Any good parallel importers? Looking for a Pixel 9a

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KevlarCoated

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#319874 10-Jun-2025 10:36

As the title says Im looking to get a Pixel 9a so need to go through an importer (or just buy it myself overseas) Being that Pixels tend to have some HW issues I'm hoping to find an importer that will at least meet their responsibilities under the CGA.

Are there any good importers? Expert Infotech and Parallel imported both have pretty bad reputations when it comes to after sale service. Mighty ape is about 15% more expensive and I have no idea if their customer service is any better? The phone warehouse seems to be another option but with limited reviews (it seems to be run out of someone's house so probably low volume)?

Any recommendations on where to buy a 9a? Infotech is the cheapest so if they are all terrible then being cheap and being able to walk into their store is an advantage.

Thanks

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#3382408 10-Jun-2025 10:41

I'll ask the stupid question. How sure are you it will work after the 3G shutdown?

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#3382412 10-Jun-2025 10:55

Mighty Ape is now a Kogan-owned business. So no, you won't get any better after-sales treatment there than anywhere else. Ever.

The Phone Warehouse provides a mobile phone number on their contact page, ring & ask if you can pick up - they're listing the Pixel 9a as in stock. There's only $2 difference between them & Expert Infotech.

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farcus

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#3382438 10-Jun-2025 12:20

mudguard:

I'll ask the stupid question. How sure are you it will work after the 3G shutdown?

all Pixels 6 and up will work after the 3g shutdown

gzt

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#3382448 10-Jun-2025 13:19

Personally I have found Parallel Importers good to deal with. I have not needed any service.

Imo unless something is DOA you can expect any parallel import retailer to take a while with service. What the actual service turnaround would be I don't know. I'd expect weeks at least from any parallel importer.

When purchasing over the counter a while back at Parallel Importers Ltd, without prompting they were especially clear that I should purchase an extended warranty for any service after their 12 month initial guarantee period. Par for the course with any retailer. I did not hold that against them. All rights reserved of course ; ).

Asteros

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#3382450 10-Jun-2025 13:24

Buying a Pixel from a parallel importer is a tough decision. If you never have a warranty issue you come out fine. However if you read the Pixel thread on GZ there are owners who don't recommend using a Pixel in NZ because obtaining warranty service can be difficult and time consuming.

gzt

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#3382461 10-Jun-2025 13:43

This is gonna annoy you. Pixel 9 pro and XL several hundred dollars off at AUS Google store..

"The Pixel 9 Pro is on sale from A$1,249. Pixel 9 Pro XL is on sale from A$1,349.^

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timmmay

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#3382467 10-Jun-2025 14:11

My Pixel 8 developed a hardware fault that was covered under an extended warranty. To have it fixed I'd have had to ship it back to Australia, which would have cost $100 or more, than pay for it to come back to NZ, another $100 or more, plus you really need someone in Australia to be a proxy for you to do shipping. I was lucky that JB Hifi NZ decided to refund me the full price of the phone. I purchased an S25 instead, which I'm fairly happy with. The only advantage of the Pixel, as far as I can see, is Google Keyboard enhanced voice typing works much better on the Pixels and has more features. My Pixel 4a, on the other hand, worked fine for years with no issues, but the battery capacity has been reduced by software because there's apparently a fault with the batteries so they can't let the voltage get too high. So out of two Pixels, two have had hardware faults, albeit one was only 5 years after I purchased it.

I suggest buying something with local support.

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#3382501 10-Jun-2025 15:21

Just saw this story.

KevlarCoated

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#3382508 10-Jun-2025 15:35

timmmay:

My Pixel 8 developed a hardware fault that was covered under an extended warranty. To have it fixed I'd have had to ship it back to Australia, which would have cost $100 or more, than pay for it to come back to NZ, another $100 or more, plus you really need someone in Australia to be a proxy for you to do shipping. I was lucky that JB Hifi NZ decided to refund me the full price of the phone. I purchased an S25 instead, which I'm fairly happy with. The only advantage of the Pixel, as far as I can see, is Google Keyboard enhanced voice typing works much better on the Pixels and has more features. My Pixel 4a, on the other hand, worked fine for years with no issues, but the battery capacity has been reduced by software because there's apparently a fault with the batteries so they can't let the voltage get too high. So out of two Pixels, two have had hardware faults, albeit one was only 5 years after I purchased it.

I suggest buying something with local support.

You're probably right, the main reason I want a pixel is for the 7 years of support and planning to run GrapheneOS, my pixel 5 still works fine (except the edge of the screen is now just brightness white after being dropped which is annoying) but it stopped getting security updates a year ago so it was in need of replacement anyway. Now I just have to decide if buying a pixel with 0 local support is worth the risk

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#3382548 10-Jun-2025 17:28

timmmay:
Just saw this story.

Is that relevant to NZ? I'm on Pixel 8 Pro with Spark and have not identified any issues so far. I'm mostly on WiFi calling and have not traveled around much since the purchase. I would not necessarily know. As far as I recall recent purchasers in the Pixel thread have not reported any issues.

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#3382551 10-Jun-2025 17:34

KevlarCoated: , the main reason I want a pixel is for the 7 years of support

Samsung provides 7 years of updates for the S25

https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s25-plus-ultra-android-one-ui-updates/

I have not looked at the detail.

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#3382579 10-Jun-2025 18:59

gzt:
timmmay:

Just saw this story.

Is that relevant to NZ? I'm on Pixel 8 Pro with Spark and have not identified any issues so far. I'm mostly on WiFi calling and have not traveled around much since the purchase. I would not necessarily know. As far as I recall recent purchasers in the Pixel thread have not reported any issues.

I didn't real the whole story in detail. Lack of support, lack of features working in NZ, it's up to the purchaser to work out if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

farcus

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#3382642 11-Jun-2025 01:15

timmmay:

Just saw this story.

Don't think that story is relevant to NZ.
The main gist of the story is that VoLTE doesn't work in countries where pixels are not officially sold - which we know is not true for NZ.

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#3382724 11-Jun-2025 09:34

gzt:
KevlarCoated: , the main reason I want a pixel is for the 7 years of support

Samsung provides 7 years of updates for the S25

https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s25-plus-ultra-android-one-ui-updates/

I have not looked at the detail.

Looking at https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb

Personally I'd wonder about the frequency of those 7 years of updates compared to the pixel phones. Given that it talks about "Monthly, quarterly and biannual firmware security updates" and I'm not seeing a clear criteria for when phones move down the tiers; the fine print for monthly updates says "subject to change as the regular support period expires". I'd suspect a few years in and you'd get security and feature updates a lot more regularly with a pixel phone.

nztim

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#3382728 11-Jun-2025 09:43

mudguard:

I'll ask the stupid question. How sure are you it will work after the 3G shutdown?

^^^^^^^ This

Unless it's an iPhone do NOT parallel import

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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