Bargain Sellers Euro Rip Off

ei9go

As everyone on this forum is looking for a good deal, I just want to bring to your attention to what some of the usual "bargain" sellers are doing.

Example : Pixmania

Nikon D80 18-135MM Kit Irish Euro price €1066*
Nikon D80 18-135MM Kit Sterling Price £689*

*Prices correct at 10.00AM 19/01/2008

OK. Now the maths

To be perfectly fair to Pixmania lets add the extra 3.5% Vat in Ireland
UK Vat 17.5% IRL Vat 21%.

689 + 3.5% = 713.12

Conversion rates: Euro is worth about 75p sterling. Again, to be fair lets take off 2p which your credit card company probably charges you for the conversion.

£713.12 / .73 = 976.88Euro

So thats 90 Euro extra because you live in Ireland.

Next: Play.com
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Limited Collector's Edition
UK £34.99
IRL 54.99 Euro

Now you've seen the maths so I'll just do this one

34.99 +3.5% Vat =36.21
36.21 / .73 =49.60

So thats 5.39 euro extra for the game

Neither company allows you to pay on the sterling part of the site, funny that!

Perhaps there are other companies adopting similar practices, lets hear who they are.

Tipsy Mac

Actually the Irish VAT doesn't come into it, both play and pixmania charge the UK and French VAT on all shipments. I knew play were blatently ripping people off with the sterling/euro difference but didn't think pixmania were at it too, good to know. It's such a pity that amazon don't offer free Irish delivery.

ei9go

Just checked and the D80 Kit is only 999 Euro on their French site.

Pixmania invoices for Irish customers does include 21% VAT. Who gets the VAt is a different question.

Thats why in the interest of fairness, I included the extra 3.5% in the calculations.


Here's a paste from a recent one.


ASUS VW202s 20" wide format TFT Screen (5 ms) € 147.93 1 € 147.93
Total number of your products sold byPIXmania € 147.93

Delivery costs € 12.31
Total vat excl. € 160.25
VAT € 33.65
Total to pay € 193.90

heathersonline

Hmmm, a lot to be saved by having stuff delivered to my Bro in Belfast, I'm off shopping! It's disgraceful really though

boa-constrictor

Pixmania is anything but good value. They shiipped me a camcorder which was about as good as a mobile phone for taking video. I returned it by registered post and now they are claiming non receipt even though they acknowledged receipt of the other (non valuable) stuff in the same package such as the carry case and accessories.

I'm out for around €350 and I wouldn't buy a pin of them again no matter how cheap it is.

Unfortunately as they are so well known, I didn't google them before purchasing. Now that I have I see that they have used this ruse and many others on loads of people.

As they are in France I reckon the only recourse I have is to report them to Mastercard. If they have received enough reports they might quiz the company on it. I reckon if you really abused your merchant facility, the cc co would withdraw it.

Wertz

Just one thing on your UK VAT V Irish VAT calculation:

£689 is UK VAT price.

689 / 117.5 = 5.864
5.864 * 121 = 709.53

£709.53 is the Irish VAT price

...so that's another £3.50+ you're being done out of on the camera.

How much of the rip off is down to these retailer's servers not follwoing the currency market trend though? The prices seem to be fixed rather than flutuate with swings, which is fair enough, since they could end up loosing out in some respects but the prices need to be updated a lot more frequesntly than they are.

whiterebel

boa-constrictor wrote: »

Pixmania is anything but good value. They shiipped me a camcorder which was about as good as a mobile phone for taking video. I returned it by registered post and now they are claiming non receipt even though they acknowledged receipt of the other (non valuable) stuff in the same package such as the carry case and accessories.

I'm out for around €350 and I wouldn't buy a pin of them again no matter how cheap it is.

Unfortunately as they are so well known, I didn't google them before purchasing. Now that I have I see that they have used this ruse and many others on loads of people.

As they are in France I reckon the only recourse I have is to report them to Mastercard. If they have received enough reports they might quiz the company on it. I reckon if you really abused your merchant facility, the cc co would withdraw it.

Left me waiting 3 months for a credit too, saying it had to be "investigated", even though DHL had the signature from their warehouse. My last call to them involved cancelling the transaction with VISA, and hey presto I get a credit, minus the shipping. if you are going to report to Mastercard, write to them first as the CC companies want proof that you have tried to sort it out first.

whiterebel

Beware of shopto as well. I lost out on about €4 because they changed conversion rates and delivery charges, even though they had both clearly marked on their site. I never saw so much BS back from their "Customer Services" either

Bluetonic

ei9go wrote: »

Neither company allows you to pay on the sterling part of the site, funny that!

Perhaps there are other companies adopting similar practices, lets hear who they are.

Do you really expect these businesses to have rolling prices in line with FX rate changes?

Behave.

Wertz

Bluetonic wrote: »

Do you really expect these businesses to have rolling prices in line with FX rate changes?

Behave.

Granted, but they're quite happy to make hay while the sun shines in their favour....if the shoe was on the other foot and the euro fell sharply against sterling, their webmasters/admins/whoever wouldn't be long about updating the price conversion formula to suit...

Ruu_Old

Moved from Bargain Alerts.

311

Pixmania are still cheaper than a good few websites ,for a lot of stuff.
They can be about 15-20% cheaper on some items ,I always search the various sites when buying stuff.

muffler

Have to say that Play.com while they have always provided a very decent service are among the rip off artists now.

And in relation to another thread here re; Cdwow bargains how cna they justify charging €4.99 for the DVDs they are selling at £2.99. Needless to say I ordered in sterling which is something Play.com wont allow now.

jor el

Bluetonic wrote: »

Do you really expect these businesses to have rolling prices in line with FX rate changes?

Behave.

All they have to do is allow you to pay in Sterling, or whatever native currency they use. The credit card companies will do the exchange for them and they don't have to worry about being shafted, as they still get exactly their asking price.

Having multiple currencies is just a way for websites to add in extra hidden charges.

Play.com and Sendit.com are adding about 15-20% typically on the euro price now. CDwow have been doing this for a long time on their Irish site, though I believe this is in a deal with IRMA who wanted more money from CDwow in royalties. Sendit do allow Sterling payments still, so you can avoid that euro hike with them. Play don't though.

ei9go

Thanks to WERTZ for correcting my original calculation. I should of course got the UK vat free price first and then added the 21% Irish Vat.

However, it just makes the rip off even worse.

Anyway, Here's another one KOMPLETT

Komplett.ie

LG 22" LCD L226WTQ-SF Euro 287
Sterling 189

Vat free sterling price = 160.85 X 21%= 194.63

194.63 / .73 = 266.62 Euro

Tried to register an account at the UK store but I get this message
"Shipping to Ireland? Please visit our Ireland store Komplett.ie."
so they won't allow you to pay in sterling.

Wertz

Add Dell to the offending list as well.
Picked a PC at random from their home section, an Inpsiron 530s with 20" TFT.

Irish Dell site: €629 inc del

UK Dell site: £399 inc del

In real terms giving them the benefit of 2% currency conversion fee on CC and the extra Irish VAT incurred, this still leaves Dell Ireland at ~€75 more expensive than the machine from the UK. 12% of a price difference.
The real joke here is that many if not all of the machines being sold in the UK are being built and shipped from here AFAIK...so how can this ever be passed off as "the higher cost of doing business in Ireland" ?

Consumers are getting shafted here....and it's only the recent currency rate changes that are highlighting it...

jor el

Wertz wrote: »

The real joke here is that many if not all of the machines being sold in the UK are being built and shipped from here AFAIK...so how can this ever be passed off as "the higher cost of doing business in Ireland" ?

Yep, that's the real piss take. Dells are made right here in Limerick, yet they're cheaper to buy in the UK than in Ireland.

It's the higher cost of screwing the Irish consumer over.

snaps

Is there a list of online companies that allow you to pay in sterling? I think SVP.co.uk allows you to pay the final checkout price in sterling.

inforfun

snaps wrote: »

Is there a list of online companies that allow you to pay in sterling? I think SVP.co.uk allows you to pay the final checkout price in sterling.

The few times i ordered from SVP i indeed paid in Sterling.

Now play.com .....
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/842412/Microsoft-XBox-360-Controller-For-Windows/Product.html?cur=257

Prive in sterling: 17.99
Price in Euro: 27.99

You got to be kidding me.
And then i was thinking you could get yourself some nice deals after the "collapse" of the Sterling.
How naive...

muffler

Sendit.com allow you to choose sterling or euro. They may not be the cheapest though but they do have some good offers at times which put them up there with the rest of them.

inforfun

Well.. that is the point. That 27.99 is still the lowest price i can find that controller for.
I wanted to buy some other stuff from them but when i checked out (after selecting everything in Sterling) i was confronted with the rule i had to pay in Euros.
Then if you see their fantasy exchange rate it is like you re being time warped back in time a year where you indeed paid €1.50 for £1,00.

muffler

inforfun wrote: »

Well.. that is the point. That 27.99 is still the lowest price i can find that controller for.
I wanted to buy some other stuff from them but when i checked out (after selecting everything in Sterling) i was confronted with the rule i had to pay in Euros.
Then if you see their fantasy exchange rate it is like you re being time warped back in time a year where you indeed paid €1.50 for £1,00.

I take it that its Play.com you are referring to and if so they wont post a controller to Ireland anyhow - unless their postal policies have changed recently.

Ruu_Old

You can order from CDWOW in sterling among other currencies.

inforfun

muffler wrote: »

I take it that its Play.com you are referring to and if so they wont post a controller to Ireland anyhow - unless their postal policies have changed recently.

I honestly dont know and didnt check because when i saw that i had to pay €1,50 for a sterling i just didnt go on for the next step.