Grey Imports

[Scully]

Was in Malmo last weekend and while I browsed the HW100's my mate was talking to one of the staff (the owners son I think) about them and he mentioned there were a few grey imports around at the moment, and anyone buying should ensure they were imported by Hull cartridge Co.

I don't know how this works, but surely whether the rifle is brought in via Hull or whatever company, the warranty is with the manufacturer and not the importer, so what is the problem? I'm assuming that if a rifle does prove to be defective then Hull will simply return it to Weihrauch, so why would Weihrauch not honour a warranty regardless of who the importer is?

I would have asked at Malmo, but didn't know about the conversation until we'd left.

I have to have one of these rifles; it's been gnawing away at me ever since mate asked for his back!

Edited June 21, 2014 by Scully

[robbiep]

Thing is, your warranty is not with the manufacturer at all. You buy it from a retailer, and your contract is with them and them alone.

 

What Weihrauch (and every other foreign manufacturer does) is to make repairs, warranty issues a lot easier through their 'official' network, compared to the grey market, where you basically have to go back to the 'grey' retailer and get them to arrange it all (or, more likely, repair it themselves fob you off)

[Zetter]

Hull as the official importers fix most stuff in the UK but I have heard of people who have had to send grey imports back to Germany to be sorted under warranty.

However on less complex airguns such as springers its less of an issue. I have a grey import in the form of a HW79KT but as soon as I got it I bunged a VMach kit in it the warranty was kind of irrelevant.

Also if its second hand it kind of a moot point as well.

[Scully]

Thanks for the replies; cleared things up a bit.