Well i do not dispute the 20 year warranty but i do question if Bryston offers LOCAL only 20 year warranty... If they do provide 20 Year INTERNATIONAL warranty ... it would make sense for me to Bryston...
I do not expect to live in the same country for 20 yrs.
Thanks
HP
Hi,
I am afraid, there is no easy answer...
One thing is sure, however: Bryston is offering a 20 year warranty from the date of manufacture, which on most components is printed on the back and labeled as date code. Starting with date code 0608, which stands for calendar week 8 in the year 2006, the machine has to be accompanied by the bill of sale to proove that it has been acquired through an authorized dealer. You can anytime send your defective Bryston component to Bryston's Canada plant for service and it will be serviced free of charge (if the requirements are met). The warranty includes work, material and the return shipping. Shipping to Canada would be the owner's responsibility.
Now, sending the stuff around the globe often isn't a viable option and Bryston has selected competent distributors all around the world that can do warranty service for Bryston components...
But now comes the tricky part...
Bryston components do, as most stuff originally manufactured in the North American hemisphere, have a much higher price outside of North America. The reasons for this are manyfold. There are shipping and import duties, which are the most obvious reasons. Prices in the US are normally stated without sales tax, while European prices for end users are quoted including tax, which easily means a 20% markup. Then the distributor is an additional link in the chain and he wants to make his cut as well and the local dealer, of corse, doesn't run his business out of the goodness of his heart...
To make a long story short, importing new or used Bryston stuff often is a viable option for people residing outside North America. The internet has made the international differences very transparent and as a Bryston fan, I have been buying and selling used Bryston stuff throughout Europe, from Indonesia and Australia. Some distributors see this as an assault on their business, as they seem to believe that every (used) component imported means less sales of new stuff through their business. While we could discuss whether or to which extend this is the case or not, this attitude often leads to distributors limiting their service to components that have been imported into the(ir) country by the official Bryston distributor, i.e. through themselves.
Linked to the afore mentioned attitude, some distributors issued their own warranty card for each Bryston component. Sun Audio, the former distributor for Germany, is an example for this. Only if you registered your component with Sun Audio, would you get the warranty card, which, of course, is required to get the warranty service. What makes things a little tricky here is that Sun Audio issued warranty cards with a 20 year warranty starting at the
date of sale. The reason for this surely is that we Germans are
VERY correct and we wouln't accept a component that has been advertized with a 20 year warranty carrying only 19.8 years when we carry it out of the store...
I am wondering, however, what will be happening if a component sold through Sun Audio should fail when the 20 years from the date of manufacture have passed, but the 20 years from the date of sale have not. I wonder if Bryston would step in. Sun Audio hasn't been very helpful lately regarding Bryston, which might be understandable, but it was a case that has been draged over years and in the end has recently been settled through AViTech, the new distributor for Germany, to my fullest satisfaction.
To get back on track... it appears to me that Bryston has only limited control over their distributors. Some local distributors and dealers try to protect their local market by making clear that their service is only for stuff that has been acquired through them. Bryston on the other hand is interested in good relations to its distributors and doesn't have the capacity to monitor all service offerings globally.
What I would like is that Bryston components were priced the same globally, so that importing of new stuff wasn't a viable option. That would take off the fear from distributors and dealers and lead to a more relaxed attitude regarding warranty service in general.
So what could Bryston do?
1. Bryston could offer lower prices to its distributors to reduce the price differences between North America and the rest of the world. I wouldn't be surprised if an international distributor currently paid more or less the same as a North American dealer...
2. Bryston could commit its distributors to service Bryston components (under warranty) no matter where on this planet they were originally purchased.
Now, lets get a little daring...
Would Bryston do this? Are only customers that have purchased new stuff locally worthy of Bryston grade service?
Back on standard mode...
I don't know what I would do if I was Bryson... my first suggestion clearly costs them $$$, while the second might annoy some of their distributors.
Getting away from the "import discussion", as far as I know, you can re-register your component with your "new" local distributor if you
move from one country to another. They might even be helpful and modify your Bryston gear to the local voltage, if necessary.
O.k., those were my (extended) two cents again, thanks for reading.
Markus
