Redwolf Posted April 4, 2013 Share Posted April 4, 2013 Sales tax or VAT is about the most stupid tax I can think of now that food is cheap. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canada Guy Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 I like Germany also but "öuch" thats a lot of tax. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ithikial_AU Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Germany, that's a nasty situation. We're a little lucky in Australia our Sales tax only kicks in for overseas purchases when the item being shipped hits $1000 AUD. Some bureaucrat somewhere worked out during it's design that it would cost the Govt more to implement the sales tax on small overseas purchases than they would collect. Surprised Europe doesn't have the same kind of threshold. They did try to overturn it last year when angry big local retailers saw their former profits heading towards to online shopping, but all the evidence from the tax office pointed to the sitaution still being the same. Thankyou Tax Office! Never thought I'd say that... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Yes. The question is what country to do you live in. If it is the UK and Netherlands we have seen a HUGE upswing in packages being hit by Customs. Not only do they get hit with VAT but also a flat "processing fee" which in the UK adds another $13 to the total cost. Robbery, but governments are looking for any source of revenue they can. But they hit that hard enough and people will just stop ordering or find ways around it.Steve Robbery, well said. I wouldn't even mind in case BF would get part of it, just to support your company, but I refuse to give my money to a greedy government that makes me pay for their messing up the economy. Fortunately we still have the download option, so I can still buy whatever you guys throw at us. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crinius Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 ASL Veteran, $35 is reasonable for the time and effort for the Gustav Line. $23 is not reasonable for a small package to be shipped by the USPS. Same here. I didnt wanted to sound harsh in my above post. Sorry for that. But as I wrote above I got unlucky and my last order from BF was checked by the custom here in Germany. So it lasted nearly 3 month until I finaly held CW in my hands (it took nearly 4 weeks for the shipping and then an additional 8 weeks!! until I got informed by the custom that my package arrived). But what really made me mad was that I had to pay an additional 20€ for VAT. So I had the astounding shipping of 27$ from BF and around 25$ for VAT. That sums up to around 53$ for a 35$ product. Thats just not acceptable and I decided to go only download in the future. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ales Dvorak Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 So I had the astounding shipping of 27$ from BF and around 25$ for VAT. Shipping for CW was 20$. 27$ is a new shipping price. (more than 30%.... hmmmm) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Kulin Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 $23 to ship to Canada is too pricey to me for a $35 product and is hard to swallow. I live in the east Toronto area (Pickering). If anyone nearby is interested, I would be willing to double-up (or more) on an order to dilute the shipping costs to a more palatable percentage. Just send me a P.M. if interested. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crinius Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Shipping for CW was 20$. 27$ is a new shipping price. (more than 30%.... hmmmm) Youre right. I checked my last orders and it was 22$ shipping 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fetchez la Vache Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 But there is something else, which has been around for a LONG time. And that is Aamzon is losing money on most of the shipping charges. So how is it profitable? By building that loss into its pricing. And because it's so big it can pass that cost onto the companies that sell their product through Amazon. "If you don't like what we're willing to pay, why don't you take your product to Borders? Oh wait, I'm sorry... they're out of business! Try Walmart. They'll pay you even less, but maybe they'll give you a nice yellow sticker with smiley face on it". My wife and I made a New Year's Resolution to stop using Amazon, primarily for it's abusive tax avoidance. As it's such avoidance that lets Amazon keep it's shipping costs down, amongst other things. So ultimately you could argue it's the taxpayers stumping up for your cheap shipping which I personally think is grossly unfair. Anyway we are happily finding plenty of options away from Amazon for our books and videos. And I hate Starbucks coffee as well. So double plus. ;-) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Let me say again... I feel your pain! As someone who both sells things to, and buys things from, foreign countries the future is extremely bleak until surface mail is once again made available (for those, like the US, that lost it) and efforts focused on that surface instead of air. And I don't see that happening any time soon. I'm not even going to fantasize about governments cutting back on excessive, punitive fees/taxes because that is even less likely to happen. My prediction is that the end cost to customers for physical product will continue to climb, with an ever increasing % of customers going with download only. In the old days maybe a $1 rise might drop out 1% of our physical goods customers, but where we are now... I wouldn't be surprised if for every $1 rise we have 10% drop out. At least for customers outside of the US. And who can blame them? Certainly not us. Which is to say that someday, and that day may not be too far off, the price of a foreign purchased physical game may not be exercised by more than a few hardcore customers. Probably not too long after that we'll simply stop having physical product at all. Or drop to a "disk only" option for those with bandwidth supply problems. We've been doing direct sales since 1999 and have proven ourselves to be innovative and nimble when it comes to meeting challenges. It's frustrating to look at the options in front of us and fail to see a viable solution to improve things. We're not used to having so little control over what we can do for you guys. Trust me, we're not at all happy about it. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuser Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Taxes, abusing taxes. Simply put, your country is...abusing, and somehow, stealing...so, downloads are the only way to avoid it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 The shipping costs, unfortunately, are a simple reflection of the ever increasing costs of doing business and the seemingly never increasing ability for people to pay for those increases. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Before we get carried away at blaming taxes, these are the things that are used to pay for what the country wants as a nation. So in the UK we get free health care. I guess that might be a small price to pay extra shipping costs to get the welfare we do... Anyway a bit off topic.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASL Veteran Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Before we get carried away at blaming taxes, these are the things that are used to pay for what the country wants as a nation. So in the UK we get free health care. I guess that might be a small price to pay extra shipping costs to get the welfare we do... Anyway a bit off topic.... Your healthcare isn't free unless all your doctors and nurses are working pro bono and the facilities pay nothing for power and maintenance. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 It is free to me... (and tourists) Well bar prescription charges... But of course the point I was making Taxes pay for the stuff we want as a nation.... Be that Nurses, Soldiers or Sailors.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 FWIW the shipping calculators for USPS, UPS and FedEx are all online. Just put in a random package you just got and see how much it costs shipping to your country. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ales Dvorak Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 My prediction is that the end cost to customers for physical product will continue to climb, with an ever increasing % of customers going with download only. In the old days maybe a $1 rise might drop out 1% of our physical goods customers, but where we are now... I wouldn't be surprised if for every $1 rise we have 10% drop out. At least for customers outside of the US. And who can blame them? Certainly not us. From CMFI preorder (20$ shipping) to CMGL preorder (27$) in 10 months period shipping jumps up to 35%. Man that's a lot. Maybe the very next CM module will be cheaper than shipping. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Eventually CM will be cheaper than the postage for some folks. And not too far away either. Someone in Peru bought a $20 jacket from me and the shipping cost to him was $60. We both agreed to cancel the sale. Pity... he really wanted it and $20 was actually a decent price for me as the seller. But $60 postage nuked it. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 FWIW the shipping calculators for USPS, UPS and FedEx are all online. Just put in a random package you just got and see how much it costs shipping to your country. Cool thing is most countries have similar calculators for their postal services. Often only in their language, but sometimes in English. Even in a language you don't understand it doesn't take too many clicks to figure out how to calculate postage. I do this every once and a while to double check I'm not getting gauged by someone. The only time this worked was someone thought it was cheaper to send me something from the UK using FedEx and that turned out to be utterly wrong. Saved myself a bunch of money by double checking Royal Mail's costs and having him send it that way. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 From CMFI preorder (20$ shipping) to CMGL preorder (27$) in 10 months period shipping jumps up to 35%. Man that's a lot. Maybe the very next CM module will be cheaper than shipping. Shipping costs to Canada, for a single product, is $23. Where are you seeing $27? In January international rates went up between 7% and 10%, depending on weight and country. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ales Dvorak Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Shipping costs to Canada, for a single product, is $23. Where are you seeing $27? In January international rates went up between 7% and 10%, depending on weight and country. Steve Where did I see 27$? On BF store; see link http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3470914/Screen%20shot%202013-04-07%20at%201.42.59%20PM.png Maybe there is a problem because I'm not from Canada. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ales Dvorak Posted April 7, 2013 Share Posted April 7, 2013 Steve, don't you worry. IMHO CM2 is the finest simulation of WWII + Fun. Kudos. Aleš 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 Maybe there is a problem because I'm not from Canada. Yes, but you are from Slovenija, so there's no problem at all because Slovenija is awesome I've asked Martin about the jump. I thought S&H to Europe used to be $24. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted April 8, 2013 Share Posted April 8, 2013 I double checked and indeed the USPS costs to us went up by $7 to Europe. Wow. I hadn't noticed that big of an increase on my own personal stuff. Unfortunately they are also phasing out 1st Class Airmail. The prices for that are now almost the same as Priority Mail (the service we use) and, in some circumstances, more expensive (vs. Flat Rate Priority Mail). A few years ago they eliminated 1st Class over 4 pounds, a few years before that they got rid of Economy. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paraloid Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I early ordered FI to get the included manual and the lot was sent to Italy: not only did it take 10 days to arrive but i was slugged with tax, and together with the postal charges wound up paying nearly $80 for the whole shebang. Never EVER going to buy the physical object again. Probably it's a coincidence but I have had an unending series of errors with FI too, both on initial Xp installation and now on W8. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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