Buying from Europe

Canary_Jules

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I've been looking at prices of Optoma HD87s today and noticed a huge disparity between those of the UK and Europe. While the typical street price here is £2700-£2800 the price is nearer 2400 Euros (£2000-£2100) in France and Belgium. Any one got any idea why this is so? Also, in this age of the internet retailer what are the pitfalls of buying a projector from Europe rather than UK? Is voltage an issue? Warranty?
 
i'd be less scared of buying from the EU than from outwith it certainly... check international shipping charges though... i don't think you'd have to pay import duty... pricing varys due to the fluctuation in currencies

i'd be wanting to make sure that your warranty covers you (shipping back to another country for repairs may get expensive)... bear in mind some retailers are ill-informed and/or don't care (not all thoug), warranties vary from distributor to distributor rather than product to product

re. power - most of europe is on effectively the same voltage and most projectors are supplied with multiple power leads covering european outlets

also remember that pricing in the UK varies... if the month / quarter has seen poor sales, manufacturer often discount, plus there are a whole new raft of models due out now so clearance stock may be floating around...
 
I've been looking at prices of Optoma HD87s today and noticed a huge disparity between those of the UK and Europe. While the typical street price here is £2700-£2800 the price is nearer 2400 Euros (£2000-£2100) in France and Belgium. Any one got any idea why this is so? Also, in this age of the internet retailer what are the pitfalls of buying a projector from Europe rather than UK? Is voltage an issue? Warranty?
I do not think voltage will be an issue, Europe is meant to be 230 volt as standard.
Many things come with 2 leads with different plugs, one Europe the other UK. It it does not a 13amp plug lead easy to buy or an adaptor.
Warranty, I Googled and got this,
Optoma: Warranty
Remember we are part of Europe, it was Trading Standards who reminded me of that when a Panasonic dealer frightened me with saying Panasonic would not do warranty repairs for imported projectors.
Regards
David
 
I do not think voltage will be an issue, Europe is meant to be 230 volt as standard.
Many things come with 2 leads with different plugs, one Europe the other UK. It it does not a 13amp plug lead easy to buy or an adaptor.
Warranty, I Googled and got this,
Optoma: Warranty
Remember we are part of Europe, it was Trading Standards who reminded me of that when a Panasonic dealer frightened me with saying Panasonic would not do warranty repairs for imported projectors.
Regards
David

Interesting. I spoke to the head of Optoma sales about this and he said that if there was a problem with an Optoma projector that I bought from Europe via the net it would have to be repaired in the country that it was bought from. Is this correct?
 
Interesting. I spoke to the head of Optoma sales about this and he said that if there was a problem with an Optoma projector that I bought from Europe via the net it would have to be repaired in the country that it was bought from. Is this correct?
If you go to the link I quoted above and read the warranty it says you return it to one of their service centres, a further link there gives several Eurpeon countries, UK not listed.
If you open the UK website of Optima you will find the warranty and it links to the same list. NB. UK not listed.
Optoma: ASP Centres
So to me looks as if you buy in UK or Europe it goes out of the UK for a warranty repair.
The only thing I would think is if bought in the UK taking it back to your High Street store they might well be liable to send it for you. If doing this I would want to be sure it actually going to Optoma and not a different repairer. Myself I would return it to Optoma in say France or Germany at my expence for piece of mind even if bought in the UK.
I'm no expert so ask your Trading Standards.
 
Odd that though. Are we in Europe or not? I don't understand why the UK is a special case and is not listed in that great list of Euro service centres. I would have thought that if you bought the machine in France but moved to Belgium you could sent it to the Belgian repair centre. Same thing for the UK. Needs further investigation. The Optoma chap even confirmed for me that the Euro and UK machines are identical in every respect and in fact he's been taking Euro machines and selling them here to meet UK demand, so it's not a mechanical issue.
 
Another thought about this. Whenever I had to return something in warranty before it was the manufacturer which paid for the shipping. So if you purchase a machine from France and it has to go back to the French repair shop won't Optoma France cover the shipping cost? Obviously we're speaking about Optoma here, but I guess the same question applies to other projector manufacturers.
 
Another thought about this. Whenever I had to return something in warranty before it was the manufacturer which paid for the shipping. So if you purchase a machine from France and it has to go back to the French repair shop won't Optoma France cover the shipping cost? Obviously we're speaking about Optoma here, but I guess the same question applies to other projector manufacturers.
Talking general products if returning to the maker or his appionted repair agent for a warranty repair you stand the returning cost and he pays for return to you. Of course some item too big and heavy Eg washing machines and they come to your home.
I have had computer equipment that was warranty repairs at my home and some return to maker or agent.
Like I have been saying you can't 100% rely on what you told verbaly it is written down that counts at the end of the day, provide it complies with consumer protection laws, hence my advise ask Trading Standards.
Regards
David
 

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