How we are ripped off

Who, what, why: Are tech goods cheaper in the US than the UK?



Sony and Microsoft have unveiled the prices of their new games consoles, and as usual British gamers will have to cough up more for the identical pieces of kit. Why is this?

Sony announced the price of its new Playstation 4 console in Los Angeles to rapturous applause. At $399 it is significantly cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox One, priced at $499.

But British gamers have less to cheer about, however. As usual, they will pay much more than their American cousins for the same machines - £349 ($546) for the Playstation and £429 ($671) for the Xbox.

The huge disparity has come to be expected by customers on this side of the Atlantic, but how do the companies explain the difference?

"There are many factors that influence the final price of consumer electronics in different markets," a spokesman for Microsoft says. "This includes, but is not limited to tax, tariff and exchange rates."

Tax is certainly a major factor. In the US, sales tax varies from state to state and is added to the headline price at the checkout. In the UK, the 20% VAT charge is included in the price you see.

Even accounting for tax, though, the consoles are more expensive in the UK - around £36 more for the Playstation, and £39 for the Xbox.

Import tariffs do not come into play here. The UK does levy charges on certain items, but consumer electronics are usually exempt. Laptops, mobile phones and video games consoles are duty free, so Customs Duty does not affect the final price.

In terms of exchange rates, it seems reasonable for the companies to protect themselves against a fall in foreign currencies. That may partially explain the higher price charged in the UK by US based Microsoft. Sony is headquartered in Japan, though, which doesn't explain a difference between prices in the US and the UK.


Continued here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22868787

Simple to fix : Don't buy either...

I suspect the other part of it is consumer protection laws.

The US has state-by-state rules, but 30 days warranty is typically the legal minimum, with some states insisting on a 90 day warranty against faults in manufacture or design. After those 90 days, tough, your problem if the machine breaks.

In contrast, we get a guaranteed 6 month warranty against faults in manufacture or design (where the vendor must prove that a fault is caused by the buyer, not a design or manufacturing flaw - see http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54/section/48A ), and an unbounded warranty against design and manufacturing flaws, limited only by the usual statute of limitations that applies to any claim.

If your expectation is a 1 in 10 chance that there's a serious design flaw (like the XBox 360 Red Rings Of Death) that won't expose itself until after the first 90 days of ownership, that'd explain the difference - US customers can be told to go screw themselves unless they were profitable (checked against your XBL or PSN account), while UK customers are entitled to remedies in law.

What do you care as you aint buying either...

Also companies want to insulate themselves against currency fluctuations.

The last thing they want is a constantly up and down shifting of prices around the world.

I agree with the point over warrenty, when MS said that the first set of Xbox 360's wouldn't see out three years caused a huge storm. All these insurance companies who had sold extended warrenties were being told that frankly they will have to pay out on what was poorly built goods.

I went to the US fairly recently and was shocked that the prices on mid range electronics was MORE expensive than the UK. I was asking some friends about it and they said that there had been a sudden surge in prices couple of years back and now for big screen TV's etc the UK is now cheaper than the US.

When I told them how much I paid for my TV they were shocked how cheap it was.

So not everything is rosy in the US at the moment.

In reply to a post by Lt_Swan:

Even accounting for tax, though, the consoles are more expensive in the UK - around £36 more for the Playstation, and £39 for the Xbox.

Probably to cover the extended warranty period in the UK and other EU states. Consumer law in the US looks to be a bit rubbish...

Thank you for someone else saying what I have noticed for a while. Hopefully I won't get odd looks the next trip for having two touchscreen phones.

US via Walmart has lots of cheap stuff available but with various unknown brand names from the far east.

Indeed. Add to that salary expectations, pension liabilities, holiday/sick entitlement. There could be numerous extra overheads, but the same expected level of margin.

I think £349-00 is a banging price.

Which then equates to £600 when you buy 3/4 games and a extra controller like me.

Im not complaining just wish i could get me mitts on it next week and not have to wait another 6 months.

Not really interested in the eye thingy as i hate anything motion controlled with a passion,and everything i have played be it Kinnect or Playstation move was a gimmick at best.

Edited by time2die (Thu 13-Jun-13 17:12:54)

Article on the BBC which covers the issue and most of the points made above, the last few paragraphs are quite interesting.

don't see what all the fuss is about...the xbox one can be pre-ordered for £358 + £10 shipping to UK, from computeruniverse in Germany.
http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/

Edited by deleted (Thu 13-Jun-13 23:32:34)

Nobody wants one of those, they'll be giving them away for free soon

And nobody will be getting one of these this year if they don't pull their fingers out!

I pre-ordered on March 8th so I'm hoping I'll be alright.

/nervously crosses stuff

If you get it you could sell it for a big mark up

Not to you though hey Swanny ,got more chance of getting a decent price of Fagin.

True but patience is not my fort� and neither should it be yours. Now go get The Last of Us and start shivving and planking those infested mofos!

Xbox One comes to about £355 once I add the tax and do the currency conversion from Canadian dollars. I live in Ontario so tax is 13%. Some provinces tax less, others more.

That's what the sloppy exchange rate being about $1.60. Historical average is over $2

Edited by orly (Fri 14-Jun-13 20:26:55)

I'd let it go for £700

If you live there and you're not paid in sterling, the sterling price is irrelevant.

What would the PS4 cost you, £280 perhaps?

While I often agree we seem to be ripped off here in the UK compared to the US this seems to be a odd time to write a article when you consider the next gen consoles (well PS4) are priced very competitively. You really can't complain at £349 on release day, I certainly don't feel ripped off.

Well IMO both the console and games are both a rip off and always have been, I play online multi player games, but via a PC The big corporates like Sony ect don't get the same level of control then , As they do with their region locked products ect, steam have tried the same ,but i doubt have succeeded as the vpn bypasses their attempt to rip us Brits off, amazon.com and co.UK are similar, same product but a very different priced, based on gullibility of their target /country based on it's wealth and nothing more

Edited by tommy45 (Thu 27-Jun-13 22:02:48)

How much did you spend on your gaming PC ? I bet it was more than £349.

On PS3, the majority of the games I play are on PS+ these days which is £39.99 a year, I got it on offer for £29.99 last time. If I buy games I usually wait until they are under £20 unless it is something really special. Like I said I really do not feel ripped off when it comes to gaming. Movies on the other hand....

It was ,but it is now 7 yrs old and i still use it for online gaming , and one game that i play regularly is under 12ths old, But i can use that same pc for a multitude of other things which you can't with a console, although they have evolved a lot since i built this pc

EBuyer do some rather good PC's for £269. Factoring in Windows 8 and a graphics card gives a total of around £411 (and possibly more if you need a keyboard and mouse).

However, for that money you can do a lot more, change things and, more importantly, get cheaper games.

Won't touch the next gen console visually though Toady. You'd have to spend a grand to get you there or there abouts.

Sony is region free and this time around, so is the new Xbox. Sony have said their game price structure will remain the same, so no hikes up to 50 pounds a throw for first and second party games at least.

It's fine to wait for cheap games, but don't knock release prices. If it weren't for the day one purchasers, game quality would never evolve to it's full potential. The Last of Us for example.
.

How much would you pay for a Blu Ray movie for an hour and a halves entertainment?

I'm sure that the graphical boasts are just that - and if they are, a suitably priced graphics card will soon sort that out.

In reply to a post by MrTAToad2:

I'm sure that the graphical boasts are just that - and if they are, a suitably priced graphics card will soon sort that out.

Not for £411 it won't.

Optimising your game does not mean pulling the curtains and surrounding yourself with Barbecue Pringles.

I wish I hadn't said that. I'm going to have to go out and buy Barbecue Pringles now!

Mmmm, Pringles....

There will be nothing a PC couldn't cope with graphically or processorly.

People who are buying a console on release day must be one pixel short of a working LCD screen...

In reply to a post by Lt_Swan:

Who, what, why: Are tech goods cheaper in the US than the UK?



Sony and Microsoft have unveiled the prices of their new games consoles, and as usual British gamers will have to cough up more for the identical pieces of kit. Why is this?

Sony announced the price of its new Playstation 4 console in Los Angeles to rapturous applause. At $399 it is significantly cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox One, priced at $499.

But British gamers have less to cheer about, however. As usual, they will pay much more than their American cousins for the same machines - £349 ($546) for the Playstation and £429 ($671) for the Xbox.

The huge disparity has come to be expected by customers on this side of the Atlantic, but how do the companies explain the difference?

"There are many factors that influence the final price of consumer electronics in different markets," a spokesman for Microsoft says. "This includes, but is not limited to tax, tariff and exchange rates."

Tax is certainly a major factor. In the US, sales tax varies from state to state and is added to the headline price at the checkout. In the UK, the 20% VAT charge is included in the price you see.

Even accounting for tax, though, the consoles are more expensive in the UK - around £36 more for the Playstation, and £39 for the Xbox.

Import tariffs do not come into play here. The UK does levy charges on certain items, but consumer electronics are usually exempt. Laptops, mobile phones and video games consoles are duty free, so Customs Duty does not affect the final price.

In terms of exchange rates, it seems reasonable for the companies to protect themselves against a fall in foreign currencies. That may partially explain the higher price charged in the UK by US based Microsoft. Sony is headquartered in Japan, though, which doesn't explain a difference between prices in the US and the UK.


Continued here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22868787

All EU goods have to meet a higher specification then the rest of the world and this will cost extra also the warranty has to be for at least one year so their will yet again be additional costs

Actually we console gamers have moved on from LCD to LED....nevermind you PC gamers will get with the program one day and realise what your missing.

Because there will be more time a PC gamer wants to play a console game than a Console gamer wanting to play something on a PC.....Ask Spooky

Edited by time2die (Sat 29-Jun-13 00:00:55)

No doubt people will upgrade - once the device has worn out, rather than the manufacturer telling them to change...

I have never purchased a movie,let alone a blu ray DVD, i don't see the point of doing so, as once i have watched it,it's doubtfull that i would want to watch it again & again,In the days of VHS i used to hire movies ,and make a copy, it was very rare for me to watch them again at a later date, most ended up getting recorded over with TV programes

Thats the good thing about next generation consoles and especially the nice ram Sony have implemented in the new Playstation 4 GDR5........8 Gig.

No thats sweet and it will keep us console gamers happy for quite a few years and if they can produce games like The Last Of us with 256mb of ram then what Naughty Dog and a few other developers can achieve on a Playstation 4 will be well and truly breathtaking.

There is no doubt a really nice High End PC will be the better deal,but not many people own one only the die hard gaming fanatics.

Im sure when we get hold of Battlefield 4 on a Playstation 4 and look at it matched up against a nice PC rig the difference will be minimal if not at all.

5 out of 9 eBuyer computers in their Featured Today list come with 8GB of RAM too. A few come with 6GB.

Even better you get 2TB of hard disk space...

Yeah but it isn't GDR5.

Yes, that'll make all the difference...

That could be where all the new costs are going - console owners pay all the costs, whilst cost savvy PC users wait for a cheaper version.

So in a way, consoles are useful.

In reply to a post by MrTAToad2:

Yes, that'll make all the difference...

That could be where all the new costs are going - console owners pay all the costs, whilst cost savvy PC users wait for a cheaper version.

So in a way, consoles are useful.

You are arguing with yourself. Nobody had said PC gaming isn't better than console. If you want to spend the money you will beat the next gen consoles, we all already know that.

But what is really funny is that when steam subscription statistics show that the vast majority of PC gamers are playing on machines far less able than the PS4's specification, people like you claim that they aren't "real gamers".

While you herberts go on and on about "silky smooth grass simulation at 60 frames per second", I've been playing The Last of Us.

people like you claim that they aren't "real gamers"

People like me aren't complaining that they aren't real gamers - people like me are claiming that they are getting value for money out of their machines, and getting nice graphics with a nice frame rate without the need to do a bit of bank robbing in order to pay for it...

I've been playing The Last of Us.

Poor you...

I've been playing Split/Second, so nyah!

A video of it is here

Edited by deleted (Sat 29-Jun-13 14:02:14)

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

And nobody will be getting one of these this year if they don't pull their fingers out!

I pre-ordered on March 8th so I'm hoping I'll be alright.

/nervously crosses stuff

I shall be pretty miffed if I don't get one after coughing up a 20 quid deposit to ASDA Direct.

Shopto.net don't take a deposit and they are now doing credit (including interest free apparently). You just fill in the form when you pre order. Might do that over 12 months rather than the credit card, if there are numerous games that take my fancy at launch. Gamescom will hopefully be interesting for more info on release titles/dates

What games are you planning on picking up at release?

How many telegraph poles do you have to take out before it even shows a dent on that hunk of junk. Looks like a carppy Toyota Supra.

Northeners cars are them.

Toady ,If you actually played The Last Of Us you would seriously think of getting a console because the game just Is Pure Class.

There are many games on consoles that will never see the light of day on a PC and thats why i eloped many years back.

PC gaming is great but it usually means been confined to a office 18inch from the monitor with back ache,because there are not many wives/Girlfriends going to put up with all that equipment in the front room,but with consoles its basically plug and play in any Television you have with very little effort.

With the upcoming Playstation 4 specifications only die hard PC gamers are going to get a better version of a game on all platforms.

Anyway each to there own there are pros and cons to both but i prefer the multitude of games that frequent the console platform,and when Gems like The Last Of Us show up then its well worth the wait.

If you do get one sell it at a massive mark up

Oi ticket tout!

It may be Class, but it may not be Fun...

The may be console only games (thanks to developers thinking exclusive deals make more senses than for multiple platforms), but as I have mentioned before, the reverse is also true...

If you want PC portability, try a laptop!

No i don't want to be playing games on my lap with a laptop.......Besides i have a Macbook Pro and i dont use that for gaming.

Quite right too!

Explain the higher specification comment?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Explain the higher specification comment?

the higher specification means the buying of genuine goods from genuine sources as I'm sure you're aware most goods are being sold across the EU and in many instances are fake (dyson is a good example )

ebay is littered with fakes of all kinds mainly electrical and trading standards are working flat out as the public appear to be a little deaf

the higher specification comment relates to also on how you get EU approval for your goods which can be found here this will no doubt add additional costs to the end product as you will need to improve the security /safety components to an exact standard

https://www.gov.uk/european-commission-product-direc...

there are many instances of products failing outside of the EU because of inferior workmanship how much of that is because it's a fake we cant tell but their are many deaths attributed to faulty products each year so we have to stay alert and not just try to save a few pounds here and there

Edited by NICK_ADSL_UK (Wed 03-Jul-13 16:12:31)

So goods sold in the US are more dangerous and not manufactured to the same standard?

Considering they still have switches in bathrooms, I would yes!

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

So goods sold in the US are more dangerous and not manufactured to the same standard?

i think you will find that to be the case on all goods outside of the the EU
The inspection procedure for outside the EU is not the same as in the EU which is very tight. The USA supplies Mexico and the Caribbean with most goods coming in from china and at the end of the day it's down to each country to have procedures in place to protect the public be it food or electronics

We in Europe do make errors but have quick procedures on how to report goods that are not of a safety quality and action is taken

the lack of the one/five year warranty on goods outside the EU makes the goods cheaper from the off.

In the case of many audio/video products today many manufactures use a completely different specification for goods being sold in the UK so they will in turn be more expensive

So Microsoft is selling a dangerous version of the Xbox One in the US is what you are saying? And by the EU insisting only a safe version is sold in the EU it will cost more.

Precisely what differences will there be in the physical hardware? Use of components more likely to catch fire, sharper corners?

Yeah this time around its got the Yellow ring of death and the added bonus of a Spy built in to check on what your doing.

Not interested,wont be interested,never.never,never.......They blew it with their reveal and they added insult to injury when back tracking and doing something they should not have done in the first place.

Can not be trusted and it's not the type of machine that remotely interests me especially after the PR Disaster.

They sold a Dangerous version of the 360 worldwide [RROD] so its not really a surprise,there track record and build quality are not that good judging by the rushed to retail xbox 360 and its massive over heating issues.

Quality Control and a testing department must have been somewhere else at the time,more than likely dreaming the stupid name for there new console.......Xbox One.........Another Joke on top of another.

Every time they open there mouth they put there foot in it.......And i here one of there top Spokes person Don Mattrick is leaving....More than likely Alan Sugared after the fiasco..........YOUR FIRED..

YOUR FIRED

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

So Microsoft is selling a dangerous version of the Xbox One in the US is what you are saying? And by the EU insisting only a safe version is sold in the EU it will cost more.

Precisely what differences will there be in the physical hardware? Use of components more likely to catch fire, sharper corners?

I'm not stating that at all the thread starter asked about are we being ripped off by paying more in the UK for electronic goods and else ware.

The answer is yes and no it all depends on what a person pays as so many discounts are always available and bargains are to be had but a good deal is only a good deal if you understand the value of what you buy as the mark up on electronic goods is vast

Safety and reliability do not go hand in hand the country of manufacture plays a big part in getting both right. All my Japanese/ German hi fi / cameras etc are years old but my mobile packs up every year as it�s not made to the same standard and was not designed to be reliable long term laptops are a case in hand

In the case of a Microsoft /Sony play station product this will be of a uniform construction that will be built as a standard electrical device, which will meet all the safety guidelines of the country that it is exported to as for reliability that�s another question entirely as so often that�s down to the user but by and large the safety part is satisfactory and fit for purpose

In reply to a post by MrTAToad2:

Considering they still have switches in bathrooms, I would yes!

Are you the wriddler or something,completely makes no sense at all that comment .

In UK wall mounted light switches are not allowed, hence pull cords.
In USA wall mounted switches are fine.

Mainly down to the less stringent rules from the lower voltage used.

Any chance of having that in English ?

Ga ga ga ga .