[Winder]

Nikon Has Officially Left Brazil

"Nikon Brazil says that valid warranties on photography equipment it sold will still be honored by the Nikon mothership and that those assistance and repair requests can continue to be submitted through its website’s form. Out-of-warranty products will now have their technical assistance services handled by Nikon USA."

[surfar]

A Nikon with a Brazilion?...They are stripping down services there hey!

[Wasp]

At least Nikon had an official presence up to now. The situation around Pentax is no better. I have just trawled the Ricoh Imaging website to check for official dealers in South Africa. No dealers for the continents of Africa and South America are listed! They do list five official service centers, so there is that. But there is no indication where I should buy for the warranty of any purchase to be valid. I tried looking at the policies on the site, but it is written in legalese and I gave up.

[RGlasel]

“Not only [is the] Brazilian bureaucracy […] extremely horrible for foreign companies, […] but also there’s a huge grey market of not only cameras but all sorts of electronics and other types of products to contend with.

Taken from the PetaPixal article, which is an excerpt from a comment by a Brazilian reader posted with the article.

Brazil is a very large "emerging" market that could be a new economic tiger if not for the socialist, interventionist bath water it has to operate in. Unless a global company has a manufacturing presence in Brazil, it is very difficult to market your products through legitimate trade channels. As the PetaPixel article notes, Nikon has essentially decided that since most of its products are sold on the grey market, the grey market can support its products. It's not a sign of troubles for Nikon.

Photographic equipment is a funny kind of consumer product, because it is also used for making a living and professional customers need a completely different level of support than consumers of something like a toaster. Chances are that the camera equipment is more reliable and durable, but customers aren't going to be satisfied with just throwing away the old stuff when it doesn't work.