Boycott Vista in the UK!

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

A Brit can buy in Europe or the US if they wish. Who is going to stop
them?

Bah. The next minute you will ranting on about how wrong it was to be
taxed without representation.


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Ken

Is Canada part of the US;-) ?


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Well said John

Unless I am mistaken Mike's is not too hot on arithmetic <G>1


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken

Is Canada part of the US;-) ?

Certainly not.

But it is part of America! ;-)

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

The costs of importing are not easily ascertained but you are
exagerating. I found this link
http://www.taxationweb.co.uk/guides/customs_duty.php

Even assuming the highest rate of 25% that is a long way from your
85%. VAT will also be charged at 17.5% and there will also be shipping
costs.

However, if you like to send me a copy of Vista Ultimate in the post
as a gift a concessionary duty rate of 3% is all I would have to pay.
I think there also concessions on importing computer hardware but I
only noticed a brief reference to it.

I suspect that Import Duty is something that UK purchasers are not
aware of. Apparently there are in excess of 10,000 Tariff categories
and they are not easily accessed casually. I am wondering whether
there might be a way to find out the rate of duty on computer
software.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

Stop comparing apples with oranges.

If Vista Ultimate cost $379 in the US add 50% for VAT import duty and
shipping gives $559. Convert at $1.9659 to £ and result is UK resident
should pay £289. However, if purchased retail from Amazon UK it costs
£351. An amount of £62 or just over 20% is going somewhere?

Actually it is more than that because import duty is not levied on the
retail price but on the cost to the importer, which will be a
wholesale price.


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Gerry

The OS language version would stop most Brits..

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Gerry

It's ok.. I will leave you to blame MS for it all.. I really don't care..
and yes, I did live in the UK, was born in the UK and was a business
consultant in the UK..

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

In theory it should not but I have not been able to check out what is
on offer in Europe. I tried to find an online retailer in Holland,
where many speak excellent English, but drew a blank.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[John John]

The European Union and its member countries are signatories to the WTO
Information Technology Agreement (ITA) concluded in December 1996,
tariff on software is 0%.

John

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

And yet in Sept 98, the rate on software from outside of the EU was 25%..
Windows is US origin..

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Mike

This link confirms what John said about zero import duty:
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/downloadFile?contentID=HMCE_PROD_009989

What is not clear is why retailers in the US and Canada will ship
goods to Europe, save for certain classes of goods. Instance this
example:
Amazon.ca can ship items from our Software and Computer & Video Games
Stores only to destinations within Canada.

The situation invites the question as to what regulations, if any,
prevent a UK resident ordering and paying for a copy of Vista Ultimate
Edition to be shipped to Mike Hall (akas friend). Friend removes the
CD from the bulky box and posts it to UK.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Gerry

I have no idea, and here in Canada, if you ask three different people about
anything at all, you get three different answers. Many retailers in the US
will not ship to Canada, and again I have no idea what restrictions are in
place other than maybe no desire to get involved in export.

Amazon have a UK subsidiary, and I have no doubt that they will want to
'milk' as much from the UK people as they can. It seems to me that the
retailers are the price fixers, not the manufacturers.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Pete

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss...=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=ipod

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Pete Stavrakoglou]

Thanks for the link (duh, I should have thought to check Amaon UK myself).
The prices seem very close from one vendor to another. In the USA, it
certainly seems as if there are some price restrictions imposed by Apple in
order to control pricing. I paid $ 349.99 US for an 80 GB IPod Video while
it costs £ 375.00 in the UK. Pretty close.

 

[Gordon]

I paid $ 349.99 US for an 80 GB IPod Video while
it costs £ 375.00 in the UK. Pretty close.

Not when the exchange rate is almost £1 = US$2.....

 

[Pete Stavrakoglou]

Not when the exchange rate is almost £1 = US$2.....

Sorry, my bad. The 375.00 I quoted in pounds should have read in US
dollars. $ 349.99 in US dollars in the USA and the equivalent to $ 375.00
US dollars in the UK. That's close.