EU is getting scammed
Yes paying as much as another currency, in your own currency, is how you make prices equal. What exactly is the problem here?
Yes paying as much as another currency, in your own currency, is how you make prices equal. What exactly is the problem here?
ROFL OK currently 1 USD = 110 JPY. So you are saying japanese should pay in yen as much as americans do in dollars for same product? Wow I’m sure Japan would love that.
US also have to pay sales tax which varies from state-to-state while ours is all-inclusive.
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.
After doing some more research to understand your question. It seems that Arena net is charging the same price in euroes as it is in dollars, and the price in euroes is higher than the one in dollars.
I think in that thread they said something to the effect of: “Deal with it, arenanet can charge what they want.” and “its probably VAT since its processed in the UK”
I dunno, is there a way you could force it to give you the price in dollars? Or is that against the rules or something.
ROFL OK currently 1 USD = 110 JPY. So you are saying japanese should pay in yen as much as americans do in dollars for same product? Wow I’m sure Japan would love that.
I don’t think you get it.
The OP is saying that we should be paying the foreign currency equivalent of the price in USD, instead we are getting robbed by ArenaNet and other U.S. based companies by paying more (plus taxes), as prices are not being correctly converted into the respective currency.
you can just buy it with a Proxy instead of getting ripped off (i buy all my BDO pearls with USD not €), which you are. i mean the game actually costs more if you buy it from Anet in the EU than it would if you bought it in NA.
so yeah, if i actually buy this bundle of power creep & particle effects i’m not paying more because i live in the Netherlands. no way jose.
currently a Boyfriend main :P
Waiting To ReRoll Mystic & Forget About Tyria
(edited by choovanski.5462)
In Canada we have to pay in US dollars, not Canadian dollars. Then the CC company charges an exorbitant exchange fee plus an administration charge making the game far more expensive. (ditto for gem btw). Still hoping for a Canadian retailer. At least Eur and GB can use their own currency but ya the conversion should be done correctly.
(edited by Blude.6812)
It’s because in Europe we tend to have VAT, which is a sort of tax that’s included in the listed price (so if it says €20, it costs €20).
In USA they may or may not have a sales tax that I believe is added onto the listed price (so $20 with a 10% sales tax would cost $22).
The lowest VAT rate in the EU seems to be luxembourg at 17%.
$1 is around €0.85 at the moment.
0.85×1.17=0.9945, so actually $1=€1 for the listed price seems perfectly reasonable at the moment, you’re “overpaying” about half a cent per dollar.
Yes, you may be able to pay less by buying from a state without VAT, it may even be legal to do so without paying import taxes (for instance when it’s cheap enough).
But it’s totally reasonable for a company to convert $1 to €1, they get to keep about the same.
(edited by Etienne.3049)
It’s because in Europe we tend to have VAT, which is a sort of tax that’s included in the listed price (so if it says €20, it costs €20).
In USA they may or may not have a sales tax that I believe is added onto the listed price (so $20 with a 10% sales tax would cost $22).The lowest VAT rate in the EU seems to be luxembourg at 17%.
$1 is around €0.85 at the moment.0.85×1.17=0.9945, so actually $1=€1 for the listed price seems perfectly reasonable at the moment, you’re “overpaying” about half a cent per dollar.
Yes, you may be able to pay less by buying from a state without VAT, it may even be legal to do so without paying import taxes (for instance when it’s cheap enough).
But it’s totally reasonable for a company to convert $1 to €1, they get to keep about the same.
That’s what I wanted to write. The € price is including the VAT while the price for NA doesn’t. It seems to be cheaper but it actually isn’t for most states.
Idk if you could just buy an american Key for PoF because I believe that NA-Keys can’t be used for EU-accounts .
Its common practice to have variable pricing in different regions of the world, to reflect the buying power of that population. For example, several Asian and eastern European countries have steam games priced at less then half their USD equivalent value, where the average salary could be as little as several dollars a week.
So it could be considered that the EU has superior purchase power to the US. But game companies, being totally charitable, will charge according to a % the purchase power of that country, so they can afford that game fairly. :P
I thought the EU always touted how much better for the consumers they are then the US, yet that only seems to matter when that fairness favors the EU more.
Our publishing is out of England, so we have a 20% VAT across the board on all EU sales. The difference is just inclusive vs exclusive taxation.
It’s an illusion that there’s any such thing as a “fair price” for a game. As long as prices are fixed, it’s always going to be a compromise between what consumers are willing to pay against the cost of maintaining the infrastructure to produce. If ANet had its druthers, I’m sure they’d charge US$60 for expansions… and probably include prior expansions. If left up to consumers, we’d probably pay 10 bucks for a la carte pricing and expect most things to be included.
Similarly, there’s not any way to determine “fair” prices across borders. Consumers don’t always have the same willingness to buy, purchasing power varies, production costs vary, currency arbitrage varies by the second these days.
What a lot of companies end up doing is oversimplifying the process and charging the same units in comparable currencies — it’s just easier for everyone to remember that the game costs “30”, whether it’s Euro or Dollars or Pounds Sterling.
tl;dr there’s no such thing as “fair pricing,” there’s only “pricing”
Idk if you could just buy an american Key for PoF because I believe that NA-Keys can’t be used for EU-accounts .
no, they will work. i mean i converted my NA account into an EU account when i moved hemispheres. so there’s no reason for the key not to work.
in regard to taxes, if you buy via the website with, say paypal there’s no separate tax charge. i can confirm this for EU, & recalling back to when i bought HoT- i can’t remember an extra tax charge. nor is this something ive been charged by any game companies when im paying online through paypal. any of you are free to put PoF in their cart & see if NA has an extra tax charge. i’m betting it doesn’t.
so, it’s still looking like the EU version is just more expensive.
currently a Boyfriend main :P
Waiting To ReRoll Mystic & Forget About Tyria
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.
right now 1 Canadian dollar is worth 0,79 us dollar.
and 1 us dollar is worth 1,27canadian dollar.
so if you exchange your Canadian dollar for a us dollar you loose 0.21 dollar.
and if you exchange a us dollar for a Canadian dollar you gain 0,27 dollar.
any economic expert can explain why there is a difference of 0,06 dollar in the transaction?
used: Convert currencies Data from Morningstar
never understood why the transaction number are not equal.
I can understand that it is because dollar of different country are worth different value. and some maths needs to be used so you get the proper exchange value but should the transaction not be equal on both side?
why is one 0,21 dollar?
and the other 0,27 dollar?
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.right now 1 Canadian dollar is worth 0,79 us dollar.
and 1 us dollar is worth 1,27canadian dollar.
so if you exchange your Canadian dollar for a us dollar you loose 0.21 dollar.
and if you exchange a us dollar for a Canadian dollar you gain 0,27 dollar.
any economic expert can explain why there is a difference of 0,06 dollar in the transaction?
used: Convert currencies Data from Morningstar
never understood why the transaction number are not equal.
I can understand that it is because dollar of different country are worth different value. and some maths needs to be used so you get the proper exchange value but should the transaction not be equal on both side?
why is one 0,21 dollar?
and the other 0,27 dollar?
It’s the difference between buy & sell offers on any “item”. Those who own C$ are willing to sell them at xyz US$, those who want to buy C$ with US$ are willing to pay abc. (That’s without taking into account fees charged by those who have ready access to both currencies who make the transactions possible for us.)
ANet cannot change the price constantly. That is what would be needed as the exchange rate changes constantly. Hence the one price and the one price only.
Pretty much the reason I won’t buy that DLkittenil they either fix their ratios or do a huge discount like they did with first DLC.
(edited by dragonkain.3984)
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.right now 1 Canadian dollar is worth 0,79 us dollar.
and 1 us dollar is worth 1,27canadian dollar.
so if you exchange your Canadian dollar for a us dollar you loose 0.21 dollar.
and if you exchange a us dollar for a Canadian dollar you gain 0,27 dollar.
any economic expert can explain why there is a difference of 0,06 dollar in the transaction?
used: Convert currencies Data from Morningstar
never understood why the transaction number are not equal.
I can understand that it is because dollar of different country are worth different value. and some maths needs to be used so you get the proper exchange value but should the transaction not be equal on both side?
why is one 0,21 dollar?
and the other 0,27 dollar?It’s the difference between buy & sell offers on any “item”. Those who own C$ are willing to sell them at xyz US$, those who want to buy C$ with US$ are willing to pay abc. (That’s without taking into account fees charged by those who have ready access to both currencies who make the transactions possible for us.)
so you are saying that bank or government are willing to give 6% more for every us dollar used to buy a Canadian dollar? when they make a conversion of currency to give equal value on both side of the currency to make a fair trade.
ANet cannot change the price constantly. That is what would be needed as the exchange rate changes constantly. Hence the one price and the one price only.
when you use credit card or PayPal don’t they calculate the exchange ratio and the tax?
when you use ebay for example you have the price in usd and can have it in ca also before you buy.
when you make the buy it show you the price the tax and shipping fee.
in the case of Anet there is no shipping fee. but I do not see why they cannot make a web page that give you the price in different currency.
there is plenty of web site able to make a currency conversion.
for example:
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
the only data that is changing is the conversion rate. and there is probably away to pull up that data using js to keep it updated on the web page.
example:
or:
(edited by stephanie wise.7841)
Another thing to keep in mind. With how often currency exchange rates change globally it’s entirely unreasonable to expect a company to keep their prices 100% accurate to the current exchange rate. It’s quite common place for a company to set a price based on the average exchange rate for the year in which they launched their product and remain at that price until the exchange rate exceeds a certain margin from their original price.
Put simply… until either $1 < €0.5 or $1 > €1.5 the price of gems will remain kitten = €1
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.right now 1 Canadian dollar is worth 0,79 us dollar.
and 1 us dollar is worth 1,27canadian dollar.
so if you exchange your Canadian dollar for a us dollar you loose 0.21 dollar.
and if you exchange a us dollar for a Canadian dollar you gain 0,27 dollar.
any economic expert can explain why there is a difference of 0,06 dollar in the transaction?
used: Convert currencies Data from Morningstar
never understood why the transaction number are not equal.
I can understand that it is because dollar of different country are worth different value. and some maths needs to be used so you get the proper exchange value but should the transaction not be equal on both side?
why is one 0,21 dollar?
and the other 0,27 dollar?It’s the difference between buy & sell offers on any “item”. Those who own C$ are willing to sell them at xyz US$, those who want to buy C$ with US$ are willing to pay abc. (That’s without taking into account fees charged by those who have ready access to both currencies who make the transactions possible for us.)
so you are saying that bank or government are willing to give 6% more for every us dollar used to buy a Canadian dollar? when they make a conversion of currency to give equal value on both side of the currency to make a fair trade.
No, I’m saying that sellers & buyers having different price points, as we can see from any item sold on the TP. Take the Poly-luminescent Undulating Refractor. Those who own want at least 67 gold before they’ll sell; those that want are willing to pay no more than 51g. Those numbers are never the same for the market (just for individuals in the moment of making the trade).
People value US dollars more than Canadian dollars (for reasons logical as well as historical & irrational, too). So those who own want a lot of Canadian coin before they’ll part with their greenbacks. While those with too many loonies are willing to give up more of them to get their hands on pictures of dead (US) presidents.
And it gets more complicated because there are always costs associated with making the transaction. Your bank charges you for maintaining the infrastructure necessary to be able to sell you C$ or US$ whenever you want.
ANet cannot change the price constantly. That is what would be needed as the exchange rate changes constantly. Hence the one price and the one price only.
when you use credit card or PayPal don’t they calculate the exchange ratio and the tax?
when you use ebay for example you have the price in usd and can have it in ca also before you buy.
when you make the buy it show you the price the tax and shipping fee.
in the case of Anet there is no shipping fee. but I do not see why they cannot make a web page that give you the price in different currency.
there is plenty of web site able to make a currency conversion.
for example:
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
the only data that is changing is the conversion rate. and there is probably away to pull up that data using js to keep it updated on the web page.
example:
It all depends on what currency you are buying it in. $25 US dollars is $25 US dollars. If you buy something in another country’s currency on the other hand then you may or may not get charged other charges including a foreign transaction fee. So someone from another country to buy from ANet is paying $25 US dollars but the conversion and/or foreign transactions fees plus whatever there own bank/credit union charges. It’s not on ANet to try to figure out for every customer what other charges may or may not be there individually. And on top of the there was also the VAT added in sometimes.
We just did a trip over to the UK and made sure that we used a credit card that had no foreign transaction fees with it. Why? Because we already knew that paying over there for anything would already be more in US money and not UK money because of the conversion rates and it differed from day to day as to what the difference was. I bought a purse from a charity shop for 4 EU and I really didn’t try to figure out the US price, why? cause I did not know the up to date exchange rate so for me it was 4 EU and that’s it.
Idk if you could just buy an american Key for PoF because I believe that NA-Keys can’t be used for EU-accounts .
no, they will work. i mean i converted my NA account into an EU account when i moved hemispheres. so there’s no reason for the key not to work.
in regard to taxes, if you buy via the website with, say paypal there’s no separate tax charge. i can confirm this for EU, & recalling back to when i bought HoT- i can’t remember an extra tax charge. nor is this something ive been charged by any game companies when im paying online through paypal. any of you are free to put PoF in their cart & see if NA has an extra tax charge. i’m betting it doesn’t.
so, it’s still looking like the EU version is just more expensive.
What you just described is Tax Evasion. Technically it is the responsibility of the tax payer to ensure they are paying appropriate taxes. Its just vendors have taken on the role of collector, since individuals couldn’t really be trusted to keep accurate records of all their spending.
Even when its not commonly enforced…. if given a reason, law enforcement could come after you for it. And I’ve been told VAT enforcement is pretty vicious.
ANet cannot change the price constantly. That is what would be needed as the exchange rate changes constantly. Hence the one price and the one price only.
when you use credit card or PayPal don’t they calculate the exchange ratio and the tax?
when you use ebay for example you have the price in usd and can have it in ca also before you buy.
when you make the buy it show you the price the tax and shipping fee.
in the case of Anet there is no shipping fee. but I do not see why they cannot make a web page that give you the price in different currency.
there is plenty of web site able to make a currency conversion.
for example:
http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
the only data that is changing is the conversion rate. and there is probably away to pull up that data using js to keep it updated on the web page.
example:
It all depends on what currency you are buying it in. $25 US dollars is $25 US dollars. If you buy something in another country’s currency on the other hand then you may or may not get charged other charges including a foreign transaction fee. So someone from another country to buy from ANet is paying $25 US dollars but the conversion and/or foreign transactions fees plus whatever there own bank/credit union charges. It’s not on ANet to try to figure out for every customer what other charges may or may not be there individually. And on top of the there was also the VAT added in sometimes.
We just did a trip over to the UK and made sure that we used a credit card that had no foreign transaction fees with it. Why? Because we already knew that paying over there for anything would already be more in US money and not UK money because of the conversion rates and it differed from day to day as to what the difference was. I bought a purse from a charity shop for 4 EU and I really didn’t try to figure out the US price, why? cause I did not know the up to date exchange rate so for me it was 4 EU and that’s it.
well the credit card and pay pal service are doing that job when the client is buying the product.
Anet is getting that service to sell their product online, that customer can buy the product from any place in the world.
in your example you did not know the exchange rate of the product in the case of a web site they can know the exchange rate(they can pull it online and have it refresh and keep it updated in ms, second, minute, hours, day, week) ebay does it on all the thousand or million of product they sell.
they just get the data of the exchange rate and convert one currency to the other currency that is why you have the price on any item in usd and ca. the seller input the sell price then it is only math setting the price from one currency to the other using the exchange rate. it is done by the web site automatically for every product they have and they sell world wide.
if Anet is able to do it in guildwars2 black lion market and keep those price updated with the fluctuation of the market price. the can probably do it on a web site selling 2 expansion. should be pretty easy for them.
that they make the choice to do it or not is their decision.
but you said:
ANet cannot change the price constantly. That is what would be needed as the exchange rate changes constantly.
on a web site you can have the rate and the price updated constantly to the desired rate.
just like you can have time in real time showing up on a web page.
there is some web service some are free some have cost to get real time data.
look at web app for maps or traffic in real time. the data of the traffic is collected(via traffic cam, cell phone gps, or people reporting) the app use the data and show you the traffic on the road in real time. it tell you there is work, accident, traffic jam with indication yellow red time to cross, time added to your travel etc…
even using ms office on your computer you can access some of those online service(azure) and use them to do real time analysis with excel.
next time you go to another country bring your cell phone with you use the currency conversion in it to know the price of the item.
Perhaps, one should redirect their concerns to Digital River, as that is the entity that collects all currencies, and sets the parameters. They would be the ones to use some kind of currency exchange app.
First off I wouldn’t call it a scam. I has to do with local economies and that internet exchange is already not on a level monetary field. So if you’d like to pay the same then certain laws would have to change or be altered to achieve this. As you mentioned buying in the Dollar is cheaper with current exchange, so you have to do the work to take advantage of that system. Anet doesn’t control countries markets, so blaming them isn’t going to help, when it has to do with the legal restraints and tariffs around internet sales. In the states some states actually pay more for everything they buy on internet because of this.
The only one responsible for what you’re paying is your local government. PERIOD.
If you have a beef, it’s with your policy makers. Knowing where to kitten is half the battle……
It’s because in Europe we tend to have VAT, which is a sort of tax that’s included in the listed price (so if it says €20, it costs €20).
In USA they may or may not have a sales tax that I believe is added onto the listed price (so $20 with a 10% sales tax would cost $22).The lowest VAT rate in the EU seems to be luxembourg at 17%.
$1 is around €0.85 at the moment.0.85×1.17=0.9945, so actually $1=€1 for the listed price seems perfectly reasonable at the moment, you’re “overpaying” about half a cent per dollar.
Yes, you may be able to pay less by buying from a state without VAT, it may even be legal to do so without paying import taxes (for instance when it’s cheap enough).
But it’s totally reasonable for a company to convert $1 to €1, they get to keep about the same.That’s what I wanted to write. The € price is including the VAT while the price for NA doesn’t. It seems to be cheaper but it actually isn’t for most states.
Idk if you could just buy an american Key for PoF because I believe that NA-Keys can’t be used for EU-accounts .
Depends on the state. In many states, if you purchase a digital service from a business that isn’t located within that state, there simply is no tax.
I can see the argument about the VAT causing ANet – or really as someone mentiond above – Digital River, their payment partner – to just simply write it off – If the lowest tax is 17% it’s already breaking even there – if anything, it’s actually causing ANet to take a bigger loss than USD at anything over 18%.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/ES-Suggestion-The-Deadeye-FORMAL/
After doing some more research to understand your question. It seems that Arena net is charging the same price in euroes as it is in dollars, and the price in euroes is higher than the one in dollars.
I think in that thread they said something to the effect of: “Deal with it, arenanet can charge what they want.” and “its probably VAT since its processed in the UK”
I dunno, is there a way you could force it to give you the price in dollars? Or is that against the rules or something.
Its kinda odd tho I live in norway and dont have vat so shouldent I get a lower price then my friend living in sweden with vat?
Edit
wouldent buying usa give us a code that aint compatibe with with our eu accounts tho?
I know I dont have vat tax since steam actually sell me games with 0 tax.
(edited by Linken.6345)
Delaware proxy.
For me, it wasn’t the price, it was a case of “do I want it?” Yes was the answer as it wasn’t a great deal of money (relatively speaking). Perhaps if the UK (Brexiteer and proud of it! ) had to pay double, I may have baulked…
SoundblasterZ AsusX99Pro 512GBM2SSD 1TBSSD
3TBHDD 16gbRAM Corsair900D Win10Pro Corsair rmi1000w ethernet 100 down, 6 up
the EU always get scammed by NCsoft, they just never learn from other companies.
trion and gazillion gives a bit more points to EU countries, Anet just loves to stay blind that way.
Yet brits pay in GBP as much as it should be in Euro currently, while we still pay in Euro as much as americans do in USD.
That is not fair, as we would save up money by paying in USD even after exchange fees.
Have you calculated US taxes?
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.
That’s the point. They don’t get the same from europeans. They get more. Yes, that’s after considering the tax some people mentioned.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
And in Canada we pay on average 1.25 so what’s your point?
Anet still has to get the same amount from you as they do the American selling for less in other country would mean a loss profit. They are not responsible for the exchange rate.That’s the point. They don’t get the same from europeans. They get more. Yes, that’s after considering the tax some people mentioned.
When the exchanges rates change (as they do, sometimes quickly), ANet might get less from the same area that currently generates more.
There is no possible way to set this up to be the same, unless the prices change by the second… and then ANet (and we as consumers of their product) would pay extra for the service that calculates and collects the exact amount.
It could also hurt sales, if we all thought that waiting a few hours or a day or a month might mean we pay less. People who bought for 30 units on Tuesday might be angry that someone spent only 28.88 on Wednesday.
So again, the idea of setting a fixed number is a compromise between all the various ways to price the game; it’s just easier for ANet (and players) if there’s a single number across EU/UK/US and that residents of other areas pay DigitalRiver to convert to local currency.
tl;dr there’s no such thing as a “fixed” price that’s fair to everyone. This is one of many possible compromises, with the chief advantage that it’s simple to remember.
I find this whole discussion rediculous.
What are we talking about here? Getting ‘scammed’ or ‘robbed’ for the value of a paper towel?
If there isn’t real drama we just make one up… lol :P
Such a cry baby.
Just be happy that you have a strong currency, other country like South America or Central America has to pay a lot more because of the currency exchange.
And do you pay the same for your internet bill as the americans? No?
Do you pay the same for you meal ? No?
Do you pay the same to go to the movies ? No?
So accept that different country have different prices in everything, because wage, living prices are not equal, and if you use the same price in every country then you actually being unfair because you in EU have a lot more money than someone in Japan for example.
I would love to pay your EU price, but have your EU wage too.
Just buy the gem cards in dollars from an authorized seller. Youll be paying the same as any other dollar buyer.
that it makes every other class in the game boring to play.”
Hawks
if you use the same price in every country then you actually being unfair because you in EU have a lot more money than someone in Japan for example.
That’s actually completely untrue for a huge majority of EU countries.
I would love to pay your EU price, but have your EU wage too.
It may be news to you, but not every EU country is equally wealthy, and not every EU country uses euro as its currency. In my case i not only pay more for gw2 than americans in straight comparison, but also in a relative one. In fact, in the second case the difference would be even greater.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
(edited by Astralporing.1957)
Go to US store, pay with paypal. 79,99$ → 70,16€.
It’s out of Arenanet’s hands. Different parts of the world have a varying strength with their currency (hell, even in the states the dollar isn’t even equal in value nationwide). There is also a conversion fee in place for the service. All of that is calculated by the people in the world’s gov’ts. That is the agreement everyone has to agree to. Though, I agree that Areanet should be given the full value they are asking for regarding their product regardless of where you live. If you think the conversion for you is bad, just ask the people living in Mexico. Their peso is ungodly weak, in comparison to the American dollar.