Glukx Ouglouk Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 is it too demanding to know the REAL PRICE of the product when you buy something? we are in the XXI century, come on. I've ordered quite a lot of stuff from abroad, and I've never seen any company (even with a lot more resources than BFC) quoting a price that includes possible customs/import taxes to its international customers... International orders are always like that, the seller only takes responsibility for the goods and their shipping, and any customs-related costs are up to the customer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastic viking Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If you have issues with your government charging you taxes or duty on goods which you import I think you should bring it up with your government rather than complaining with Battlefront. After all, it is not Battlefront who have caused you these taxes. There is always the option of buying a download only later on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveyJJ Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 VAT etc? Y'all have it easy. try shipping $70 worth of fencing (the sport) equipment up from New Jersey to southern Ontario by UPS. The total COD fee was just shy of $50 ... $30 of that was "brokerage" fees charged by the men in brown. Why does UPS charge that and FedEx never does? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nachinus Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If you have issues with your government charging you taxes or duty on goods which you import I think you should bring it up with your government rather than complaining with Battlefront. After all, it is not Battlefront who have caused you these taxes. Thing is that we can aquire any videogame, book or film for similar prices to those in US (applying compensations for exchange rates, if you want). This issue with CMBN is the first time I hear of this problem. So there must be something that BF is doing differently from other publishers. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McMortison Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If anybody wishes to cancel their preorder, especially you poor sods in the UK, please email sales@battlefront.com with your order number and your order will be cancelled. Sounds fair. Canceld my preorder a moment ago. Im not willing to pay 80$ + VAT (for sure here in switzerland!). I my consider to buy it once its for sale as download. Sven 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McMortison Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 t shy of $50 ... $30 of that was "brokerage" fees charged by the men in brown. Why does UPS charge that and FedEx never does? Here in Switzerland DHL charges you 18 CHF for pre-paiing the tax, + tax + another fee for opening and closing the parcel (aprox another 12chf) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBR Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If anybody wishes to cancel their preorder, especially you poor sods in the UK, please email sales@battlefront.com with your order number and your order will be cancelled. Thanks for being fair and no need for a (futile) hunt for virgins 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Springelkamp Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If your writing is out of topic, please open new topic for chatting If your writing is in topic, please write down in English in order to be understandable. Thanks Wat zegt U? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glukx Ouglouk Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Thing is that we can aquire any videogame, book or film for similar prices to those in US (applying compensations for exchange rates, if you want). This issue with CMBN is the first time I hear of this problem. So there must be something that BF is doing differently from other publishers. You don't have this problem if you buy games published by big companies (which have distribution channels in most countries) or if you buy through downloads without physical media (which BFC does offer too). If you buy from another small developer/publisher based in the US and chose to order physical media from them, you'll run into the same kind of issues. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisND Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Thing is that we can aquire any videogame, book or film for similar prices to those in US (applying compensations for exchange rates, if you want). This issue with CMBN is the first time I hear of this problem. So there must be something that BF is doing differently from other publishers. You didn't hear this from me... but Battlefront accidently ticked the "We hate our customers and want you to charge them unreasonable fees so they can get mad at us" box on the customs form. A rookie mistake. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barkhorn1x Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If you have issues with your government charging you taxes or duty on goods which you import I think you should bring it up with your government rather than complaining with Battlefront. After all, it is not Battlefront who have caused you these taxes. There is always the option of buying a download only later on. Exactly. The EU is basically an unelected kleptocracy finding new ways to tax the productive class. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glukx Ouglouk Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Exactly. The EU is basically an unelected kleptocracy finding new ways to tax the productive class. I'm not exactly one to defend everything that's done within the EU (quite far from it, in fact...), but this is definitely not a matter of EU policy. The EU has basically abolished trade barriers within itself, and customs taxes for goods from outside the EU are a matter of national policy, not European policy (hence the differences between various member states on this issue)... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ales Dvorak Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Wat zegt U? Is togi a Dutch? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBR Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Exactly. The EU is basically an unelected kleptocracy finding new ways to tax the productive class. Except that the EU is not the reason for the VAT nor fees that some of us could be hit with. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barkhorn1x Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Except that the EU is not the reason for the VAT nor fees that some of us could be hit with. Well then, I stand corrected. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nachinus Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 If you buy from another small developer/publisher based in the US and chose to order physical media from them, you'll run into the same kind of issues. Unless you partner or make business with local publishers, some small companies do that. Not always succesfully, that's true. But that's the way I can play 'niche' russian or polish games localised in English or Spanish, or how I bought boxed CM:SF in spanish. Always at local prices comparable to other titles. That's the kind of things that people do when they want to expand their business or export their products. Videogaming industry may work otherwise, that I wouldn't know. It's not my field of expertise... I just play 'em. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
togi Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Wat zegt U? Hey Erik, What is your goal after above kind request? By the way I'm not a ducth.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmar Bijlsma Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Hey Erik, What is your goal after above kind request? By the way I'm not a ducth.. He is doing exactly what I considered doing: Typing in Dutch to illustrate to our Slovene friends the value of sticking to English. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glukx Ouglouk Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Unless you partner or make business with local publishers, some small companies do that. Not always succesfully, that's true. But that's the way I can play 'niche' russian or polish games localised in English or Spanish, or how I bought boxed CM:SF in spanish. Always at local prices comparable to other titles. That's the kind of things that people do when they want to expand their business or export their products. Videogaming industry may work otherwise, that I wouldn't know. It's not my field of expertise... I just play 'em. For CMSF, BFC had the game published in Europe by Paradoxe Interactive (IIRC) - but there were some issues with them (though I'm not sure of the details). It's a question of trade-offs: a company like BFC can either self-publish everything (with the kind of issues everyone noted) or work out publishing or distribution deals with other company... But those come with their own set of issues (including things that impact customers - for instance, there were complaints about the Russian versions of CM:A and CM:SF on the forum not long ago, I think with issues related to patches). As for the difference between the video games industry and others: there is a vast difference with, say, the movie industry, at least because of the importance of customer support, releasing patches, and so on - which are often linked with the publishing deals in one way or another. Music is even simpler than movies, because you don't even need translations and localizations. But even so, there are many indie movies or music albums which never get released in more than a handful of countries - so I'd say that distributing anything worldwide is always going to be difficult... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Unless you partner or make business with local publishers, some small companies do that. We've done one better... we have a German office and that allows us to have control of our product, not get screwed in bad business deals, ship product faster, and normally avoid the import duties problems. The issue in this thread is specifically about Preorders. We have two problems with them: 1. With the volumes we sell we can't economically have production in two places. With downloading it's actually getting tough to have economical production in one place! This means we can only produce goods in the US. 2. We don't want to ship US orders first and then weeks later ship European orders. We also don't want to artificially hold up US orders while waiting for product to reach Europe. This means we have to rush ship physical goods from the US to Europe and that is no longer financially viable. Well, unless we added $10 to every Preorder. He is doing exactly what I considered doing: Typing in Dutch to illustrate to our Slovene friends the value of sticking to English. Personally, I love the sound of Slovene. Not as hot for Dutch, but it depends on what she looks like My plug... go on vacation to Slovenija, you won't regret it. Er, unless your concept of vacation is shopping in Paris or Milan. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nachinus Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I understand the difficulties, but I do think that the way to grow is to partner with global publishers (preferably just one, to minimize compatibility issues) which can distribute your product at least to the key markets. Plus give you more media impact. It's incredible how little impact CMBN has in the gaming media, even in specialised wargaming media. The series are the best tacgames out there, they should be in every web, magazine, preview blog, whatever!!. I really loved the day I saw CMSF in a shelf in a spanish retailer. (It was Paradox indeed, btw, I own a copy. A fine developer of strategy games and publisher of small developer games of all kind.) Re: localization. I've helped in the localization of videogames in the past, both translating and testing, from alpha version to the last patch... and I can only say this: people should learn bloody english!!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nachinus Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Re: Steve's no2 point. In this particular case I wouldn't mind to wait a few weeks for having the physical product. It actually happens with many other releases of all kind (major or not), 1st US, EU later. And not only in videogames, of course. Besides, I can download it and play if I don't want to wait. I'd get the cool box and the much awaited manual (I'll love it, I'm sure!) later. This may not be the opinion of other European players, though. A poll would be in order for the future? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latimer15 Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 Re: Steve's no2 point. In this particular case I wouldn't mind to wait a few weeks for having the physical product. It actually happens with many other releases of all kind (major or not), 1st US, EU later. And not only in videogames, of course. Besides, I can download it and play if I don't want to wait. I'd get the cool box and the much awaited manual (I'll love it, I'm sure!) later. This may not be the opinion of other European players, though. A poll would be in order for the future? I agree with this. There isn't much of a problem about waiting an extra week or so for the physical media since we can download the game and play it anyway. I guess this wouldn't be as acceptable to those with slow internet connections, but for most of us .... aren't we likely to download game when it is released. The tin and printed manual can come later. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 I understand the difficulties, but I do think that the way to grow is to partner with global publishers (preferably just one, to minimize wirk) which can distribute your product at least to the key markets. It doesn't work that way As I said, we already have the distribution angle covered. A partner couldn't overcome the problems any better than we because the volume of orders would be the same. Unless you're talking about a retail partner, but that's an entirely different thing and it wouldn't apply to something like SteelBox because a retail partner wouldn't touch that with a 10' (3.048m) pole. Plus give you more media impact. It's incredible how little impact CMBN has in the gaming media, even in specialised wargaming media. The series are the best tacgames out there, they should be in every web, magazine, preview blog, whatever!!. I really loved the day I saw CMSF in a shelf in a spanish retailer. (It was Paradox indeed, btw, I own a copy. A fine developer of strategy games and publisher of small developer games of all kind.) A lot has changed in the retail market in the last few years. Very little of it was good for anybody, customers and produces alike. Retail is "imploding". We've had literally dozens of retail partners over the years. Some small and specific to one country, others massive and all over the world. They've pretty much all gone bankrupt. The ones that still survive are even less interested in wargames than they were before, and they weren't very interested. The publisher's offers have become worse too, though it's difficult to understand how that is possible. Re: Steve's no2 point. In this particular case I wouldn't mind to wait a few weeks for having the physical product. It complicates things, but it is something we'll keep in mind for the future. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtemple Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 A quick question which I may have missed, does BF send via a courier to the uk or by normal post? In the past I have received normal post avoiding the costs and via courier such as dhl, the couriers have always (as u would expect) had to pass on the extra tax/cost. With the post I might just win the lottery . One other question, did I read that the plan is for the modules to be shipped within the eu for international orders or am I wishful thinking, this has a bearing on canceling and going to download for me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.