UK Price Hike

Apple were making inroads in Education but the Ed discount is now only 5% and in the UK that means the price of these machines has actually risen over the older machines.
Additionally the retail (without discount) price in comparison with the older machines has also risen considerably.
It seems to me that the 5% reduction in margin is being made up by a reduction in Education discount and an increase across the World (except the USA of course) in machine price.
WHY?

I must say, these new MacBooks have put me and the missus in a bit of a quandry...
She wants a MacBook, and I suggested she wait a few weeks until the new ones come out. She only really needs a low spec one for what she wants to do on it, but now, to get any of the new features (aluminium case, glass multi-touch trackpad, better graphics card), you have to buy the mid or higher-priced models. Minimum outlay of £950, instead of the previous £700.
The (new) lowest priced model is just the same old white plastic one from yesterday except it's £20 more than it was! I was expecting lower prices on this refresh, not higher...
As usual Apple rips us off in the UK compared to the US, (and I am taking into account Sales Tax/VAT when comparing prices). The new 2.0 Ghz MacBook is still £73 more expensive in the UK after converting and adding 17.5% VAT.
Although my wife prefers the look of the new aluminium ones, she'll most likely end up getting an old model - hopefully discounted a bit...

Similar Messages

Bt screws up (3rd dec price hikes) but refuses lia...

Well i contacted bt as I tried to cancel my line and was told I would have to wait until i was notified , Recieved not 1 but 2 letters in december (one on the 2nd one on the 5th) Apologising that they had tried but failed to email me Tried again to cancel and was told i havd already been notified and was outside the 10 day period. (so strike 1 the letters confirmed i hadn't been reached no legally notified.)
so i emailed a complaint into bt and the following excerpts as taken from the email
"To help publicise the changes we briefed the media in late August and on 1st September we published the increased prices on www.bt.com. Personalised price quotes were also available online for broadband and bundles from mid-October. In your case, as an e-biller, when you received your e-bill alert on 2nd October information about the price changes was contained in the ‘My Phone’ section as well as web pages displaying the price point of any impacted products. "
So to ignore the letter that was sent confirming BT's error they then justified the fact it was briefed to the "media" , thats not notifying people if they don't read said media or specialised tv program? or are we supposed to read and watch things in the media now incase a company decides to "notify" us by that method and not directly(as ofcom regs state) also none of that "media" included the loss of online billing discount.
"Putting these changes into place has been very complex and some of our customers may not have received one month’s individual notice of the recent price changes. We apologise for this.
I note you were aware, from the BT forums, of the 3rd December price changes. I appreciate that it was frustrating for you not being able to immediately cancel when you first became aware of the changes. We will look into this though so that the process is improved in future. "
So they are aware they have breached ofcom regulations are sorry for it but refuse to act on it? (this forums not legal notification as its a customer forum and chinese whispers tend to change details)
And the fact I wasn't able to cancel , is "frustrating" .... its a shady practice to say the very least.
So they accept that some/many customers were not notified (hence why they sent the letter out ONE day pre price hike) But then hold people to the day their system "sent out" these mythical notifications that many didn't recieve...... and refer people to the e-bill which many only found the price hike notification in after viewing 5-6 unrelated hyperlinks.....
roll on contract end is all i can say , overpriced cowboys seems to be Bt's current ethos.

Hi Ook,
Thanks for the post. I am sorry about the problems you have had with BT in relation to the price increases. I would like to look into this for you.
Please drop me an email via the 'Contact Us' link in my profile. (click on my name and you will find the link under the "about me" section). Include your BT account details and the link to this thread.
Cheers
Sean
BTCare Community Manager
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry that we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)

Why the Price Hike?

What's the deal with the price hike to $1.30 for a song?
There is no sound quality difference, I don't care what the Plus thing is supposed to be for.

This has been discussed many times:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55K0DJ20090621
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/06/technology/macworld/index.htm

DSL Price Hike

When I started my DSL plan with Verizon in 2008, it was around 17 or 19 dollars. Over the years, it gradually rose to around $23, which seemed reasonalble though a little high given the level of inflation. However, last year, it jumped by $10 to $33. And now, this month, it jumped to $43. What the heck is going on?!? Are there no regulations governing this kind of gross hyper profiteering over the phone lines that relie on public property access? Verizon is a monopoly in my neighborhood and they don't offer Fios here, not that I would get it after being treated so callously by them with these excessive price increases. My download speed is usually less than 0.90 mps., not worth the crazy price I'm being charged. I have no other DSL choice in my building, so the only other choice is a cable-internet-only plan that is advertised cheaper than my current DSL plan and supposedly faster (or so they claim). I don't like the cable company, but after the shabby way Verizon is treating me, I am considering switching. I guess my question to the community forum is this: Are there no regulations regarding price changes (and other than the first price change around 2010, unwarned or preannounced as well)? Thanks.

dlg320 wrote:
When I started my DSL plan with Verizon in 2008, it was around 17 or 19 dollars. Over the years, it gradually rose to around $23, which seemed reasonalble though a little high given the level of inflation. However, last year, it jumped by $10 to $33. And now, this month, it jumped to $43. What the heck is going on?!? Are there no regulations governing this kind of gross hyper profiteering over the phone lines that relie on public property access? Verizon is a monopoly in my neighborhood and they don't offer Fios here, not that I would get it after being treated so callously by them with these excessive price increases. My download speed is usually less than 0.90 mps., not worth the crazy price I'm being charged. I have no other DSL choice in my building, so the only other choice is a cable-internet-only plan that is advertised cheaper than my current DSL plan and supposedly faster (or so they claim). I don't like the cable company, but after the shabby way Verizon is treating me, I am considering switching.
I guess my question to the community forum is this: Are there no regulations regarding price changes (and other than the first price change around 2010, unwarned or preannounced as well)?
Thanks.
Regulations on broadband are a bit limited in the scope at which they cover. Pricing is a bit of a regulatory grey area. Data caps are not entirely covered, and the pricing is enforced based on whether or not the government views pricing as "anti-competitive." Throttling is covered extensively with Net Neutrality.
Complain to the FCC if you are not seeing service improvements but are seeing higher prices. Over my way, Verizon has not installed any new gear for the DSL to improve service in over 10 years out in the field, so they have little means of justifying a price hike for what was always existing. Maybe installing a Juniper ERX1440 in the CO counts, but those were put in around a decade ago as well.

End of Contract Huge Price Hike

Earlier this year (April 2013) I was offered the chance to upgrade my Broadband to BT Infinity free of charge with a promise on the letter of no change to my contract or price increases. Although the speed difference from standard Broadband (15-17mb) to Infinity (24mb) wasn't huge I upgraded. With my line rental and call plans the monthly bill came to around £30.00
To my horror, when I checked my bill this month the cost had risen to £45.00. It turns out that my annual contract had ended and I was now paying full price for the Infintiy.
When I rang to complain I was told the offer was for 12 month - I tried to explain that I had only had the Infinity since April but they did not appear to understand.
BT have always managed to offer a discount on my package, but it appears that I am no longer eligable for any discounts despite being a customer for over 25 years. The best offer they could give me was to cancel my Infinity and move back to Broadband.
I am seriously annoyed having being conned into thinking I would get Infinity at the discounted rate for 12 months, and because Sky will charge me £50 to move to them I'm stuck with BT.
Having also been the victim of the direct debit date change BT are in serious danger of loosing another loyal customer.
Poor service form a company who could not care less about their customers.

They have done something similar to me, I was paying £25.50 for my broadband even though the price was lowered to £16 a month for my package but they never changed the price of my package to reflect that even though I was several months out of contract.
I asked them to put my price inline with what was currently payable and they agreed but placed me on another 12 month contract but they also agreed to lower my line rental to £11 a month as a good will gesture.
12 months on my contract period has expired but they have decided to put my price up to £25.50p (for the option 3 £16pcm contract) again........
I asked why they did this when I had asked for my price to be brought into line with current prices and they told me it had been a mistake and I was put on a reduced price contract instead of having the price brought into line by mistake (the lady admits this is a mistake).
They said they can lower the price again but will be subject to another 12 month contract.
Lol

Big price hike for macbooks recently?

I bought mine 3 months ago for about $1,000 at B&H. (2.4ghz). Now they have the same model for $1270. The only difference is they're throwing in a sleeve and calling it a "kit".
Is this just an Apple thing? Economy perhaps? A 25% jump is kind of steep. All the other places I researched before I bought at B&H have gone up too.
I wanted to get another macbook for one of my kids going off to college next fall. I really didn't anticipate such a drastic price change though.

Prices from resellers are not determined by Apple. They are basically free to set whatever prices they can get based on configurations, giveaways, etc.
Currently you can buy the new unibody MacBook in the 2.4 GHz model from Apple at the retail price of $1599. The White MB model that has been updated with the Nvidia 9400M graphics chip and 2.0 GHz processor is $999 from Apple.
If your child purchases after enrolling in college then he/she can purchase at the academic discount price of $1499 and $949 for the above models, respectively.
The 2.1 and 2.4 GHz White MacBooks are no longer manufactured having been supplanted by the new unibody models and the new White model. The latter is now the only MacBook model with FireWire support. The new unibody models do not have FireWire. I'm guessing the price of the previous models have gone up because they are now scarce, and cannot be ordered from Apple.
You can check Apple's prices and availability of refurbished MacBooks although it's unlikely you will find the previous MB models even amongst the refurbs from Apple. However, you can check resellers other than B&H such as Expercom.

Have new iMac prices rocketed in the UK?

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure you will), but it seems that the prices of the new Haswell iMacs have gone up by £50 for the base 21.5" and £100 for the entry level 27".
I'm sure that they were £1,099 and £1,499 respectively as opposed to the new £1,149 and £1,599, yet in the US the price appears to have stayed the same ($1,299 for the 21.5").
In the good old days, the new models were often the same price and the old ones were sold off cheaper by third party retailers.
Now the old models are going for the same price and the new ones have had a price hike, so you no longer get more bangs for your buck ......... well actually the americans do, but we Brits get fewer for our pound.

Ian,
You've been around long enough to know full well that the rest of the world has long subsidised the North American market ... and not just for the cost of goods.
Take services for instance, home services do not exist here and it is no secret that warranties and repair costs are tailored to meet whatever Apple can get away with in other countries.
But having said that, it is all about competition at the end of the day and that is what any business is all about.
We are just unlucky that the Web was invented here but the best means of using it wasn't.

Detail of legacy license and future price increases

Legacy Licence:
I currently have a licenced retail copy of Photoshop CS6 that would allow me a reduce rate for 12 months membership of Creative Cloud.
If I took up this offer and in 12 months time decided not to renew Creative Cloud membership which of the following happens.
1. I can re install (or re-enter the code of) My old Photoshop CS6 and continue to use it on my desktop and laptop just as now
2. Taking up the Creative Cloud offering terminates my license in some way to use my retail Photoshop CS6 and I will not be able to use it.
Future price increases:
Have Adobe released a statement detailing how they propose to increase charges for Creative Cloud in future years?
Which of the following is true:
1. Increases will be in line with inflation with no sudden large price hikes.
2. Adobe do not rule out larger than inflation increases in cloud membership
Hope these questions dont sound too paranoid, a clear answer to both these questions will help both myself and my clients determine their response to Creative Cloud membership.
Stephen Johnson
http://www.copyrightimage.com/

Hi Ken,
Thanks again for the rapid reply.
I do appreciate that you may not be in the loop on this but it is a concern for myself and my clients.
The good news is that upper management will know as its their duty to plan for such things. They may decide not to let me or you know what those plans are in which case we would need to infer the likely reason for non disclosure.
Lets not run ahead of things however!, I think it only fair to allow management time and space to answer this question.
Just to clarify: current and future pricing was top of my mind when I saw the Creative Cloud offering, future price increases were a concern for some of my clients also, it is not a trivial question and is best answered by someone who does determine pricing plans. It will significantly influence the decisions of myself and my clients (and no doubt many other users) if we can get a clear understanding of price increase principals for Creative Cloud.
Many thanks
Stephen Johnson
Copyrightimage Ltd

Price Changes from 5 January 2013

BT Broadband Option 1 increases from £17.80 to £18.85
BT Broadband Option 2 increases from £22.50 to £23.80
BT Broadband Option 3 increases from £26.80 to £28.35
BT Infinity Option 1 increases from £21.00 to £22.20
BT Infinity Option 2 increases from £26.80 to £28.35
The standard line rental price increases from £14.60 to £15.45
The Unlimited Anytime Plan increases from £4.90 to £5.15.
What if I'm unhappy with the price changes?
We're sorry you're are unhappy about how the price rises affect you and would rather that you stayed with BT as we believe we offer fantastic services and products. We've kept a number of our key prices frozen since December 2011 and will be freezing many of our prices again from the 5 January 2013 until 2014 at the earliest. However if you contact us directly within 10 calendar days of receiving our price change notification you may cease your services without penalty.
Well I for 1can not afford to pay anymore than what I'm paying so I'm off.

It's lunacy.
Just had "the email" myself and I'm wondering just how many millions BT must have spent in their fight with SKY for advertising that customers come to BT for phone, broadband and vision and how many, including me, will be staying.
I can't afford these price hikes. We are in a recession in the UK - or hasn't BT noticed?
Going to have to change provider. Shame on BT to them and to the customers who have already been paying a lot more than the competions prices - and I wonder how they will explain the (massive) migration from BT to other providers in January to the shareholders
I am going to apply for my MAC in December, so I am not in the pile up!

CS5.5 Trial??? US/Europe Price Comparison?

How and where is the trial?
Is there no trial available? I wanted to test this for projects in work, see if it was viable.
The only option I can see is the Upgrade at €143.99??
Upgrade Price
It's $119 US, and in todays conversion rate that's only €81.14 - yet the sale price for Europe is €143.99 (56% more expensive in Europe than in the US)
Where are they getting that EURO price from?
Subscription Price
It's $49 US for the 1 Month Subscription (which at todays conversion rate is €33)
Yet somehow in Europe it's priced at €71 a month? (46% more expensive in Europe than the US)
As you can see from the prices it's nearly twice as expensive in Europe than in the US.
No trial version? Price hike in Europe is a turn off.

Eugene Tyson wrote:
I appreciate that John.
But there is no clear indication on the website. It's so confusing just because they didn't put relevant links and warnings where approrpriate.
"CS5.5 trial not available - download CS5 trial? *WARNING* etc."
It's ridiculous anyone going to the Adobe site to get trial of software can't, and can only PREORDER software?
Why can't they let people buy the previous versions anyway - it's certainly a hinderence to InDesign users, not sure about others? How many times have we seen I need to get CS5 back to CS3 or CS2 - yet no options to buy or trial the software?
And as for the pricing - that's another issue. I'm outraged beyond belief at the difference of the price.
I had no problem finding a way to order the current versions the other day when I was trying to do some price checks. There were buttons labeled "Can't wait" or something of the sort on the right hand side of each of the pages...
Give me a call when your flight gets in and I'll buy you a beer...

Paperless Billing and Price Increases

We save BT a fortune in terms of both money and time in going paperless. The reward we now get is to have this allowance removed in the latest round of charges!! i.e. effectively a type of underhand increase.
I can of course send BT £120 by way of an upfront payment to influence my line rental rates and if enough customers do this they make a fortune from interest payments.
I could on the other hand, since there will not be any financial benefit, revert back to insisting upon a paper bill send by post. If we all did this I am sure that BT might well wish to reconsider the matter.
It is also interesting to note that whilst BT are happy to e-mail their customers with details of increased charges they have created a facility whereby it is almost impossible to reply by the same medium.
Welcome to supposed customer care in the electronic age!

Ernie valid point however unfortunately im one of the few who upgraded in august with no knowledge of the impending price hikes and removal of the paperless billing "reduction" and not one iota of it was mentioned during the renewals process (given the forums posts the staff knew of the price hikes at the time of sale but neglected to notify) ,
They also tie you in , You see it on the forums
They are hiking most landline prices but if you have just ONE service thats not increasing inprice it brings it all crashing down , esp as They are Hiking phone line rates but anyone closing a bt phoneline with broadband/vision are getting hit with huge cancellation bills because of it. Some service such as unlimited calls etc have also been seen to be causing the same issues.
So the question is , was it honest sales when they sell product at X price but are fully aware that price will only be valid for 3 - 4 months of the contract and don't notify the customer of the hikes? and how many others like myself signed recent renewals and have been caught in the same trap ?

Changing speed and price question

I recently signed a two year contract. I have the 15/5 plan and was thinking of switching to the 25/25 plan. But with the upcoming pice increase/speed bump, will I be able to change back to 15/5 and go back to my current price after the price hike?
Currently it looks like it will cost $5 a month more to go to the next speed tier. If I wait to change my speed tier untill after the price increase will it still cost $5 more, or would it be more because of the higher pices?

I just restructured my contract from 35/35 to 75/35 for the same price i was paying,it is still 5.00 more for each speed tier.

Proposed hike by record companies is outrageous...

Just a thought - LL Cool J's new album ("Todd Smith" pre-sale) has 16 songs. at $.99US at iTunes that's almost $16 for the album, if you chunk it up and buy, say, a third of the songs at a time, and not the "Album" purchase. Flaming Lips' "At War with the Mystics" has 15 songs, so about $15 through iTunes. (Yes, I know, you could buy the entire album through iTunes at less, but a lot of folks don't - me, for one.) The same albums at Amazon.com is about $13US and $12US, respectively. Mac or PC, doesn't matter - same price for the song.
So, that means the record companies who sell them through iTunes - companies that don't have to burn them, package them, or distribute them - get a much better deal in the digital domain then the brick and mortar domain. Works out for everybody. So, why then, are they so eager to burn us, the iTunes consumer, with unjustifiable price hikes? Why do they want more money for doing virtually nothing? They've said it's so the artist gets more money - who are they trying to convince with that big lie? What are they going to give them, another half-penny? They don't give artists anything now - why would they suddenly want all of us to believe they are benevolent? This is pure, unadulterated greed, and I think the product - all product - of those companies that seek a higher rate should be boycotted. They've threatened before to take their product elsewhere, and I say, let them go. Get the heck out of here, and take your tuneless clones with you. The independent music around here is by far much better, anyway.
Ticked Off in Carolina

If you go thru Amazon, you have additional shipping costs.
If you trip on down to a "Brick & Mortar" store for your disc, you have expended other resources - like fuel, etc.
I think the 99 cent price is very reasonable. And I don't care who gets what. I just want my music.
Beavis2084

Price difference in Creative Cloud?

Can someone explain to me why it costs so much more to purchase Creative Cloud if I live in the United Kingdom compared to somwhere else. There should be no difference, it's a digital download! (no shipping)
If I bought the complete package it costs £46.88 per month in the UK.
If I bought the complete package in the US it costs $49.99 bearing in mind that the current exchange rate is $1.5 to the £1 and therefore if exchange rates were used it should cost £33.20 in UK sterling, that's a price hike of approximately 30%
If i bought the complete package in Australia it costs $49.99 bearing in mind the exchange rate is $1.5 to the AUS$1.56 and therefore if exchange rates were used it should cost £31.99 in UK sterling, that's a price hike of 32%
it's simlilar if you bought it in Japan and many other countries.
So please Adobe can you explain to me why this is so, I'm a bit puzzled.
Also if I paid in US dollars would I recieve the product for the US Dollar price?

richiehope wrote:
Can someone explain to me why it costs so much more to purchase Creative Cloud if I live in the United Kingdom compared to somwhere else…
Ah, but Britons accumulated untold riches during their imperial domination, plus you guys lost the American Colonies, which is where the Adobe monopoly is based. It's called payback.
…just kidding…

600% Price increase for educational CLP customers. Anyone mad?

As many of you may know, Adobe killed maintenance contracts for CLP licensing on the first of the year. I work at a small college, and as part of the CLP program, we ordered licenses for Production Premium, as well as a 2-year maintenance contract for $150 per seat. For that $150, we get 2 years of upgrades for Production Premium, whenever they are released. That works out to $6.25 per month, per seat. It was because of this great pricing, we were able to get budget approval to use the Adobe suite of products for my Digital Media department. Adobe even sold us on this plan because it "allowed us predictability in our budgeting." Now, that is gone, and my department is really screwed as a result.
I've been going several rounds with Adobe on the phone, trying to get anyone to explain to me how they can justify yanking the rug out from the educational market by discontinuing our maintenance license. Whenever I ask for an alternative for our Production Premium maintenance contract for our college, they keep reading the same script about Creative Cloud for Teams. That sounds great, except for the price. It's $40 a month per seat for this service. We are currently paying $150 for two years of maintenance licensing, which works out to $6.25 per month per seat. When I tell them that we can't afford a 600% price increase, they keep reading the same line about Creative Cloud not being a single product, and that we get cloud storage, blah blah blah. No real explanation of why they are sticking us with a six-fold price hike. Are there any other educators out there who are as infuriated as me? For each student, over the course of their 4-year academic career, that's an extra $1600.

As per the other thread, the customer also has a Muse subscription and the renewal email he received with a price of £11.11 + VAT was for this subscription not the Photography Plan.
Kind regards
Bev

UK Price Hike

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