Could be just as much, or less(depends on how you look at it) as shipping the amps back to china.
I agree and think we need to adjust to global thinking. I have shipped many items back and forth from China with no incident. I would prefer to have the designer repair something like the SXT unless it was something simple that I could repair without a schematic.
Last week I had a tube preamp leave China on Thursday, it was on my doorstep on Tuesday via EMS. I just ordered the Denon D5000's. It will take 7 days to get to me shipped in the US.