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Location based price discrimination has it's own affectionate nickname here, the 'Australia tax'. When I travel it is often cheaper (hundreds of dollar cheaper

by ikr678 2y ago

Location based price discrimination has it's own affectionate nickname here, the 'Australia tax'. When I travel it is often cheaper (hundreds of dollar cheaper, even after currency conversion) to book parts of a trip from a UK or US based device, than from an Australian one, directly through the airline or hotels website. Same for digital goods -even for services that do not have a business or support presence locally ie no local overheads, we still get charged a premium.

vrosas 2y ago
I’ve done that from the US as well. Book the ticket from the destination country’s website (google translate is perfectly fine, typically) and pay in the local currency using my no-fx-fee credit card.
ClassyJacket 2y ago
Back before Creative Cloud was a subscription, to get Creative Suite in Australia, it was cheaper to book a flight to America, a hotel for three nights, buy Creative Suite there, and a flight home, than to just pay the markup Adobe gave us as punishment for being Australian.
- dbspin 2y ago
  Hah! Fond memories of getting my first macbook air. At the time cheaper to fly to NYC and pick it up from the Apple Store (with the Edu discount of course) than to buy it in Ireland.
remus 2y ago
Sometimes there are costs associated with operating within a particular country that a company might want to pass on to those particular customers. For example business insurance in the US can be pretty high in some sectors, or cost of compliance with some piece of legislation unique to that country. It seems fairly reasonable to me to pass those costs on, though of course it can be hard to tell whether that is happening or whether you're just getting gouged.
- ikr678 2y ago
  I am talking about products and services where there is no local footprint, particularly digital goods. The poster child for this was Adobe Creative Suite, which at one point in the 2010's, you were able to buy a return flight from sydney to LA, purchase the software, and fly home for less than it cost to buy domestically after exchange rates. They were hauled before a Senate committee and refused to give any answers. https://delimiter.com.au/2013/02/14/farce-adobe-ceo-flatly-refuses-australian-price-questions-video/ https://delimiter.com.au/2013/02/14/farce-adobe-ceo-flatly-r...
  - remus 2y ago
    > I am talking about products and services where there is no local footprint, particularly digital goods. Im not going to defend Adboe's undefendable pricing, but there's almost always some sort of cost associated with selling anything in most markets. For example if you sell to EU customers you'll likely have some obligations under GDPR, and in a lot of jurisdictions you'll need to pay some sort of sales tax after you hit a certain sales threshold. These things add complexity to your business and cost real money to administer. Some businesses will decide they just don't want to operate in those markets, which is a fair call. Some might decide to spread the costs across their entire customer base. Some may choose to charge more in certain markets to cover the associated costs.

by ikr678 2y ago

vrosas 2y ago

I’ve done that from the US as well. Book the ticket from the destination country’s website (google translate is perfectly fine, typically) and pay in the local currency using my no-fx-fee credit card.

ClassyJacket 2y ago

Back before Creative Cloud was a subscription, to get Creative Suite in Australia, it was cheaper to book a flight to America, a hotel for three nights, buy Creative Suite there, and a flight home, than to just pay the markup Adobe gave us as punishment for being Australian.

dbspin 2y ago
Hah! Fond memories of getting my first macbook air. At the time cheaper to fly to NYC and pick it up from the Apple Store (with the Edu discount of course) than to buy it in Ireland.

remus 2y ago

Sometimes there are costs associated with operating within a particular country that a company might want to pass on to those particular customers. For example business insurance in the US can be pretty high in some sectors, or cost of compliance with some piece of legislation unique to that country. It seems fairly reasonable to me to pass those costs on, though of course it can be hard to tell whether that is happening or whether you're just getting gouged.

ikr678 2y ago
I am talking about products and services where there is no local footprint, particularly digital goods. The poster child for this was Adobe Creative Suite, which at one point in the 2010's, you were able to buy a return flight from sydney to LA, purchase the software, and fly home for less than it cost to buy domestically after exchange rates. They were hauled before a Senate committee and refused to give any answers. https://delimiter.com.au/2013/02/14/farce-adobe-ceo-flatly-refuses-australian-price-questions-video/ https://delimiter.com.au/2013/02/14/farce-adobe-ceo-flatly-r...
- remus 2y ago
  > I am talking about products and services where there is no local footprint, particularly digital goods. Im not going to defend Adboe's undefendable pricing, but there's almost always some sort of cost associated with selling anything in most markets. For example if you sell to EU customers you'll likely have some obligations under GDPR, and in a lot of jurisdictions you'll need to pay some sort of sales tax after you hit a certain sales threshold. These things add complexity to your business and cost real money to administer. Some businesses will decide they just don't want to operate in those markets, which is a fair call. Some might decide to spread the costs across their entire customer base. Some may choose to charge more in certain markets to cover the associated costs.