Gray Market and Your Opinion

[ClayJar]

I have had a gray market bmw that I brought new in germany when I was station there, had no problems when I brought it back to the States. NY state gave me no grief with my title and regg. Guess it my be a state to state thing. I just fill the import papers, that was all.

Suppose so, but all the same, I am *so* not going to relate your story to my friend. She'll be on the dive trip I'm leading to Bonaire, and I don't wanna die.

 

[shoturtle]

Suppose so, but all the same, I am *so* not going to relate your story to my friend. She'll be on the dive trip I'm leading to Bonaire, and I don't wanna die.

The funny thing is when I was station in germany, allot soldier brought bmw's and when then left, brought it back to the US and had no problems.

 

[redacted]

Look up concepts such as "first-sale doctrine" and "exhaustion of rights". Basically, once AquaLung has legitimately sold an item to anyone, they have no more right to say what becomes of it. If they sell 30 regulator sets wholesale to an LDS, and that LDS liquidates and sells its remaining stock to LP, LP is free to sell it. There is nothing AL can do about it, as their rights ended once they sold it to the original LDS. They can choose never to sell through that LDS again, of course, but that's between AL and their retailer and has nothing to do with LP, since LP does not *have* an agreement with AL.

If LP goes to Europe and buys 100 dive computers, they have every right to do with those computers what they want, even if that is selling them in the US, where the manufacturer will not support the computers. The manufacturer has no right to prevent the resale. The only way the manufacturer would have a right is if LP had a contractual obligation, which they would not have as they have not elected to become an authorized reseller.

This only becomes a grey area (pun intended) when you swap *licensing* for *sale*, such as in software. That, however, is a far more complicated topic that is *well* outside the scope of a thread on ScubaBoard. (There are plenty of cases actively being litigated on that front, so feel free to enter law school to get on that train. ) Thankfully, scuba equipment is *sold*, not licensed, so that's all irrelevant.

Actually, the section in bold is not quite true. In most cases, unlike USA laws, trade laws in the EU require the transfer of warranties thru subsequent buyer. So, the dive computer that you bought from LP which they acquired from a distributer or retailer in the EU is still warranted by the MFGR. You must send it back to LP and they send it back thru the source channels to the mfgr.

Nobody really believes that LP is just eating the losses on the not infrequent failed computers, did they. And that extra processing is why it may take a while to get a warranty exchange from LP.

 

[bfw]

Some manufacturer will honor warranties even if they are gray market.

A good clue can be gained from reading the actual warranty document. If it says something like "we will repair or replace a product sold by an authorized dealer for free for XX months after sale" then they probably won't, but if it says "ABC Inc, warrants this product to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of...." then they'll probably honor it because any good lawyer could have a field day with the meaning of that language and the irrelevance of who sold it to the presence of defects.

 

[bfw]

The funny thing is when I was station in germany, allot soldier brought bmw's and when then left, brought it back to the US and had no problems.

BMW has for many years had a European delivery program for this, so it's not gray market.

 

[bfw]

I dont want to buy an AQUA LUNG regulator from them only to find out that they cant service it anymore because they stopped carrying that item!

Learn to service it yourself, and establish a relationship with an LDS that will sell you parts, but you're going to pay full retail markup on those parts, or buying the dive shop guy a lot of beer.

 

[bfw]

When it comes to life support gear...which in my feeble mind is regulators, computers, BC or BPW, tanks, valves, etc., I don't screw around with looking at price as a first consideration.

Regulators are simple devices, and computers are solid state - if they work first time, they're likely to continue working. Learn to service your own stuff. You shouldn't use anything you regard as magic.

 

[shoturtle]

BMW has for many years had a European delivery program for this, so it's not gray market.

That is if you ordered the car though bmw north america. When you buy the car there and lived there for 2 years it is a different story. The 3 series I had options that are not available in the US.

 

[saltysupply]

they must get huge discounts considering they have over 500,000 items in stock....its up to the buyer really and I would rather save $300 than buy at a local dive shop, every dive shop around me are just a bunch of salesmen selling overpriced equipment