3 ms·

The problem isn't just paying more. I'm aware of how tax-heavy europe is, and how much harder it is to support the wide variety of languages and laws. In most

by chton 12y ago

The problem isn't just paying more. I'm aware of how tax-heavy europe is, and how much harder it is to support the wide variety of languages and laws. In most cases, I would be fine paying a bit more for a service. The problem is the way the mark-up happens. They're not calculating the difference and marking that up, they're literally just equating US dollars with euros. $99 and €99 might sound similar, but the difference is over 30%. There is no way the additional support costs run that high, so it comes across as just an attempt to pull a fast one on europeans. I'm sure if they did a proper calculation and gave a realistic number, nobody would complain about the increased cost.

lucaspiller 12y ago
Netflix and Spotify are the same. Spotify is £9.99 here in the UK, €9.99 in most of Western Europe and $9.99 in the US. Admittedly they have to deal with record labels so it's a bit different, but it's not really an excuse. Strangely Dropbox here is showing the price as $9.99.
- mciancia 12y ago
  In Poland Spotify costs ~20zł which is just a little bit under 7$. So not always it's so bad
sugerman 12y ago
Who is to say they didn't do a "proper calculation" and result in something close enough to €99 that they just rounded up/down to keep things consistent?
- nraynaud 12y ago
  India as 37 languages and a mess of a country, I guess they are selling their product for 150% of the American price there?
  - arjunnarayan 12y ago
    But many products are sold in India in English only. This is manifestly not the case in Europe.
    - nraynaud 12y ago
      I'm perfectly ok to have an English only product with a 30% discount, but I can't find the option. (That said, looking at the streets in Seattle, I'm not trading my 20% VAT for potholes, crumbling sidewalks and aerial electric wires in a storm prone region, thanks)
- chton 12y ago
  That's ofcourse possible, but there are many many services that pull this trick, and I would be surprised if dropbox was the only one that did the honorable thing here. And even if that's what they're doing, they should realize it gives a very bad impression and maybe round up/down to a different price. Literally anything else would be better.
wodenokoto 12y ago
No way? Sales tax in Denmark alone is 25% and then we haven't even begun talking about additional cost of running your business here.
- chton 12y ago
  those are valid points, but then why don't they calculate the price they should be asking and ask that? As it stands, they don't give the impression that they do that, they seem to try to screw us over. Hell, if they had gone for €97 instead of €99, a lot less people would be complaining, because it wouldn't look like an arbitrary price hike but a calculated price.

by chton 12y ago

lucaspiller 12y ago

Netflix and Spotify are the same. Spotify is £9.99 here in the UK, €9.99 in most of Western Europe and $9.99 in the US. Admittedly they have to deal with record labels so it's a bit different, but it's not really an excuse. Strangely Dropbox here is showing the price as $9.99.

mciancia 12y ago
In Poland Spotify costs ~20zł which is just a little bit under 7$. So not always it's so bad

sugerman 12y ago

Who is to say they didn't do a "proper calculation" and result in something close enough to €99 that they just rounded up/down to keep things consistent?

nraynaud 12y ago
India as 37 languages and a mess of a country, I guess they are selling their product for 150% of the American price there?
- arjunnarayan 12y ago
  But many products are sold in India in English only. This is manifestly not the case in Europe.
  - nraynaud 12y ago
    I'm perfectly ok to have an English only product with a 30% discount, but I can't find the option. (That said, looking at the streets in Seattle, I'm not trading my 20% VAT for potholes, crumbling sidewalks and aerial electric wires in a storm prone region, thanks)
chton 12y ago
That's ofcourse possible, but there are many many services that pull this trick, and I would be surprised if dropbox was the only one that did the honorable thing here. And even if that's what they're doing, they should realize it gives a very bad impression and maybe round up/down to a different price. Literally anything else would be better.

wodenokoto 12y ago

No way? Sales tax in Denmark alone is 25% and then we haven't even begun talking about additional cost of running your business here.

chton 12y ago
those are valid points, but then why don't they calculate the price they should be asking and ask that? As it stands, they don't give the impression that they do that, they seem to try to screw us over. Hell, if they had gone for €97 instead of €99, a lot less people would be complaining, because it wouldn't look like an arbitrary price hike but a calculated price.