Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact

Returns and Warranties

Please help KenRockwell..com

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Camera boxes are not sealed, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're getting a defective or damaged customer return or a used lens. Buy only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection. Thanks for your support! Ken.

 

July 2016   Better Pictures   Nikon   Canon    Fuji    LEICA   All Reviews

 

Introduction         top

Adorama pays top dollar for your used gear.

B&H Photo - Video - Pro Audio
I use these stores. I can't vouch for ads below.

These are my personal recollections and experiences. I'm an American living in New York. Always check before you buy if the specifics are important to you. These change with time and dealer and vary greatly by location.

As of 2016, most approved sources let you return anything after up to 30 days for a full cash refund.

 

THE PROBLEM

A reader wrote that he was having a problem returning a non-defective lens that he just didn't like. He had a problem because he had already filled out the warranty card and was silly enough to have bought at retail. He had to do that because the maker demanded the card be returned within 10 days. The dealer wouldn't take it back once the card was gone or filled in.

How can you enjoy a 14 to 30 day return policy if you have to register the warranty sooner? I get to the solutions further down.

Dealers won't take convenience returns after you've written on registration cards or thrown away the box.

 

Returns and Return Policies

I buy online because most of the places I use take things back for full cash refunds if I just don't like it. Retail camera stores usually won't take something back just because you didn't like it — or will charge a 15% profit ("restocking fee") if they will take it back. (These stores pocket your 15% and often resell it as new to the next guy foolish enough to buy at retail; cameras aren't sealed like DVDs or bottles of milk.)

Returns are for if you're not satisfied with the product; returns are not free rentals. Buying something with the intention of using it and returning is called return fraud; don't do this, it's fraudulent and illegal. Return privileges exist so we can buy with confidence, and try it in our own environment. In the very few cases something just doesn't work for me, I can return it.

Return policies are very specific and vary by dealer. You need to return everything exactly as it left the store. Write on the warranty cards or lose the packing material and you're out of luck.

Dealers differ on what they do with returned products. Some dealers send everything back to the manufacturer, who retests it, marks it as REFURBISHED, and then has to sell it at a loss. In this case your arbitrary return is costing someone a lot of money.

Retail dealers may just put it back on the shelf for sale to the next customer at full price; camera boxes aren't sealed. Fry's is awful: a lot of the stuff in their store has stickers telling you it's a used product someone returned, but don't offer you much discount. When I've returned stuff they taped it up and I presume threw it back on the shelf without even looking inside. I've had to buy things at Fry's and couldn't find new product: all those on the shelf were used! Likewise, I've had more than one person phone me wondering why my phone number was inside a "new" camera they said they had bought at Best Buy; obviously someone had taken the camera, loaded my settings file into it, and then returned it. Dealer collects 15% restocking and resells again at full price, nice!

I'd never buy something I couldn't return, or at least try first. Online stores get very few returns, so I just don't worry about it. I've never bought anything, except at Fry's, which seemed like someone else had used it. Even products I've bought marked "Refurbished" from Bose and M&K Sound have always seemed brand new.

 

Save the Boxes!

I've always had good luck because I save everything. I have boxes for lenses I bought back in the 1970s! I may be nuts, but you do need your boxes to make a return. If you chuck your boxes, you chuck your return privilege.

Normal people buy a TV and throw away the box immediately. When a friend had a new stereo die after a week they had to ship it out and wait for warranty repair, instead of being able to swap it for a brand new one if they had just saved the box.

Having the boxes is also critical to an easy resale if you upgrade, so save them anyway. One of my pals is a clean freak, so he sells his boxes for cash instead of tossing them. People buy them to resell with otherwise unboxed used lenses. If you're buying, be sure the serial numbers on the box match those on the product.

Dealers are offering you a service at their expense by accepting returns. They don't ask much on your part, and do require you return everything the way you got it.

 

Defects that Aren't

I often hear people thinking they have a defective product. Over 9 times out of 10 it's the owner using it incorrectly. 99% of people who think something is unsharp aren't using their lens correctly, misunderstand depth-of-field, can't hold their camera still or aren't familiar with the effects of Bayer interpolation.

Of course I'm both picky and experienced in testing all this stuff. Most people lack the experience to know what optical defects are simply the limits of today's state-of-the-art. These folks start testing, they find defects which are simply the limits of modern technology, and return things unnecessarily. It's exactly like the wine snob who sends back three open bottles of perfectly good wine thinking he's impressing the others at a restaurant. Those guys are restaurateurs' worst nightmare. Restaurants of course courteously keep bringing out new bottles, but they now have to drink those bottles of perfectly fine wine themselves.

Even manufacturers can be wrong: my Epson 1200 printer of 1999 made a hissing noise when idling. I called Epson and asked if this was normal. They said it was a defect and sent me a replacement the very next day. It did the same thing. I called again, and a more senior guy pointed out that no, they all did that, and apologized for any trouble I may have been caused by yesterdays' guy. No trouble to me, but Epson just bought themselves a used printer due to a lack of information with one of their reps.

I had one reader have Nikon take his new D70 back for hot pixels when in fact the images I saw were simply star trails! Nikon presumed they were hot pixels, even though the only happened in the sky at twilight and were all diagonal line segments rotating around a common center.

 

SOLUTIONS

I never fill out my registration cards until after the exchange period expires.

Today you can register almost anything online, and never have to write on the cards. Register to your heart's content.

In the old days I would make photocopies of the registration cards, and mail in the copies.

In every case I keep the registration cards clean and blank. I'm a weirdo: I save everything. You ought to see my cars with all their original dealer hang tags and documentation!

I never even open the manuals or any other plastic bags. I read the manuals online and use other straps, so at resale time, I still have what looks like a boxed new camera!

 

Registration Issues

I live in California, USA. Your state and country will vary. I'm not a lawyer; this is what I've heard. If it means a lot to you I suggest you investigate with your state's department of consumer affairs. They are very familiar with these issues.

When bringing in gear for warranty work Nikon's counter people have told me that I'm fine for the extended warranties (5 years on lenses) so long as I have all the original receipts and paperwork. I was told registration only makes a difference if I've lost the receipts.

Also as I recall, in the USA it's a legal requirement on manufacturers to honor warranties without requiring registration. This isn't Germany in the 1930s.

Check locally, and as I understand it, even if a manufacturer claims it's mandatory, it probably isn't so long as you retain proof of new purchase from an authorized dealer.

 

Authorized vs. Unauthorized Dealers

Not all stores that sell cameras are authorized dealers. Every store has to earn the right to sell any given product, and signs contracts with each maker if they are authorized.

Canon, Nikon and LEICA don't let every store sell their cameras just because they ask. Stores that go out of their way to say bad things about any major camera brand probably aren't an authorized dealer for that brand even if they sell it. Stores sell cameras for which they are not authorized by buying them from another dealer, meaning what you think is a new camera is actually used (by definition) and probably not warranted.

We had a big store here in San Diego that used to bad mouth one of the big brands, and I realized after asking a rep from the camera company that that store, even though they sold that brand, wasn't an authorized dealer. Obviously if a store has to buy one brand from another store they make a lot less money. They would rather sell the brand they get directly from the maker.

No major camera brand has any of the problems that some camera store salespeople invent, like inferior lenses or rampant reliability issues. By major brand I mean first-rates brands that compete among themselves like Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Leica, Mamiya, Panasonic, Sony, Epson, Minolta, Zeiss, Hasselblad, Rollei, and Linhof. I'm not a fan of discount, non-camera brands like Sigma, but that's just me. If a store claims any of the major brands puts out inferior products in an attempt to sell you something competitive, ignore them and buy elsewhere. I usually shoot Nikon, but that's just me. All the other major brands are equivalent.

 

Unauthorized Dealers and eBay

I used to work as a sales manager for an equipment manufacturer. We were very, very clear: when you buy from an unauthorized source, even a legitimate (but unauthorized) dealer selling unused equipment in sealed, unopened boxes with blank warranty cards, you are buying, by legal definition, used equipment. Our warranty only applied to the original purchaser. We offered no warranty on used equipment, which included equipment bought from bona-fide but unauthorized dealers. In actual practice we usually honored the warranties anyway, but be warned: buy from unauthorized dealers and you're almost always buying used, unwarranted equipment regardless of the claims of the seller.

Buying from an unauthorized dealer is the same as buying from a stranger. Having a receipt from an unauthorized store is as helpful in getting warranty service as having a receipt from your mother. It's a nice thought, but doesn't guarantee you'll have any valid warranty.

If you engage in the shady practice of buying from bottom feeders who buy hot new hard-to-get camera gear on speculation and resell it on eBay for high prices, even if they give you their original receipt you may or may not be able to get Nikon to fix it for you. Nikon isn't obligated, since you're not the original purchaser. Read the warranty papers for details.

 

How do You Tell if a Dealer is Authorized?

Call the manufacturer and ask.

 

USA and Gray Market

I explain the differences here. In a nutshell, gray market products have no warranty except whatever promises the camera store may offer you to repair things itself.

 

Overseas Purchases

Most camera makers will do you the favor of honoring warranties in the USA for cameras bought while traveling, even though those cameras carry no warranty for the USA. They usually require you to have a detailed receipt showing you actually bought it while you were overseas.

Buying from overseas by phone, mail or internet doesn't count. You have to have bought it personally while traveling. Again, why pay more at retail in a foreign country when the lowest prices on earth are at the stores I use here in the USA?

Mamiya is especially weird about this. They do a very good job impeding American's abilities to buy Mamiya products from outside the USA.

 

More Information

These are generalizations. Always check with a cameras's maker in your local for specifics.

In the USA you can get the current warranty information from Nikon at (800) NIKON-US or (800) NIKON-UX for digital products.

 

© KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

 

Help me help you         top

I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.

The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.

If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.

If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact