Question to those in the know - on the extreme rarity that a Panasonic product bought from a dealer (not in the Philippine dealer list) breaks down, my assumption is the shop where you bought it will handle it. Have you had any negative experience with these so called "gray market"?
i think if its within the warranty period, gray market sellers in my opinion reacts better and quicker than official channels. since most (i say most) of the time they just replace you with a new unit of the same model if ever the model is not available anymore, they may charge you a little more for a new model unit.
unlike official channels, they tend to really look at the specific problem and try to fix the unit first before they will replace it with a new unit if indeed they concluded that you have bought a "lemon" unit.
the nice thing about gray market sellers are they are first and foremost a marketing company, so they sell, they dont fix, so if there is a problem its faster to replace than to try to fix the malfunctioning unit. i guess they have their own distribution agreement from their source which make them flexible when it comes to replacement of units.
but of course after the warranty, that's when it will make a difference. since there are now claims that when you have your gray market units fix by local manufacturer's service centers, they say they will charge you more because you did not buy it from them. so for me, this could be the crucial factor in deciding if you should buy a gray market unit.
for me, if a panel will last 5 or more years guaranteed, gray market is the way for me.