Hi everyone,
I am looking for a receiver Yamaha RX-V581 or Pionneer svx831. Both of them are expensive in Australia and I found a good deal from Amazon Germany. If I buy from that, can I have a warranty for that receiver? It is not an Australian stock so I understand it may not claim a manufacturer warranty in Australia. Is it right? Do you think we should take risk to buy there where the difference is up to AUD$300?
Thanks.
Are you insane? You want to spend $300 extra for $580 PRODUCT. Would you insure this single product that cost $580 for $300?
That is the one I would like to get. As I understand the product from Germany is the same but the difference is that you pay extra $300 for warranty!
I work for Radio Parts, so keep that in mind! :)
Per Yamaha Australia's statement (online here: http://au.yamaha.com/en/authorised_dealer/), you won't be covered by Yamaha Australia's 2-year warranty (RX-V series have two years, RX-A Aventage have four years). You will (probably, I'm not completely familiar with the EU consumer laws) have a warranty with the seller in Germany, but you would be responsible for the freight both ways, as well as any freight insurance for damage.
That doesn't mean that you can't take it to a local service agent for a paid repair, and whatever you spend for that will come out of your cost difference.
I had a quick look through at the Amazon.de sale, and it looks like it would work out at around AU$650-660 for the unit + shipping to Melbourne. A repair agent typically charges $30-50 to even look at a possible repair (due to the large numbers of people not going ahead with the repair), and that's before any spare parts.
Overall, you're betting on never having a fault within the warranty period. Typically an established product line and brand like Yamaha would have a fault rate of only a couple of percent, so it's a decent bet, but still a gamble. For me, it wouldn't be worth it.
OK, the price from Amazon UK is £340.51 delivered to Melbourne, or AU$576.31 at current exchange rates. That compares to $880 from you - a difference of $303.69
If you want a rough guess of the practical value of the warranty, look at the "Amazon Protect 5-year Breakdown & Accident Cover" just to the side of the item. That's £32.50($55) - which is more than the warranty is worth (since it also covers accident). If it were going to cost them more, on average, than that, then they would be making a loss (and extended warranty people don't make a loss).
Upshot is since the amount saved is massively more than the value of the warranty, get it from Amazon and make sure to burn it in when Amazon will still accept it back as a reject. If, on the very outside chance that goes futt within a few years, you can either pay to ship it back, or just accept that you lost on the bet and buy the latest and greatest.
Numbers and stats say you will likely be significantly ahead on the deal.
You've definitely got some good points there. Those Amazon warranties are generally pretty good, although it's worth checking the fine print on any warranty, even a manufacturer's!
And yes, that's the gamble, isn't it? It's a lot better than the lottery, and probably better than walking across the street with your eyes closed too!
We do the best we can with the price, and our wholesale re-sellers and trade installers have deals too. For retail showroom sales, there's often a lot more involved in checking the suitability of a product for a customer and understanding exactly what feature set gives the best reward for the minimum amount of money. It's hard to go back to an online retailer and say "you didn't tell me that ARC was only on one input!"
I'm a bigger fan of the RX-V681 and RX-A760 models, due to the independent Zone 2 audio (listen to what you want outside while the kids are watching a Bluray in the theatre) and HD video upscaling. But that's just my personal preference.
Good luck with it, zack1502, whatever you choose to do.
Not sure how good a deal you've found in Amazon Germany, but looking at it the UK price seems better. And don't forget the GST been taken off to help with the shipping cost.
As I understand it, if it's faulty on delivery, Amazon will pay for return shipping. And since amps have a bathtub curve in failures, as long as you run it in as soon as you get it, your exposure to faults is minimal. It's much more likely to go obsolete first.
Personally I certainly wouldn't pay the Australian tax (and indeed I didn't).
Why not amazon Italy, the VAT rate is higher so the price will be lower.
Yamaha RX-V581 titan 50E cheaper (I used a comparator website)
The important thing is whether we trade off warranty with cheaper price. I have not ordered through Amazon before so need information to give me the confidence about purchasing!
The other thing you need to know is will they ship it to australia - A lot of what is on Amazon US they will not even offer shipping to Aus.
The price is very important, if it's really cheaper, it'll be easier to pull the trigger.
faulty receiver (after a few days) -> full refund (even the return cost)
If there is a 2 years warranty (AU warranty or not) and if it isn't faulty, your receiver will live more than 1.5y. Yamaha's engineers know what they're doing.
Besides, if an item is known to have problems, you don't need to buy it, even with a warranty.
The guy working locally suggested paying an extra 50% to protect yourself. Ask yourself this, would you pay 50% more for warranty if you bought it locally? No chance.
If you buy 3 things like this and one blows up (highly unlikely) then you will still end up even.
Besides, amazon are great with issues like this. We bought something from amazon USA and it wasnt dual voltage. It weighed a lot and cost $150 to return. Amazon refunded the return cost for us :)
Why not buy a second hand receiver in Australia? You'd save the same or more dollars. You don't have to worry about warranty or if the owner still has a receipt you have access to the remaining Australian warranty. Plus you get to demo the system to see if you like it and whether it works.
When I think of the cost of an expensive sound package (eg. speakers + receiver = +$5000) a receiver less than $1000 is not going to save much compared to the money you'll be spending on speakers. Buying the expensive speakers from overseas will save you more dollars and in my opinion way lower risks of failure and damage from courier.
Not easy to find a near new receiver in Aus. I have checked on gumtree most of them were very old model!
Second hand is often a good trade off.
I wouldn't agree with this though "Why not buy a second hand receiver in Australia? You'd save the same or more dollars. You don't have to worry about warranty"
You don't have to worry about warranty because you would instead have to worry about having NO warranty which is worse :)
Just FYI.
I worked for a company in Melbourne who was an authorised repairer or Yamaha and Sony amplifiers/receivers.
I can tell you that Yamaha australia will NOT repair a non locally sourced unit. You would need to return it to the place of purchase and have them deal with repairs for you.
IS this what you're after for $880?
http://www.radioparts.com.au/product/01618747/rxv581-7.2-dol…
For $300 i wouldnt even bother with getting it from germany and worrying about warranty/shipping and if there is any differences with power and what not.
Just spend the extra and buy it in Aus