EBAY PURCHASES AND RAY MARINE WARRANTY

[Capt Roy]

Hi Dave,

I'm in Marina Del Rey, California. Is there any leg work I can do to help you out with this? Who was the vendor? I'd like to pass the word along around the marina that they have poor customer service. Feel free to email me with any requests.

Roy

[hellosailor]

Dave, this situation is not unique to Raymarine. In fact, almost all "global" manufacturers leave the warranty of a product to the importer/distributor in each geography. Buy a top-name camera in the US? And your warranty comes from "whoever-US" not "Whoever-Japan". Global warranties are unusual.

This is simply because the cost of servicing the warranty is part of the price structure determined by each distributor--and the warranty costs are absorbed into the profits from the pricing they have set.

In addition, many manufacturers only support warranty terms from "authorized" distributors. If some guy picks up a case of equipment at a bankruptcy sale and resells it? He's not authorized, there's no warranty. For a long long time this was a problem with Defender Marine, who sold a number of electronics they were not authorized for. And if you had a problem--they'd take care of you, but it had to be sent back to THEM not the maker.

Raymarine? Dunno, you'd have to read the warranty terms on the goods you bought. If the seller was not an authorized dealer, or the goods do not have an international warranty, you may just be out of luck. Or, on the mercy of Raymarine. Or whatever recourse you have with eBay and Paypal, based on the terms of the auction.

Sometimes if you have made the purchase with a credit card (and a PayPal middleman may be a problem there) the credit card company will extend and service the warranty, without questioning the fine details. it pays to look into that as well.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I'm a bit surprised by the reaction from Singapore, which is the land of grey market electronics and 5-minute warranties.

For a while last year the big electronics center had a bunch of stores cracking iphones to be used with local sim cards - strictly against Apples rules. The authorities cracked down almost immediately.

Singapore prides itself on following the rules. Not to say entrepeneurial vendors don't try it all the time, but when caught the fines are stiff.

Singapore prides itself on being the region's "honest broker" - Now across the straits in Malaysia...

[donradcliffe]

I remember buying a DVD player in Sing Lim tower in Singapore in 2002, and my requirement was that it would be cracked to play DVD's from all regions. Everyone promised that their players were wide open, but I brought DVD's from several regions to try them out. The first shop failed the test, but the same unit in the second shop worked...not exactly following the rules...

I also got an Icom fixed VHF plus a RAM mike there for a total of $140, but there were no warranties included....it still works, so you pays your money and takes your chances.

[wind rose ll]

A further good news update.....what a surprise to find an email in the inbox from PayPal informing me they had reviewed the case and ruled in my favour!
They have credited my account $320..about 40% of the instruments value but would be enough to have the system made operational..except as previously noted it has been restored to an operational condition and besides why would l want to pay RayMarine good money to fix their product that they should have repaired under their (non existant) warranty program.
The money is going towards a new Furuno Radar unit.
Dave

[Ex-Calif]

Hooray for PayPal!

Excellent!