Warning: Do Not Buy A Camera From Abe’s of Maine

Would be nice if the specifics of the purchase price and cost of the warranty were presented. I wonder how much money was saved - and then later on the cost of the warranty. Just wondering…
Just for perspective since I purchased 3 gray-market Fuji lenses :-)
  • 56/1.2 was in 11/2019 for $782. Serial number is 95A25xxx, made in Japan
  • 18-135 was in 5/2018 for $690. Serial number is 7DA03xxx, made in Philippines
  • 50-140 was in 3/2021 for $1,189. Serial number is 15C00xxx, made in Japan
Those are the final prices, including shipping. Haven't had any problem with these lenses. I know the 50-140 has been on sale directly from Fujifilm at that similar price occasionally, but I needed that lens immediately for a theater performance so there's quite a saving.

They all have 1-year warranty from the seller, as in we discussed about the problem via email before hand, then I'd ship the lens back to them (in Hong Kong), they have the lens either repaired with Japan's warranty (that's what they claim), or they exchange me a new/refurbished one.

One of the reasons I went with gray-market is that Fuji's 1-year warranty isn't worth the saving. I've used to have most of my Nikons refurbished for years: D5100, D5500, 18-140, 55-200, ... with no problem, so I feel the chance of things going bad too low to justify the premium for just 1-year warranty.

Used gears are a different story. I try to avoid buying used gears as much as I can. Actually haven't bought any.
 
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Just for perspective since I purchased 3 gray-market Fuji lenses :-)
  • 56/1.2 was in 11/2019 for $782. Serial number is 95A25xxx, made in Japan
  • 18-135 was in 5/2018 for $690. Serial number is 7DA03xxx, made in Philippines
  • 50-140 was in 3/2021 for $1,189. Serial number is 15C00xxx, made in Japan
Those are the final prices, including shipping. Haven't had any problem with these lenses. I know the 50-140 has been on sale directly from Fujifilm at that similar price occasionally, but I needed that lens immediately for a theater performance so there's quite a saving.

They all have 1-year warranty from the seller, as in we discussed about the problem via email before hand, then I'd ship the lens back to them (in Hong Kong), they have the lens either repaired with Japan's warranty (that's what they claim), or they exchange me a new/refurbished one.

One of the reasons I went with gray-market is that Fuji's 1-year warranty isn't worth the saving. I've used to have most of my Nikons refurbished for years: D5100, D5500, 18-140, 55-200, ... with no problem, so I feel the chance of things going bad too low to justify the premium for just 1-year warranty.

Used gears are a different story. I try to avoid buying used gears as much as I can. Actually haven't bought any.
Then consider yourself fortunate. I've read FAR more stories like the OP's than I have success stories. That's not to say that it isn't possible to get a good deal and a successful transaction, but when you work with gray market sellers, you are rolling the dice. I'm glad it worked out for you... I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
 
Just a guess here. If they are closed on Saturday's, they observe Jewish Holiday's and like B&H and Adorama I assume Sales & Customer Service will reopen Thu Sep 30. Try contacting them again next Thursday.

Good luck,

Joel
it looks like you could be right
 
Then consider yourself fortunate. I've read FAR more stories like the OP's than I have success stories. That's not to say that it isn't possible to get a good deal and a successful transaction, but when you work with gray market sellers, you are rolling the dice. I'm glad it worked out for you... I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Agreed. I just knew what I was doing. I did my homework on researching most of the sellers, and gambled on the first buy. The second and third purchased are more confidence than gambling, though.

Another safer way is through eBay, e.g. 6ave, or a seller shipped from Hong Kong. They're obviously gray market, but eBay protects buyers much more than sellers, so you have an extra layer of protection.

Again, yes, you must know what you're doing and do your homework if you want to go down the gray market road. It's just a matter of how much risk you're willing to accept for the saving (usually only 20%).
 
... as they are observing the Jewish holiday Sukkos. This started on 20 September, so if you first contacted them after that, it would explain the silence on their part.

Most Jewish owned stores do not do business during their religious holidays. The websites of both B&H and Adorama clearly state this.

Unfortunately, this is not stated on their website, or if it is, they have managed to hide it well. I agree, this should be much better communicated to customers.

As far as a grey market camera is concerned, it's a trade off between paying a lower price and being limited to where you can go for warranty service.

For some it's worth it, for others it's not.

I do not think your case is hopeless, good luck with getting your camera fixed.

--
Cheers,
Peter Jonas
 
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653a64eca07e48d489a19419286bd0b2.jpg

I think this is all you need to know...

5,393 reviews when the screenshot was made from reselleratings.com, with a 1 star rating. 0% positive reviews in the last 6 months. :-(

Run, don't walk away from these people.

--
Chris
 
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653a64eca07e48d489a19419286bd0b2.jpg

I think this is all you need to know...

5,393 reviews when the screenshot was made from reselleratings.com, with a 1 star rating. 0% positive reviews in the last 6 months. :-(

Run, don't walk away from these people.
Fair comment, based on the information you presented.

However, it does not assist the OP the slightest, He's already made a purchase, and now he has to get his warranty claim through.

If he walks (runs) away, it will cost him about $400 to get the repair done. It just depends how much the OP's time is worth.

I would encourage him to make a few more attempts of contacting them via phone or email.

Other than his time, the OP has nothing to lose. He might even get somewhere, especially now, that they are back from their holidays.

--
Cheers,
Peter Jonas
 
653a64eca07e48d489a19419286bd0b2.jpg

I think this is all you need to know...

5,393 reviews when the screenshot was made from reselleratings.com, with a 1 star rating. 0% positive reviews in the last 6 months. :-(

Run, don't walk away from these people.
I wish the mods would close or delete this thread. OP had an axe to grind and made a post to rant; they purchased a product labeled as an import and are upset that Fujifilm USA won't service it for free and that the placed they purchased from isn't responding during their closed hours. Add that the place that sells a warranty is rarely the place that services the warranty and this entire post is not worth the space, and apparently it's also not worth OP's time to come back either. Many suggestions have been offered for resolving the matter, and the concerns were likely overstated.

For the screenshot, I never put much faith in those sites because it's well known that competing companies often down-rate each other. Looking at the reviews, most of them are old; only 5 reviews total in the last year, so "0% positive reviews in the last 6 months" isn't meaningful, in my opinion. And if you read the reviews, you find the main reason people rate them so low is because they ordered an imported product without realizing it.

A few people complain that they ordered a product and were then called and told that it was out of stock; they were given options to cancel or to change to a different product. That could be crappy online inventory management, or it could be an illegal bait-and-switch tactic; I don't know.

Some complain that they ordered at what they thought was a great, low price but, before the order shipped, someone from Abe's called to confirm that it was an imported model and to give them the option to keep the order, cancel the order, or to switch to the USA model at a different price. That could be a shady practice, or it could be them trying to avoid returns and knowing that people are ordering without realizing it's an import; but if it's the latter, this probably isn't the best way to address the issue.

Does Abe's disclose that products are imported? Yes, they do.

Should Abe's be more transparent and make it more easily noticeable on the product page and during the ordering process? Yes, they should.

Should Abe's be avoided completely as some are suggesting? No, not if you do your research and know what you're buying.

But Abe's should add a pop-up or something to make absolutely sure that people know the item being purchased is an import and may not be covered under warranty; they should also include a note about how much it would cost to change to the USA-based version of the product and a link to quickly change from the import to the USA version.

Other than that, it's pointless to keep this thread open for people to whine on about this. And, even given the benefit of the doubt and assuming OP's intentions were good in posting, the thread has nothing to do with Fujifilm cameras and would probably have been better placed in "Camera, Lens and System Buying Advice" or some other forum.

FWIW, I've never ordered from them, but I know several other photographers who have. None of them had any issues: They knew they were purchasing imports and the received what they ordered at the price they expected.

Last thing, imports have been a thing for a really long time due to price variance in different markets, but I blame the camera companies for contributing to misunderstandings like OP's situation. Many years ago, camera sellers were free to sell at whatever price made sense for their business. Then Canon started mandating minimum prices, and other brands followed. Part of the result is that people looking for deals end up with imports more often than before; sometimes they realize what they're buying and sometimes they don't. But the option is good for those that pay attention to what they're buying and want the lower price point.
 
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I wish the mods would close this thread. OP had an axe to grind and made a post to rant; they purchased a product labeled as an import and are upset that Fujifilm USA won't service it for free and that the placed they purchased from isn't responding during their closed hours. Add that the place that sells a warranty is rarely the place that services the warranty and this entire post is not worth the space, and apparently it's also not worth OP's time to come back either.

For the screenshot, I never put much faith in those sites because it's well known that competing companies often down-rate each other. Looking at the reviews, most of them are old; only 5 reviews total in the last year, so "0% positive reviews in the last 6 months" isn't meaningful, in my opinion. And if you read the reviews, you find the main reason people rate them so low is because they ordered an imported product without realizing it.

A few people complain that they ordered a product and where then called and told that it was out of stock; they were given options to cancel or to change to a different product. That could be crappy online inventory management, or it could be an illegal bait-and-switch tactic; I don't know.

Some complain that they ordered at what they thought was a great, low price but, before the order shipped, someone from Abe's called to confirm that it was an import model and to give them the option to keep the order, cancel the order, or to switch to the USA model at a different price point. That could be a shady practice, or it could be them trying to avoid returns and knowing that people are ordering without realizing it's an import; but if it's the latter, this probably isn't the best way to address the issue.

Does Abe's disclose that products are imported? Yes, they do.

Should Abe's be more transparent and make it more easily noticeable on the product page and during the ordering process? Yes, they should.

Should Abe's be avoided completely as some are suggesting? No, not if you do your research and know what you're buying.

But Abe's should add a pop-up or something to make absolutely sure that people know the item being purchased is an import and may not be covered under warranty; they should also include a note about how much it would cost to change to the USA-based version of the product and a link to quickly change from the import to the USA version.

Other than that, it's pointless to keep this thread open for people to whine on about this.

FWIW, I've never ordered from them, but I know several other photographers who have. None of them had any issues: They knew they were purchasing imports and the received what they ordered at the price they expected.

Last thing, imports have been a thing for a really long time due to price variance in different markets, but I blame the camera companies for contributing to misunderstandings like OP's situation. Many years ago, camera sellers were free to sell at whatever price made sense for their business. Then Canon started mandating minimum prices, and other brands followed. Part of the result is that people looking for deals end up with imports more often than before; sometimes they realize what they're buying and sometimes they don't. But the option is good for those that pay attention to what they're buying and want the lower price point.
So, you’d like me to close down the thread, but not until you’ve had a chance to post a very long list of your own thoughts and opinions on this, right? Hmmm. Well, people are free to agree or disagree with the OP’s post, but I don’t see it as out of line or in violation of DPR forum rules… as such, I have no plans to shut it down or censor it at the moment, as long as posts remain conformant to DPR posting standards. Abe’s has a long history of issues and I’ve read countless posts over the years with feedback not all that different from what’s posted here. You’ve had an opportunity to offer your own view, which is fine. But that doesn’t justify shutting down the thread. Just ignore it and move on if you see fit to do so.
 
Thanks Jerry-Astro for letting this thread stand. I believe it is the right decision. I have no horse in this race, but I am all in favor of letting people speak the truth (regardless of whether it is good or bad).
 
So, you’d like me to close down the thread, but not until you’ve had a chance to post a very long list of your own thoughts and opinions on this, right?
I actually would've preferred it have been closed much earlier, well before I posted the first time, but that's obviously not my call to make.
Hmmm. Well, people are free to agree or disagree with the OP’s post, but I don’t see it as out of line or in violation of DPR forum rules
Again, not my call to make. But I don't think it's about agreeing or disagreeing with the post. I don't even think there's anything to agree or disagree with in the OP, except maybe the title; the rest is OP relaying a personal ordering experience, which I presume to be true.

But I still think what I wrote is true: "the thread has nothing to do with Fujifilm cameras and would probably have been better placed in 'Camera, Lens and System Buying Advice' or some other forum."

That forum is specifically self-described as "the place to discuss deals and to ask for advice on choosing digital photography equipment and on where to buy it"; seems more appropriate to me than using the forum described as "the place to discuss Fujifilm APS-C cameras."

But I'm not the mod so not my call to make.

Here's to hoping that there won't be many more of these types of threads and this one will hopefully get drowned out soon enough. Otherwise, I'm sure we all have a long list of equally valid ordering experiences--positive and negative--that could each be a separate thread and equally unrelated to the camera system.
 
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653a64eca07e48d489a19419286bd0b2.jpg

I think this is all you need to know...

5,393 reviews when the screenshot was made from reselleratings.com, with a 1 star rating. 0% positive reviews in the last 6 months. :-(

Run, don't walk away from these people.
I am completely on board with exposing companies that practice questionable business tactics (like A of M), but something seems strange about this rating. I completely believe that they would get over 5,000 negative (one star) reviews, but hard to believe that not one person (out of over 5,000) would give a rating of 2 or higher.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm defending A of M, because I'm not. I would never do business with them.
 
So, you’d like me to close down the thread, but not until you’ve had a chance to post a very long list of your own thoughts and opinions on this, right?
I actually would've preferred it have been closed much earlier, well before I posted the first time, but that's obviously not my call to make.
Hmmm. Well, people are free to agree or disagree with the OP’s post, but I don’t see it as out of line or in violation of DPR forum rules
Again, not my call to make. But I don't think it's about agreeing or disagreeing with the post. I don't even think there's anything to agree or disagree with in the OP, except maybe the title; the rest is OP relaying a personal ordering experience, which I presume to be true.

But I still think what I wrote is true: "the thread has nothing to do with Fujifilm cameras and would probably have been better placed in 'Camera, Lens and System Buying Advice' or some other forum."

That forum is specifically self-described as "the place to discuss deals and to ask for advice on choosing digital photography equipment and on where to buy it"; seems more appropriate to me than using the forum described as "the place to discuss Fujifilm APS-C cameras."

But I'm not the mod so not my call to make.

Here's to hoping that there won't be many more of these types of threads and this one will hopefully get drowned out soon enough. Otherwise, I'm sure we all have a long list of equally valid ordering experiences--positive and negative--that could each be a separate thread and equally unrelated to the camera system.
So, because this is mostly a gear forum, users shouldn't post any merchant-related experiences (either good or bad)? That makes no sense to me. The OP bought Fujifilm gear, so I don't see how it isn't relevant. If the OP bought Sony gear and came here to complain, I'd understand your argument.
 
I am completely on board with exposing companies that practice questionable business tactics (like A of M), but something seems strange about this rating. I completely believe that they would get over 5,000 negative (one star) reviews, but hard to believe that not one person (out of over 5,000) would give a rating of 2 or higher.
That site doesn't represent the data in the way it seems at first glance. They weight certain reviews more than others, especially if they're recent reviews. And the chart that shows the percentage for each rating is only based on the reviews received in the past 6 months. In this case, the company received 4 reviews in the last 6 months and either all four were 1/5 or 1/5 ends up being what's reported due to the averaging and weighting that the site does. They've only had 5 reviews total in the last 12 months.

If you go to the site and change to view the lifetime ratings, it's a much different picture: 75% 5-star; 10% 4-star; 3% 3-star; 3% 2-star; 10% 1-star. According to the site, the overall rating is 4.37/5 with 84.8% being positive reviews. I don't know how long the company's "lifetime" is on the site, but I guess it's several years. Also, the ratings are in several categories but most reviewers don't rate all of them, only the ones they're most passionate about.

But just like I think some competitors down-rate each other, I also think some companies up-rate themselves, so I still don't place much weight on these types of review sites. I'm not saying that Abe's did or does that, but I'm aware that it happens and I'm always hesitant to put faith in reviews. YMMV.

44d4a0325f77466aab956e2d7e8e93ff.jpg.png
 
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So, because this is mostly a gear forum, users shouldn't post any merchant-related experiences (either good or bad)? That makes no sense to me. The OP bought Fujifilm gear, so I don't see how it isn't relevant. If the OP bought Sony gear and came here to complain, I'd understand your argument.
I'll probably stop responding--not because I disagree, but because it pushes the thread back to the top every time, which is self-defeating given my position on this.

My opinion, and I may be in the minority, is that it would be very relevant if the experience was about the gear, like if you ordered and the item was counterfeit. I also think it's relevant that OP ordered and got an imported product, has issues with the warranty, etc.

But at this point the issue has been stated, as have counter-interpretations of what happened and potential next steps, and it's not really useful to keep harping on about it when even OP isn't adding. At a certain point it loses focus and, in my opinion, would be better in the thread specific to "advice on choosing digital photography equipment and on where to buy it".

And yes, it would be a bad thing, in my opinion, if we all posted our merchant-related experiences. But hopefully it won't come to that and will just be an occasional thread here or there that I can ignore.
 
So, because this is mostly a gear forum, users shouldn't post any merchant-related experiences (either good or bad)? That makes no sense to me. The OP bought Fujifilm gear, so I don't see how it isn't relevant. If the OP bought Sony gear and came here to complain, I'd understand your argument.
I'll probably stop responding--not because I disagree, but because it pushes the thread back to the top every time, which is self-defeating given my position on this.

My opinion, and I may be in the minority, is that it would be very relevant if the experience was about the gear, like if you ordered and the item was counterfeit. I also think it's relevant that OP ordered and got an imported product, has issues with the warranty, etc.

But at this point the issue has been stated, as have counter-interpretations of what happened and potential next steps, and it's not really useful to keep harping on about it when even OP isn't adding. At a certain point it loses focus and, in my opinion, would be better in the thread specific to "advice on choosing digital photography equipment and on where to buy it".

And yes, it would be a bad thing, in my opinion, if we all posted our merchant-related experiences. But hopefully it won't come to that and will just be an occasional thread here or there that I can ignore.
Fair enough. Thanks for keeping it civil.
 
So, because this is mostly a gear forum, users shouldn't post any merchant-related experiences (either good or bad)? That makes no sense to me. The OP bought Fujifilm gear, so I don't see how it isn't relevant. If the OP bought Sony gear and came here to complain, I'd understand your argument.
I'll probably stop responding--not because I disagree, but because it pushes the thread back to the top every time, which is self-defeating given my position on this.

My opinion, and I may be in the minority, is that it would be very relevant if the experience was about the gear, like if you ordered and the item was counterfeit. I also think it's relevant that OP ordered and got an imported product, has issues with the warranty, etc.

But at this point the issue has been stated, as have counter-interpretations of what happened and potential next steps, and it's not really useful to keep harping on about it when even OP isn't adding. At a certain point it loses focus and, in my opinion, would be better in the thread specific to "advice on choosing digital photography equipment and on where to buy it".

And yes, it would be a bad thing, in my opinion, if we all posted our merchant-related experiences. But hopefully it won't come to that and will just be an occasional thread here or there that I can ignore.
It would also be bad if everyone posted something about most any subject here. Of course that will never happen, so it's really a moot point. What we all would probably prefer is a forum that has a nice mix of issues: some concerning specific gear, others perhaps with tips on usage, some discussing aspects of the buying process, and many other topics. As it stands, the forum is pretty heterogenous, with a fair amount of topics. Opinions on the value of these topics vary, which is why it's pretty easy to skip past the parts you don't like and spend time with the ones you do... including perhaps adding an opinion of your own along the way.

Bottom line... we all have "hot buttons" concerning what we like and don't like to have discussed here. Fortunately, the format of the forum makes it pretty easy to skip past threads that are obviously irrelevant to your interests, with a quick read of a post or two.

To summarize: as long as the topics otherwise conform to forum rules (which are pretty non constraining), most anything related to Fujifilm gear is game for discussion. Ignore what you don't like and read and/or respond to what you do. It's that simple. I don't think anyone here really wants Mods, DPR Staff, or anyone else to overly constrain content. Walk away if you don't find merchant related (or any other topic) content to be of interest. It's that simple.

--
Jerry-Astro
Fuji Forum co-Mod
 
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To summarize this thread and my 50 years of experience. In buying camera-gear, but also other things:

—-> There is ALWAYS a price to pay if you purchase Things.

If you buy from a well-reputated vendor, you pay everything at the very beginning, even for excellent customer service you need perhaps later on.

If you do NOT, you will often enough pay a „hidden“ price which gets evident later on:

less or no guarantee, no or bad customer-service, bad or second-class gear, bad or endless communication (perhaps even no communication at all)… and you will pay at least with investment of your precious lifetime while losing time with useless communication, maybe even have to pay an advocat to get -perhaps - back a part of your money.

so it is better not to regard only the price to pay at the very beginning, calculate well your risk concerning possible hidden prices you might have to pay later on. Often enough a „low price“ gets a very high overall-price at the end.

If you want to play Roulette in a casino, do NOT complain if you lose everything at the end… just think over your purchasing-behavior…

those who pay very cheep prices will often enough pay a second time later on..

If you think „This price is to good to be true“ - this first spontaneous thought might be absolutely CORRECT… not only for vendors of new gear, but also for purchases of used gear in the WWW….

So - better think twice… or do NOT complain about a hidden price to pay at the end.

cheers
 
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If you buy from a well-reputated vendor, you pay everything at the very beginning, even for excellent customer service you need perhaps later on.

If you do NOT, you will often enough pay a „hidden“ price which gets evident later on:

less or no guarantee, no or bad customer-service, bad or second-class gear, bad or endless communication (perhaps even no communication at all)… and you will pay at least with investment of your precious lifetime while losing time with useless communication, maybe even have to pay an advocat to get -perhaps - back a part of your money.

so it is better not to regard only the price to pay at the very beginning, calculate well your risk concerning possible hidden prices you might have to pay later on. Often enough a „low price“ gets a very high overall-price at the end.
I'm wondering, "later on" and "at the end" seem like a long time, but in reality, isn't that just 1 year?

After the official 1-year warranty period, it doesn't matter if it's a gray-market item, does it?

Basically the price difference is mostly for the 1-year premium insurance? Just like any insurance, it's simply risk vs peace-of-mind.

My assumption comes from the fact that two of my gray-market lenses have the serial numbers designated for America region.
 
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Dear Forum Users

i want to alert you not to buy a camera from Abe’s of Maine. I did and I am now without a working camera and $999 worse off.

Briefly, they sold me a FujiFilm XT30 and a three year warranty. 3.5 months later the camera has developed a hardware fault; this happens. I thought I was covered. I have not had any response from Abe’s of Maine, despite numerous attempts. For this reason, I called FujiFilm US. They confirmed on the phone that there is a hardware problem and that should be covered by the manufacturers warranty. I gave the background to them and they asked me for the serial number. They then told me it was a model for sale in Australia and was not covered by the Fuji warranty.
They sounded legit and friendly, they sold me a warranty as part of the package and when in fact it was covered by the manufacturers warranty. The Fuji support team were empathetic and also very upset to hear I had been sold this product and warned me that they had put a warning on their website about Abe’s of Maine. They also told me that they could likely repair the camera for approximately $400.

Never do business with Abe’s of Maine, you will likely end up worse off for doing so as I have done.

I have contacted the credit card company for help, they told me that formally I had 60 days to dispute a charge.

This has been painful, and I will be back to my IPhone for a while to take pictures whilst I save for a new camera. It saddens me that Companies like Abe’s of Maine do this and I want to warn forum users of this sharp practice.

Ravenstone
Interesting….first post from the OP. Plenary of responses from peeps chiming in with advice. 3 days later, still no response in any way from the OP. Sounds like someone has an axe to grind with Abe’s. Just saying….seems fishy to me. Oh well, it’s just dust in the wind on the internet.

I only buy from B&H and have had awesome experiences with them! They are the best and I fully support them over Amazon or any other retailer for gear.
Still interesting to me…..zero response from the OP. Yep, axe to grind and understandable. Yet no follow up information…..did it even happen? Just saying……
 

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