That's pretty awesome. I'm going to be in an Apple store later today, I'll ask if this works.
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Okay, Tim this is ridiculous. (Mini-Rant)
- Thread starter ggg05a
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That's pretty awesome. I'm going to be in an Apple store later today, I'll ask if this works.
I find it kinda funny because most people here (EU) are after a normal qwerty keyboard instead of layouts like azerty and qwertz. Yes they are localised but quite a lot of people are used to the qwerty layout. For some the position of the tilde key and the enter/return being vertical instead of horizontal is that important for them that they'll only buy the USA keyboard layout (the international English one is different, a very common mistake!).
I think the very high demand for choosing the qwerty layout throughout Europe has made Apple decide to give people the option to pick whatever layout they want as well as offering the same things throughout the EU (iirc there is an EU regulation actually demanding this). These EU regulations as well as local law are the reason why prices in Europe are higher than those in the USA. Mind you, the consumer prices in the EU are "all inclusive" (mandatory by some EU regulation), in the USA they are not! Btw, the USA launched a diplomatic "war" with the EU by increasing the import taxes for certain products from the EU such as steel. This made EU-steel more expensive than steel from other parts of the world (and the USA as well). This was done both because the USA is very patriotic and goes bananas with the protectionism (funnily they blame China for doing this...): USA products go first. These kinds of war happen between countries very often. The EU does this too. In the end the companies and the customers are the ones that pay for these kind of politics
Because the rest of the world isn't the USA and uses their own currency
It is up to them to decide whether or not to use the dollar as their currency. The dollar was not the best currency, the euro was and still is better (although we do need to get the current euro-crisis resolved)! A number of countries changed from dollar to euro because of this. Those dollars are definitely not that perfect (neither is any other currency for that matter).Dyn you are missing the point about the usd comment. The op is complaining that he is in the USA and is pissed he cannot buy an off the shelf laptop with a German keyboard! Duh he is in the USA we are not Germany we use an English based keyboard. Why would he expect anything different. Same as why should I expect to go to Germany and use my currency or speak my language or buy the same goods I can get at home.
Frankly I do not get the ops complaint. Yes Apple is an international company but they sell localized products same as any company. If I walk into a store to buy anything I have no expectations that that product will be offered in any other localized format than the country it was sold in.
Frankly I do not get the ops complaint. Yes Apple is an international company but they sell localized products same as any company. If I walk into a store to buy anything I have no expectations that that product will be offered in any other localized format than the country it was sold in.
Because the rest of the world isn't the USA and uses their own currency
I didn't intend for my comment to be taken seriously... but I was trying to make an oblique point.
I don't think that it is accurate that the euro is necessarily "better" but it has been stronger than the dollar since the mid-2000s
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Clearly you cannot read coherently.
Never have I demanded and off-the-shelf qwertz keyboard here at an apple store in the states.
I'm complaining I cannot special order one as build to suit, or apple having a limited quantity for sale via the web site domestically.
marc11 said:
Clearly you cannot read coherently.
Never have I demanded and off-the-shelf qwertz keyboard here at an apple store in the states.
I'm complaining I cannot special order one as build to suit, or apple having a limited quantity for sale via the web site domestically.
Your attitude fits your original post perfectly. Another snob with the poor me complex. Special order or off the shelf it makes no difference, your are buying it in the USA and should have no right to expect anything beyond what is localized here. My point remains, while it may be nice to buy products which fit our home countries localization outside of our home country the expectation of such is false. I live in Japan now but am from the USA does that mean I have the right to special order a McDonalds Big Mac to be exactly the same as home, and for that matter the Big Mac costs almost double as home so I should expect the same pricing? The answer is no. This is Japan I buy what is offered here, from a global company or local company at the price it is being sold for or I adjust and do without. Period.
Your complaint about the up cost in Euro is further proof of your poor me attitude as you give no thought to the costs of import duties, taxes, sale volumes, profit margins currency adjustment factors, and localized discriminatory pricing which are all common across the world. It does not cost the same to sell a product in the USA as it does in Germany or Brazil or Canada.
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Exactly, OP states that there are 10 million german speakers in the states, yet the statistics stated earlier in the post show that that number cannot be true. If apple makes other keyboards available in the states, but not others, it shows that they've evaluated the demand for the various keyboard layouts and have decided that the qwertz option is not financially worth their trouble. That being the case, your option is to either ask an apple store to do it for you, as mentioned in the thread, or pay up in Germany like everyone else does. Ranting about overcharging when you clearly understand the VAT issue is not helping your case.
If you think so then you clearly have not read my post. If you read it you'll see that I agree with that. If you read it more closely you'll see I'm making another point (yes you can make more than 1 point by making 1 point; they have a name for this but I've forgotten it; teachers use it all the time). My second point was the patriotism some Americans portray on forums like these: to them everything that isn't American is bad.
Btw, let's not forget that text does not transmit emotion to others. Things like sarcasm should NOT be used on forums because most people won't pick it up. In real life things are quite different from that. Know what works with text and what not, very important
His point was quite simple: in the EU you can buy whatever keyboard layout Apple offers, even ones from outside the EU like the USA layout. In that regard it seems a very very odd decision from Apple by not doing the same for other countries such as the USA. It becomes even stranger if you know how it works. If you want a notebook with a different keyboard layout this will become a non-standard order. All the non-standard orders will be made in China and sent to the customer from the factory directly. No matter where you are or what change you made. They are doing it for a lot of countries so why not for the USA as well? We had the same question about keyboard layouts: why do we Dutch get a different qwerty layout than the Americans? Every other manufacturer like Dell, HP, etc. uses the same qwerty layout in the USA and in the Netherlands. It's only since a few years we can add Apple to that list as well.
There is a big difference. BTO Apple stuff is built, packaged and marked with destination address all in China, regardless of what country it ends up in.
If they wanted to make every freakin keyboard layout available in the US that can be ordered anywhere else it wouldn't cost them a dime or any additional logistics.
If you have no or the logistical background knowledge of 20 years ago doesn't matter. Computer assisted JIT logistics don't give a damn what goes where.
The op is perfectly reasonable in saying that a BTO with any keyboard layout is not too much to ask.
I think they don't do it on the Website because listing too many layouts doesn't look could and would confuse those poor americans that believe the worlds ends after the US border. And they don't allow it via phone ordering or in store BTOs because too many people would buy in the US instead of their home country. They'd miss the nice currency gains and don't want to create any unnecessary incentive for people doing that.
The only time prices with all taxes considered get even close to equality have been with when EUR dipped really low because of some crisis and $ flight. Yet most of the time the EUR was much higher and at times with 1.6 EURUSD or 1.45 it ways a big difference.
Part of the reason why Apple is not nearly as big in EU as it is in the US. With prices more equal it would compare much better with DELL that has much "fairer" prices in that regard as well as most other companies.
Here is what I did. I bought my MBP early 2011 this summer in the states. (I am German, but lived in the stated during that time), I got it with the english keyboard, and saved about 700 Euros in my new MBP, compared to the prize I would have payed in Germany. I am in Germany now and use an external keyboard that I bought from apple for 60 Euros when I am at home and have to write essays. When I'm on the go I use the english internal one. It is not that bad actually. Besides the combination that you have to use to get ä,ü, and ö, I think the english one makes more sense. (@ is at a way more convenient place).
I did not pay the 30% or what it is for bringing the laptop. German customs is not very strict. When you get controlled going in the country, you are out of luck though. So think through it. I'd buy it in the states again. It is cheaper, Apple Warranty is international too. Get an external wireless keyboard in germany.
I did not pay the 30% or what it is for bringing the laptop. German customs is not very strict. When you get controlled going in the country, you are out of luck though. So think through it. I'd buy it in the states again. It is cheaper, Apple Warranty is international too. Get an external wireless keyboard in germany.
^ This.
Frankly it has nothing to do with Apple being right, VAT is VAT. Also, the letter itself, if really sent to anyone, is shameful at best. The way you write is like a whiny over-entitled 2-year old who didn't get a cookie. You really need to spruce it up and outline your issues and concerns without silly threats that would likely only land you in trouble.
It is indeed cruddy that you need to pay that price but Apple, to my knowledge, can do little about it right away. I think people here and elsewhere would take you more seriously if you took your educated mind (it is clear that you're not absolutely ignorant) and wrote a thoughtful letter. I think that's where I am hung up, the delivery of your plight.
I wonder what kind of price applies if you use it a couple of months in the US. There'd have to be some devaluation. If you buy a used one of ebay a week before you leave it would also be less custom tax.
It isn't really a custom tax at all. Because there is not custom tax for computers, all you have to pay is the additional VAT difference of the country you enter in Europe. If you'd already payed 8% in California it would just be another 11% going back to germany.
It is quite a far cry from 30%. It is 19/20/22 depending on the obvious final destination.
Other stuff like cameras is much more difficult. Because there are actual custom taxes but only for the big ones I think. Also in 443 there is quite a bit included unless you buy a whole notebook or too many clothes.
Hell no. If I buy a MBP from the USA, I'll save alot of money. In fact, alot of people just buy MBP from the USA because the USA is cheap.
I'm really curious now who has had The Apple Store swap out the keyboard on a UMBP in-store.
Unless they yank the keys off the top case and snap in replacements, I don't even see how this is possible.
are you suggesting they dont have the ability to take apart a MBP swap the keyboard and put it back together?
See below. If it can be done at all, it's either sent out or the parts are sent to the store. It's not done immediately. You don't honestly think that an Apple store is going to stock the unibodies and keysets for different languages?
what word did i use that can be considered a timeframe?
i asked the person who i quoted if he thought they were unable to open a computer change a part and put it back together
I will suggest that regardless of their abilities, based on the amount of time and effort it requires to replace a keyboard (virtually everything except the trackpad in the bottom case needs to be removed and then reinstalled), this isn't something that they would normally consider doing. Based on my years working at Apple Retail, I can see a manager covering the cost of this to "surprise and delight" an individual customer, but I'd be highly surprised if it was standard operating procedure to do this change at all, much less for free.
sorry i laughed lol.
when i flew to poland this year, i made a stop in germany. they (somehow) opened up my luggage, which had a lock on it, and confiscated a pack of lighters i had.
now you may ask why i had these lighters. well my mom wanted me to bring them for my grandparents in poland.. and well, they were taken away from me.
oh, and i was given a nice letter from german customs saying that they took it away.
the OP wants his cake and wants to eat it too. There clearly isn't a whole lot of demand for German keyboards in the US. A MBP with a German keyboard is available in Germany, yet the OP doesn't want to buy it there. Like someone said upthread, just buy the keyboard cover, or buy an external keyboard in Germany. Problem solved. First World Problems...
Or we could all just go speak a common universal language, doesn't have to be English, could be Spanish, which is way easier to learn than English...
Or we could all just go speak a common universal language, doesn't have to be English, could be Spanish, which is way easier to learn than English...
This thread is a perfect example of major derailment, lots of people caught in one issue, with a tiny slither of genuinely helpful info slipping through the argument net that's actually able to help the OP.
OP, hope you managed to get the German keyboard thing sorted, can't imagine it's ACTUALLY that hard to get one.
OP, hope you managed to get the German keyboard thing sorted, can't imagine it's ACTUALLY that hard to get one.