leider wurde meine Rezension von TrustPilot blockiert. Drei Mal hat eine Lina mich kontaktiert und mir gesagt, dass etwas mit der Rezension nicht stimmt. 3 Mal habe ich geantwortet und ihr gebeten, mir zu erklären, wo das Problem liegt. Bis jetzt kam nichts. Hier der Text (sorry, aber auf Englisch):
Gibraltar based (not local), grey import, no invoice, no manufacturer warranty
I bought a Nikon 200-500mm about 10% cheaper than from the shop, a true Nikon retailer. The lens came in an unsealed box with all the papers in Chinese (I guess). Sender address is in the UK, not Weimar, Germany, as stated in the Impressum in their website.
When asked Rhinocamera by e-mail about the warranty, a person signing as Michael Hann told me that they sent the warranty card to their "Versicherer" ("insurance company" in German), because that's the way they offer the 3-years Europe wide warranty. That smelled very strange to me, specially since Nikon lenses originally come with a 1-year international warranty from Nikon, meaning that I would be covered if I'm, say, in Brazil on a trip. In order to enjoy this benefit, I need two things
- the warranty card (which, as opposed to what Mr Hann explained me, I found in the box),
- the invoice, as a proof of 2 key points: date of purchase, and that I am the first owner (the warranty is not transferable).
The warranty card that came in the box is, unsurprisingly, not stamped or dated by the seller. More crucially, the invoice was not provided by RhinoCamera.
[update 12th of March 2018]
A certain Jamie Thomson, General Manager from RhinoCamera wrote yesterday, very unhappy and in disagreement with what I wrote, asking me to take down my review because it damages RhinoCamera's reputation. That's like asking your mechanic to dismantle the oil sensor when it tells you that there's not enough oil in your engine.
Today Mr. Thompson called me (from a concealed telephone number), but I couldn't talk, so I got back to him via e-mail explaining that I talked to Nikon and they confirmed that it is a lens meant for the Asian market. Still with the hope that I could get Nikon's 1-year international warranty on their lenses, twice I requested RhinoCamera per e-mail to send the invoice. The second time they reacted by sending me exactly the same e-mail that I got at the time of placing my order, but instead of "Bestellung" ("Order" in German) now it reads "Invoice", and the subject of the e-mail was a very bombastic looking "Official Invoice". Name and address of the company are Primary Holdings in Gibraltar, not RhinoCamera in Weimar, Germany, from where I ordered (rhinocamera.de). Their German site goes to quite some lengths to mislead you into thinking that it is a local company, at the moment giving an address in Weimar (formerly in Stuttgart), but the shipment arrived from the UK and the "official invoice" has a Gibraltar address.
I will ask them again for a real invoice and update accordingly as this story unfolds.
[update 12th of March 2018, part II]
Mr. Thomson is now really unhappy and will pass on my comments to RhinoCamera's legal team and ask for compensation from an unhappy customer who has read (unfortunately too late) from German and Danish forums the excellent tracking work of other forum members about RhinoCamera practices. Unfortunately TrustPilot does not allow links, but Google is your friend.
Mr. Thomson "kindly" offered me to extend the 3-years warranty to a non-European country, provided that if I have an issue and do need to make use of it, I send the lens to RhinoCamera, to some adress in the UK. With that scheme, they could offer me to extend the warranty to the moon, as long as I take care of the shipping. As tempting as it sounds, I kindly declined to even answer.
[update 12th of March 2018, part III]
This seems to have escalated. A certain Mr. Andrew Smalling, identifying himself as Legal Counsel for RhinoCamera, has threatened me with taking legal actions for expressing my views and experience with RhinoCamera. It looks like an awfully serious e-mail, too, and I have a deadline for "6pm Wednesday 14th March 2018" or else. No wonder that at the time of placing my order, a (too) quick search only gave back good reviews about RhinoCamera.
It is also against their taste that I said, accurately, that the warranty card is neither stamped nor dated. This is true and I can scan it and show it to whomever would like to verify it.
I suppose that many people do actually get scared by this pseudo-bullying.
[update 13th of March 2018]
Upon carefully reading the e-mail from Mr. Smalling, RhinoCamera's legal counsel, it turned out that most if not all his pretended inaccuracies in my post here in TrustPilot are either true or a result of my own ignorance (like not knowing that Gibraltar is actually part of the EU, checked), but none are false, as they express my actual experience with RhinoCamera, and I can back up every syllable in this review.
I took the so called "official invoice" to the Finanzamt (tax office) here in Munich and they explained me that such document is indeed useless as an invoice. Furthermore, the Nikon Service Point here in Munich confirmed that it would not be accepted as proof of purchase for any warranty work. My accountant is now looking into it to further confirm or reject the validity of this document as an invoice. Meanwhile she made an interesting observation: since Gibraltar does not pay VAT (19% in Germany), I am actually paying 'more' for the lens, since I can't deduct it in case I use the lens professionally. Since the neto street price of these lens in Munich is €1299, the brutto is just €1091,60, or €77,40 >less< than RhinoCamera's asking price.
I hope today I'll find the time to go to the Verbraucherzentrale (German for Consumer Advice Centre) for support on this matter.
[update 17th of March 2018]
It's been almost two weeks from my purchase and 1 week since my first request for an invoice, and besides ludicrous e-mails with bullying, half truths and distortions, I still got no invoice. Today I sent again an email requesting it.
[update 25th of March 2018]
It's been 8 days since my 4th request for an invoice. This time they didn't even answer. That invoice is needed for warranty claims.
I also looked into a statement in an e-mail from RhinoCamera claiming that my unsealed box came like that because it is "under DHL aviation law". This also seems to be false.
Gibraltar based (not local), grey import, no invoice, no manufacturer warranty
I bought a Nikon 200-500mm about 10% cheaper than from the shop, a true Nikon retailer. The lens came in an unsealed box with all the papers in Chinese (I guess). Sender address is in the UK, not Weimar, Germany, as stated in the Impressum in their website.
When asked Rhinocamera by e-mail about the warranty, a person signing as Michael Hann told me that they sent the warranty card to their "Versicherer" ("insurance company" in German), because that's the way they offer the 3-years Europe wide warranty. That smelled very strange to me, specially since Nikon lenses originally come with a 1-year international warranty from Nikon, meaning that I would be covered if I'm, say, in Brazil on a trip. In order to enjoy this benefit, I need two things
- the warranty card (which, as opposed to what Mr Hann explained me, I found in the box),
- the invoice, as a proof of 2 key points: date of purchase, and that I am the first owner (the warranty is not transferable).
The warranty card that came in the box is, unsurprisingly, not stamped or dated by the seller. More crucially, the invoice was not provided by RhinoCamera.
[update 12th of March 2018]
A certain Jamie Thomson, General Manager from RhinoCamera wrote yesterday, very unhappy and in disagreement with what I wrote, asking me to take down my review because it damages RhinoCamera's reputation. That's like asking your mechanic to dismantle the oil sensor when it tells you that there's not enough oil in your engine.
Today Mr. Thompson called me (from a concealed telephone number), but I couldn't talk, so I got back to him via e-mail explaining that I talked to Nikon and they confirmed that it is a lens meant for the Asian market. Still with the hope that I could get Nikon's 1-year international warranty on their lenses, twice I requested RhinoCamera per e-mail to send the invoice. The second time they reacted by sending me exactly the same e-mail that I got at the time of placing my order, but instead of "Bestellung" ("Order" in German) now it reads "Invoice", and the subject of the e-mail was a very bombastic looking "Official Invoice". Name and address of the company are Primary Holdings in Gibraltar, not RhinoCamera in Weimar, Germany, from where I ordered (rhinocamera.de). Their German site goes to quite some lengths to mislead you into thinking that it is a local company, at the moment giving an address in Weimar (formerly in Stuttgart), but the shipment arrived from the UK and the "official invoice" has a Gibraltar address.
I will ask them again for a real invoice and update accordingly as this story unfolds.
[update 12th of March 2018, part II]
Mr. Thomson is now really unhappy and will pass on my comments to RhinoCamera's legal team and ask for compensation from an unhappy customer who has read (unfortunately too late) from German and Danish forums the excellent tracking work of other forum members about RhinoCamera practices. Unfortunately TrustPilot does not allow links, but Google is your friend.
Mr. Thomson "kindly" offered me to extend the 3-years warranty to a non-European country, provided that if I have an issue and do need to make use of it, I send the lens to RhinoCamera, to some adress in the UK. With that scheme, they could offer me to extend the warranty to the moon, as long as I take care of the shipping. As tempting as it sounds, I kindly declined to even answer.
[update 12th of March 2018, part III]
This seems to have escalated. A certain Mr. Andrew Smalling, identifying himself as Legal Counsel for RhinoCamera, has threatened me with taking legal actions for expressing my views and experience with RhinoCamera. It looks like an awfully serious e-mail, too, and I have a deadline for "6pm Wednesday 14th March 2018" or else. No wonder that at the time of placing my order, a (too) quick search only gave back good reviews about RhinoCamera.
It is also against their taste that I said, accurately, that the warranty card is neither stamped nor dated. This is true and I can scan it and show it to whomever would like to verify it.
I suppose that many people do actually get scared by this pseudo-bullying.
[update 13th of March 2018]
Upon carefully reading the e-mail from Mr. Smalling, RhinoCamera's legal counsel, it turned out that most if not all his pretended inaccuracies in my post here in TrustPilot are either true or a result of my own ignorance (like not knowing that Gibraltar is actually part of the EU, checked), but none are false, as they express my actual experience with RhinoCamera, and I can back up every syllable in this review.
I took the so called "official invoice" to the Finanzamt (tax office) here in Munich and they explained me that such document is indeed useless as an invoice. Furthermore, the Nikon Service Point here in Munich confirmed that it would not be accepted as proof of purchase for any warranty work. My accountant is now looking into it to further confirm or reject the validity of this document as an invoice. Meanwhile she made an interesting observation: since Gibraltar does not pay VAT (19% in Germany), I am actually paying 'more' for the lens, since I can't deduct it in case I use the lens professionally. Since the neto street price of these lens in Munich is €1299, the brutto is just €1091,60, or €77,40 >less< than RhinoCamera's asking price.
I hope today I'll find the time to go to the Verbraucherzentrale (German for Consumer Advice Centre) for support on this matter.
[update 17th of March 2018]
It's been almost two weeks from my purchase and 1 week since my first request for an invoice, and besides ludicrous e-mails with bullying, half truths and distortions, I still got no invoice. Today I sent again an email requesting it.
[update 25th of March 2018]
It's been 8 days since my 4th request for an invoice. This time they didn't even answer. That invoice is needed for warranty claims.
I also looked into a statement in an e-mail from RhinoCamera claiming that my unsealed box came like that because it is "under DHL aviation law". This also seems to be false.