20% Rip-Off: When Will Apple Pass on their Exchange Rate Windfall?

[booksacool1]

Another Aussie here. I'm holding off on a mac mini purchase due to this pricing issue.

The imports here are free for anything under $AUS1000 value. A GST of 10% is charged for the total value if you go over that.

Its 10% as far as I'm aware, but its also possible they charge a 5% inspection fee. However most reports suggest people pay just the 10%. Not 'too' bad.

Actually, the other thing stopping me is waiting for the aussie dollar to gain a little more

I would have thought that once apple updated their products they might have accounted for some of the difference. Apple just updated their macbooks (yesterday), and now we pay an extra $370 USD for the lowest one. Thats an extra third...
It just gets worse as the machine gets more expensive.

I get the impression waiting isn't going to help, it'll just make apple richer.

 

[maestrokev]

Yes, for computers it's the 10% GST over the $1,000 limit. However, the $1,000 duty-free import limit is only available once per calendar year.

AppleCare would take care of warranty worldwide but not all manufacturers are that generous. Buying products from another country usually means you lose the warranty unless you send back to that country for repairs.

 

[maestrokev]

How can the government do that? Isn't Apple charging a higher rate to the retailers? So the retailers would then be $150 out of pocket if they did lower their prices?

Well it's not like the government has passed a law forcing Cdn retailers to drop the price. Canada is also different in that 90% of the population lives within 100 miles of the US border. Many Canadians also have friends/relatives in the US. This makes cross border shopping much easier.

As someone who lives in both Australia and Canada I'm glad Canada is so close to the US, prices for goods would be Australia-expensive if Canada was an isolated continent.

 

[solvs]

She used to earn $21,000 when she lived there, she could afford a place of her own a reasonable car, full health care, and could afford to go out three or four times a week if she wished. Now she earns £10,500 or so, we can't afford a car, our flat is tiny and we can't afford to go out.

You could barely pay rent here for $21,000 a year. Where did she live and when did she live there? Especially lately, if you were any place comparable to say, London, you wouldn't be getting much for that £10,500 here either.

Apple does sometimes adjust prices when they can. Are Apple's significantly more expensive than other computers that aren't local? And are guys including tax, because our prices are without tax.