Korg Forums

operaman · Full Member Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Posts: 100

I am set to receive my Korg Kronos here in Germany from Nova Musik. They also matched the $2599 price from Sweetwater, and sent UPS. I am not sure I am the first, but I will be among the first here in Germany to have a Kronos in my hands. I will post here as soon as I have it and give my first impressions. For reference is the power supply 110-230 or will I need a power converter?

I look forward to becoming a helpful contributor to the community at large.
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Korg Kronos 61::Kurzweil PC3X::Alesis Fusion 8HD::Korg Microstation::DSI Prophet 08:::Korg Polysix::2X Oberheim Matrix 1000

jimknopf · Platinum Member Joined: 17 Jan 2011 Posts: 3374

First of all, congrats to yor buy and have fun!

For any German this takes the absurd Korg behavior in Europe to the next level: we can't even order here. Unbelievable!

theshinenz · Full Member Joined: 18 Sep 2009 Posts: 240

kronos will work on both voltages.

Knightshift · Joined: 15 Jan 2011 Posts: 31

Great to hear about the first one who imported the Kronos from US to Germany. What I'm really interested in is how much you finally had to pay (incl. shipping, customs, taxes (Einfuhrumsatzsteuer), etc.) in EUR. I assume it will be about 2300 - 2400 EUR. If so, it would be a faster and cheaper alternative! When did you order Kronos?

operaman · Full Member Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Posts: 100

RC-IA · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:41 pm Post subject:

Same here, pre order at nova in april, they sent it yesterday, delivery wil be thursday! I will win about 1000 usd. Compared to french price! And will have it sooner

RKfan

Guys this is great news - importing your keyboards from the US and bypassing the stupidly high prices available in Europe (and saving $1,000 too).

Maybe this will become a new negotiation option to try with European resellers - can Bonners, DV, Thomann and all the others price match Nova Musik - that really would be a deal.

Is this the European spring - all started by some disaffected customers on a forum - waiting with interest.

panrixx · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:21 pm Post subject:

But, if it's imported and needs repair or servicing how does the warranty work?

ChrisP · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:49 pm Post subject:

I was planning to do the same from India - to directly order from Sweetwater (USA). Thanks to the sales rep who mentioned upfront that Warranty doesn't hold good in India and I need to ship it back to USA for any service.

I assume the same applies to other countries, outside US.

Bertotti · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:56 pm Post subject:

I think yes, in order to get your warranty you'll have to return it to the dealer you bought it from. I could be wrong but I think it was established in a previous thread.

RKfan · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:20 pm Post subject:

Long answer

Your local korg affiliate might try to suggest that as it is imported then it is not covered by a warranty. Do not believe this - it is what we call in the IT trade marketing bullshit - it looks like its legal but it has no legal basis - its smoke and mirrors to scare people. I should know I have worked in the IT industry for a long time and have been involved in writing lots of contracts.

If Korg refused to service your Kronos (which I doubt they would) you should then threaten them with going to your solicitor who will write to korg to the effect that all of the kronos keyboards are imported and are all of the same spec so there is no difference between a UK designated Kronos and a grey import and for this reason you are planning on sueing them (there is no difference between a UK, EU or US spec Kronos - they are all the same). You should not have to go beyond this threat (especially since you are calling a service department - not the legal people).

It will be easy to go to court to show that there is no difference between a keyboard that came directly from Japan (e.g. to the UK) or went from Japan to the US and then straight to the UK (didn't pass go didn't collect £200) - and therefore Korg (the global organisation) is liable to service your instrument (read the warranty - it says different specs in different countries - but we know there are no differences - even Korg US markering have told us that they have switchable power supplies built in).

The warranty if tested in a UK or EU court would soon be laughed out as having no legal weight at all. The only way Korg would win a case would be if they could prove that the machines are substantially different - which they cant because they aren't.

Additionally you have consumer protection law to protect you - you have bought a Kronos from Korg - by doing so Korg are liable for ensuring that the product works for a reasonable period of time - for a UK machine this would be 1-2 years (in the US you get the 2nd year free - just read the sticker on the box and register your keyboard).

We all know that these sorts of things are put in place to protect over-inflated European prices - with the argument that this is to protect resellers - again this is not entirely true - it is to get more money for Korg out of EU customers. Well excuse me but in the advent of the internet the market for kit no longer has international borders - in theory you could buy a Kronos (UK spec) from the Japanese factory (at the cost price) - pay the UK import tax and VAT and save yourself maybe £800-£1000 off the official retail price for a K61 - you cut out the resellers (sorry guys) and also Korg UK/EU (delete as necessary) who havent played ball anyway so maybe that's a good thing. Wouldn't it be better for Korg in the EU to realise they have their pricing stucture so wrong that they will not be getting any sales and we are all going to import - who is going to loose thier job over this massive gaffe?

There are some more interesting points to think about too:
(1) If you save $1000 and it breaks - you can afford to get it serviced and still have change
(2) I dont think Korg would really want the bad press.

All this sounds very negative - I think the Kronos is an excellent machine - I also think that EU customers are being treated extremely badly by EU sales and marketing - so if they dont play ball with us lets not play ball with them.

Hey Nova Musik - can I have a deal?

MartinHines · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:39 pm Post subject:

panrixx · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:41 pm Post subject:

I agree.

RKfan · Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:14 pm Post subject:

Another long e-mail

That is what they want you to believe so they can charge you €1,000 more - what do you get for that €1,000 - if the machine never breaks ---- nothing.

Look at it this way - who makes the Kronos - Korg do (irrespective of where you bought it - it ultimately came from the Korg organisation) - now if it goes wrong - because the standard product in any country comes with a warranty for 1 or 2 years - this can be considered an obligation for the korg organisation (not the local affiliate) to fix it within the warranty period that is in force in the country you purchased it. Otherwise you can sue the organisation (Korg Global).

Say you lived in the US and them moved to Europe - would Korg realistically be able to say that they refuse to fix it - your personal circumstances have changed but you still hold a valid warranty - it would be unreasonable for you to move back to the US to have it fixed. So from my nice flat here in virtual San Diego (boy its hot today) I am thinking of buying a Kronos, but what I don't know today is that my company which also has offices in Cambridge UK want to move me over to run a project for a couple of years - I am not going to leave my shiny new Kronos in the US and not play if for a year (gosh it cost me $2,499 - that's nearly £1,600) and buy a replacement for £2,600 (where did my grand go - oh yeah to pay for a UK warranty) - again this would be unreasonable (at least that is what my solicitor would be saying if Korg refused to fix my Kronos - which shouldn't have been released from the Japanese factory with things that were going to break within 5 minutes).

Most companies are pretty reasonable about fixing keyboards - I have a Juno-G which like many others had an LCD that stopped working - I had had the product for 4 years - the warranty period was 2 years and Roland fixed it for free.

I really think that if you imported from the US, had a problem within 1 to 2 years and sold them the sob story about having moved from the US to Europe (family or work reasons) then the local EU service department would honour the warranty (irrespective of what the warranty says).

DaveBoulden · Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 2:55 pm Post subject:

I still don't think Korg UK would be liable to fix a Kronos bought from the US. It has already been stated that a US warranty will be honoured abroad, it's just that you have to ship the keyboard back to the US for it's warranty repair. Neither Korg nor the distributor the unit was bought from would be refusing to repair the item, it's just the onus is on the customer to return the item to the correct accredited repair centre. So whilst international law might enforce warranties to be global, I don't think it forces the parent company to effect the repair in the customer's country of residence... if that was the case, they'd have force every company to have repair centres in every country, if even they don't have distributors in that country.