Buy in the US, use in the EU (price, warranty)
I decided to start a new thread to deal with discussions of EU residents who either want kit that isn't available to us yet (such as the iRex DR800) or want to save some money on the prices we are charged here. I will repost a little research I did on buying a Sony PRS-600 online here in Spain:
Amazon US will sell me a PRS-600 for 211.20E, with 39.15E in shipping, for a grand total of 250.35E (before tax - VAT would be another 40E, or 290-something-E).
(Amazon will bill directly in Euros from any site if you have an EU credit card)
The Spanish place (Apolo) wants 299E plus 15 E for shipping for a grand total of 314E (43.31E in VAT included). Some other place wants 345E for the PRS-600, so I didn't even look into shipping.
Amazon UK will sell me the 600 for 269.98 GBP, plus 29.99 in shipping for a grand total of 299.98 GBP or 335.70 E. VAT included, of course.
So, the only reason not to buy in the US is service.
The guy at the local Sony store told me that they don't provide any warranty - that it comes directly from Sony, and it doesn't matter where you buy it (which, of course, is not what he would say if he wanted me to buy from him, but I don't really trust him to know what he is talking about, either). And he doesn't actually have one, either.
Also, the PRS-600 is not officially available in Spain from Sony, so I have no idea what the warranty situation is, no matter where I buy it. The guy at the Sony store said he would have one this month, but they also sell lots of non-Sony products (like Macs), so that doesn't mean anything about official support for the device (yeah, this is Spain, of course it doesn't make sense).
What experiences have you folks have getting service for things purchased through "extra-official" channels? I am specifically interested in Sony, but iRex products are also on my radar (specifically the PR800, depending on what the reviews say).
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