[projectorman]

 http://www.***************/ourpolicy.htm


Sorry just add ********** .com in to the space above.


"About Warranty.


Warranty is valid only in Japan for 1 year. It is not valid in your country.

When machines need warrant repair, you should send machines to makers in Japan, via us.

Shipping cost of Item's round trip will be your burden(roughly $150-300)

For first year after your purchase, our fee for item's repair in Japan is zero.

After 1 year warranty passes, we can serve as agent for repair in Japan.

( In latter case, our fee is $50 plus with actual repair costs.)


We strongly recommend not to tell its serial No. to others.

Its warranty in Japan will become void if you disclose its serial No. on open internet site or Makers directly."


"No Return Policy


We swear we ship only "brand new" and "factory sealed" unit.

But even when it goes wrong on arrival, all items should be treated as warranty repair.

In other words, you cannot exchange your machine for new one even when it turns out bad thing on its arrival.

Please undestand our No return policy because our margin is orginally very thin; 5% only."


Edit....


I got rid of the link..... was a little too much.


As Alan points out below..... I didn't say not to buy.


It is easy to find the advantages of Price Japan..... a little harder to find the disadvantages.

 

[usabrian]

I believe most people are fairly aware of these things...but $5,000 savings buys a lot of shipping back to Japan.


Brian

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

What are you complaining about here really?


They are clearly stating their policy and how they operate. They act as an agent in Japan to resell products they buy themselves on the local market. That of course means you get severe negative impacts on things like warranty, speed of support and all that stuff.


Presumably, any interested buyer will already have made that research, be aware of what they are doing and be willing to take that chance in order to save potentially quite noticeable amounts of money. Even if the machine has to be sent back twice, the buyer will most likely still have made lower cash outlays than someone who buys locally. He will however have had a great deal larger a hassle in mailing stuff back and forth and wait time being without a projector and it probably can be quite a nightmare if things go really badly.


Service, security, warranty like that can be had quite easily by dealing with a more traditional dealer like AVS. You will however most likely have to pay a tad more because they get their prices from the manufacturers and the prices that are set in the US. Whether or not you want the improvements in service etc and are willing to pay a little more for them is entirely a personal choice and a tradeoff.


Your post would be more valid if you could point to any malfeasance on the part of the seller, but from what I have read and heard, the people dealing with them have not reported such behaviour.

 

[cmarkey]

You pays yer money and you takes yer chances.


Pretty simple.

 

[BSN]

Isn't Projectorman a dealer?


Hmmm...funny he points this thing out for us.

 

[Carl Brinkman]

Projectorman,


What's your point?


The best quote I found on the Marantz locally was $12,000 plus tax, about $13,000. It took one phone call to Marantz to learn that the Japanese projector would not be serviced in the US and would have to be returned to Japan for any warranty service. BUT warranty service was still valid when shipped back to Japan.


Are you saying that the $6,500 I saved by purchasing from Japan was a risk? Of course it was. Have you considered that I could have bought two projectors and had one as backup for what a local dealer wanted.


I thought my odds of getting a good projector were way better than 50/50, and still do. Until Marantz ends their insane pricing in the Japanese market they will continue to have trans shipping problems, just like American companies like Krell and Levinson do. What really surprised me is that Marantz supports their Akihabara box sellers (not real dealers) with better delivery than their US dealers get even though the dealer price is about $3,000 higher in the US.

 

[Hyrax]

If Projectorman is a dealer, he should be ashamed of himself. I read his post and felt like I'd been slimed.


Kwon provides a service and all reports are that he is honorable.

 

[rbhargan]

As long as everyone who goes through ********** knows the pluses and the minuses, I don't think anyone has a complaint. Unfortunately, a number of people have purchased "out of channel" and not realized that there were limitations to their warrantee.


It would be nice if everyone did their due diligence and knew exactly what they were getting into, but that is not always the case.


Best bet is to check everything out and THINK. We all know that there is no free lunch, so if the price is substantially lower than everyone else, look for reasons.


I took the original post to be a warning. Nothing negative about ********** - they are up front about what they do and don't do. But some people have a hard time looking past the dollar signs.


You pay your money and you take your chances. Everyone has different risk tolerances. Mine is somewhere in between MSRP and **********.

 

[chrisreeves]

projectorman this is news to no one. This has been discussed ad nauseum here before - it's all about an individual's risk tolerance.


And as I've said before, the casino analogy is a very poor one. Casino games are negative expectation games (except for blackjack when counting cards) - in the long run you will lose.


Avoiding warranties is essentially a positive expectation game - warranties are not free, and are priced to make money for the company selling them. In the long run you will save money by avoiding warranties (buying a used car instead of a new one, for example), even though you will sustain a certain amount of risk on each individual purchase.


People are naturally risk averse and so the market has to compensate them for it. This is the basic reason that stocks will make more money than bonds over the very long run.


So if you're going to make annoying posts like this, at least try to get your arguments right before you make them.

 

[QQQ]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hyrax If Projectorman is a dealer, he should be ashamed of himself. I read his post and felt like I'd been slimed. Kwon provides a service and all reports are that he is honerable.

His post appears to be a cut and paste from **********'s web site. Why would that make you feel like you were "slimed" and where does it suggest that Kwon isn't honorable.


I don't see much point to Projectorman's post but all it seems to be suggesting is that he thinks anyone who would purchase from ********** is taking a big gamble. I think most of us agree with that, but for the money saved many are willing to take the gamble.


p.s. Yes, I AM a dealer, better mention that before my true top secret motives are revealed, LOL.

 

[mjh222]

I think the 'slimed' part is driven home by the last link to an online gambling site. I've heard nothing but praise for Kwon's (of PJ) service, and think it is unfair to equate that with gambling. As mentioned earlier, you can get 2 projectors from PJ for the price of 1 U.S. If that's a gamble, I'll take those odds!

 

[QQQ]

mjh222:


I can see your point although I don't find his link as offensive as you do. As someone who has followed all of the Marantz threads, I can't help but think many ********** buyers do feel like they gambled and think they lost. Many others think they hit the jackpot!


I have no idea who Projectorman is or what his motives are in starting this thread. Personally, I don't think there is any such this as "right" or "wrong" as far as purchasing from Japan, it is up to each individual.

 

[gotapex]

I think a more apt comparison would be insurance. Buying a marantz from a local dealer for $12k may be like buying a $6k projector and adding insurance at the cost of $6k. If you need to use the insurance a few times, hey, you won. You should be glad you bought local. If you don't then hey, you just paid someone an extra $6k for nothing.


Anyhow, to put speculation aside, you can always look at people's profiles. Often (though not always) they'll have their site there.

projectorman's profile


Anyhow, I personally am not a dealer though with all of the colorful discussions and accusations, it might be fun.

my profile

 

[mjh222]

It really is unfortunate that there is such a huge price discrepancy between US and Japan models. If I were a US dealer I'd be pretty frustrated seeing so many potential sales lost due to uneven pricing. As much as I want to support my local business, there's no way I could justify spending double to do so. Although I don't think it was appropriate for projectorman (as a dealer) to implicitly bash PJ, I do sympathize with his situation.

 

[QQQ]

From his profile and posts he appears to be a webmaster/designer for some assorted A/V sites. Care to comment Projectorman? Are you a webmaster/designer, dealer or both?

 

[Alan Gouger]

I think its good this has been posted. How many repeated posts have ask about warranty. I have never scene this before. I have on the oter hand read that you are covered through global warranty and the us has to fix it even if it was purchased over seas. I guess thats not the case and very miss leading. Ive scene both sides of the coin.


This post does not tell someone to not buy and many will still take the risk for the savings.


At least we all know how to answer that next warranty question.

 

[HB111]

I do not know that the "warranty only applies in Japan" issue has been definitively answered.


I had a defective AE100 and called Panasonic. They recognized the model# and I was told that if Panasonic USA had the schematics for the AE100 that I would have been covered under warranty in the U.S.. I may have been misinformed but I would not totally rule out a universal warranty.


I would also like to defend **********. I have purchased a lot of merchandise online. ********** is as good as it gets!!!!

 

[Hyrax]

Perhaps I over-reacted, but if ProjectorMan is associated with A/V dealers then the tone of his post was way out of line. There are many reasons not to buy from an overseas source, but it is self-serving to the point of being sleazy for one dealer to so directly equate buying from Kwon to gambling. It seems to me that things are deteriorating rather badly when we allow dealers to attack other dealers.


If ProjectorMan is not an A/V dealer or has absolutely nothing to do with A/V dealers, then I definitely did overreact and I apologize to him.

 

[Carl Brinkman]

HB111,


All you need to do to understand the warranty policy of Marantz US is make a simple phone call. That's what I did and it will become crystal clear that the Japanese sourced projectors will be covered ONLY if the buyer was physically in Japan when he purchased the unit, AND CAN PROVE IT.


Dan Miller of Marantz US has made several posts that have made their position as clear as a bell. Can't get much more definative than that.


I have been very satisfied with Mr. Kwon at **********, both before and after my purchase. But folks have to understand up front that he's not a dealer, just a buyers agent. And that makes warranty and repair issues more complicated and frustrating. No slam at all on Kwon, just the nature of this type of transaction.

 

[HB111]

OK. I was just passing along what I was told by Panasonic.


I guess I do not understand the gist of this post. Frankly I find it kind of insulting. All of us who purchased from ********** understood the "risk" (if you can call it that) we were taking.


I would bet there are a lot more satisfied ********** customers than GoodGuys, CircuitCity, BestBuy and Magnolia customers combined.


I see no point any longer in even attempting to go into a B&M. Even the high end B&M's.