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"Please educate yourself"...
Please explain how that is not rude.

Assuming that tis email is authentic (seeing is believing)

As said it portrays the person he was talking to as uneducated, inferior. It belittles them. It also portrays Jobs as arrogant, uncaring.

A better response might have been "Unfortunately UK prices must by law include VAT, which is around 18%. US prices do not include tax."
 
Good lord, people. I don't whine and moan that the shirt I bought in NY costs more than in NJ. Taxes and fees are different everywhere. Grow the f*** up and stop complaining about things you know nothing about.
 
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

The problem is that you've been too acclimated to how a politician responds to questions. He tells you how he's been in your situation and talk about the good ol days back on the farm where he'd wake up every morning at 4 to go milk the cows and pick up the eggs in the chicken coop.

Hearing Steve respond to questions brings back the good ol days when I was in the army.
 
So US indicated prices are net of tax. At what point in the transaction is the tax actually charged? At the point of checkout does the website lookup the tax rate for your location?
 
Assuming that tis email is authentic (seeing is believing)

As said it portrays the person he was talking to as uneducated, inferior. It belittles them. It also portrays Jobs as arrogant, uncaring.

A better response might have been "Unfortunately UK prices must by law include VAT, which is around 18%. US prices do not include tax."

Oh please! gimme a break. If you have the knowledge to know what iPad is, who Steve Jobs is and his email address, and you know how to search internet and you are from Europe, then you should already know the answer. If I am the CEO of a major company and you are bugging me with questions whose answers I am quite sure you already know, I would be hard pressed to respond with a mild sarcasm.

Educate Yourself!
Please Educate Yourself (a milder form of rebuke to inform yourself before asking the CEO of a major organization)
 
Blame your government. Germany just added a new copyright levy for computers.
Why do people still question this? Taxes/duties are not new. It's been like this since forever. Electronic gadgets are cheaper in the US than some countries, even 3rd world countries (where you would think the majority of the population wouldn't even be able to afford the gadget) due to taxes/duties. Why is nobody questioning this on, let's say, a Sony walkman, or an Asus laptop? More publicity for Apple.

Meanwhile, my local state sales tax is approaching 10% now. :mad:
 
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:

Awww, I couldn't have said it better myself.... thank you.
 
"Please educate yourself"...
Please explain how that is not rude.

"Please" as in, a polite request to perform an action.

"Educate yourself" as in, "It's not my job to educate you regarding your own governments taxation and importation policies, and you've elected to ask the highest-ranking officer in the company that produces this product a question you could well have answered yourself if you'd spent a few moments with online research."

His reply was, I think, all things considered, a good deal more polite than the question deserved, given its nature-- regardless of how politely it may have been worded.
 
So US indicated prices are net of tax. At what point in the transaction is the tax actually charged? At the point of checkout does the website lookup the tax rate for your location?

Yes, sales tax is added at the point of sale. It is the sellers responsibility to charge customers for the tax. It works well because the businesses must pay that tax and are held liable otherwise. I'm not saying it works well because it's right, just that it makes sure that we pay it.
 
Lol...its funny cos he's always nice, smiley and humorous when flogging his products on stage BUT as soon as he leaves the stage, Helloooo Douchebag.

That said i empathize with him...some really do ask dumb questions
 
Some problems

The last sentence of your post inspired me to actually register here to respond. Have you looked at the end-result of welfare-state social democracies? Does Greece ring any bells? I would not classify that as "your countries work so well" myself but thats just me. Greece is a model of what will eventually happen to any entitlement-heavy welfare state given enough time and low enough fertility rate (think Greece was like 1.2) because their are not enough workers entering the workforce to pay for the entitlements so the government borrows and borrows to keep buying the praise and happiness (and votes) of their subjects. Then when the debt comes due, they cant repay it (Greece cant print money and inflate their way out of debt like the USA and some others) and they have to say "well sorry we cant give you these huge bonuses and lifetime ""free"" medical care, etc. anymore" and you can watch the news of the riots to see how it all ends. Im not saying the United States is exempt from this happening, Greece is just so small in comparison that it happens faster. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, are some others that this will happen to as well if things dont change soon (again, all use the Euro so they cant inflate their debt down). Not trying to attact a bunch of hate mail here and not trying to be overly confrontational but it galls me when people get away all the time espousing the glorious utopia of a system that is designed from the ground up to punish success and keep people from elevating their standard of living due to it "not being fair for them to have more". Also while Im not a Tea-Party protestor or anything, I think the term tea-bagger is pretty juvenile. Thanks for being the impetus for me to register here.

There are a number of flaws with this argument.

1) Greece has been in and out of default many times in the past few hundred years, most of them before the advent of the modern liberal democratic social welfare states that are now (more or less) the norm throughout Western and Northern Europe.

2) Certain countries that provide nowhere near the same level of benefits to citizens are in nearly as much trouble, but aren't actually in risk of outright default because its currency underpins too many extremely important industries (air travel, petroleum).

3) Many other countries that do have a similar nature to Greece are also in a lot of trouble, but aren't in imminent risk of default, which says that one does not necessarily lead to the other.

At any rate, you chose to focus on an aside of the original post: that the European preference for both higher taxes and more comprehensive social benefits was preferable. Regardless of whether it is preferable, the initial thrust of the comment still holds: which was that it was morally questionable to seek to buy products outside one's home market and then not declare it on importation, allowing oneself to take advantage of those comprehensive benefits without paying the full cost, while your fellow citizens do.

If that many Europeans really feel that their tax burdens truly are too high, and that comprehensive social benefits are not as important as inexpensive consumer electronics (or that social welfare states are not sustainable in the long-term) should do something about this through their respective electoral systems before resorting to complaining to the CEO of an American computer company about tax and import policies he has no control over (although he would appear to have superior knowledge of compared to some residents of those countries, which is also amusing).

Does that not seem reasonable?
 
Bit rude for a CEO. Not that I care, it's just normally they are all PR and horse ****.

Prices seem fair enough. Stuff costs more in the UK, the pound is shot to pieces, VAT is high, overheads cost more, fuel costs more,

yep. folks forget about customs fees etc when importing something. that also raises prices.

i remember working at Godiva about 5 years ago. our stuff was about $30 a pound. I was at a store in LA and we got a ton of japanese visitors coming in and buying 2 and 3 large boxes of stuff. some of them were regulars, coming in every 2 months cause they worked for the banks in the area.

I finally asked one why he did that when there's a huge shop in Tokyo. He told me that with the different sales tax and the import taxes on luxury goods, the price comes out to about $100 a pound. but as long as he stayed under like 5lbs the custom fee wasn't so bad so it was worth it.
 
I love that Steve Jobs is the ONLY CEO of ANY major corporation in America that replies directly to his customers. Now THAT is symbolic of everything that is right about Apple. Thank you, Steve, for being an amazing human being on all levels.
 
There are a number of flaws with this argument.

1) Greece has been in and out of default many times in the past few hundred years, most of them before the advent of the modern liberal democratic social welfare states that are now (more or less) the norm throughout Western and Northern Europe.

2) Certain countries that provide nowhere near the same level of benefits to citizens are in nearly as much trouble, but aren't actually in risk of outright default because its currency underpins too many extremely important industries (air travel, petroleum).

3) Many other countries that do have a similar nature to Greece are also in a lot of trouble, but aren't in imminent risk of default, which says that one does not necessarily lead to the other.

At any rate, you chose to focus on an aside of the original post: that the European preference for both higher taxes and more comprehensive social benefits was preferable. Regardless of whether it is preferable, the initial thrust of the comment still holds: which was that it was morally questionable to seek to buy products outside one's home market and then not declare it on importation, allowing oneself to take advantage of those comprehensive benefits without paying the full cost, while your fellow citizens do.

If that many Europeans really feel that their tax burdens truly are too high, and that comprehensive social benefits are not as important as inexpensive consumer electronics (or that social welfare states are not sustainable in the long-term) should do something about this through their respective electoral systems before resorting to complaining to the CEO of an American computer company about tax and import policies he has no control over (although he would appear to have superior knowledge of compared to some residents of those countries, which is also amusing).

Does that not seem reasonable?

Very reasonable, and I do agree with the frustration at people trying to buy it and not declare it in order to avoid taxes. It was the last item about how these countries "work so well" that kinda riled me. They clearly do not and I think your seeing the fruition of that here in just the past couple of weeks. Not just Greece but all across the EU. There was an article in the NY Times about how the entire EU is in jeopardy, the Euro specifically. The fact is that those kind of entitlement programs are not sustainable over the long-term, UNLESS the government confiscates all property such as Chavez is currently doing in Venezuela (not over night but its happening). And even that is not stopped their economy from inflating to over 30% (again, Chavez can print money to inflate out of debt and pay for entitlements where Greece cant). Didnt mean to politicize the post and I do appreciate your response and agree with the bulk of it. Thanks, and Ill shut up about it now. :)
 
I can't believe some people here have the audacity to call this email, allegedly from Jobs rude. This forum is so rude on a daily basis in terms of how much crap that say about Apple and how much they act like they hate the company and it's products, yet they still buy them.
If anyone is rude, take a good look this forum before you attack one person for a simple line he wrote. At least he responded. You want him to respond AND say it nicely? Good Grief, and they say Steve Jobs is rude. :rolleyes:

And for the record, he's absolutely right, as a consumer it's our responsibility to educate ourselves rather than moan at every little thing here.
 
Steve is doing fine thanks.

From what I have heard of Steve and his passion for excellence, I can see why he has little time to compose long responses to questions. Like his presentations, the replies have been trimmed to the minimum needed to deliver a message that will be remembered.
He is doing a very good job of directing a company at the leading edge of technology and has been exploring the frontiers for many ears. As some once said, You can tell the pioneers from the arrows in their backs. Steve takes the barbs from many but has seen more new developments come to fruition than all of his detractors combined. I would really like to know what all the whiners have accomplished in their lives.
Another explanation for his short answers is that he only types with his index finger.
 
Agreed, but unfortunately the world has gone towards unfriendliness and rudeness lately, especially companies must I say. Is there an equivalent in English for "Client est Roi" ? It literally means the client is king.
"The customer is always right"...? I prefer the Swedish saying "Kunden har alltid horn" (the customer is always horned), since nothing can bring the devil out of people better than being in the position of a customer. It turns nice people into petty, whiney, rude bitches with a sense of entitlement so grandiose it glows in the dark. Blah blah hard earned money blah blah take my business elsewhere blah blah i don't want this omelet, it's too yellow blah blah it's Saturday night why haven't you responded to the email I sent two minutes ago blah blah *boom* *splat* (shotgun to the face, always shuts them up).

Europeans complain a lot about high prices, they should really complain about high VATs, 17% doesn't sound right at all... it's a rip off. Anything above 8% should not be tolerated, you're paying the company (i.e. Apple) for the product, not the government or the EU.
17% is low by European standards, usually it's around 20%, in Sweden it's 25% except on food (12%) and transportation (6%).

I don't pay the 25% on Apple products though since I can buy them on my firm (VAT free). The MBP starts at 11995 SEK, minus VAT = 9596 SEK = 1332 USD. So it's $130 more, but... whatever.
 
I'm thinking if your feelings get hurt because someone is "rude" to you, it's your own fault. Time for the kids to grow up.
 
Don't worry rest of the world, old president obummer has already said vat is coming to the USA, so we'll be with you price wise soon.
 
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