I'm in the market for a new phone and I'm also going to visit family in Australia this weekend. I know that you can get the Australian GST back at the airport when heading home to NZ but I'm wondering if there are reasons I shouldn't buy a phone in Australia I'm not thinking of. Any warranty claim would obviously be harder to process.
Any advice on buying over in Oz or pitfalls to avoid?
If you're wanting to avoid getting taxed at the customs, then just take out the phone from the original packaging and store it in your bag. Just say it's your spare/work phone, they can't tax you based on that. Any time I buy something for myself overseas on a trip, I just open the packaging and then put it in my bag like all my other belongings.
To me, warranty for electronic items is basically moot. The chances of them failing is almost zero. I've owned so many electronic items over the years, a lot of 2nd hand ones as well, never once had an issue with them. If it were the case, everyone would be claiming warranty for their phones on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And there would be news about such a high catastrophic failure rate for phones. Apart from the Samsung Galaxy S7 issue that was on the news many years ago, there hasn't been any other issues with phones to that same level. Besides, I normally replace my phone every 2~3 years, so it's not like warranty even matters.
The only reason I wouldn't recommend buying a phone from Aussie is that you can most likely get them a lot cheaper elsewhere.
I also recently did this in Aussie purchasing an iPhone 15 and it was pretty straightforward. Time most important part is bringing along the receipt - I got mine printed at my accommodation. They have regular iPhone sales now so make sure you get the sale price.
Since you bought it at Costco you will be covered through Costco here if they do any converge of mobile devices. I had purchased a laptop at Costco in California and had it warrantied and got a replacement in Australia due to a cracked screen.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I think I'm going to grab a pixel 8 for about $830A which works out about $850NZ with exchange rate and gst refund. I'm still rocking the huewei p20 pro from about 6 years ago. It's a good phone but the charging port is worn out and it's feeling sluggish now.
Shit that's a good run from the P20. I'm impressed by your ability to keep a phone going 😂
I recently did this. Just make sure you bring the phone and original copy of receipt through customs with you to get the tax refund. They require to see the item purchased in person and physical receipt.
Purchased mine from Costco in GC.
Not to worried about warranty side of things as apple is pretty good.