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Leopard a rip off outside US?

R

Roseyboy

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 21, 2007
60
0
Maybe its just me, but why is the UK having to pay more for Leopard than are US friends?

Using the apple currency converter widget it should be:

$129.99 > £63.686

But apple want me to pay:

£85 > $173.494

Not so happy with that! anyone else agree or being ripped off in there part of the world.....?
 
Probably in part due to VAT, which doesn't exist in large parts of the U.S.
 
We've heard it all before:

US prices don't include sales tax, UK prices include VAT at 17.5%.
 
Don't forget the VAT, sales tax is added afterwards in the US.

My parents got me an iPod while they were in California and there was 8% tax added to the list price shown on the US Apple Store.

It's still £10 more expensive, but at least it's £4 cheaper than Tiger.
 
xUKHCx said:
UK HE is only £58.75 i'm happy:D
Click to expand...

Thanks for that :)

And sorry to start a thread which seems like its contents has been talked about many times before, just when you look at it straight on your like "woah hang on"
 
xUKHCx said:
UK HE is only £58.75 i'm happy:D
Click to expand...
That's good going. The cheapest I qualify for is £65 (this figure minus the VAT I can claim back) :)
 

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weak dollar and VAT
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The VAT part is understandable, but weak dollar is not an argument to why things are actually MORE expensive in Europe, quite the opposite actually. If dollar is low, it means pounds/euros are worth more dollars, so the lower dollar, the bigger the price difference. If prices in Europe remain the same, we are actually paying more and more compared to USA.

For example - the Mac pro starts at $2500 in the USA. If we add 20% to that (VAT), we get a price of $3000, while in Europe the Mac Pro starts at 2520 euros, that's almost $3600!

Most of the prices are more or less exactly the same here, except with the currency changed from USD to EUR. 100 euros is currently worth a little over 140 dollars, which in the end gives us 40% higher prices on this side of the Atlantic. How can you say that's just VAT?

(check out www.apple.com VS. www.apple.de and use google to convert USD to EUR if you think i'm making this up)
 
So the difference is about US $13, after tax is taken into consideration.

Lattes, on the other hand, are about double the price in London. Maybe you should be complaining to Starbucks.
 
Matek said:
The VAT part is understandable, but weak dollar is not an argument to why things are actually MORE expensive in Europe, quite the opposite actually. If dollar is low, it means pounds/euros are worth more dollars, so the lower dollar, the bigger the price difference. If prices in Europe remain the same, we are actually paying more and more compared to USA.

For example - the Mac pro starts at $2500 in the USA. If we add 20% to that (VAT), we get a price of $3000, while in Europe the Mac Pro starts at 2520 euros, that's almost $3600!

Most of the prices are more or less exactly the same here, except with the currency changed from USD to EUR. 100 euros is currently worth a little over 140 dollars, which in the end gives us 40% higher prices on this side of the Atlantic. How can you say that's just VAT?

(check out www.apple.com VS. www.apple.de and use google to convert USD to EUR if you think i'm making this up)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but if they lower the price, then the dollar goes back up, one of two things happen:
1) The Americans get pissed off.
2) They raise the price. Everyone gets pissed off.
 
Matek said:
The VAT part is understandable, but weak dollar is not an argument to why things are actually MORE expensive in Europe, quite the opposite actually. If dollar is low, it means pounds/euros are worth more dollars, so the lower dollar, the bigger the price difference. If prices in Europe remain the same, we are actually paying more and more compared to USA.

For example - the Mac pro starts at $2500 in the USA. If we add 20% to that (VAT), we get a price of $3000, while in Europe the Mac Pro starts at 2520 euros, that's almost $3600!

Most of the prices are more or less exactly the same here, except with the currency changed from USD to EUR. 100 euros is currently worth a little over 140 dollars, which in the end gives us 40% higher prices on this side of the Atlantic. How can you say that's just VAT?

(check out www.apple.com VS. www.apple.de and use google to convert USD to EUR if you think i'm making this up)
Click to expand...

what i meant was that with the weak dollar it looks like the difference is really big, but actually its almost the same, i know what you're saying, i believe, i my own also live in Belgium.
 
Canada is on par with the US :D

I know our dollar is doing better then the USD right now but to be on par is a big step. Every other place is still not even at par and they are just ripping us off

Thanks Apple for not ripping off Canada!

The Stig
 
Yeah, but if they lower the price, then the dollar goes back up, one of two things happen:
1) The Americans get pissed off.
2) They raise the price. Everyone gets pissed off.
Click to expand...

So your point is that they shouldn't lower the prices now, just because dollar might go up in the future and European custumers would be pissed off about prices going back to the current level? Instead, it's better to keep prices the same and make people actually pay MORE, just so that they don't have to suffer the psychological effect of "prices going (back) up".

what i meant was that with the weak dollar it looks like the difference is really big, but actually its almost the same, i know what you're saying, i believe, i my own also live in Belgium.
Click to expand...

Errr? What do you mean it "looks like" the difference is really big? Either I'm missing something or you are, but I'm pretty sure that we are paying more and more to Apple. Most of their expenses are defined in dollars (salaries, production costs, etc.) so they still pay the same for everything (and their products cost the same in USA), while we pay more to them.
 
Well here comes the precursor "Whining" threads for when Leopard finally drops.
Boy there's gonna be a crapload of them once its in consumer's hands. Let's all try to remember one thing once you get your copy of Leopard:

Any urge to moan or whine, bite your lip and Smile instead!
 
Matek said:
So your point is that they shouldn't lower the prices now, just because dollar might go up in the future and European custumers would be pissed off about prices going back to the current level? Instead, it's better to keep prices the same and make people actually pay MORE, just so that they don't have to suffer the psychological effect of "prices going (back) up".



Errr? What do you mean it "looks like" the difference is really big? Either I'm missing something or you are, but I'm pretty sure that we are paying more and more to Apple. Most of their expenses are defined in dollars (salaries, production costs, etc.) so they still pay the same for everything (and their products cost the same in USA), while we pay more to them.
Click to expand...
Because americans still have to pay VAT, but probably i'm missing something :p i probably don't know alot about this :p
 
lofight said:
Because americans still have to pay VAT, but probably i'm missing something :p i probably don't know alot about this :p
Click to expand...

There is a saying in Germany, "those who don't have a clue should just shut up". :p

Seriously though, Europe is paying Apple insane amounts of money right now considering the exchange rates. And this has nothing to do with VAT.
 
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