Is the local shop charging too much?

[jbn999]

Hey everyone, first post here.
I am looking to buy a 30D, and probably take advantage of the fall rebate stuff. I went to my local shop to make sure the rebate would work with a purchase there and see if I could pre-haggle on the price. Right now they have the body for a price of $1400. They say that will also come with $50 towards the purchase of a case. The shop also said that for $100 more they would give me a warranty that would cover a 1 time repair (the example they gave me was dropping the camera) over 3 years.

I brought up the subject of the better deals at beach camera and bhphotovideo.com to them. They claimed that anyone with cheaper deals than them are grey market and should not be trusted as far as warranties go. Now, I know that online sites will have better deals, and one reason I want to buy it here is that it is nice having local service for your camera. Yet, when beach camera has the 30d for 1273 with a memory card and all of the accessories is there a reason to stay with a local shop? In everyone else's experience have you needed the local shop to maintain the 30d?

As much as I am for the brick and mortar store and having someone to go to to drop off my camera if it needs warranty work, I am not sure if I can justify the difference in price. So I guess the question I am asking boils down to brick and mortar or go for the online?

Thanks

[Paul79UF]

I've never had a problem with any of my Canon cameras. I vote that you buy it online and get a Mack Warranty if you want extra coverage.

I used to have a Nikon D100 (grey market from a shady NYC dealer :rolleyes: ) and it came with a 5 year mack warranty. After about 50,000 images, the mirror & shutter mechanism broke. It was a fairly decent 2 week turnaround to get my camera back fixed.

[RichNY]

Don't forget to add another $100+ dollars for the sales tax if you buy local. And the price gap grows further if you decide you want to use memory or lenses on that 30D ;) :D

Definately go B&H, and as someone who lives in NY, I wouldn't recommend Beach. B&H had a real bad reputation for passing off grey market goods as US, selling stale film, and repackaging old merchandise as new but have really seemed to have cleaned up their act in the last 18-24 months.

[ktixx]

It sounds like the local shop is trying to rip you off. If you go on B&H's website it clearly states what is "imported" (ie: gray market) and what is from the USA. I have bought thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from B&H and I have never had a problem. I ALWAYS get the warrenty card with my products and have never heard of B&H trying to scam people.
B&H is cheaper because of the quantity they deal in, when you buy tens of thousands of cameras from canon you will get a better deal then the small local shop buying 15 or 20.
Good Luck
Ken

[timit]

Buying local helps the local economy and that's always good. Local stores are almost always more expensive but not because they want to rip people off. It's because of the cost of operating a small business. If you buy from a larger store, go with B&H. I've bough a bunch of stuff from them and never had any problems.

[troop]

My local camera shop has only one (Fuji S6000fd) of the two cameras (Pana DMC-fz50) I'm looking at in stock. They anticipate getting the Pana sometime in the next two weeks. They're selling the Fuji for msrp ($499) plus the $50 rebate to get it to $450. The DMC-fz50 will go for $599. The advantage of local is you have 10 day return policy if the camera don't work out for you. I'm gonna wait a couple weeks to buy one because I want to use it in the local h.s. gym for my daughters b-ball game. I'm gonna give the local shop every effort to deal with me as I'd really like the local support. What I WON'T do is buy it locally, find that it's great and return it and then buy on-line as I really think that is cheesey. I'd want the camera, 1GB card, card reader and a uv lense filter. I'll show them e-bay options and take it from there...

[BonjiB]

1400 is too much for a 30d body only. It's 1149 at b&h before shipping and rebates and shipping isn't 251 dollars. It's also 1131 with free shipping from beach camera before rebates. Save your money and buy online. B&H has my vote and i always pay a hair more over other online retailers because i trust B&H. I've ordered thousands of dollars worth of stuff from them, camera related and non, without ever having any problems whatsoever. They usually ship same day if you use a 2nd day or overnight option and order before 2pm eastern. That's important to me because i'm impatient and want my stuff now... and they get it to me as close to now as an online site can do. Also... b&h marks clearly what is imported and what is USA market and everything usa marked comes with the full warantee just like it would in a store. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

[RichNY]

What you should be getting from a retail store is hand holding and expert advice for the extra price. With a price gap that large you are better off buying at B&H and paying an hourly rate for some in-store consulting that might help you get aquainted with your camera quicker. Most stores will be glad to take $100-$150 for all the time you might ever want in personal service- and they'll give you better service when you are paying for IT than when its just part of selling a camera.