Justan, I was aware that B&H seemed to be the only exception regarding shipping to Canada. I did not mention it to avoid muddying the thrust of the discussion.
There may be several vendors who ship to Canada. I didn't investigate but technically there may not be any restrictions as far as customs is concerned.
...it does raise the issue of warranties and the important extended warranty. Is that going to be a B&H warranty or an HP one and is it enforceable in Canada.
I don’t know if B&H or other 3rd party vendors would or would not offer an extended warranty on anyone’s printer. I know that 3rd parties may offer a service contract, which can be close, but not identical to a factory warranty. Personally I’d be disinclined to get a 3rd party instead of a manufacturer’s warranty if all was equal.
In an earlier conversation with HP, about their factory extended warranty, they did not care about the printer except that their warranty would have to be in place (read that sold and paid for) for 30 days or > before they would honor one of their extended warranties. At that point they'd honor the contract, and tech support would send out whoever was their local support contractor to do the work.
Another possibility would be a service contract from a local vendor. That would be between you and the vendor but I’d get the details spelled out for exactly what is covered before committing to something like that. A factory warranty would cover nearly everything and a service contract covers only what is specified. Some service contracts may actually be more inclusive than factory warranties but usually this only happens when the customer has a lot of support contracts through the vendor. After all, everyone wants to please their biggest customers. The devil is in the details. You can also shop warranties. With a manufacturer's warranty such as HP, they (HP) will provide a part number and not all vendors sell that part for the same amount. The same would be true for all printer warranties and it always pays to shop.
There are so many concerns that I say to my self that I do not need to struggle with this and hence my intent to move to Canon, purchased locally.
There is something very good about buying locally, but given the options available, it may not be the least expensive choice.
For someone like the OP, I consider it appropriate to raise concerns about the longevity of HPs graphic arts business at least in Canada.
This is a very good question. My knee jerk reaction is that as long as there is a warranty for the item from the manufacturer available, they are legally bound to support the printer. That would include consumables. One could call HP or any manufacturer and ask them about that kind of thing expressly. They likely have a written policy.
And yet, it is conceivable that the manufacturer can cause supply problems for inks and print heads at some point if the printer is discontinued. I do know that for Dell (as example) as soon as a computer model they make ceases production, unless one has or buys a warranty, they are not going to be able to get parts for it from Dell. I would not be surprised if this were an industry standard..............................
