Sigma Warranty in the USA

foggy · Oct 12, 2014

As I've said in earlier post I'm going to purchase my first DP M series camera in about two weeks. My recent camera purchases have been Canon. So this being my first Sigma. I was in question on how it works as far as their warranty goes. With Canon you need to have a Canon USA/CAND warranty card in the box. Or the Canon warranty stations in the states will not honor the warranty. They will not look at Grey market purchased equipment.

So how does Sigma's warranty work..? Is it world wide or do they have the same issues with grey market that Canon has..?

Foggy

mike earussi · Oct 12, 2014

Photo Support - Register & Warranty | SIGMA Corporation of America

Sigma support register-warranty

www.sigmaphoto.com

If you buy from an authorized dealer in the U.S. you get a 4 year warranty. If you buy from Japan then you get a Japan warranty, meaning you have to send the camera back to Japan for repair. I'm guessing Sigma U.S. will repair a Japan camera but will charge you. Whether the price difference is worth it is up to you ($574 vs. $649).

Corkcampbell · Oct 12, 2014

As the other poster said, the warranty is four years in the US, longer in Canada. Before the end of July last year (I believe) you had to go to Sigma's website and register the camera (or lens, flash, etc.) to get the additional three years. They dropped that requirement, as far as I know. I haven't seen a warranty card in years, so I don't think that enters into it.

I suggest that rather than just look for random comments here, you check Sigma's (US) website, perhaps download some documentation. Anything that someone like myself or others write can be out of date. For example, Olympus changed their warranty procedures recently, and we're still seeing conflicting advice/comments from posters who haven't kept up. For example, everything I told you in the first paragraph is as of a few months ago; I haven't bought a Sigma product recently so I can't offer info effective yesterday. So, the best source would be Sigma.

Also, as the other poster mentioned, buying a camera/lens in another region might make you subject to that region's warranty situation. For that reason, I didn't buy a nicely priced DP1M last month in Korea, and will pick one up the next time I'm in the US instead to get the additional warranty based in the US, where I will be using the camera after this year.

Pete Stavrakoglou · Oct 13, 2014

mike earussi said:
https://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support/warranty-registration

If you buy from an authorized dealer in the U.S. you get a 4 year warranty. If you buy from Japan then you get a Japan warranty, meaning you have to send the camera back to Japan for repair. I'm guessing Sigma U.S. will repair a Japan camera but will charge you. Whether the price difference is worth it is up to you ($574 vs. $649).

I would tend to believe that this is not quite accurate. If you buy a camera from Japan and live in the USA, you do not qualify for the "Extended Service Protection". The bottom of the page notes that the extended protection is not available for products not imported by Sigma USA but it does not indicate that the product is not covered by the one year warranty. I do believe that the so-called one-year "international warranty" applies to gray market items bought in the USA.

mike earussi · Oct 13, 2014

Peter A. Stavrakoglou said:
mike earussi said:

https://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support/warranty-registration

If you buy from an authorized dealer in the U.S. you get a 4 year warranty. If you buy from Japan then you get a Japan warranty, meaning you have to send the camera back to Japan for repair. I'm guessing Sigma U.S. will repair a Japan camera but will charge you. Whether the price difference is worth it is up to you ($574 vs. $649).

Click to expand...

I would tend to believe that this is not quite accurate. If you buy a camera from Japan and live in the USA, you do not qualify for the "Extended Service Protection". The bottom of the page notes that the extended protection is not available for products not imported by Sigma USA but it does not indicate that the product is not covered by the one year warranty. I do believe that the so-called one-year "international warranty" applies to gray market items bought in the USA.

Pete Stavrakoglou · Oct 15, 2014

mike earussi said:
Peter A. Stavrakoglou said:

mike earussi said:

https://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support/warranty-registration

If you buy from an authorized dealer in the U.S. you get a 4 year warranty. If you buy from Japan then you get a Japan warranty, meaning you have to send the camera back to Japan for repair. I'm guessing Sigma U.S. will repair a Japan camera but will charge you. Whether the price difference is worth it is up to you ($574 vs. $649).

Click to expand...

I would tend to believe that this is not quite accurate. If you buy a camera from Japan and live in the USA, you do not qualify for the "Extended Service Protection". The bottom of the page notes that the extended protection is not available for products not imported by Sigma USA but it does not indicate that the product is not covered by the one year warranty. I do believe that the so-called one-year "international warranty" applies to gray market items bought in the USA.

Click to expand...

egk4260 · Oct 16, 2014

I am not sure how Sigma USA responds in actual practice, but the warranty specifically states that grey market products will not qualify for Sigma warranty coverage.

Pete Stavrakoglou · Oct 16, 2014

egk4260 said:
I am not sure how Sigma USA responds in actual practice, but the warranty specifically states that grey market products will not qualify for Sigma warranty coverage.

The only indication I see on the website https://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support/warranty-registration is that the "extended warranty" is valid only on non-gray market items. It doesn't state that gray market items are not covered. Are you referring to printed warranty information that came with a lens/camera/flash, etc.?

mike earussi · Oct 16, 2014

Peter A. Stavrakoglou said:
mike earussi said:

Peter A. Stavrakoglou said:

mike earussi said:

https://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support/warranty-registration

If you buy from an authorized dealer in the U.S. you get a 4 year warranty. If you buy from Japan then you get a Japan warranty, meaning you have to send the camera back to Japan for repair. I'm guessing Sigma U.S. will repair a Japan camera but will charge you. Whether the price difference is worth it is up to you ($574 vs. $649).

Click to expand...

I would tend to believe that this is not quite accurate. If you buy a camera from Japan and live in the USA, you do not qualify for the "Extended Service Protection". The bottom of the page notes that the extended protection is not available for products not imported by Sigma USA but it does not indicate that the product is not covered by the one year warranty. I do believe that the so-called one-year "international warranty" applies to gray market items bought in the USA.

--
My humble photo gallery: http://www.pete-the-greek.com

Click to expand...

Curious as to what part you think is not quite accurate since you basically are saying the same thing I am. Gray market Sigma cameras are covered by whatever the warranties the countries they are imported from have, whether Japan or Germany (where may bought SD15s from). But I don't think they will be repaired free in the U.S. at all even in the first year--you'll need to send them back to the country of origin.

Click to expand...

I am saying something different Mike - I believe that Sigma USA will cover a gray-market product for one year.

I hope you're correct, but that would make them the only camera manufacture that does so AFAIK.

Pete Stavrakoglou said:
--

My humble photo gallery: http://www.pete-the-greek.com

hikerdoc · Oct 16, 2014

Peter A. Stavrakoglou said:
egk4260 said:

I am not sure how Sigma USA responds in actual practice, but the warranty specifically states that grey market products will not qualify for Sigma warranty coverage.

Click to expand...

The only indication I see on the website https://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support/warranty-registration is that the "extended warranty" is valid only on non-gray market items. It doesn't state that gray market items are not covered. Are you referring to printed warranty information that came with a lens/camera/flash, etc.?

--
My humble photo gallery: http://www.pete-the-greek.com

I just rechecked, and it is there, scroll down to the section on product warranty:

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/service-support

further down under gray market it states they will service these items for a fee, but not under any warranty provisions.

hikerdoc · Oct 16, 2014

I have been investigating the warranty issue lately as I need a couple Sigma lenses updated to recognize a new Nikon body, and will need to purchase a dock to update the Art series lenses. (After three previous trips my 85 1.4 almost knows the way to Ronkonkoma by itself!) I note on the support site that Sigma will repair grey market lenses for a fee. A current thread on the Nikon side suggests Nikon will not touch a grey market product at all.

foggy · Oct 16, 2014

Thanks for everybodies replys..! I worked off of Mikes reply and with hints I got after ordering my DP 3 M. I thought I would make a call to Sigma, What I got from Paul at Sigma out of New York in a 20 min. conversation was.

1. Sigma USA does not cover grey market product. There is a 1 year warranty from the country of origin, honored in that country.

2. The 4 year extended warranty is only on USA product sold by a USA Sigma authorized dealer.

3. You can send it back to the country of origin in that year for warranty service.

4. Sigma USA will repair your product in the states for a fee.

So grey market equipment might not be your cup of tee..? I don't buy grey market or haven't and wouldn't have but kind of slipped into it. Let me explain.

I have been buying product from Amazon for years and this was sold from the USA. They would sell from other suppliers but out of the US. In talking to Sigma that stopped around August of this year. They and E-bay are now global and things come from world wide sources. That doesn't work well from the camera point of view. with the grey market issue. Right now B&H and Adorama are closed and will not sell. So your other main sources would be Amazon or Ebay. For Amazon who is linked on the Sigma web sight as a dealer. They are selling DP3 Ms out of many dealers out of Japan in fact the main presentation out of Amazon after you google the DP3 M is sold from Leeds which doesn't sound very Japanese but that is where the camera comes from. In fact in talking to Amazon the person indicated it was a US company.

So I unwittingly bought a camera off of Amazon out of Japan that other than sending the camera back to Japan only has a 30 day exchange warranty through Leeds. What I'm going to do is send the camera back to Amazon or Leeds unopened for credit and pay $50 more through Sigma for a USA warranty camera. I will have to wait for the 2 months till the camera takes the slow boat from Japan to get this turned around. So if some of this story is not you, buyer beware

Foggy

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Sigma Warranty in the USA

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