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can somebody give me the current US $ prices for Atari Tokens plz?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
just noticed the pricetags have changed for € accounts, not exactly sure what it was before, but i am 100% sure it wasn't as perfectly lined up as it is now
and that it was less...

5,00 € EUR Atari Tokens Bundle - 500
10,00 € EUR Atari Tokens Bundle - 1000
15,00 € EUR Atari Tokens Bundle - 1500
20,00 € EUR Atari Tokens Bundle - 2000
50,00 € EUR Atari Tokens Bundle - 5000

50,00 € = 74,21 US$

does that line up with the US pricetags?

and i am pretty sure there will be +19% TAX to the 50,00€ on top of that (for Gernany).
so that would be 59,50 € = 88,31 US$ for me?

so 5000 points = 88 $ for me ?!


//apropriate amount of rage incomming:

so it's $88 for FOUR Ships? WOW... (you seriously want to tell me that this does not tick off possible new customers that check out the game, demo and store?)

...you know in Forza 3 i get 10 licensed and highly detailed Cars (there is a cigarette lighter marking in the cockpit even though you never see that ingame, only in photo mode URL="https://picasaweb.google.com/Z3R0B4NG/Forza3#5484265425704461394"]Example 1[/URL URL="https://picasaweb.google.com/Z3R0B4NG/Forza3#5484265430903454914"]Example 2[/URL) with unique Handling that should be appropriate to the RL car (surely more work then to decide if the Excelsior should have a thrid TAC slot or not...) in any of the multiple DLC Car-Packs for only 400 MS Points (which is arround $5 again).

So that is roughly 50 cent per car.

Think about that for a moment!

10 Cars for 5 bucks vs. 4 Ships for 80+ bucks...?

WTF?


//end appropriate ammount of rage


In any case @Cryptic: how about you give us 400 and 600 point purchase options, you seem to like the numbers 600 + 1200 a lot. It makes no sense at all to allow me to buy 1000 or 2x 500 but realy to want 100 more from me to begin with...

Also there is a 400 point option on the Atari and TDU2 homepages and the Atari Tokens are account wide... so over there i can buy 3x 400 and have the 1200 points that i need for one ship in STO, all i ask is that i do not need to go to the TDU2 page to buy my points for STO ((including giving paypal money for 3 transactions, instead of one)...



so uhm... B2T somebody plz copy & paste the current $ pricetags so i can compare those...
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    US cost for tokens are $0.0125 per token for all blocks. So 500 tokens at that price would be $6.25
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    so that is 62,50 for 5000 instead of 74,21

    ok... why do i have to pay more?

    and then TAX increase on top of it AFTER pressing the button?
    or did that change without notice since the last time i bought Tokens? (hmm the math would actually add up 62,50 x +19% = 74,375).

    ok... let's try that with 2000 points...

    pay pal says:
    Summe Warenwert: €20,00
    Steuer: €3,80

    Betrag: €23,80 EUR

    yepp +19% TAX (3,80€) is added AFTER i click the button.

    can it be that Atari added the TAX that i have to pay themself AND PayPal add's it a second time?


    //i just fired out a Account / Billing Ticket so that they will take a look at this.

    thinking about this... i just bought the Life Time Account while it was on the 20% sale and PayPal added 19% taxes... i wonder if the subscription options are affected by this aswell.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Use a Debit Card without Paypal :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    do not have, do not want
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    you can always go with a prepaid debit card. you cangettehm anywhere. I use one from walmart (only cost me 3 dollars plus any ammount i put on the card) for transactions that i dont quite trusat yet with my regular credit cards. and its usable imediatly after activating it. also since my wife and i travel quite often its a convient way to send money to each other fast if needed.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Z3R0B4NG wrote: »
    do not have, do not want

    Then pay the PayPal tax, it has nothing to do with STO...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    yeah ok, you dont get it...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Thats odd. in the uk, we have to pay £4 for 500 tokens. currently that is worth about $6.63. with vat (20% here :( ) it comes to £4.80, or $7.95. Generally companies charge more before vat in europe, seems a bit to close to vat added through
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    If they charged me incorrectly, i want my money back. :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    I have to jump in.


    Any one notice the price increase to buy Atari Tokens ? less than 2 weeks ago 2000 were £15.75 + VAT is it just the UK that had it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Hey guys!

    I'm still going through the paperwork with my boss on this, so I should have some answers shortly!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    very much appriciated, this is all a bit confusing ^^
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Okay, there was a change made in the Pound, the Euro and the Danish Krona. (The Canadian Dollar is very close to the US one, so we left these values where they stood for the most part.)

    We have various token bundles being sold and the exchange rates for foreign currencies are not consistent. This is due to the bundles being made at different times, different exchange rates used, and different rounding techniques. We got frequent feedback that this was too confusing and as such have now set the price for our tokens as a solid measurement. Since the USD price was never changed previously, it was not changed when the other currencies where.

    Both the California State Tax as well as the European VAT apply in addition to the base cost, as they previously had been.

    If you have specific questions regarding a made purchase, please talk to our biling team, they will be happy to make sure everything is okay or help you if there was an error.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    whut?

    so you say it is NORMAL that germany has to pay +40% now?

    our VAT is +19% not twice that!

    hmpf not good
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Z3R0B4NG wrote: »
    whut?

    so you say it is NORMAL that germany has to pay +40% now?

    our VAT is +19% not twice that!

    hmpf not good

    But not surprising.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    We have to pay more because we have no forum and large parts of the game are still not translated. Also the server downtimes are always on best playtimes.

    I don't think that is a mistake - it`s just greedy. You only can respond on that by not buying anything in c-store. It`s not the high prices, it`s the unfair way european customers are treated here.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    How is early morning to noon "best playtimes"?

    This might be because I only speak English, or because I live in England, but I have no problem with how the European customers are treated. Sure, it would be nice if we could be included in competitions, but...law sucks, its not Cryptic's fault.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    For me, 5000 would be about £48 (with VAT, if i calculated everything properly)

    Converted to Dollars thats $80, and 54 Euros (just a straight conversion without taking into account any additional/less tax)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    The VAT is not 40%. It depends on where in Europe you live.

    The price for the tokens in another currency is no longer directly connected to the $, either. That's the new fixed price we have set for this since we cannot adjust the price by fluctuating exchange rates every few days. The exchange rates between currencies change every few hours even.

    As an example: 500 tokens now:
    5€, 4£ or 35DKK.

    To compare this with the previous price for 500 tokens:
    4.56€, 3.94£ or 34.63DKK

    Since this was often something we got complaints about (remember the threads that the current currency rate compared to the USD was false?) the price for tokens is no longer calculated by or based on the US $.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    WishStone wrote:
    Since this was often something we got complaints about (remember the threads that the current currency rate compared to the USD was false?) the price for tokens is no longer calculated by or based on the US $.

    How are tokens converted to revenue? To the best of my knowledge, revenue from Tokens is only granted to the relevant game team once they are used to purchase items from that game's store.

    i.e. A US customer pays $25.00 for 2000 tokens, and buys the Galaxy-X at non-sale prices. Is $25.00 of revenue granted to the STO team? Or is a portion of that amount siphoned off as an internal administration fee?

    (One would imagine the internal overhead of selling and transferring tokens in the company's base currency is negligible - as all folk are buying into is a field on a database.)

    Either way, what happens if those 2000 points were bought at a different fixed price? Would the same amount of revenue be granted to the relevant team? Or would the revenue reflect the extra amount spent on the tokens?

    In the case of the 2000 points above, the fixed price (before VAT) is a full pound higher the UK than it is in the US. Sure, that's only an extra $1.67 at today's exchange rate. But when thousands of customers are buying them it soon adds up.

    If a UK customer paid for the tokens and bought the Galaxy-X, would the STO team see a cent more?

    If not, where does the money go?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    WishStone wrote:
    As an example: 500 tokens now:
    5€, 4£ or 35DKK.

    To compare this with the previous price for 500 tokens:
    4.56€, 3.94£ or 34.63DKK


    4 UK£ = 4,50465022 €
    35 DKK = 4,69320326 €

    says google, right now


    so with 5€ i still get the worst deal of them all... (and thats only the tiny pack when i need a new uniform, that does not even pay a Ship)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    You cant make it perfectly fair without making the prices x.xxxx

    They have just been rounded. If the exchange rate gets really good for the Euro (unlikely, but I wont go into that) then you would be better off. Blame your Economy, not Cryptic
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Yeah, that corresponds to the different buying power in the different states. It`s not unusual to see the same products being more extensive in Europe, even while some of these products are produced here and shipped to the U.S. (where they cheaper at the end).

    But what remains unusual and rude is that we should pay more and not even get the same product. We get no forum in our language and still hovering any buff in the game results in "Invalid Object Path", as it is with the pvp-queue. So it would be fair play, that if Cryptic (other companys don`t have these currency problems) needs to round the c-store prices, its done downward until the game have nearly equal quaility in german and english clients.

    I see a lot of good comments and articles to STO in major german MMO-portals, like buffed.de or in the german trek-community at treknews.de. I also had made good comments for STO occasionally or cleared some wrong statements from other users. For me, as i see like the way we are treated here had changed in the last few months , there is no reason left to backup STO in the future.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    if rounded means a plus of 8,75%, lol

    US pay $6,25 for 500 AT and EU pay now $7,41, why?



    offtopic: And I never understanded why Cryptic don't offer any quantity discount, eg:
    500AT -> 6€ (+10%)
    1000AT -> 10€ (+0%)
    2000AT -> 18€ (-10%)
    5000AT -> 40€ (-20%)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Firix wrote:
    Blame your Economy, not Cryptic

    I should blame the economy because 5€ is worth more then 4 UK£ !?
    how does that make any sense? do you seriously want my currency to get worse now so i get a better exchange rate on this pseudo Atari Currency? lol...

    and no i do not blame Cryptic, i blame ATARI !
    the prices for ATARI Tokens are the same for all their games, including TDU2 and what not...



    Whatever... with this i do not feel like buying any ATARI Tokens anymore at all...
    if the Math says RIP OFF, then it probably is.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    WishStone wrote:
    The VAT is not 40%. It depends on where in Europe you live.

    The price for the tokens in another currency is no longer directly connected to the $, either. That's the new fixed price we have set for this since we cannot adjust the price by fluctuating exchange rates every few days. The exchange rates between currencies change every few hours even.

    As an example: 500 tokens now:
    5€, 4£ or 35DKK.

    To compare this with the previous price for 500 tokens:
    4.56€, 3.94£ or 34.63DKK

    Since this was often something we got complaints about (remember the threads that the current currency rate compared to the USD was false?) the price for tokens is no longer calculated by or based on the US $.

    Can I be honest hear? I like the rounding in this case - sure I'd rather you didn't round up (seriously, the Euro has nearly another 10% added there to make things 'clearer') but perhaps you could arrange for the taxes to be less invisible, currently they're hidden most of the way through the process with you not seeing the actual amount you pay until right at the end - I know there's a sign warning - but this feels sneaky - if a shop did that I'd return the iteam there and then.

    Heck, even my receipt doesn't show the price including tax - I'm no lawyer but I would actually suspect that's illegal - or bordering on it. Please, can we make this more transparent?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    I think it is more to do with the fact that they charge a set amount (Atari), and then your country adds the Tax. With Tax subject to change at any time, it would be a big hassle to keep changing it.

    You should easily be able to calculate the added Tax, and you know it is going to happen. It isnt like they dont tell you the Tax will be added, they just dont show it on their bill.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    tobar26th wrote:
    Can I be honest hear? I like the rounding in this case - sure I'd rather you didn't round up (seriously, the Euro has nearly another 10% added there to make things 'clearer') but perhaps you could arrange for the taxes to be less invisible, currently they're hidden most of the way through the process with you not seeing the actual amount you pay until right at the end - I know there's a sign warning - but this feels sneaky - if a shop did that I'd return the iteam there and then.

    Heck, even my receipt doesn't show the price including tax - I'm no lawyer but I would actually suspect that's illegal - or bordering on it. Please, can we make this more transparent?

    When rounding you always round to the nearest whole number, and 5 is closer to 4.56 then 4 is. Tax changes based on where you are from, and how much you are spending, so they can't calculate it until the end of the transaction. Cryptic is based in California, and also has to charge California sales tax.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    WishStone wrote:
    ...Both the California State Tax as well as the European VAT apply in addition to the base cost, as they previously had been...
    Rexy wrote:
    ...Cryptic is based in California, and also has to charge California sales tax.
    Interestingly, I communicated with the CA State Tax Board about being taxed on Cryptic Points (back when they were CP) and the STB said these virtual points for virtual items should not be taxed. Wrote me a nice letter and everything, which I forwarded to STO... Nothing ever changed of course. :(

    I'm curious where the disconnect is, that STO still thinks it's ok to special tax Californians... :confused:

    >shrug<
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2011
    Interestingly, I communicated with the CA State Tax Board about being taxed on Cryptic Points (back when they were CP) and the STB said these virtual points for virtual items should not be taxed. Wrote me a nice letter and everything, which I forwarded to STO... Nothing ever changed of course. :(

    I'm curious where the disconnect is, that STO still thinks it's ok to special tax Californians... :confused:

    >shrug<

    This may very well be the smoking gun, or at the very least a base to get this clarified.

    Where does Cryptic stand legally in this?

    Is it legal to charge extra (after the customer agrees to pay the original price) and call it 'tax', even though the STB claims otherwise?
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