Can you repair a lens bought from Korea in the USA by anybody?

<p>I plan to buy the 45/1.8 lens for the m4/3 system, and there are a lot of them available with lower price from S. Korea. Obviously these are not eligible for warranty repair in the USA (or are they?) but my question is: can you get them repaired at all some where in the USA? Nikon has gone as far as not even providing parts to their repair centers for these "grey" market products, and I am not sure whether Olympus is doing the same. BTW has anyone here bought any thing from these S. Korean sellers?</p>

<p>If you go to the US Olympus site, you'll find a page where you can ask them questions. They will send you back an answer (my experience). Ask them if they will do warranty work on equipment bought from outside the US, and if not, will they work on it for a fee.</p>

<p>I don't know why you are asking the question of a bunch of people who have no official connection to Olympus, when Olympus <em>owns</em> the answer.</p>

<p>And ask the seller by e- mail if the lens comes with something like an international warranty or any warranty. You have a reason to wonder. Why in principle should Oly USA honor product bought outside the country and Nikon USA has a fair gripe. For gray market lenses bought here, the seller often offers a non factory warranty service I have observed. Let us know what you find out too....thanks. gs</p>

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<p>Let us know what you find out too....thanks. gs</p>

 

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<p>Hi Gerry, thank you for the reply. Below is the reply from Olympus, which is apparently generated automatically every time when someone asks a question about warranty:<br>

<em>"Warranty Repairs- The warranty status of a product can only be established after evaluation by our service staff and requires that a date stamped copy of the sales receipt and a copy of the warranty card be provided. Olympus warrants that its products will be free from defects due to manufacturing or parts failure under normal use, for the stated length of the warranty period. Products covered by their Olympus warranty will be serviced without charge for the repair. The place of purchase may send the unit in for you or you can send it yourself, postage prepaid and insured, to an authorized Olympus service center (see below). </em><br /><br /><em>Billable Repairs- For products found to be outside the terms and conditions of the warranty we will send you a free, no-obligation cost for repair quote before any work will be done. You will receive the total cost for repair, including standard ground return shipping (additional rush shipping is available) and your local sales tax."</em></p>

<p>You note that they never directly answered the question. One would imagine that a grey market product may be covered under "billable repairs," but again with Nikon, they won't repair it even if you pay. When you post similar question in a Nikon forum, you got lots of helpful answers to reflect a broad range of experience, but I am surprised that no one seems to discuss this here. Any way ...</p>

<p>For the 45/1.8 lens, it appears that there are many coming from S. Korea and Hong Kong for about $320 (e Bay price). Even on Amazon.com, you can find used/like new units for about the same price from these countries. These sellers are very open about the warranty issue and said that you can send it back to Korea on your expense ($50) for repair. Alternatively, you can buy a third-party warranty on eBay or Amazon. For example, "Smart Care" offers a one-year warranty that covers "accidents" for $29.00. Thus, with this warranty, it seems that it is still cheaper than buying a USA model, which currently runs for $400. Anybody ever uses Smart Care for repairs? </p>