While I do understand and share your concerns, I sincerely hope that they are not you brave last words since warranty saves you many times in electronics than most other businesses and good experience does not necessarily fix broken things at all times!
Remember everyone is here to get the max value - the dealer to get the most Rs. and you to get the most quality.
I think Murali has largely answered my question...
I come from the Insurance background (not any more). It was my job to assess 'risks' and 'value' (embedded and otherwise!). If you buy your goods from a 'reputed' store abroad or a 'reputed' grey dealer' here - or for that matter from the official dealer -- in all these cases you get the same 1st quality product (sometimes the pieces shipped to the US tends to me made-other-than-China
) . Now the only differentiator is the so called warranty - not to mention the buying experience itself. Considering we all take necessary precautions with power supply etc, the chances of something failing is uniform. The failure rate of the product - that is the 'risk'. Let me take the example of the hot selling Onkyo 606. This is in the region of $360 in the US - which translates to 18k INR. Now this is being sold in in India - with B&W for some 39.56k!!! (that's the quote I got here)
. THAT definitely is NOT 'Value'! If you are willing to consider that your piece may be the one amongst the 1% or less of the pieces that'd fail (..that too in the very first year!), are you willing to pay double for protection? You are better of buying international insurance from the country you bought it in. It costs in the region of 50-100$ for a 5 year protection plan! (may be the full replacement clause may cost some more!) . In this case you might as well pick up TWO Onkyo 606s from abroad - and build redundancy ! (But what if both fail....?? )
We are a part of a Global economy now. If we ever want to be competitive, we need to take away the barriers that prevent us from competing at the same level - largest of which is price. ITs not like the past where very few amongst us travelled abroad, and the rest of us had absolutely no means of contact/information. Now a lot of us travel, and e-commerce has really erased borders! I am willing to pay a small margin over the international price - but if the gap is unreasonably wide - I'd rather source the product directly .. and take my chances!
To conclude - I have a bit of a 'cut-the-nose-to-spite-the-face' attitude when it comes to a few things. As a customer I will NEVER buy ANYTHING from a place that does not treat me as a customer should be treated - regardless of how badly I want it! I go to great lengths to ensure every customer I interact with goes away happy, regardless of whether a transaction took place or not. This, over my career spanning the last 19 years, has built up a tremendous foundation of trust and goodwill - that I could go back to them with ANYTHING, and most of them would buy it blindly! I treasure and guard that jealously!
(While on the subject .. so many of us talk of 'risks' and 'warranty' associated with these material possessions ... May I ask how many of us have Life Insurance - and in what quantum? What is it going to 'warranty/guarantee'? In India more than 95% of the time the car has more insurance that the person driving it!)
