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Whilst I like how direct Jobs is, replying with the words "Please educate yourself" is just rude and offensive to a potential customer.

Yes, most of us know that taxes are to blame for the price difference, but if Jobs thought that this was common knowledge then not replying at all would have been the better option :rolleyes:
 
is it me, or is Steve just getting more rude every time??

he doesn't have to attack!! people are just asking questions...

his PR team should talk to him... or spank him hahaha
How is he rude? His sentence contains a polite word: P L E A S E

So it's definitely just you with your over-sensitivity and over-reaction.

Some people.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
I'm tired of these arrogant people emailing Steve Jobs directly to complain about things - what makes these people think they should email him about stupid stuff like this?

Sigh.. I miss the good old days when stupid people didn't buy Apple products.. :mad:

Same here, some days I wish Steve would change his email address so we wouldn't see a post each and every week on a main page of a website (including Macrumors) when someone (ZOMG!!!111eleventyone!!) gets a reply from Steve
 
++

He has every reason to be brief (and even rude) to people over these types of questions. I mean, look ... either you think a product is worth buying or you don't. If you don't, do you USUALLY go around emailing every CEO to ask why their item costs so much? Probably NOT!

Items are priced at whatever the market will bear, period. If they're really "priced too high" - sales will come to a halt and the price will have to be dropped (or the product dropped). Apple obviously thinks this price is what the product should cost in these respective countries -- so it "is what it is".


Wow, all you who are saying that Steve is rude must not have been following him for very long. He's known for being upfront and short tempered.

But give me a break. I'd like to see how some of you all would respond being in his exact same position, having thousands and thousands of stupid people constantly sending you complaints and stupid questions. The fact that the CEO of Jobs' status actually has his address public and even RESPONDS to people is pretty amazing, especially at the rate he's been recently.

Work in customer service for a few years and you'll understand how whiney and stupid most people are.
 
I'd like to see the actual emails from both parties. It seems that civility is lost when talking about anything with an "i" or the word Flash in front of it.

But I'm Sure the CEO of Microsoft, Sony or Honda would not have responded that way or allowed anyone in their employment to respond that way no matter how rude or uniformed the customer was.
 
LOL whether its steve making these responses or not gotta say there dam hilarious lol:p
 
Costs

Its well known that the costs of doing business (without regard to taxes) is higher in Europe than the U.S. Everything from fuel to warehouse space to labor costs are all higher.

Its perfectly understandable that it will cost more to buy an IPad in Europe than the U.S. understanding those points.

Given the enormous success of the IPad in the states and the hype, Europe should feel lucky Apple isn't slapping a bigger premium on the devices given the absurdly (allegedly) tight supply.
 
I'm going to go with the flow here and say Jobs was completely IN line. I mean be realistic, how many CEO's of companies this size actually answer customer emails?!?

Furthermore, was does one idiot (or a dozen) think he's going to accomplish by emailing the CEO? Will there be a re-announcement on pricing within an hour of his stupid email? The price is what it is, emailing the CEO about that is like asking a college professor if you can go to the bathroom...you're only doing it because you can, and you're going to enjoy whatever response you get because you got attention from the CEO.
 
Why do so many people take Steve's answers as rude or terse?
It's typed text. It has no emotion. It has no inflection. It has no underlying sarcasm.

There are all kinds of reasons for pricing to vary from country to country. It's padded to absorb instabilities in currencies, taxes, port fees, and all kinds of crap that consumers don't even know about.

People need to stop emailing Steve for every little thing. We should be asking him important questions. Like what is his favorite color and stuff like that.
 
Why do so many people take Steve's answers as rude or terse?
It's typed text. It has no emotion. It has no inflection. It has no underlying sarcasm.

There are all kinds of reasons for pricing to vary from country to country. It's padded to absorb instabilities in currencies, taxes, port fees, and all kinds of crap that consumers don't even know about.

People need to stop emailing Steve for every little thing. We should be asking him important questions. Like what is his favorite color and stuff like that.

"Please educate yourself"...
Please explain how that is not rude.
 
Stupid question!

There's nothing new about the VAT...

Just wait until we get a VAT here, the most regressive tax on the planet! :mad:
 
OMG! VAT is killing consumers in EU and for a long time I thought 7% sale tax is crazy here....
 
The whole problem is many Europeans ( including British ) forget / don't realize that North American advertised prices do not include TAX, so they take A price and their price and think - wow extra mark up - Apple are ripping us off with exchange rate.

#40 extra on the UK price - pretty good, all things considered - it could easily be a lot higher.
 
I'm going to agree with SJ here. He wasn't rude at all and was right to tell the person to get educated.

Responding with "cry more" would have my go to rude response :)
 
what's really surprising about this article is the fact that Germans allowed the RIAA of their country to pass a law that uses a public entity like their government to collect extortion taxes for a private organization. So if these copyright holders never produced another product, they would still be paid for sitting on their lazy ass. Mandatory welfare at its best.:mad:
 
everything in Germany is over-taxed

FYI everything in Germany in overtaxed, every piece of electronic is more expensive than in the US and not only. Did you know that the coffee you buy in Germany is around 70% taxes? sales tax - coffee-tax etc...
 
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