No warranty card with 70-300 VR

[jazzypurr]

So I have just bought the Nikon 70-300mm VR from Camerabox... I was abit worried about the whole thing after reading mixed reviews but I was assured by them that they source from Europe and the lens will be covered by a full 1 year UK warranty. The lens arrived as promised this morning, but there's no warranty card in the box?! Phoned Nikon UK who said they cannot tell where lens has come from by serial number and Camerabox are obliged by law to provide a warranty on purchase. So I am now worried I have been sold an US/grey market import. Has anyone else had this problem and what should I do? Have emailed them about the warranty card but I am doubtful I will get a reply!

p.s. my serial number begins USXXXXXXX so does that imply its a US import, or is it totally unrelated?

[madman]

Under the sale of goods act, the company you purchased your lens from are, by law, obliged to provide a warranty for the new product you've bought (regardless of whether its a UK official product or not), however it does not have to be an official nikon warranty. If the company have advertised the product as official UK equipment then, again by law, that is what they have to supply (try and find the advert and check this). If they are advertising one product, and selling another, then trading standards would be a good starting point to go for help. My UK sourced 70-300VR (I brought it from a UK Nikon Dealer) does not have any letters prefixing the serial number so the "US" may indeed suggest a different country of origin. Nikon's own website has an area where you can log-in and register the serial number of Nikon equipment you've purchased for warranty / support / in case of theft purposes etc.., but I don't know if this extends to them actually honouring a warranty for grey imports.

[Benchista]

Under the sale of goods act, the company you purchased your lens from are, by law, obliged to provide a warranty for the new product you've bought

Actually, they're not. A warranty is over and above the legal requirements of consumer law; what they are required to do is to fulfil the terms of their contract with the purchaser, which includes that the item is of "satisfactory quality" etc.

[hech54]

Phoned Nikon UK who said they cannot tell where lens has come from by serial number

But when I tried to enter my D70(purchased in Germany) serial number into the Nikon U.S. website.....it was rejected for NOT being a USA model....based on serial number only.

Nikon has been flinging serious bullsh!t around for years about their serial numbers.

[Benchista]

Must say I simply don't believe that Nikon can't tell the origin of a lens from its serial number. They might have a policy of not telling people up front, but I would be staggered if they couldn't tell for themselves.

[Barney]

There is a difference between bodies and lenses. Nikon UK wouldn't allow me to register by D70s which was a grey import from Malaysia, while I've had no problems registering lenses with overseas serial numbers.

[alphab]

Has there been a problem with some of these lenses, only i bought one about 3months ago and was not happy with the performance sent it to Nikon who said they had made adjustments/repairs(this is from brand new).
But still not happy with it ,still have it, but have reverted back to my old 70-300,

[GeoffR]

Nikon USA attach a small label to all the camera bodies they import. I would expect them to add the serial numbers to their database too so that is how they know if you bought your body as an official USA import. I would expect them to do the same with lenses etc. I would also expect Nikon UK to keep a register of all the bodies they import but not necessarily do the same with lenses.

Anyone who has had dealings with Nikon USA will know just how paranoid they are about grey imports. Thus nothing they do surprises me. There is also a subtle, but significant difference between USA and UK importing, any EU citizen can buy a product in any country of the EU and import it to their own country, this will be a more common occurrence with lenses than camera bodies so it is likely that Nikon's European subsidiaries will accept any lens you wish to register but possibly only accept bodies they have imported. This last is conjecture not fact.

So I think it highly likely that they cannot determine which country a lens came from by the serial number, nor can they do so for a body, they can only say that they did NOT import it.

[Done_rundleCams]

..Nikon Canada can tell, by the serial number, if the lens was distributed by Nikon Canada.

Again, FWIW, all that Nikon Canada requires for warranty repair is a store receipt from an authorised Nikon Canada dealer.

However, if an item with a Nikon International Warranty -- in the digital world it is only lenses -- requires the (international) warranty card along with a store receipt (with matching
serial numbers, of course ) ... that and within the one(1) year warranty period and, of course, no water, impact, sand, etc..... damage

As for the Warranty Card, per se, the Nikon gear I flog has "Nikon Canada" written on the card and
if it is an item that has an International Warranty .... it will, not so ironically, have that written on
the card

I hope some of the above makes sense and hopefully your AFS 70-300 VR -- a cracking lens, BTW --
gives your years and years of good use

Cheers,

Jack