Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I walked into a conversation between a friend of mine and an acquaintance. They were talking about boxing day deals and where in the GTA to buy camera products.

The one guy was adamant that Adens sold Grey Market product and not to trust them. He went on and on about how many online reviews of Aden mention grey market and poor service.

Now poor service is always going to pop up on any retail store's history..they are all human after all, but I was still puzzled by the concept of this guy's advice to steer clear of them.

I have only been in the DSLR hobby for about 4 years now, and I have purchased a number of products from Aden. I have never had any issues registering product for warranty. There service has been good and their prices are always competitive or ahead of the pack.

Have any of you (especially those that have been in the bizz for a long time) heard of this or experienced this with Aden?

I have bought many products from Aden and have never heard of them as selling grey market products. If the distributors every found out they risk having their supply of products cut off. Why would they risk that? Another clue is to look at the warranty cards, and instruction manuals accompanying the products. In Canada all products must have an English and a French manual. In the US, official products have and English and Spanish manuals. Warranty cards will have an address of a Canadian distributor with a Canadian address. Any deviation from the above will indicate something is not legitimate. I have no hesitation in buying from Aden. They are very competitive and reasonable in their offers.

The issue most people have with Aden is the return policy, or the arguable lack of one. If you are certain about a purchase, the return policy is a mute point.

... and it's speculation like this that causes reputations to be tarnished. I bet that this person you overheard didn't even have anything concrete to go on, was just going on the speculation of others he'd read on the 'net or something.

Anyhow, I've bought probably about 3-4 cameras from Aden over the last 10 years (had a friend who worked at one of their locations) and never noticed anything along those lines. As hotwire pointed out, the general dislike with Aden is re: their return policy.

It's "moot" point but yes, I made sure I wanted what I purchased because of their return policy. At the time they were $150 cheaper than Vistek for the 5DMk2.

Henrys in Barrie has always matched Adens price for me, and Henrys Newmarket matched once (I've only purchased there once). So I have always got the Aden price with Henrys return policy.

Price match is the way to go.

These days B&H is the way to go.

I have also had no problems with Aden price matching at the Henry's in Brampton.

If two items are both priced at $399 from Aden And B&H..who you gonna call?

I'll shop within Canada if that the situation.

But the question is, are they?

The other question, does someone in Canada have/list the item that B&H carries/lists?

For instance, I was looking for some accessories for my Morris monolights that aren't made anymore...no one in Canada carried/listed them. B&H did, and although they didn't have stock, the fact I found what I was looking for on the site and could order them gave another sale to The States. There's no equivalent photography superstore in Canada!

My LX-5 was the same price here as it would have been at B&H and I can buy a Canon s 95 here in Ontario for less then I could buy one through B&H

http://www.photoprice.ca/product/03286/ ... price.html

Or a 60D kit over here is cheaper too at the moment.

http://www.photoprice.ca/product/03311/ ... price.html

People are using the same analogy that Wal-Mart's prices are always cheaper acrossed the board then other stores.

Prices change from time to time, and it does appear that Canon equipment is on sale across all stores in Canada, maybe for the holiday season.

Looking at other items that aren't on sale, like accessories, the grip for the 5DMrkII for example, is $$239USD at B&H while Henry's is selling it for $429.99.

I think the point being made is don't assume that B&H is less than the Canadian stores. The last two lenses I bought at Aden were less than listed at B&H. But I have found them cheaper for the peripherals like CF cards. A smart shopper compares all options, and considers if there is more to take into account than just price.

The Camera Store in Alberta is also overlooked in this discussion. It is quite often cheaper then the TO stores (and sometimes B&H) and no provincial sales tax (GST only).

As for the original issue raised I have shopped at Aden or its branches for over 25 years and never ran into anything dodgy about the equipment they sell. I have registered all my lenses with Nikon and none have raised any alarm bells.

On the other hand if I had bought those lenses from B&H I wouldn't have been able to register them with Nikon Canada, so aren't all Nikon lenses from B&H technically gray market in Canada?

DG

Indeed. I bought a Canon 85/1.8 from B&H once, and had it shipped up here. It turns out there was oil or some other sticky substance on the aperture bladess, the iris would not open up again after a shot, and the camera would report ERR99.

Had I purchased it from my usual dealers in Toronto, I could have returned it to them the next day and picked another one off the shelf. In fact, I always test my gear purchases in store before I leave, and I likely would have discovered this defect. But since I bought it from B&H, I had to go through their return process, spending additional time and money that erased any savings I had, and then some.

With photoprice.ca, it's easy to quickly compare cross-border pricing these days. And if you have a good relationship with your local dealer, you can often get better-than-advertised pricing, not to mention much better and faster customer service than an online retailer could achieve.


Is it still this way now with the HST in Ontario? I haven't purchased anything from a non-HST province since we switched over...


They would be "grey market" because you imported them into Canada, not because they were sold that way. Not that it makes a difference to Nikon Canada. Canon Canada is different... you can buy your gear from the U.S. or Canada, and they'll honour the warranty here (at least the last time I checked). An NPS rep did say that as long as you don't abuse the privilege, Nikon Canada will service U.S.-purchased gear if you ask nicely enough. That's probably just for NPS, though, not regular Nikon repair.

mostly digital is where i shop - competitive prices

Since I use Olympus I don't have to worry about such nonsense since they have a worldwide warranty...I can buy a lens at B&H and have it shipped to Toronto, then say if I travel to Germany and have an issue with my lens I can have warranty service done there without having to return it to Canada or the US.

The way it SHOULD be!

Aden seems to be the benchmark for Toronto retailers pricing... for example - when I go to my dealer, they usually base my "special" price on the current price at Aden, minus a few bucks.... he still makes money off of me .. but I also get a 'very' good deal.

I believe now you pay full HST if your billing address is in Ontario

Exactly. I wish Canon and Nikon would do this.

I find camera bodies are usually priced the same. The savings I find are on lenses. I saved quite a bit on my tilt-shift.

http://www.photoprice.ca/product/00017/ ... price.html

True. The new Oly E-5 is exactly the same price, both here and from B&H (US$, of course). With my corporate discount I could pick it up here for a couple of hundred less, all told, than I could get it from B&H.

Lenses are a completely different story. I can save almost $200 on any of the Zuiko HG lenses, by buying US.

maybe it's just me, but that's actually the reason i went and bought my gear from Aden at PacMall. i'm not a compulsive buyer and always look for options and i've always done my research. so if i go and look for a specific lens that i know i want, i will rent it. and if it's all good then i go and buy it.

a friend of mine bought a Canon 40D from Henry's that's supposed to be BNEW and when he started shooting he saw the numbering on his card started at over xxx-1000something. the card was bought the same time as the camera and when he went back to Henry's they looked at it, and gave him a "different" 40D. hmmm.

I have bought 2 Canon bodies, 4 Canon enses , a Canon flash and a ton of accessories from Aden, all of them had full Canon Canada warranties in the box and the manuals were French/English so they were in no way grey market.

It depends on what you mean by grey market - if you mean products sold in the US market - this is only a problem if you have Nikon.

Canon warranties are good anywhere in North American if it is a North American product. Doesn't matter if you have purchased it in the US or Canada.

Nikon warranties are country specific.

Olympus is North American, could be world but I am not sure.

So unless you are buying Nikon products - you don't have to worry about buying US products from Aden.

It's already stated above that Olympus is worldwide...although when I bought my first Oly SLR the North American bodies had the "Evolt" moniker on the body so they could tell if it was a American body or worldwide one...they've stopped that practice.

Although if you bought in the UK there's a law that they have to have two years of warranty instead of one, but they pay through the nose for it.

Merkle Camera on Vic Park now seem to be listing their prices very much in line with Aden - it seems they have had a recent policy shift. I have bought from them but never returned anything.

As far as buying from B+H, sure you can get some good deals but some items (Sigma EX) lenses carry a ten year warranty if purchased in Canada. Also, I noticed B+H often has the USA version and an International version of lenses for sale - as far as I know you need to pick the more expensive USA version to ensure you are getting adequate warranty coverage but someone more versed in this may correct me.

Bingo. I bought a Canon "international" lens from BH a long time ago and it came with a blank warranty card ie, one half had all the Canon info on it, the other half where you fill out and submit for warranty was literally a plain white card ie no warranty. Not sure if anything has changed since.

Yes, Merkle prices have changed, and for the better!