Nikon Aus realising grey is a threat?

[camerasnoop]

It's about time. IMHO the authorised importers here have been holding prices above the grey price for too long. There have essentially been two margins, one wholesale and another retail. We keep hearing about the global economy when it comes to wages. Time we heard of the global economy when it comes to prices. Two year warranties are offered as a matter of law in the UK (last time I checked), so why not here? Some of this gear costs as much as a small car.

Oh, and they'll never put the "grey" market out of business as long as we use the internet. Some australia-based parallel importers might feel the squeeze, but this won't affect offshore sources who ship into Australia, if their prices are still competitive. The move to the two year warranties is a marketing device to differentiate the product on something other than sticker price. Wonder if they intend to differentiate on service?

[russrad]

Good on JB.
I have been unable to find out the CR Kennedy policy. * removed - see site rules 3-7 for members with less than 50 posts*.

[KeeFy]

Camera snoop. From what i understand only Spain has the mandatory 2 year warranty, not UK.

Rissrad: I've price matched with CR twice and both times they came to about $50 of the grey import price. Which is awesome! Considering you get local support and warranty. Should have given them a call.

Kudos to Nikon to start the ball rolling. Hopefully Canon follow suit soon. I know loads of newbies will be picking up a nikon dslr instead of a canon due to the price difference and that will definitely poke canon in the butt!

[camerasnoop]

Camera snoop. From what i understand only Spain has the mandatory 2 year warranty, not UK.

My mistake. Nikon offer a free 2 year warranty in the UK as they apparently intend to now do in Aus. It is not mandatory.

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/se..._Warranty.page

Of course, the EU and the UK have some funny/strange contradictions. I was using the UK example as an illustration only, but read this if you are interested.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009...umer-guarantee

[seastorm]

As for CRK price matching, it is totally up to their discretion as to whether they do or don't match prices and if one reads their policy their price matching actually only refers to those grey import dealers that they list on their page. It doesn't actually cover every grey importer but they have been known to match other prices than the dealers listed.

http://www.crkennedy.com.au/v1/index...5&pageRef=179&

CR Kennedy has been good with me - I emailed them if they will pricematch a price for the Sigma 150-500 I saw on Camera Paradise and someone called me back the next day telling me no problem, but I have to go to Camera Electronic in Perth to pick it up since CR Kennedy doesn't deal direct with the public. Needless to say I'm extremely pleased with the mob @ CR

PS - Just saw the current price of the Sigma 150-500 on the Camera Paradise website