DVX100A Rebate – Online Retailers

[Tim Scarpino]

Be careful of prices that low if you are in the United States.. As has been discussed much in various fora, some US retailers deal in “gray” market gear, that is equipment intended to be sold in
non-US markets. For example, in another forum, a person in the US complained about getting a great price on the DVX, only to find out all the camera controls were labled in Japanese. And, the Rebates are good only through AUTHORIZED Panasonic dealers.

If the price is too good to be true, it more than likely is….

Cheers,

Tim

[Tom Adams]

i just bought one yesterday. I spent about three days researching the .com places to buy. I ended up going with beach camera, they have the best buyer reviews matached with the best price. I was tempted by pro feel but they had some pretty bad reviews. DON’T buy from ritepricephoto.com. they’re theives. don’t buy from abe’s of maine…

i was surprised to see that b&h was about 300 more than beach and they both have very good customer services reps…

hope this helps.

Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA
1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.3.9, FCP 4.5 HD

[Barry Green]

None of the dealers mentioned in that post is an authorized dealer. And buying from any of them, you run the risk that your rebate will not be valid.

Only authorized units sourced from Panasonic US are eligible for the rebate.

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)

[Tom Adams]

barry,

yowza . good point. figures…I did a lot of research but forgot about your poin. i hope i didn’t just screw myself out of $500. Do you have any idea of my chances of actually getting the rebate since I bought from beach?

i should have checked here first. damn.

Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA
1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.3.9, FCP 4.5 HD

[Barry Green]

If the package you receive includes the DVX Book/DVD and the Magic Bullet Editors software in the box, then there’s a pretty good chance it’ll qualify for the rebate.

If it doesn’t have one or the other of those items in the box, then there’s no chance it will qualify.

You can find out pretty quickly by going to Panasonic’s site and applying for the rebate on-line; it’ll tell you if you have an invalid serial number (which means a gray-market version).

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)

[Pipito]

has anyone actually got the $500 rebate???? I bought 2 cameras from B&H about 2 months ago.

felipe
VTM Productions

[Tom Adams]

I did a little more searching …not sure if it was on this site or not and saw a post from a panasonic rep (in august?) saying that they apologized but they had some other major promo going on and it was taking all of their resources or something like that. It just mentioned that there might be delay in getting out the goods. It was a honest message that seemed to be saying just sit tight and you’ll get the rebate.

Regards,
Tom Adams – Director/Owner
Reelife Documentary Productions
“cool digital video stuff…not boring or dumb”
info@reelifeproductions.com http://www.reelifeproductions.com
Williamsburg, MA, USA
1.4Ghz DP mirrordoor G4
OS10.3.9, FCP 4.5 HD

[Barry Green]

On other forums many people have reported that the rebate checks arrived, but that it took a while for the other goodies (box of tapes, big battery) to be sent. But there are numerous reports that they’re actually arriving now…

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)

[Frosch]

I just broke down and ordered mine from B&H. Hopefully I’ll be able to grab the rebate since it was purchased before 10/31. It says you can on their website.
At first, I tried going the cheaper route from some of the other dealers off eBay, but my experiences with them weren’t good.
It appears the camera has to list for a suggested retail price to qualify for the rebate. Alot of those cheaper retailers fall below that price. Plus, some claim to have the DVX in stock, but they don’t.

[Barry Green]

It’s not the price that does it, it’s that it has to be an actual US-sourced unit which was received and inventoried by Panasonic US, and then sent to an authorized dealer (like B&H, Armatos, Full Compass, Abel, Birns & Sawyer, etc).

Places like Beach and Broadway and USAPhotoNation cannot buy their product from Panasonic — they’re not authorized dealers. So they buy what they can find, where they can find it — that may include importing them from South America, or Japan, or who knows where. That’s called “gray market”. And if you, a US customer, buy a Japan-market camera, you won’t have a warranty here, and you won’t qualify for the rebate, because it’s not a US unit. If you need warranty work you’ll have a warranty in Japan, sure — so you could send it to Japan for service, but if you send it to the US service centers you’d quickly find out you don’t have a US warranty.

Gray marketers are like used-car dealers. They have no relationship with the manufacturer and cannot buy their goods from the manufacturer, so they get ’em where they can. And manufacturers warranties may or may not apply. If it so happens that they buy some stock from an authorized US dealer which they intend to re-sell, then hey — good news for the customer, because that means they’ll get a warranty. On those particular units. If those run out and they can’t get any more, so they have to start importing units from Mexico — well, bad news for the customer. No warranty, no rebate.

By going with B&H you circumvented all that mess. You got it from an authorized retailer, which means you will have a full manufacturer’s warranty, the DVX Book/DVD and Magic Bullet Editors software in the box, and are eligible for the $500 rebate and the free battery and free box of tapes. If you’d gone gray-market you wouldn’t get any of that stuff.

—————–
Get the most from your DVX camera. The DVX Book and DVX DVD are now available at https://www.dvxuser.com/articles/dvxbook/ and at Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/54u4a)