I see this all the time in the computer industry aswell. We have alot of computer stores in Sourthern ontario that purchase from wholesaler's in Toronto.

What they don't know is alot of this product is Grey market, has been bought oversea's and imported in and not boughten from the canadian market.

Scenerio 1.
So lets (For example) say Johnny's PC Shop buys 12 Creative Labs sound cards from one of these importing wholesalers and then in turn sells them to his customers.. one of the cards fails within the first year.. Johnnys PC Shop replaces the card for the customer then goes to RMA it with the Wholesaler.. The wholesaler replaces the card for the retailer then calls Creative Labs in Mississauga, they run the serial number, and find it was not purchased in the north american market and tells the wholesaler to ship it back overseas as they did not buy it in Northamerica..

Scenerio 2) Lets say the same shop buys the 12 cards off the same wholesaler, and the customer has an issue with the card.. The customer goes back to the retailer to find there shop is now closed up out of business.. So the customer contacts Creative Labs.. they run the serial number and find it was purchased oversea's and simply ask the custonmer where they got the card from.. The customer says they bought it from Johnny's PC Shop which is now closed out of business, Creative labs says no worries and replaces the card for the customer.

So what do we learn from this.. Manufactures will normally help the customer (end user) out, as most end users don't know any different.

When in Doubt, Escalate! I know Radio Shack Corp Office in Ft.Worth, TX fears me calling.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ July 06, 2004, 01:45 PM: Message edited by: Rockney ]

 

Using your example, unfortunately for the most part as far as I know (please chime in if I am wrong). Most manufacturers have exclusive distributers within a country and will only export to that one distributor who holds the rights to that product within certain borders. So if Johnny's PC Shop tried to buy from the manufacturer in Asia they would turn him down and give him the phone number for Distributor X to purchase from. This applies to not only store wishing to re-sell but end user customers who want to purchase direct. This is where the Computer industry is a little different from the Car Audio industry... So if you were Stereo Shop X or even Johnny X trying to buy direct from Rockford, they would direct you to Korbon and then you would deal with them if you were a retailer or if you were a customer Korbon would in turn direct you to a dealer, same goes with MTX, they would direct you to SCL and then SCL would direct you to a local store (if you were an end user).
I guess an easier way to look at it is... How much is warranty worth to you? You buy the product out of Country where you will have no local warranty and you save some money, or you spend a bit more and by from a local shop who is able to supply a warranty.

No matter how much everyone goes back and forth, the choice is still yours and you'll decide for yourself.