Beware of play.com overcharging

patrickmooney

On play.com you can either choose to have their prices in Pounds or Euro. Beware if you select Euro, you pay "their" Euro conversion amount. In most cases all items are €2 more expensive. So if ordering, make sure it's in pounds. I've emailed asking to explain their Euro conversion process.

rubadub

Conversely cd-wow usually give very good rates

samo

Have noticed this with Play - there's a fair difference actually between euro and sterling but cdwow's Uk site etc converts out much better as Rubadub said, I also found for some reason www.blahdvd.com's exchange rates work out really well - they also give you euro/sterling option and sterling much much cheaper - also free delivery

Kevin_rc_ie

are they factoring in delivery charges? what's the best way to make it cheaper? pay in sterling and let the credit card to the conversion or something like that?

samo

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

are they factoring in delivery charges? what's the best way to make it cheaper? pay in sterling and let the credit card to the conversion or something like that?

thats what I've been doing alright pay in sterling and let CC convert - I'm with MBNA and average exchange rate is about 1.48 which I think is a touch higher than most but still works out cheaper and blahdvd always work out really cheap when converted to euro by CC!

Ave

xe.com list 1GBP being equal to 1.411€.

Play works out as £1 being equal to €1.62

They are overcharging by almost 15%.

Orion

They probably do it the same as Easons - they buy a load of Euro every six months and that's the rate that's used for those six months.

rubadub

Ave wrote:

xe.com list 1GBP being equal to 1.411€.

Play works out as £1 being equal to €1.62

They are overcharging by almost 15%.

Thing to watch is that most banks will not give the same rate as quoted on XE or the news. Some give very bad rates, some give an ok rate but charge commission. cd-wow's rate will usually not appear as good as on the news or XE but is usually a good bit better than the banks.

Ave

rubadub wrote:

Thing to watch is that most banks will not give the same rate as quoted on XE or the news. Some give very bad rates, some give an ok rate but charge commission. cd-wow's rate will usually not appear as good as on the news or XE but is usually a good bit better than the banks.

Aye, I know banks charge over the odds, but nowhere near 15%, going from previous experience with Mastercard/Ulsterbank

Hagar

Macros42 wrote:

They probably do it the same as Easons - they buy a load of Euro every six months

Yeah right. :mad:
That may well be the reason Eason's quote for the overcharging on books/magazines etc. but does anyone believe it?
As a major company would you not explore every avenue to maximize the bottom line?
All big import companies play the exchange rate market daily.
They would be absolute fools if they didn't.
And we would be absolute fools to believe they didn't.
It's just another facet of rip-off Ireland. :mad:

seamus

Oh. I'd noticed that, but I hadn't checked to see if they were charging the euro price. Amazon will show the prices in Euro, but still charge you the sterling price to the card. Got some stuff €10 cheaper than Amazon estimated over Christmas.

Have to keep that in mind when ordering from play...

r00t69

People still buy from Amazon? Considering they charge Vat at the rate of the destination country rather then point of sale and the sky-high postage charges I stopped buy from the last year.

See Here...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/502576/ref=w_h__brbx_c_2_1/026-8922725-0074840

This is in complete contradiction of my understanding of fair trade. :mad:

Oops sorry for the rant.

A Dub in Glasgo

errm... I don't see your issue with Amazon. If they were the cheapest for something you were after, you would not use them because they charge 21% VAT in Ireland as regards 17.5% VAT here in the UK

I will continue to use Amazon if they are the cheapest for what I am after. Their customer service is very good as well.

Boberto

Has anyone checked their statement? Is it possible that it's just an estimate from play.com and that they actually charge the sterling to your card anyway (which is then converted)?

seamus

Boberto wrote:

Has anyone checked their statement? Is it possible that it's just an estimate from play.com and that they actually charge the sterling to your card anyway (which is then converted)?

Nope. They charge the euro price alright...

Boberto

Ahh okies. Has anyone contacted them about this?

r00t69

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

errm... I don't see your issue with Amazon. If they were the cheapest for something you were after, you would not use them because they charge 21% VAT in Ireland as regards 17.5% VAT here in the UK

I will continue to use Amazon if they are the cheapest for what I am after. Their customer service is very good as well.

The problem is that you have to calculate in the extra 3.5% for vat and then postage, and from all my shopping at xmas CD-Wow and Play came in consistantly cheaper. Most people buy from the sticker price and forget to add in all the extra's.

Point 2 > Products purchased in the EU are charged VAT at the point of sale not destination Country. Their FAQ which I pointed to in my last post states that they are operating in accordance with EU Law, which is incorrect. Do they actually hand over the additional VAT to the Irish Goverment, or all the VAT charged the destination's goverment? I doubt it.

If I am to take your name litteraly you pay sterling and probably get free postage so I can understand that Amazon is cheap for you.

A Dub in Glasgo

Hold on, you expect a UK retailer to ship goods to Ireland for free!!

I ordered some DVD players and digital cameras for my brothers and they were the cheapest going considering they delivered to Ireland.

Ave

Boberto wrote:

Ahh okies. Has anyone contacted them about this?

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your recent enquiry.

Due to a higher processing cost on Euro transactions and fluctuations in the exchange rate there may be a difference in pricing.

You can however still order in GBP and then your bank will simply do the conversion themselves when we take payment. We hope this has clarified the situation for you.

Thank you for your valued custom.








Kind regards


Total and utter bollocks excuse, to charge euro customers an extra 15%.

seamus

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

Hold on, you expect a UK retailer to ship goods to Ireland for free!!

Well I will expect it when they're shipping their goods from a large warehouse in Ireland.

I ordered some DVD players and digital cameras for my brothers and they were the cheapest going considering they delivered to Ireland.

Agreed. CD's and DVDs I now order from cdwow or play, but books and electronics I still get from Amazon - 3 or 4 books and it's far cheaper and less hassle than having to go into town to pay more for them.

A Dub in Glasgo

seamus wrote:

Well I will expect it when they're shipping their goods from a large warehouse in Ireland.

I am pretty sure the stuff I ordered left a warehouse in the UK. Maybe smaller items from a warehouse in Ireland. I agree that items that are being sent from within Ireland should br more transparant. There is a minimum order to expect free delivery on the UK site.

paulhurl

I can understand the explanation from Play - basically they show an approx euro equivalent - and if you don't know any better, you pay more than you should (probably an infringement on consumer rights). They clearly state on the website that delivery is free, so at least they didn't try that as an excuse.

I was looking for somewhere/someone to make a complaint about this type of thing, and someone told me to check here for discussion about it.

My main reason for checking is because of symantec.com for purchasing Norton products online direct from source through their uk site. They appear to over charge by at least 10% for euro/gbp conversion on everything (30% on one product).

Can a complaint be made to the Irish Ombudsman, or is it a matter for a european ombudsman (if one exists).

I don't like the whole idea of being lumped into the same category as UK when it comes to websites and online sales, particularly when most of the companies involved are using Ireland as a base for call centres etc.