What does "grey" imports mean for the South African Consumer?

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VertigoZA

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This topic came up in another thread, but I thought I warranted it's own space.

With more and more Apple dealers turning to "grey" imports, what is the effect of these imports for potential buyers, local prices and most importantly warranties? What does grey actually mean? Is it legal??

Are people generally in favour of Grey imports, against or undecided?

Would you buy a "grey" new Macbook?
 
If the person/company that was selling the "Grey Product" has a very good technical support structure in place and they have overall good service, not to mention competitive prices. I would buy the "grey product"

I don't think the "strong hand" of Core is justified when it comes to flagging and attacking all of the "grey product" suppliers. I personally think Core is just scared that the truth of their markup would get out as well as the reality that the grey market importers are doing a better job in getting supplies that the distributer themself!
 
"Grey" products are usually sourced directly from overseas suppliers instead of the authorised local distributor.
 
Nerfherder said:
Grey is legal but the warranty wont be honoured buy the local dealer.... so if it breaks then you are stuffed.
Click to expand...

I hear you, but where did you get that info from, as far as i know, Apple warranties are international? To me, this means any authorised Apple service center is obligated to repair any Apple machine still under warranty?

im jus sayin'
 
well...

I'd but grey goods.

And if i need to fix something i will goto the internet and do it a fix it yourself, i fixed a HP Laser printer for nothing compared with how much the hp dealers wanted to charge me(which i never came through to)
 
VertigoZA said:
This topic came up in another thread, but I thought I warranted it's own space.

With more and more Apple dealers turning to "grey" imports, what is the effect of these imports for potential buyers, local prices and most importantly warranties? What does grey actually mean? Is it legal??

Are people generally in favour of Grey imports, against or undecided?

Would you buy a "grey" new Macbook?
Click to expand...

Out of all the electronics I bought in the last 5 years online or overseas,
none except 2GB of Mac Pro ram has faulted me.

This includes 2 laptops (one's backlight failed 2 years AFTER the warranty ran out but
replacement is possible for cheap), 3 portable video players, 2 iPod 3G's, 1 cellular phone, 4GB of Mac pro ECC RAM (excluding the 2 which failed), one
portable language translator, one FCP editor's keyboard from Bella Co and 3 external harddrives. I had a LaCie Big Disk Extreme fail twice on me - bought at DigitalPlanet, the first time the local agent sent it to LaCie,
after a month I got it back, it failed again recently (warranty is long gone though). I also had a locally purchased HD fail on me.

All in all the track record is worse with goods purchased by authorised means
in SOUTH AFRICA than by goods purchased in USA, Singapore, Germany and Japan.
 
Woha, be careful! Apple Notebooks are the only Apple macs that carry an international warranty! All desktops and other upgrades carry a local region warranty.
 
Cybermoo said:
Woha, be careful! Apple Notebooks are the only Apple macs that carry an international warranty! All desktops and other upgrades carry a local region warranty.
Click to expand...

Are you 100% sure about that?? that sounds like a coreism to me...
 
100% Sure, I can remember in the day I had a client that moved from France to SA and brought with 2 E-Macs and an iBook with.

They were still under warranty at the time but neither Core and Microtech and Service Parts could honor the warranty. We even contacted Apple in France who told us the warranty would not be valid on their E-Macs. Only on the iBook.
 
Cybermoo said:
Woha, be careful! Apple Notebooks are the only Apple macs that carry an international warranty! All desktops and other upgrades carry a local region warranty.
Click to expand...
While I'm not 100% sure that it only applies to laptops I do know for certain that it does at least apply to them and that's fine. Apart from my mini I havent used a desktop in years.
VertigoZA said:
thats bizarre, so an iPod is not covered?
Click to expand...
The iPod is definitely covered.
 
bwana said:
While I'm not 100% sure that it only applies to laptops I do know for certain that it does at least apply to them and that's fine. Apart from my mini I havent used a desktop in years.The iPod is definitely covered.
Click to expand...

it was meant at a rhetorical questions as I've had many an ipod replaced under warranty and none have ever been bought locally.. thought this would cast doubt on the claim that only Notebooks have an international warranty. :)
 
iPods are covered but it's the only Apple unit that requires Proof of Purchase in order to honor the warranty. All the notebooks warranties are pulled from GSX via the serial number of the unit.
 
VertigoZA said:
it was meant at a rhetorical questions as I've had many an ipod replaced under warranty and none have ever been bought locally.. thought this would cast doubt on the claim that only Notebooks have an international warranty. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe their staff is lazy to ask for receipt?

Are new iPods that bad nowadays? My two old 3G 40GB iPods still work, np.
Did battery upgrade on one myself though just to get longer playback times.
 
But in all fairness you cannot compare my statement that:

"Woha, be careful! Apple Notebooks are the only Apple macs that carry an international warranty! All desktops and other upgrades carry a local region warranty."

to that of an iPod because Apple "Mac's" is referring to CPU's and not iPods.

Ipods is a complete different monster.
 
i say the whole presenting receipt/proof of purchase is Core just trying to get out of warranting grey imports..
 
But we rarely deal with Core for warranties on iPods, in-fact we dont deal with them for any warranties unless it's an Out of Box Failure...

Apple has elected a separate "more competent" company to handle parts. The Proof of Purchase needs to provided to them...
 
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