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Forums > Home› Support› C-Store, ZEN, and Promotions

Why is the EU charged more

devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
edited February 2014 in C-Store, ZEN, and Promotions
Than the US for buying zen?

At the moment if I want to buy 4950+350 bonus zen in Norway (and else in Europe), I have to buy through euro which will cost me 45 euros. Now, if I was in the USA I would pay 50 dollars for the same ammount. Looking at the current conversion rates, thats 35 euros. Now why the blazes do I have to pay 10 euros more for the same ammount? Worse is that the gap widens when the pay ammount increases. Is there any way for us poor euros to pay in dollars so we dont get scammed in such a deceptive manner?

And im pretty sure the EU has legislation that prevents such discrimination. Time to inform the proper court or?


No serious, Cryptic care to comment?
Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

PaxOttomana: gawd mirror event is like fighting a tsi premade, they keep comin and comin!
Post edited by devorasx on

Comments

  • saxfiresaxfire Member Posts: 558 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Report them!
    Say the word, it saves the world.
    CUUCUUMBEER! "-With slight partigen with it."
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  • devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
    edited February 2014
    I guess Cryptic is scrambling their PR and marketing advisors to find some good excu... im sorry, reason to this unfortuante matter.
    Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

    PaxOttomana: gawd mirror event is like fighting a tsi premade, they keep comin and comin!
  • thetaxman88thetaxman88 Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    I may be wrong, but isn't most of the EU subject to VAT, requiring taxes to be included in the price of things?
    NA doesn't have those laws, which is probably the cause of the price difference.
  • devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
    edited February 2014
    thetaxman88 wrote: »
    I may be wrong, but isn't most of the EU subject to VAT, requiring taxes to be included in the price of things?
    NA doesn't have those laws, which is probably the cause of the price difference.

    If thats the case, how the heck did they manage to tax it to 1/3 of the price? VAT is individual for every european country as well. So how come I get the same VAT as the VAT in say France? Enlighten me.
    Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

    PaxOttomana: gawd mirror event is like fighting a tsi premade, they keep comin and comin!
  • projectfrontierprojectfrontier Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    devorasx wrote: »
    Than the US for buying zen?

    At the moment if I want to buy 4950+350 bonus zen in Norway (and else in Europe), I have to buy through euro which will cost me 45 euros. Now, if I was in the USA I would pay 50 dollars for the same ammount. Looking at the current conversion rates, thats 35 euros. Now why the blazes do I have to pay 10 euros more for the same ammount? Worse is that the gap widens when the pay ammount increases. Is there any way for us poor euros to pay in dollars so we dont get scammed in such a deceptive manner?

    And im pretty sure the EU has legislation that prevents such discrimination. Time to inform the proper court or?


    No serious, Cryptic care to comment?

    A serious answer?

    International Corporations pay government employees to look the other direction.
    Proposals for using in-game features to improve: (1) the "Phaser Lance" (and other underrepresented/missing "big guns"); && (2) separation systems on all ships that have them; && (3) training boffs in captain only powers by using boffs as pack-mules; OR to add functionality like: (4) "Away Teams Of Space Ships";
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  • projectfrontierprojectfrontier Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    thetaxman88 wrote: »
    I may be wrong, but isn't most of the EU subject to VAT, requiring taxes to be included in the price of things?
    NA doesn't have those laws, which is probably the cause of the price difference.

    Nah dude, the exchange rate between the Euro and the Dollar is just an excuse people use to justify explain away various forms of price fixing. Just ask Apple.
    Proposals for using in-game features to improve: (1) the "Phaser Lance" (and other underrepresented/missing "big guns"); && (2) separation systems on all ships that have them; && (3) training boffs in captain only powers by using boffs as pack-mules; OR to add functionality like: (4) "Away Teams Of Space Ships";
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    By the way, Perfect World is responsible for the prices, not Cryptic.

    And about the economy, you have to ask your national bank or your person at your bank.

    The exchange rate changes each day, and companys need to adjust their pricing for each country individually.

    In short: ask your bank about the mechanic
  • devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
    edited February 2014
    organicmanfred wrote: »
    By the way, Perfect World is responsible for the prices, not Cryptic.

    And about the economy, you have to ask your national bank or your person at your bank.

    The exchange rate changes each day, and companys need to adjust their pricing for each country individually.

    In short: ask your bank about the mechanic

    Is really not the issue. Currencies doesnt fluctuate that extreme that it would matter. And yet again, the more zen you buy the more the dollars value kicks in, in comparison to the euro. Given if PWE/Cryptic had a much higher zen purchase, you can in the end get double the ammount of zen when paying in dollars than if you payed in euros.

    So can a dev comment on this?
    Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

    PaxOttomana: gawd mirror event is like fighting a tsi premade, they keep comin and comin!
  • trillscientisttrillscientist Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    Zen prices include the VAT.

    And since the different countries in europe "enjoy" different amounts of VAT Cryptic (and other publishers) use the easy (and profitable) way of charging everybody the same maximum rate (around 25%).

    Some prices are displayed without VAT (subscriptions, lifetime), to find out the final price for those items you would have to enter your payment details and check the final confirmation page. I suspect that Cryptic is using the real VAT for your country in this case.

    Of course there are ways around this system - if you are willing to commit some small scale tax fraud.

    If only there was a way to enter the american version of the website with a US based IP address...
  • organicmanfredorganicmanfred Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    devorasx wrote: »
    Is really not the issue. Currencies doesnt fluctuate that extreme that it would matter. And yet again, the more zen you buy the more the dollars value kicks in, in comparison to the euro. Given if PWE/Cryptic had a much higher zen purchase, you can in the end get double the ammount of zen when paying in dollars than if you payed in euros.

    So can a dev comment on this?


    Again, the Devs can't or are not allowed to answer this because they are not doing the prices, thats PWE doing. Cryptic=slaves, PWE=Financial bosses

    Write a ticket to PWE, they surely will answer it.
  • devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
    edited February 2014
    trillscientist wrote: »
    Zen prices include the VAT.

    And since the different countries in europe "enjoy" different amounts of VAT Cryptic (and other publishers) use the easy (and profitable) way of charging everybody the same maximum rate (around 25%).

    Some prices are displayed without VAT (subscriptions, lifetime), to find out the final price for those items you would have to enter your payment details and check the final confirmation page. I suspect that Cryptic is using the real VAT for your country in this case.

    Of course there are ways around this system - if you are willing to commit some small scale tax fraud.

    If only there was a way to enter the american version of the website with a US based IP address...

    To my knowledge VAT is only charged if you do sales, services etc IN the country. PWE are here charging outside the target country, so how are they even deemed legal to do so? Another thing that pops to mind is Steam. They do sales for service and merchandise all the time, and their prices are coherent with marketing prices everywhere in the world. So how are they eluding the VAT, while PWE isnt?

    edit: Just talked to an australian player and they have 10% VAT, but he ended up paying nonetheless the same price as the americans. What the blazes is going on.
    Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

    PaxOttomana: gawd mirror event is like fighting a tsi premade, they keep comin and comin!
  • davidwforddavidwford Member Posts: 1,836 Arc User
    edited February 2014
    devorasx wrote: »
    To my knowledge VAT is only charged if you do sales, services etc IN the country. PWE are here charging outside the target country, so how are they even deemed legal to do so? Another thing that pops to mind is Steam. They do sales for service and merchandise all the time, and their prices are coherent with marketing prices everywhere in the world. So how are they eluding the VAT, while PWE isnt?

    edit: Just talked to an australian player and they have 10% VAT, but he ended up paying nonetheless the same price as the americans. What the blazes is going on.

    Because EVERY government in the world wants to collect taxes for transactions that occur on the internet. Brick and mortar stores, particularly the large conglomerates, are the ones pushing for these tax laws. They claim that online sales that are not taxed is an "unfair" advantage. Most consumers would call it creative competition.

    My guess is that Perfect World is collecting the sales/VAT taxes to cover their rear ends. They charge the maximum VAT, but only pay what the governments request of them. If they didn't do this, then they could be taken to court for tax evasion. If they pay the highest, then they don't loose their merger profit. If the governments collect less, then that extra goes into their R&D.
  • devorasxdevorasx Member Posts: 693
    edited February 2014
    davidwford wrote: »
    Because EVERY government in the world wants to collect taxes for transactions that occur on the internet. Brick and mortar stores, particularly the large conglomerates, are the ones pushing for these tax laws. They claim that online sales that are not taxed is an "unfair" advantage. Most consumers would call it creative competition.

    My guess is that Perfect World is collecting the sales/VAT taxes to cover their rear ends. They charge the maximum VAT, but only pay what the governments request of them. If they didn't do this, then they could be taken to court for tax evasion. If they pay the highest, then they don't loose their merger profit. If the governments collect less, then that extra goes into their R&D.

    Isnt e.g Steam operating under the same legal bounary? Then why arent they charged the same ammounts?
    Co-founder of The Spanish Inquisition TSI - Cause no one expects it!

    PaxOttomana: gawd mirror event is like fighting a tsi premade, they keep comin and comin!
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