PISSED OFF at the pricing differences between Europe and the USA - Page 4

Hi guys,

Bought a DELL from DELL-Switzerland (comes from Ireland). We have 7,6% VAT. Cost a fortune. Can't buy elsewhere; have no connections. I'm bound to home market.
Same with AW Lappy I would like to buy. Costs me here in Switzerland approx. $5120

Everything in Switzerland costs a fortune. Independant calculations (excl. Taxes, regulations, fees & country specific "burdens") say that the swiss pay on an average of 23 % more for EVERYTHING (Even our condoms cost more than elsewhere).

The only cheap things in Switzerland are cigis

I agree with that, however I don't think that the cost for marketing and support in Europe is that much higher. It doesn't really matter if the outsource to Poland for Germany or India for the UK, it's dead cheap everywhere. The marketing is the same everywhere, translations aren't THAT expensive, and all systems are built in Ireland and shipped to the Netherlands first. Not much of a difference if you ask me.
However, you are right in saying that Dell can't be stupid enough to add 500 Pounds to their price tags "because they can". In fact, they couldn't, because there's competition. But all of them are just as expensive over here, and there are reasons for that far beyond greed.
About getting rid of the "high tax socialist system" - actually, it's not nearly as bad here in the UK as it is in Germany. And even I say that it's going a bit too far there. But anything else is also a matter of political views, and there's no simple answer as to which system is better. I for one like not having to worry about what will happen to me if I break my leg and my credit card isn't working, and I don't really see large debts for billions of dollars and weakening the currency as the way forward. But this will now start another round of Bush-bashing, which I can't stand anymore (especially not in tech forums - although they are right :-p), so I will just shut up.

Totally Agree, What A Joke !!!

I've just been bitching about this in another thread. I just bought my mother a laptop 9300 for 1,920 $u.s I ordered it and paid for it in the Canaries, Spain and went through Dell latin America and Carib... All went perfectly smoothly, and they are sending it down to Bermuda for my mother. I didn't even have to haggle over the phone they just discounted it anyway, the women goes,,, I give you a much better price. Then one hour later after configuring the same EXACT LAPTOP her in Spain Canaries and it comes to 3550 $ u.s. What a f**King joke. I told the guy when I phoned 10 mins later and even emailed him my confirmed order for Bermuda and you know what he says. - I know but I can't really discuss this over the phone as It's monitered, but I understand. He asks for my email as I've bought loads of Dell's down here for bussiness etc and the next day i get an email saying, Get a Dell but f**k off to the states when It's been delivered to a friend or contact and have a weeks holiday in Florida paid for by purchasing it over there. He says it's LESS THAN HALF the price. His own brother did it and he gets unreal discounts working for them, but it's still much cheaper. What a nice guy to do that as I know he's on commission, and he sent it from a hotmail address. WHAT A JOKE. WHAT IS IT WILL DELL AND EUROPE. No way am i buying it over here now. I pefer to take my chances with customs.

I would say that the UK's economy is currently in better shape than all the G8 countries.

The exchange rate is currently about 2:1 which makes it expensive for dell to sell here. That said f*** em, and go buy your laptop in the US (I did )

On the plus side if I decided to sell my i9200 currently I would get almost everything I paid out for it

Switzerland, fortunately, seems to be relatively cheap for Europe: $2475 but with an 80GB disk (smaller is not available here). No coupon, including 7.6% VAT. Without VAT that is $2300, pretty close to the US price without coupons.

However, shipping costs an insane $100. Is it that expensive in the US too?

Cimberia: computers and electronics are cheaper in Switzerland as in most european countries. Just configure the same Dell in any other EU country, you'll see Switzerland is cheapest. Note: you must take care to configure correctly, i.e. start with the "Dell empfehlung" that matches your desired configuration closest. If you start with the bare model then add all the options you'll get a much much higher price.

Also note that, when comparing prices, most models in Switzerland have much better configuration than similar models in other EU countries. So look at the details when comparing prices.

In Norway things aren't any cheaper. The dell computers cost x2 times more than in the us! That's f**king insane!!! And the taxes are high as f**k! This sucks...

... and don't even get started about your prices for booze

Quark, queer point that you should mention German pessimism, don't really feel ya there, for me it's just hard staying in a cold country, cold-weather-cold-food-cold-people, cold cold cold. Oh, and the exorbitant price of Dells sucks too!
But I do think that it's hard for Dell to break into a pretty much stagnant market where taxes, regulations, employee salaries and demands for services are high. What's more, each European country has a different set of languages and regulations. Surely they can't outsource European service & support to India?
The only good things I see about Germany are the healthcare and public transportation, oh, and the beer, prost!

No, they outsource to Poland or Romania, there are plenty of German speakers there

And as for all the rest that's going on in Germany, that's why I left the sinking ship two years ago and I don't really have any plans about going back. True, I have many good friends there, but living or working there? Hell no - unless a really good offer comes along, which is highly unlikely.
In fact, I felt more at home and more positive in every other country I have worked in, and that includes France, the US and the UK. And I'm only 25 and had pretty crappy jobs The thought of three wasted years at a German university still makes me angry, I'm just glad that I realized it early enough...

I believe you committed a typo there:
When they switched from lira to euro the prices went up of at least 220%!
and now after 4 years prices jump up 3-4 times!

a coffe costed 1000 lires now it costs 2 euros (4000 lires).

go figure......

Luca

Geezzz people, just look at how much the US dollar is worth compared to the Euro. I don't know much about economics but I do know that the US dollar is pretty damn weak right now, so maybe you all are getting a better deal than you realize.

FullACK.

And about the Euro making everything more expensive - I don't know exactly about Italy, but in Germany, it is largely hysteria. If everything was four times more expensive, how could you still live? The problem is that a few nutheads decided to increase their prices, mainly in tourism, restaurants, cinemas etc. I've seen quite a few comparisons and the actual increase was barely noticeable. In fact, thinks like electricity and water, telephone bills, rental costs etc. went down. But because almost everybody decided to hate the Euro, and because no one gives a sh*t about his 500 Euros of rent a month, but wants to cry out lout because of his 2 Euro coffee, "the Euro made everything more expensive". Truth is, it just altered some pricing levels, because the countries adjusted to each other. So if Italy was a cheap country for coffee, chances are it's more up to the level of the other countries now. As for cars, they became a bit cheaper in Germany, because they were cheaper in all neighboring countries.

I really hate if people start bashing the Euro, just because they don't travel or want to cling to their old currencies, because "everything was better back in the good old days". No! It was not! And I just hope that one day English will become the official first language in all of Europe - guess what an outcry THAT will be...

Quark your situation sounded so like mine, except mine is in the present tense... lol~ I'm stuck in a German uni and wishing I hadn't made the choice to come here... recently because I wanted to buy a lappy that's so expensive compared to _virtually_ any other country in the world. This is soooo off topic...

When that day happens I will pack my bags, move to the south of France and drink wine all day. Who cares about notebooks?
Alas, we can but dream...

Yo! I second that

Well... I second that too
I live in Denmark, and I like the english language much better than the danish.

I actually used to love English (and I still do), but now that I have been speaking only English for the past few years, I have started to appreciate the beauty of other languages (including French, Spanish and even my own, German). So yes, I think every language has its place, but what I don't like is that there are still so many people around that just can't communicate with each other. That's why I want to have an official first language in the EU, and it has to be English (go away France - you don't stand a chance .

unglaublich!