Any experiences with eglobal online store?

[Ilovebokeh]

Considering a lens purchase for around $1500 ($400 cheaper than my local store)

2 year warranty at both.

Any tips/thoughts/experiences with this vendor/online buying expensive camera equipment?

https://www.eglobaldigitalcameras.com.au/tamron-sp-24-70mm-f-2.8-di-vc-usd-g2-lens-for-nikon-mount-afa032.html

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I note that the 2 year warranty is with eglobal not tamron.

[Tannin]

Eglobal seems to be one of the three major grey market vendors (along with DWI and DigitalRev). I have never dealt with Eglobal but I imagine (without evidence) that they are similar to DWI.

I have bought ... oh ... maybe 10 items from DWI over the years, about half of them during my recent equip-fest. Within their limitations (don't expect personal service from a big discounter) they have met and exceeded my expectations, delivering promptly and reliably. I can't say anything about their warranty service because (and I touch wood as I say this) I have never needed any. But honestly, if I had to put my hand in my pocket and simply replace an item (not that I think it would come to this) I'd still be at least hundreds and possibly thousands in front.

I dislike sending money overseas instead of to Australian businesses, but the price difference is just too large to ignore.

Edit: I should have mentioned that I make a distinction between different types of gear. Buying something unproblematic grey market is one thing. Buying something that is quite likely to need expert service ... nope. Better to buy that in Australia. (Assuming that the Australian agent or office is any good with customer service, that is.)

So I'm perfectly happy buying a Canon lens from OS. (The only time I have ever needed service on a Canon lens was after I dropped one. And I've owned more than I can count over the last 15 years or so.)

In the no-quite-so-happy category are camera bodies (cameras fail far more often than lenses do), and lenses from manufacturers with reputations for spotty quality control. (Mainly Tamron and Sigma. Not Tokina though: Tokina don't have much of a range but they seem to get the things they do make pretty right first time.)

It also depends a bit on how important the item is to you. If you have other lenses which you could get by on for a while, a bit of a wait while one is sent to Hong Kong to be repaired is no big deal. If it is your one and only, it's a seven-alarm fire.

[ricktas]

DWI and Eglobal are owned by the same parent company. As Tannin says, they are grey market suppliers out of Hong Kong. You do miss out on any official warranty if you buy from them. I have not heard of anyone having to return an item for repair etc, so do not know how well it works. However, you will need to factor in the cost of shipping, if you do need to return something.

Depending on the value of the AUD$, you can get some great price deals from these grey market suppliers.

I have heard of people complaining that although they list online that the item is in stock, that once the order is placed, they get an email stating it is on back-order and have had to wait a month or more for their item(s) to be sent. I have also heard of people saying that if you cancel an order, it takes quite a long time for your money to be refunded.

Eglobal and DWI are AP advertisers, so if you click on the name << and order, we get some commission on your order, which helps pay to keep AP online.

[Snpsht]

A few years ago I had cause to return a lens which had problems straight out of the box, and DWI's service was excellent. They asked me whether I wanted a refund, replacement or a different lens. I chose a different, cheaper lens and the price difference was refunded promptly and the selected lens arrived within a day or two.

DWI is the Australian end of the operation, from memory.

[Tannin]

^ Crikey! That's like saying Coles is a branch of Woolworths, or Canon is the Australian end of Nikon. :) DWI and Eglobal are competitors.

But that minor matter aside, it is really good to hear of your experience, Snpht. I've bought a heap of stuff from DWI so it's good to know that, at least in your experience, their service is good. Touch wood, I've never had cause to need it.

[feathers]

I've got camera gear from eglobal. Always prompt. Can't help with warranty as l haven't had any issues:)

[scpleta]

I bought almost all of my gear from Eglobal and DWI. I find their prices very competitive.

[Colin B]

I hope I am not committing the cardinal sin of resuscitating up old threads but when i bought my Nikon b700 recently I went through this exercise with a company called ***

I was looking for a good all-round camera for travelling and wanted something a bit better than my Fuji Finepix (12x zoom 12MP ) I had narrowed it down to three cameras: the Nikon, Canon Powershot and Sony Cybershot. The three were all priced around the same everywhere in perth with the Nikon around $150 more than the other two. Only at ** ** ** did a really knowledgeable assistant produce all three cameras with batteries and SD cards and let me play around with them while explaining their features. This was solid gold to me and as a result I chose the Nikon mainly because of its better eye-level viewfinder and seemingly simpler control layout.

The only snag was that the Nikon was over my budget and I had to consult my wife before going ahead and this was when I found out *** was selling the same camera for $sum1 plus $sum2 freight. Now, having run a business myself I am all aboard with "buy local" but $100 plus is too much to ignore. When I pointed this out to ** ** ** via their website's "price match" they said they did not price match with this operator and suggested I check into the warranty situation. Turned out that although *** has a Victorian address and 'phone number they are based in Hong Kong, all their goods are sourced and shipped from there and the manufacturers' warranties are not honoured by Nikon services in this country. *** does offer its own warranty for another $sums and by now the price gap is closing considerably.

I dug deeper by visiting the Australian "Product Review" website ( useful resource, by the way) where *** had 1500 reviews, around 900 of which were at the bottom rating. Most of the complaints related to non-arrival of purchased goods or prolonged runarounds on warranty and delivery problems. Some reviewers even suggested that they were selling refurbished cameras and Chinese knock-offs rather than the real goods. The 600 or so happy campers all received their goods promptly and were happy with them so it seems that availability of stock is the main problem, closely followed by pretty poor customer relations when things go sideways.

In the end I went back to ** ** **, looked up my helpful assistant and bought local. I like knowing that if I have any problems with the camera expert help and service are only a 20 minute drive away, not halfway around the globe.

Commercial names and prices edited out according to site rules.

[ameerat42]

You're not committing a cardinal sin by bringing up an old thread, but you are cutting the (men of the) cloth by promoting/complaining about specific
companies as a "New Member". See Rule 3 here (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/misc.php?do=vsarules). So I edited you post accordingly.

[Tannin]

As an old and long-established member (in both senses of the word, alas) with a few more rights, this might be an appropriate time for me to, well, not mentioning any names, just hint that the initials sound a bit like "Camera Sky", or one of their many aliases. I'm only guessing, of course (and Colin I suggest that you do not respond to this even by clicking "useful post" lest you run up against the site rules - they do exist for a reason), but either it's a duck or it's something else that waddles, swims, quacks, has feathers, and lays eggs.

[ricktas]

Camera Sky and its associated company Android Enjoyed have Fair Trading warnings against them advising consumers to not use them. So if people do, then they do so at their own risk. http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?153007-Camerasky&highlight=camerasky

As this thread is about Eglobal and DWI, might I suggest any discussion regarding camerasky continue over on the thread about them.

[Tannin]

See this thread for some Camera Sky news: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?146521-Camera-Sky