Charles wrote:
Can anyone offer a credible explanation for the following:
Suse 8.0 Personal - Euro 43.02 in Germany, Euro 53.77 in UK Suse 8.0 Pro - Euro 68.87 in Germany, Euro 81.34 in UK
These are the net ex VAT prices from the SuSE UK & German websites. After VAT the situation is even worse. Based on 1 Pound = 1 .62 Euro (it's been within +/-2% of this for many weeks, I track it almost daily)
Now I think SuSE 8.0 is probably good value even at the UK price but why should I pay more for an identical (it is, isn't it?) product?
In the Euro zone or not, there's no excuse for such a blatant con, or are Linux people (anoraks, nerds etc.) supposed to be totally detached from reality?
Charles
Somebody else wrote:
Yes, but look at the Euro - it's practically banana state currency, hardly > the 21st century Dollar substitute
Banana currency - agreed. I do not know if the UK price for v. 8.0 is justified or not. But: When the GBP increased in value by about 40% against other European currencies (now ) shops, especially supermarket did not lower the price accordingly but even continued to increase them for imported goods. So now one can buy the same goods abroad at about up to 1/3rd of the UK price. Brussels and the EC were blamed for what was 'Made in England'. Transport costs were the usual excuse (Ignorance or just contempt for customers?). They are insignificant when taking into account the relation between retail price e.g. GBP 4000/ton and the actual transport for one ton from France to London. The does not change the prices, it only makes it more transparent. It avoids having to multiply or divide by 1,60 or so. But on the other hand English people are used to odd factors or divisors such as 16, 12, 8, etc. After all -- they call it common sense -- multiplying by 10 is much more difficult than multiplying by 16! HWM