Do not buy any Sonus Faber used

It is and excerpt from yesterdays "important notice" posted by Sumiko on Audiogon. It caught my attention because I was looking to buy some Sonus Faber monitors. I'm not sure how closely they're going to enforce the policy (the part about a proof of purchase from authorised dealer)but to refuse to sell parts for a product no matter the origin makes little sense to me. They usualy have hefty markup on parts and can order from manufacturer if needed. Anyway , maybe I've read too much into it but to me manufacturer has an obligation to support its product for a reasonable period of time.

Must be a trans-shipment incident. Dealers from other countries selling out of their area?

I haven't paid a lot of attention to Sonus Faber since the mid 1990's, just curious, do they now make their own drivers? As far as I knew, they use drivers made by other manufacturers.

I remember a friend in the 1990's who owned Extremas and needed new drivers. He knew which drivers they used and saved 50% buying them elsewhere.

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Here's more of the note posted by Sonus Faber:

WARNING

IF A SONUS FABER PRODUCT IS:
1. Directly imported by you from another country, OR
2. Purchased directly from a dealer OVERSEAS, OR
3. Acquired by you from an UNAUTHORIZED North American based re-seller,
ALL SONUS FABER PRODUCT WARRANTIES ARE NULL AND VOID

In other words, you will only be provided a North American warranty on Sonus faber product purchased from a SUMIKO authorized Sonus faber dealer.

IN ADDITION, SUMIKO WILL NOT SUPPLY PARTS AND/OR SERVICE FOR ANY SONUS FABER PRODUCT WITHOUT PROOF OF PURCHASE FROM A SUMIKO AUTHORIZED DEALER IN NORTH AMERICA.

PLEASE CONTACT SUMIKO FOR A SONUS FABER DEALER IN YOUR AREA,
OR TO DETERMINE IF A DEALER OFFERING SONUS FABER IS AUTHORIZED.

Note in the third to last paragraph they say that it has to have been purchased from an authorized dealer not that YOU have to have purchased from an authorized dealer. This is most likely aimed at the grey-market but I would check with them to be sure if I was about to buy used. After all, you don't really know where the seller originally purchased the product.

Great Business model. Welcome behind the iron curtain..ahem I mean ...free world :-)

I agree it is probably due to grey-market competition for US based dealers and distributers There is a big mark-up on some of these products by the distributer which makes buying overseas for expensive items seem attractive. I ran into this when I bought a used Japanese cartridge and the US distributer would not even answer a question I had about a specification (stylus tip to mounting hole distance) when I read him the serial number. He basically hung up the phone on me. I ended up calling Japan at 2:00AM EST and found someone who spoke English and could answer my question.

It's a tough issue. The US dealers and distributers loose out when we buy overseas. I don't really blame this policy, but it does force the buyers to think very carefully before buying items of unknown origin. I guess it's "Buyer Beware" or pay up.