About American Sales
Paul C. Buff, Inc.™ is an American manufacturer. We are unusual in that we sell our products only factory-direct. Because of this, we are able to offer our products to American customers at prices from 40 to 60% lower than other manufacturers for comparable quality products because of eliminating the normal discounts given to distributors and dealers.

We try hard to maintain extremely customer friendly service and inexpensive, expert repair service within our facility, and provide absolute 60 day satisfaction guarantees and intensive sales assistance and technical support. Because of this, we are without question America's dominant and most respected supplier of professional photographic lighting equipment.

International Sales
While we would love to extend these advantages to international customers, there are many factors that simply don't allow us to do that effectively and we must, in good conscience, recommend that international customers give strong consideration toward purchasing equipment manufactured and sold within their own continents when possible. The reasons are as follows:

Because our pricing does not allow for costs of dealer and distributor markups, we would have to raise our prices approximately 50% to allow for these costs. Since about 95% of our sales are made in North America, that would badly damage our 30+ year old company.

Next, there is the very high, ever increasing cost of air shipping. For many of our products, these costs are as much or more than the product itself, plus our costs of meeting various regulations for shipping to different countries. Then, there are various VAT, duties and import taxes imposed by various countries, which the customer must end up paying.

Add these up, and international customers can expect to pay about twice or more than the USA price, even though we pass on our shipper discounts to customers. We often hear the complaint that we are ripping off customers with shipping charges when, in fact, we make zero profit on shipping. So you end up paying double or more for the product, and we make less profit because of our added handling costs and paperwork.

But the biggest deterrent is our inability to provide adequate repair support. While we do offer generous factory warranty and inexpensive service beyond warranty periods, items for repair must be shipped to us at the customer's cost, and return shipping is also paid by the customer. We cannot possibly maintain repair centers across the world, nor is ocean shipping an option for direct sales.

So international customers face the possibility of having to pay for international air shipping again, in both directions, if something requires repair service. This leads to justifiably dissatisfied customers who may feel they were overcharged.

But there is more. We face a lot of credit card fraud in direct international sales, and it is not uncommon for customs officials in various countries to hold up or refuse shipment, or to attempt to collect VAT or import duties even on repaired shipments. Using export agents does little to solve any of this.

So, while we truly value and respect customers from all countries, it is often a lose-lose proposition for all parties. We end up losing money and our hard earned reputation while customers can end up not getting good value or service for their money and effort.