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Well I wanted the 18-200mm VR come hell or high water. I bought it from this guy here;
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... &rd=1&rd=1

The guy had good feedback and has already sold a few of these, or at least one, I went hunting through his feedback.

He says it comes with a Nikon World Wide warranty. Is this for real? I've read that Nikon offer World Wide warranties with their lenses, but not with their bodies? Is this true?

I could have got on the waiting list for one of these lenses but to cut to the long story,

I am half greek, so the moment I am not in full time education, whether at uni or otherwise, The greek army call me up for mandatory army training. It's around 6 to 12 months or so. The minute I have to go to the army, I am not earning any money. At the moment I work weekends and get about £350 a month so have been saving for this gear. I am about to drop out of a Networking course that I can't handle also, so its all a bit hectic.

If I did get on a waiting list, and suddenly the lens arrived, and I couldn't pay for it, I'd be in a bind. I also didn't want to get an 18-70mm lense only to have it be made redundent by the 18-200mm. I don't go out shooting too often and to have a camera sitting waiting for the new lens, would have meant the 18-70 or 18-135 would have been a waste of money essentially.

So it comes down to this,
I've asked this guy how many of these he has left, and he said, just buy the lense now and pay me when u get paid. I get paid on the 25th and I'll only really be able to pay him by the 31st which he said was fine. Unfortunatly his english is less then stellar as they say. My mom is going to put the money for the lens in my account on monday so the money should be in my paypal account by the 31st.

But to cut the long story short, if the lens developes a fault in a year, will this warranty be accepted in the UK?

Thanks for any insight you can give me here.
-greg

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My PC: AMD X2 4600, 2gb ram, 8800gtx, Monitor; NEC 20WGX2
Gear: Nikon D80, 18-70mm
80-200mm F2.8

Hi Greg, I'm a bit confused - have you actually already ordered / bought this lens from the ebay seller, or are you still thinking about it? I can't speak for the seller, but here's some warranty info...

An item under a worldwide warranty *should* be accepted for free repair at authorised service facilities. Since you'll most likely be wanting Nikon UK to do any possible repairs, I'd advise speaking with them first to see if they would accept an item with a worldwide warranty for free repair.

Their contact details are here:

www.europe-nikon.com/footer/en_GB/foote ... tacts.html

In the meantime, I have a Nikon lens here on test and it has a yellow warranty in the box which is labelled as 'Nikon Service Worldwide Warranty', so they do exist!

An accompanying piece of paper explains "Your Nikon equipment is guarenteed against any manufacturing defects for one full year from the date of purchase. During this period, repairs or adjustments will be made free of charge only upon presentation of the Nikon Worldwide Warranty Card (Copy C, customers portion) together with the sales slip or other evidence of purchase to any of the Nikon service facilities listed here"

The list includes six authorised repair centers in the UK: Norfolk, London, Durham, Kent, Stoke-on-trent and Glasgow.

My lens was sourced in New Zealand, so I'd say if yours comes with the same warranty card, you should be fine. Just make sure you DON'T get a grey import, which will probably only have an Asia warranty if it's bought from Hong Kong.

Also beware that if you're buying from abroad, you may have to pay VAT and duty on its declared value when it comes through customs, which could be around 25%.

Let us know how you get on,

Gordon

PS - as far as I understand, Nikon digital products including DSLR bodies are only offered with local warranties. For example a European warranty. I've no idea why this would be the case.

The guy offered to let me pay on the 31st, so in a sense ive commited to buy the lens. He says it comes with a world wide warranty, so I assume it does. If it doesnt I will get send it back and leave negative feedback. As for a receipt, I don't know how I'd do that if it's something bought off ebay.

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My PC: AMD X2 4600, 2gb ram, 8800gtx, Monitor; NEC 20WGX2
Gear: Nikon D80, 18-70mm
80-200mm F2.8

As far as I undestand there is no world wide guaranty from Nikon, unfortunately. They are trying to protect their price shield, I think.
But you can get some additional global warranty from a third party for additional money in the U.S., afaik.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

FYI, i phoned nikon, and there is a world wide warranty on all their lenses. If you have the receipt, you get the warranty.

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My PC: AMD X2 4600, 2gb ram, 8800gtx, Monitor; NEC 20WGX2
Gear: Nikon D80, 18-70mm
80-200mm F2.8