But then it turns out I have to select which country I am in before I find my product, and when I select UK, the software, a download, costs the same in Euros as it did in dollars...
As the Euro is right now exactly fifty percent higher than the dollar, this is in effect a fifty percent "sales tax" just for being located in Europe. It is a download, so there's no justification for this in terms of "higher expenses of doing business in Europe" or what they usually say.
I would gladly pay the same six hundred dollars that my American friends pay for this software bundle, but I will not pay nine hundred.
NIK wrote back:
Thank you very much for your e-mail.
It looks like that you tried to order in our US webshop.
We are not allowed to sell from the US web shop to Europe due to European tax law, so we are very sorry but you will not be able to purchase from there. If you would buy at a US shop you would have to pay the import taxes by bringing goods into the EU. That is the reason behind those tax regulations.
Our Price is always including sales tax (19%).
If you have an VAT number you will be able to buy without sales tax.
We have operations in USA and in Europe. The decision of the pricing is a decision of the sales areas.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards from Hamburg
Nik Support Team
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So the 19% tax is their excuse for charging 50% more... and I've read up the UK / EU tax info for VAT. They are completely allowed to sell from the US as long as they charge and remit the VAT for EU buyers. My guess is they just don't want the hassle so they farm it out to another agent who adds in their own fees and rounds it all up to a 50% hike.
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Wow, that's an insane way to do business. Too bad you're not in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteI know that is hard when you are on the up end. But for us down here in NZ with the our dollar at .7 of the US, we welcome when the adjust the price for the local currency. Usually there is corolation between income in dollar terms in each country. The MAC meter or the Coffee meter shows this.
ReplyDeleteYou could access via a proxy located in USA. Or in cases like this I just go to IsoHunt and say "bugger them for being a-holes about it". What are they thinking anyway?
ReplyDeleteI thought you had set up a US mailbox to receive your US mail orders that refuse to ship internationally.
ReplyDeleteAfter you posted about that I researched and found one that worked for me and now I have a US credit card associated with that mail drop box. This way I have a physical US Billing address for my online digital orders.
Then if the website shop is very locked down as far as serving different regions you use a web anonymizer to give you a US IP address. I use Hotspot Shield, which until recently I was even able to use it to watch Hulu TV shows.
I do agree that it is frustrating dealing with international commerce on digital products, but things are slowly becoming more open and free moving in the digital sphere. Anyways that's what I do to get around these issues currently.
So the 19% tax is their excuse for charging 50% more... and I've read up the UK / EU tax info for VAT. They are completely allowed to sell from the US as long as they charge and remit the VAT for EU buyers. My guess is they just don't want the hassle so they farm it out to another agent who adds in their own fees and rounds it all up to a 50% hike.
ReplyDeleteI do have a US mailbox, which can be handy.
ReplyDeleteI'd need a US cc also, though. I could swing that, I have a friend who've often lend me hers.
And I might do it (despite the slowness).
I'm only wondering whether the software, when installed, demands online registration, and looks at location. But that's unlikely, isn't it.
Unless you have some really strong feelings about this software, and are hell-bent on getting it, might it not be more fruitful to find an alternative that will in all probability do the same job?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing that you perhaps have some specific use in mind? Maybe if you want to share that with us, we might come up with alternatives ... or maybe even something better? ... sounds to me very much as though they do not deserve the business!
Well... I haven't looked into it a *hell* of a lot, admittedly, but it's just that from various reports here and there, they really seem to have some things that are uniquely good and goodly unique.
ReplyDeleteErrrm ... a little ashamed to admit this ... just had a root about, and guess what? The entire bl**dy suite is sat here tucked away with CS3 on one machine and CS4 on t'other ... must have used it sooooooo much to have actually forgotten it was in there somewhere (along with WAY too many others, I've just decided!)
ReplyDeleteIn my defence, all this stuff is 'funded' ... but perhaps the fact that it's laid there, dormant and forgotten, tells a story?
Hmmmmm!
If you haven't given Lightroom a serious look, I would suggest that before buying from NIK.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know it has many fans.
ReplyDeleteThe Nik Sharpener software is good and the other ones interesting too. I tried them out long ago using the IsoHunt special trial method. No way I'd ever put out that much money for them.
ReplyDelete