Do not buy any Sonus Faber used

Why wouldn’t Sumiko just surcharge the parts and service levied on grey market SF products?

US imported products would receive preferred service/part prices and owners of grey market SF product would just have to pay a surcharge to subsidize the US distribution channel.

Why should Sumiko (the distributor) support the grey marketer's activities?

Being able to save huge buying from overseas vs. overpaying buying from US distributor looks grey to me.

So what have we learned so far? It's Sumikos right to make a policy. It's anyones right to have an opinion of their policy, there's the right to have an opinion of peoples opinions, ad nauseam.

The way I read it is: Sumiko will take care of not only the original owner but ANY subsequent owner of a SF product that was ever bought from a NA dealer. The receipt makes it easy but if they get lost there is a serial # trail, you or a dealer will ask for a part for an "xxx" with serial # of "#####", they will look it up and if it's NA based, you're fine.

Caveat emptor/buyer beware is a smart policy and should be in force. Sellers of gray market better add a disclaimer to their ad or it may come back to bite them.

Sumiko is NA family to SF. If your in NA and want to buy outside the family then get your parts outside the family and don't whine about it.

I do feel for the used buyer of a gray piece that didn't know but it goes back to "buyer beware". I can't imaging NOT getting even an authorized dealer to do the "labor", you'll just have to supply the part. I also think this is only going to affect a very small % owners. IMO!

To add: Seeing as this is about protecting their dealer network, I would think it quite possible that if someone wanted to trade in a gray piece on a new piece, the dealer (that Sumiko wants to protect) will get authorizition on the gray piece so it will be seviceable after he sells it.
Again, I think this will be a very small % of the time.

Elberoth2 - I was once in the market for a car that was hard to find in the US. I found one, but it was grey market from Canada. I immediately walked away. Same with audio equipment. If I do not know where it comes from I either walk or decide to take a chance, knowing it may be an issue. And "imported from Canada" is very different than grey maket merchadise from Canada.

This policy is about grey market dealers trying to circumvent the SF distribution process, not general purpose sales. If you want to buy grey market equipment from outside Sumiko's territory, just be prepared for the possibility you might have to buy parts from the place of origin. There was a time when there was starting to be a problem with grey market SF speakers in the US. Sumiko shut down a lot of it, which I am fine with.

Incidently, my guess is that if you lived in Europe where you purchased SF speakers from an authorized dealer and moved to the US and brought them with you, chances are Sumiko would sell your parts through their authorized dealer chain.

For me its simple :

If you do not like the Sumiko/Sonus Faber policy, then don't buy the products. Note they are very upfront about the policy here on Audion and on their website.

Always think twice about grey market equipment.

Always ask the source of anything you buy.

Incidenly, I have 5 sets of SF speakers from Concertino Homes to Cremona. I have talked to them on multiple occassions and they have always been extremely helpful. Fortunately, I have never had to had any service.

Djohnson54 - This is about grey market speakers, not ones from authorized dealers.

Sumiko is perfectly willing to support used equipment, as long as it is not grey market. Nobody buying SF speakers from an authorized dealer should have any qualms about buying them and selling them. If you buy used speakers that originally came from an authorized dealer you are fine. But, if you want to buy from the grey market, then you need to be careful. In fact, supporting grey market speakers would hurt Sumiko's business, because it encourages people to buy from grey market sources, with the knowledge that Sumiko will bail them out if anything happends.

I totally agree that not supporting used equipment that originally came from an authorized dealer would be a bad business models. But that is not their policy.