Gray Market 1200A advice

[John Chater]

Jeff
It was vague because Im trying not to upset any particular companies. Here goes again:

I have been told by two LA ‘ Panasonic authorised reseller’ companies for them to sell equipment to me outside their ‘area’, they are not able to give me the same discount they could if I lived in LA. Essential they have to charge me more than someonewho lives in LA. My understanding is that different product lines ( ie SDX or Varicam ) have different rules.

Hopefully that explains it a bit clearer.

Best
John

[Peter Steinman]

I’m always confused what exactly this support is I’m supposed to be getting from my local “authorized’ Panasonic dealer. I’ve yet to find a local dealer with ‘extras’ of anything Varicam around they could lend me if mine broke. None have in house people that can repair my camera if it broke. They send it the same place I do. Haven’t found any Varicam experts at any of them. Haven’t found them even at Panasonic except for maybe 2 people in LA.

At least the local guys are just a bunch of sales drones. You ask for something, they look up the price, send you a quote, you order it, wait for a month, and go pick it up. Not much value added in that. Certainly not going to ask any of these guys about lens choices or HD waveform monitors.

I’d love to be able to easily order from Panasonic dealers in LA where there may actually be some value added. Panasonic makes it hard. Basically hurting the customer to protect their dealers. There are no tests of knowledge or service these dealers take to see if they will be able to support Panasonic Pro customers.

[John Chater]

My point exactly. I need the support of the bigger LA dealers. The fact that I appear to have to pay a purchase premium to do this is bothersome. Its just not worth buying a professional camera without professional backup and support.

A local company who bought from our local dealer had the exact same problem as I did with a piece of equipment. My LA dealer communicated the problem to the service department at Panasonic and my problem was taken care of under warranty. The local company, who bought local, were not successful at getting their problem covered under warranty and it cost them thousands.

I make my Sony purchases in LA as well. I just dont get told its more expensive because Im not using my regional ‘authorised reseller’.

Best
John

[Peter Steinman]

It really is a strange business model. I can’t really think of another like it. To take an official policy of having relationships with dealers be more important then their customers is misguided I’d think.

Nobody walks in off the street and buys a Varicam. Nobody goes into their pro dealer for tape, sees a Varicam next to the checkout, and decides to buy it. No dealer I’ve ever talked to (even those in LA) ever tried to sell me a Varicam (or anything else really). They ask you what you want, look up the price, and tell you what they can sell it to you for and how long it will take to get. I actually appreciate that in most pro dealers. They usually assume you probably know more about what you’re after then they do.

In fairness I’ve heard Sony isn’t any better to deal with. It’s probably more a problem with the whole ‘Pro’ sales system. Years ago when I called myself a recording engineer I dealt with a similar ‘pro’ audio dealer system. At least there you could reasonably expect the sales guy to know about the tape or mic he was trying to sell you. It was pretty simple stuff compared to a HD camera system.

With something like the Varicam you really can’t expect anyone outside of a couple of select dealers to be able to provide support for this level of gear. Panasonic struggles to support it itself in my experience. Some guy that sells tape all day to the local action news team probably shouldn’t be expected to.

As I can’t expect my local dealer to pay what it would cost to keep someone on staff that is a Varicam expert (or a couple of cameras in back just ‘in case’) the whole system has no value to the customer. In fact, it hurts him by making him pay for support he isn’t going to get.

[Varicamuser]

There are ‘gray market’ sellers offering HD1200A’s with both cards, brand new in the box, for around $25,000 online. Some of these companies (not all) have good reputations online and will offer support post-sale. A couple of these ‘gray market bandits’ even have in-house engineers that are trained to work on Panasonic HD gear including the Varicam and HD1200A. I’ve used them in the past – wonderful service. Worst case scenerio, if the import can’t be fixed locally, they offer to ship the item back to Japan on your behalf…AND even offer a loaner during your down time. What else can you ask for? There’s a company called FedEx that can deliver to Japan in 1.5 days!

You’ll find that most of the negative hype about companies importing equipment is coming from the people who are losing the sales – Panasonic USA. Understandable. But those who were willing to take the ‘risk’ of buying from an established importer who delivered the same EXACT product (with English menus) – please explain again where we went wrong.

AND…the companies who are importing these items are not breaking the law and they are not going to get ‘caught’ doing anything illegal. Take a look around and try to find something that wasn’t imported.

Billy D.

[Jason Bahling]

Billy D. –

“Some of these companies (not all) have good reputations online and will offer support post-sale.”

Which companies do you refer to? It would be great to have more trustworthy first hand accounts opposed to trumped up “ratings.”

“if the import can’t be fixed locally, they offer to ship the item back to Japan on your behalf…AND even offer a loaner during your down time.”

Again which company would this refer too and isn’t this contingent on the company still being around? In my experience of looking for equipment all the online stores that sell grey have changed their names in less than a year!

Thanks billy.
Jason

[John Sharaf]

Actually, I’ve come to reevaluate my opinion of grey market product. Some items like lenses, which hardly ever need warantee service are fine to buy from reputable, tey, there are some, dealers in overseas product. If there’s a problem within the customary warrantee period, they will ship to Japan for service and loan you a replacement in the mean time.

JHMO