Korg Forums

[DaveBoulden]

This is probably one ofr Rich or Dan to answer. If, as a UK resident, I was to import a Kronos from the US, I see on another thread that the PSU is universal, but how would the warranty work?

Would a US warranty on a Kronos owned and kept in Europe still be valid provided the unit were shipped back to the US in the unlikely event of it needing a warranty repair?

This may be of great interest to us European customers as it looks like the price differential between US and European RRPs will be big enough to make it worthwhile importing from the US on an individual basis, even after paying local import duties and sales taxes. Plus, IMHO, Korg USA offers far and away much better support than I have experienced with Korg UK... I'm not trying to be controversial here, it really is just my personal experience.

[GregC]

[DaveBoulden]

I would expect that I, as an overseas customer, would bear the shipping costs, or at least those costs that are over and above a domestic customer.

I'm well aware that Korg USA and Korg UK are entriely nseparate companies, hence the question I've posed. I am extremely underwhelmed by both Korg UK's pricing and their quality of support. I asked my usual music shop contact to get a price on a couple of Korg accessories last year and they (Korg UK) refused to give my contact a trade price, and I'm talking about Digital Village here, not a small independent shop. It would be understandable if they were cutting profit margins to the bone, but the exact same items were avaiable in the US at 1/3 of the price (that's ONE THIRD of the price). That's why, if possible, I may well preferr to import a K73 from a US retailer and hopefully benefit not only from a substantial cost saving on the purchase, but also from the superior Korg US support, albeit with extra shipping costs where necessary since I am overseas.

If Korg USA are offering such a superior service and such better pricing that it's worthwhile importing from the US to Europe, even if you have to fund the cost of any possible warranty returns yourself, don't Korg USA then deserve to benefit from your business, indeed, haven't they earnt it?

[Bertotti]

There was a similar issue in the states in the past with cars. Much cheaper to buy on one side to the border then the other. I'm talking Canadian border, word was there was huge fees when switching titles and some serious warranty issues. I don't know what became of that but it was quite common for some to buy on one side and import hence the changes in fees, taxes, and warranty.

I would think that if to many import fro the states something similar would happen but also maybe it would wake up Korg corporate to the EU plight!

I am just guessing here of course but it seems reasonable at least in my own mind.

[GregC]

[DaveBoulden]

Yes, I'm fairly sure there are agreements in place to stop them marketing products in another distributor's territory. However, there's nothing to stop a shop selling a Korg product to an oversea's customer. That being the case, the question to be answered is would the warranty still be valid and under what terms would it be serviced. I know many products are simply returned to the shop you bought it from for amy warranty repairs, so as far as Korg USA are concerned, they'd still be receiving the returned unit from a USA based dealer, although the customer is potentially based overseas.

If some of the figures being mooted for the European RRPs turn out to be correct, then even with international shipping fees, it could still be an attrractive proposition. Import duty and sales trax are a moot point as these have to be paid somewhere along the line whether it's bought from the USA or locally in the UK.

[EvilDragon]

Ah... feels good being here in Croatia where our law doesn't infer paying import duties (customs) on musical instruments...


VAT is 23%, though

[DaveBoulden]

The last time I bought musical gear from outside the EU, the import duty was 3.5%. UK VAT recently increased from 17.5% to 20%.

[steve m]

I have bought many products ( including keyboards ) from USA retailers and had them shipped to Australia. The prices are genarally about half what I would pay in Australia, and even with shipping costs added ( which are very reasonable if you shop around - lots of options now online trade is booming ). Warranty is the only issue, however with the exchange rate as it is this is becoming a no brainer.

If I can purchase a synth for US$3000 and that same unit in Australia is AU$6000, the warranty issue is no longer relavent. I could send it back to USA for repair, jump on a plane and take it back for repair, or even throw it away and get another one and be no worse off.

Import duty hs never been a problem, as most dealers are happy to mark the item with a value of less than $1000 if asked.

Eventually the Australian distributors will lose so much business to overseas trade, they will have to wake up and start pricing their products realistically. If they are waiting for exchange rates to make up the difference they will have a very long wait.
_________________
Steve M

Kurzweil K2000, Yamaha CS1X, Minimoog, Oasys76, GEM Promega 3, Korg PA3X, Kurzweil PC3K8
Too many toys are never enough!

[robinkle]

I went in to GuitarCenter.com and I got this huge banner, saying: Now we ship to norway, taxes and duties calculated, but there are no products to buy... :X Hope Kronos becomes available.

[RichF]

If a Korg product is bought in the USA, the warranty is honored only through our USA-based authorized repair centers. The customer is responsible for the international shipping to and from the service center.

Hope this helps.

-Rich
_________________
Richard Formidoni

[DaveBoulden]

Rich, thank you for the clarification, it's very much appreciated! I realise you must be mindful of marketing agreements between the various world-wide Korg distributors.

If the UK pricing estimates turn out to be accurate, then I think there may be more than one European customer importing from the US as they could still afford to send it back and forth a few times before they'd start losing out to the local pricing with a local warranty.

[RC-IA]

[panrixx]

[DaveBoulden]

This topic was posted before any kind of UK pricing was made known... at the time it seemed a K88 might actually cost £3800 in the UK, so compared to that, importing would have been a very attractuive proposition.