OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT from Holux UK

[Dave]

I have been talking with Graham Moy today who is the CEO of Holux UK, and he is getting increasingly concerned about retailers who are knowingly selling the early GR-230's and not offering any kind of support for these and has asked me to post this message to everyone.

Message from Holux UK...
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HOLUX UK have come under increasing pressure regarding the GR-230 and the perceived "fault" that early releases of the model had.

The fault manifested itself as a loss of communication if the baud rate was changed from the factory setting of 9600 to anything else. Early GR-230's shipped by HOLUX UK, that potentially exhibited this condition, were shipped with instructions that the receiver was to be used as an NMEA GPS receiver at 9600 baud only and any customer alterations could potentially invalidate the warranty!

HOLUX UK is now, and has been since late December, only shipping units that are fully compliant with any baud rate and either NMEA or SiRF protocol over both the Bluetooth link and the Data Port (via a suitable cable).

It has been bought to my attention that there are certain individuals supplying "grey market HOLUX GPS receivers" into the UK market place. All of these, without exception, have been the early GR-230 exhibiting the "fault" described above. As a result customers buying these receivers and finding problems are levelling the blame at HOLUX UK despite the fact that we have not sold them the receiver nor is the warranty with us.

However, AS A GESTURE OF GOOD WILL, HOLUX UK will undertake to support any customer that has bought a GR-230 from sources other than HOLUX UK or one of its Authorised Dealers. The customer should contact the technical department at HOLUX UK stating where they have purchased the device and arrange for the device to be set back to the original settings. This will be carried out FREE OF CHARGE. All we ask is that the customer pays the postage both ways by including a pre-paid and self addressed jiffy bag to return the unit - we suggest the use of Royal Mail's Special Delivery service both ways, ensuring that the GR-230 is covered by insurance in the event of any transportation mishaps.

Please note the following:
1) this service is only valid until 31st of January 2004, as we hope to have the situation fully under control by this time.
2) this service does not include the offer of a replacement, updated version of the GR-230.
3) this service does not prevent the GR-230 from suffering the same "fault" again in the future.

Please note that customers who have purchased a GR-230 directly from HOLUX UK or one of its Authorised Dealers are entitled to the usual 100% repair/replace guarantee offered by HOLUX UK. This is the HOLUX UK difference.

I hope that this meets with every bodies approval and that you will all agree that HOLUX UK remains at the forefront of customer service.

Kindest regards,

Graham Moy
CEO - HOLUX UK

Tel: 0870 321 5929
Fax: 0870 321 4029
web: www.holux-uk.com
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[Skippy]

It is pleasing to see that Holux are honouring the warranty on GPS units which were not brought though official channels.

However, the "Holux UK difference" as they call it is also an extra 40% (plus VAT) on the price compared to the USA. It is not suprising that retailers and consumers are choosing "grey import" GPS units To be fair, this is not specific to Holux - it seems that all the suppliers have decided to charge a premium.

Holux could argue that the UK retailer who sold a faulty "grey import" GPS should send it back to Taiwan to be repaired but in the long run that doesn't help anyone.

You can buy an iPaq or Garmin anywhere in the world and Compaq will honour the warranty here in the UK so why shouldn't Holux do the same?

I also don't understand how this can be referred to as a perceived "fault". It is not unreasonable that a person would change the NMEA baud rate setting on a GPS unit and to hide behind a disclaimer that changing the baud rate would "void the warranty" is pretty lame.

Under UK consumer law the goods must be "fit for purpose" and "reasonably durable". If you could break the GPS just by changing a commonly changed software setting (which was not at the NMEA default of 4800 in the first place) then you would have a reasonable case to argue that the unit was not "reasonably durable" and therefore should be repaired or replaced.

[Philip]

Under UK consumer law the goods must be "fit for purpose" and "reasonably durable". If you could break the GPS just by changing a commonly changed software setting (which was not at the NMEA default of 4800 in the first place) then you would have a reasonable case to argue that the unit was not "reasonably durable" and therefore should be repaired or replaced.

Yes, but under the Sale Of Goods Act, your contract is with the retailer who sold you the goods, not with the manufacturer or importer. You may well have a claim against whoever sold you the "defective" item, but you would have no claim whatsoever against Holux UK. So it does sound as if they are genuinely doing this out of goodwill.
_________________
Philip

[Paddlegod]

I have just ordered a GR-230 from Asia, via ebay, for under £100. How will I be able to tell if its an updated unit or not.

By the way, does anyone know why there is such a huge discrepency between purchases in the UK and from the US/Asia for what should be a global product?

[DavidW]

Part of the reason is that if you're shipping in a consignment, you'll need to declare the consignment to Customs, and pay all necessary duty and VAT (for anything coming from outside the EU you have to pay duty on the goods at the appropriate rate, then VAT at 17.5% on the duty, shipping charge and value of the goods).


On a single item personal import, even if a correctly completed Customs label is attached to the package, packages can often slip through without duty being levied if sent in the post. Some vendors send items with Customs labels attached declaring an incorrect value and/or the contents as a gift when they're merchandise. In some cases, labels are simply omitted! All these practices are of highly dubious legality - but are fairly common.

I have had gifts from a good American friend of mine that are over the duty-free threshold for a gift allowed through (I can never remember the precise limit - but it's somewhere around US$35) - even though they had correctly completed Customs labels attached. In at least one case, a marginally over-value package (somewhere around US$40, which is definitely in excess of the exemption) had been opened and officially inspected by Customs - maybe the Customs officer just smiled on me (though it was likely that the cost of raising the paperwork to levy the relatively small amount of duty and VAT due wasn't worth it).

My father had a package containing something he'd bought from a business in Canada mailed to him that was clearly over the threshold and had a complete full-form Customs declaration attached (not just the little green label). It was allowed through without charges being levied - UK Customs just stamped the paperwork!


The same laxness doesn't seem to apply to couriers - it seems that anything sent by a courier is unlikely to slip through (and the courier companies tend to have a rather bigger handling charge for settling up with Customs on your behalf than the Royal Mail do). I've also had at least one hint that anything that comes International Registered may not slip through - my father ordered some perfume online that was sent from Hong Kong, and it had Customs charges levied, even though it was of much lower value than the package from Canada. Fortunately it was still a good deal - but you have to remember that if you order from outside the EU, you can easily finish up with a Customs bill for 25% the value of the goods and shipping by the time you allow for handling charges for settling up with Customs and the like.


Another reason for the higher UK retail prices is the cost of providing support to consumers, warranty reworks and the like - which is precisely what Holux UK appear to be offering to any customers affected by problems and refusing to those who have 'grey import' GPSes. They are offering goodwill resets to people who have 'grey import' devices, which they're not obliged to do.


A third reason UK prices can be higher is that for products bought online in the EU, you have the protection of the Distance Selling Directive - which, amongst other things, allows you to return the goods in their original condition at your expense within seven days for a full refund.



David

[Dave]

[Philip]

[DavidW]

The thing with a gift is that there is an exemption from duty for a genuine gift (that is one not sent in expectation of something in return) sent to an individual up to a value of something like US$30 or US$35. I once stumbled across the precise rule and stupidly failed to note down what it was and where I found it.

Apart from that, marking a package as a gift makes no difference - as you say, the level of duty is the same.



David

[Dave]

I can't quite remember the current limit but it's either £18 or £22 before it becomes taxable, so I air on caution and any products we get sent from outside of Europe we stipulate to send as "DEMO - NO COMMERCIAL VALUE" or at worst, put the value as no more than £18.

I won't name the company, but we had one review item come in recently where the figure on the courier document said value $50 and we got charged £15 import duty on. If you disgard all the free ones we get in, £15 must be the cheapest Bluetooth GPS around 8)

[Skippy]

[Raj]

Dave, I just won an auction in ebay for a similar product DC-230 (Mfr: DCONNEX). Would you happen to know how this product is OR is this also succeptible to the HOLUX erratum? Please let me know...

I have worked in this field in the past, writing fimware for an electronic mapping unit that is connected to a GPS for marine applications such as fish finders, down riggers etc. It has been about 2 years since I left working on that field. I now write BIOS for servers and workstation for Intel Corporation.

Anyways, I am very much familiar with the NMEA protocol, but am new to the SiRF protocol. Could you please shed some light or atleast let me know of some pointers? Appreciate your reply...

[DavidW]

What documentation there is reasonably freely available on the SiRF protocol can be found at http://www.falcom.de/pub/sirf/

Be very careful reconfiguring the GPS chipset on Bluetooth GPSes - changing the serial port speed that the GPS chipset is talking can lead to you losing the link between the GPS module and the Bluetooth module, as both are talking different serial port speeds and neither can be reconfigured. This is the "Holux bug", which I gather has now been fixed on later Holux hardware (presumably by the firmware on the Bluetooth module intercepting commands that would change the serial port speed on the GPS chipset).



David

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