Text Maker Software

[wales]

I have read the excellent Word Processor Review and I was interested in TextMaker.  It is priced at  U.S $69.95  It is also priced at the same amount in Euros.   The present exchange rate makes $69.95 only 50.73 Euros   I have written to the company, and await their reply.

One expects this of Microsoft, so is this con spreading

[Carol Haynes]

Very widespread - you even get £1 (UK) = $1 (US) at times which is even worse.

[tomos]

If the Euro price includes VAT (which here in germany is 20%) it works out almost as euro=dollar pricewise.
It's German software but VAT should naturally be charged according to where you are.
Sometimes you can buy things in dollars & get a better price that way but it getting harder to do these days ...

[wales]

Thank you Carol and Tomos for your replies.

Carol, I have found that Microsoft tend to do that.

[Deozaan]

I'm in the USA, but to my knowledge a lot of software and even electronics have the same numerical price in many European countries as they do in USA.

So you'll often see something for $60 and 60 Euros and 60 Pounds. It's not the same monetary value, but for some reason people seem to think the numbers look good and should all be the same.

Pointing out Microsoft as primary or expected culprits for this behavior is (in my opinion) a little silly, since it is much, much, much, much, much more widespread than them.

[Darwin]

Wales - keep your eye on Ashampoo's Office 2006. It's the same product as the SoftMaker version and is priced the same but I've seen it on sale for as little as $4.99. They let you choose your currency as well...

[wales]

Deozaan

Sorry that I have been a long time replying to your comments.

Especially "So you'll often see something for $60 and 60 Euros and 60 Pounds. It's not the same monetary value, but for some reason people seem to think the numbers look good and should all be the same"

I live in the UK. At the moment $60 is worth only £20. 49   I was trying to make the point why should an American company be satisfied to charge a USA customer $60 and then say "Oh let us make extra profit and charge the UK customer £60 " when the product is only worth $60
 I accused Microsoft because they always charge the UK customer more than you in the USA.
 

[J-Mac]

I would not purchase software through ShareIT for a while because of their currency exchange inaccuracies. They insisted that their policy was not to charge anything extra for currency exchange, but when they converted Euros to USDollars, it looked high to me. I checked at several international banking websites and it turned out that they were adding from 4% to as much as 9% to the price when converting! I wrote to ShareIt and to their parent company, Digital River to complain, but they said they could not comment.

Additionally, prior to that discovery, whenever I did purchase through ShareIT, American Express would call me at home and ask me several questions to verify that I indeed was making a purchase using ShareIt, and ti ensure I was aware of exactly what they were charging me. This always made me apprehensive also.  A written request as to why they did this got me a response that a very high incidence of fraud had been experienced with ShareIt purchases.

Now if I must use them I use PayPal, which Digital River added as an option to ShareIt purchases a few months ago. PayPal allows me to pay in US Dollars and then THEY make the conversion.  Works for me!

But if you are in the US and using a credit card with ShareIt, check the conversion rate very closely!

Jim

[Carol Haynes]

If the Euro price includes VAT (which here in germany is 20%) it works out almost as euro=dollar pricewise.
It's German software but VAT should naturally be charged according to where you are.
Sometimes you can buy things in dollars & get a better price that way but it getting harder to do these days ...

-tomos (July 14, 2007, 02:38 PM)

It's particularly annoying when VAT is added to already inflated prices and especially galling when the wrong VAT rate is used for the market in which they are selling (which I think is actually illegal - UK rates is 17.5% but I have frequently been charge 19% or 21%).

I am never too convinced that a lot of these companies actually hand over the VAT they collect either. How do US companies pay VAT in the UK ? How do the UK gov know that US companies are selling to UK customers when their main business is in the US?

It is all very strange - some really large companies (that definitely would not qualify for VAT exemption) do not charge VAT if you pay in dollars - and other 'one man shows' who probably only have a turnover of $100 a year do - this seems incredibly suspicious to me.