touch it with barge pole after the warranty period is up, which means if it goes wrong on the only thing you can do [unless you have a degree in micro electronics and optics] is throw it in the bin or trust it to a shady back room one man band repair shop...
Hell no! Absolutely not worth it! It's a totally false economy. You don't get a proper warranty [regardless of what they tell you] and even if you do, if it's not a genuine product, no sane repair centre will touch it with barge pole after the warranty period is up, which means if it goes wrong on the only thing you can do [unless you have a degree in micro electronics and optics] is throw it in the bin or trust it to a shady back room one man band repair shop...
Hell no! Absolutely not worth it! It's a totally false economy. You don't get a proper warranty [regardless of what they tell you] and even if you do, if it's not a genuine product, no sane repair centre will touch it with barge pole after the warranty period is up, which means if it goes wrong on the only thing you can do [unless you have a degree in micro electronics and optics] is throw it in the bin or trust it to a shady back room one man band repair shop...
But I do also agree with rob-nikon on this. If you're going to buy grey do research and check them out on trust pilot first [and never ever buy anything from Simply Electronics. They are total bandits...] and if they want to sue me for defamation I've still got the customs invoice for "Lithium ion battery packs" that was actually my camera, minus the charger and battery, ironically...
To put things in context I bought a my 5D MK3 from Simply Electronics back in 2012 [I hardly had any money, and desperately wanted one]. I've had it checked out it's all kosher, and it's been services by an approved canon service centre, but about 5 months after I bought it I had to send it back for repair. I sent them back everything as they requested, and got the camera back two months latter without the charger or battery which I ended up having to replace myself, along with a hefty customs bill for a package marked a "Lithium ion battery packs". The whole thing ended up costing me over £160 [which isn't far off what it would have cost to just pay to have it serviced]. Since then I only ever use approved retailers [and if I don't have the money I buy quality used goods] because I was actually lucky. I was talking to someone a while back who bought an import 7D, and after the warenty ran out sent it off for servicing only to have it returned because the serial number on the body didn't match the electronic's inside.
The problem is that there have been documented cases where they where not genuine...Or you can get it repaired and pay for it at a Canon repair centre. It is a genuine product. If you came from Japan to live in the UK and brought your 5d3 with you would you expect canon to refuse to repair it in the uk? Technically your camera is grey because you bought it in Japan but you wouldn't expect to have to throw it away if it needed a repair.
Moved to the appropriate forum for youOk, it appears that I can hope you enjoy my work
The problem is that there have been documented cases where they where not genuine...
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54367435despite being a 'master of google' i can't find any involving actual non genuine cameras - the closest i could find was
a) http://petapixel.com/2015/08/14/i-bought-a-fake-nikon-dslr-my-experience-with-gray-market-imports/ (genuine camera but with a fake serial number)
b) http://www.worldphotographyforum.com/showthread.php?t=7386 (another case of genuine camera fake serial - possibly the same case as (a)
c) http://petapixel.com/2015/11/23/canon-is-suing-gray-market-camera-gear-dealers/ (more fake serial numbers this time on a 5D )
d) http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54367435 (another false serial on a canon 5d3)
what is notable is that where importers are named in these cases none of them are the big boys of grey import we tend to talk about here such panamoz/digital rev/ hdew/kerso etc (I did find a case were D rev were accused of selling a used camera as new but that was just a cock up quickly rectified) - of the five dealers mentioned in those cases the only one i'd heard of before was simply electronics who as i mentioned before don't seem to have the greatest reputation.
The moral of this story is that when buying expensive kit grey or white market it pays to do your homework and check the reputation of the people you are trading with - if its extremly cheap but from someone no one has ever heard of then there is a much higher chance of it being snide or there being other problems than if it is sensibly discounted and from someone with a lot of recomendation of TP and other forums.
(edit the proviso to this that there are a lot of reports of fake SJ action cameras coming out of china but these arent really germane to discussion of grey import as SJ don't have a uk distributor so all the cameras fake and genuine are imports anyway)
what is notable is that where importers are named in these cases none of them are the big boys of grey import we tend to talk about here such panamoz/digital rev/ hdew/kerso etc (I did find a case were D rev were accused of selling a used camera as new but that was just a cock up quickly rectified) - of the five dealers mentioned in those cases the only one i'd heard of before was simply electronics who as i mentioned before don't seem to have the greatest reputation.
The moral of this story is that when buying expensive kit grey or white market it pays to do your homework and check the reputation of the people you are trading with - if its extremly cheap but from someone no one has ever heard of then there is a much higher chance of it being snide or there being other problems than if it is sensibly discounted and from someone with a lot of recomendation of TP and other forums.
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54367435
That's literally from the first search I did, and it took me seconds...
But I think you may actually have mentioned that one! It is actually what I was talking about. The electronic's for whatever reason, weather it's repackaged stollen equipment, or fake doest really mater. No repair center is going to touch it with a barge pole. Also if it is stollen then some pour guy's missing his probably treasured camera...
Doesn't change the fact that no service centre worth the money will touch it with a barge pole, and even if it's genuine, it's posibly stolen, so none of those options are great for whoever got that body realy, are they?so as i said not a fake camera then - but a genuine body with a faked serial number ... and actually a repair centre wouldnt care in the slightest they would just do whatever they are being paid to do... it wouldnt of course qualify for manufacturers waranty but grey imports rarely do anyway. So all in all not a shining example of best practice but also not the terrible picture you were trying to paint.
We are still waiting for the well docummented cases of the camera themselves being fake...
Since when do service centres check Camera serial numbers to see if they are lost or stolen?. The only time a service centre will check a serial number is to see if its within warranty.Doesn't change the fact that no service centre worth the money will touch it with a barge pole, and even if it's genuine, it's posibly stolen, so none of those options are great for whoever got that body realy, are they?
but a genuine body with a faked serial number
How does that hold water?
To be genuine it has to have all its 'bona fides' in place - if the serial number is fake then the camera is too, surely?
How does that hold water?
To be genuine it has to have all its 'bona fides' in place - if the serial number is fake then the camera is too, surely?
Just for future reference, if you pay for something faulty costing over £100 by credit card and Digitalrev (or any other supplier) don't play ball then you can just get the card company involved and get it refunded under Section 75. Not that it excuses Digitalrev in any way btw, I'm not apologising for them just trying to be helpful!
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases
Sadly I didn't pay by via credit card, at the time I didn't have one
nope - all the cases so far of DSLRs with fake serial numbers have turned out to be genuine manufacturer products with the serial number changed - I don't think we ever got to the bottom of why or by whom the serial was changed, but I don't remember seeing any reports of them turning out to be stolen (the genuine serial was showing up in the firmware so it would have been easy to check)
To be clear i'm no advocate of grey importing generally - ive been roundly chastised by the mods a couple of times for questioning the legality of the practice (my personal position is that i'm happy to buy from a reputable outfit overseas if, and only if, the goods are properly imported and not misdeclared or taxes evaded in any way), however I am also an advocate of fair play and criticising relatively reputable dealers without any substance to back the allegations of fake cameras up isnt really on either.
I get that new street had a bad experience with simply electronics - but its not really fair to tar firms such as hdew, kerso, D rev, panamoz etc with the same brush based solely on that
You can still do a charge back if you used a debit card, speak to your bank about it, you usually have 120 days from discovering the fault to make a claim
There is no difference - it has been said and illustrated many times
I have 0 issues buying a grey market camera from a trusted UK shop like Hdew. But I will never buy anything from DigitalRev which could get damaged in transit, after their poor customer service when a lens arrived damaged. It was damaged due to their poor packaging. I contacted them within about 20 minutes of it arriving. They refused to fix/replace it because it was not a manufacturing defect. The lens is usable but the auto focus is slightly off, it cannot use filters and the front lens is damaged.