Price difference Steam/Matrix shop

[BTJ]

I always supported Matrix/Slitherine for their fantastic games by purchasing directly through their website and did this several times already - I own quite some games (DW, all expansions, PanzerCorps, Armada2526, Pandora...).
Without thinking too much (my bad), I purchased S:CoK at the Matrix Store for 24,99€ + 4,75 €VAT (Germany), resulting in 29,74 € total.
Now, I see that I can get it at Steam for 22,99 € total. That is a big difference. Same thing happened to me with the Eclipse of Nashira expansion.
I know the explanation for this being posted by Matrix staff already (exchange rates, VAT), but I still think this is not well solved. How comes that price incl. VAT at Steam is cheaper than base price w/o VAT in the Matrix store? There are other publishers with direct distribution out there who solved this issue, obivously.
I will not let that happen a third time.

Best regards,

BTJ

[IainMcNeil]

Hi BTJ,

yes there was a mistake and it has been fixed. If you contact support they will give you a refund. Apologies for the problem.

Anyone who paid more than £17.99 or 24.99 Euros including VAT should contact support with their order info.

Once again apologies for the mix up. We fied it as fast as we could but some people got through before we did.

[Rekka]

On the Matrix Store, it now says 20,99€ but when I add it to my basket, on the "Buy Now" page, the price per unit is at 24,99€. [&:]

Is this normal?

[IainMcNeil]

Yes this is the correct price - it is VAT related. We're working on a way to show you the VAT earlier in the process but it requires us to handle the shopping cart completely and we currently use the Bluesnap cart. We're hoping to have more control over this when we release a store update in June.

The price is $24.99/£17.99/24.99 Euro including VAT.

[Rekka]

Ok thanks for the clarification.

[IainMcNeil]

On the pricing issue we've found a way to collect all orders with the wrong price so are going to manually issue refunds so you don't need to contact anyone.

[BTJ]

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

On the pricing issue we've found a way to collect all orders with the wrong price so are going to manually issue refunds so you don't need to contact anyone.

This is really a fast action you are taking here! Highly appreciated!

Best regards,

BTJ

[Pasubio79]

Hello from Canada. Very interested in this game. However there is still a price difference. $27.99 CAD on Steam and $33.99 + tax on the Matrix website. Would prefer to purchase on the Matrix website, but in the end are there any differences in doing so? Especially in considering future upgrades, patches or versions.

[VPaulus]

ORIGINAL: Marrello
Would prefer to purchase on the Matrix website, but in the end are there any differences in doing so? Especially in considering future upgrades, patches or versions.

The only difference is if you purchase the key from our webshops you will also receive a stand alone version without Steam protection when the game leaves early access.
In terms of upgrades, updates, etc., both versions will have the same support.
If for example we release a patch for the non Steam version, the Steam version will also receive a similar patch at the same time.

[BTJ]

I just wanted to drop by and say that I got the refund to my credit card as promised. I really like how this was handled by Matrix! Makes me feel good being a customer of yours! Thanks again!

Best regards,
BTJ

[JiminyJickers]

It is NZ$5 more expensive to buy from Matrix than Steam, confusing. Maybe a $5 DRM free fee.

[IainMcNeil]

Is VAT applied in New Zealand? We've had to manually fix the VAT displayed ion our stores on a per currency basis. We have fixed Euro & £ prices but if there are other currencies where VAT is applied we may need to make a change. If you add it to the shopping cart you'll see teh actual price you will pay. The shopping cart is always correct. Let is know but if VAT is not the issue then it could be a dated currency conversion rate on Steam (they only change once every year or so), while we change on a daily basis.

[JiminyJickers]

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

Is VAT applied in New Zealand? We've had to manually fix the VAT displayed ion our stores on a per currency basis. We have fixed Euro & £ prices but if there are other currencies where VAT is applied we may need to make a change. If you add it to the shopping cart you'll see teh actual price you will pay. The shopping cart is always correct. Let is know but if VAT is not the issue then it could be a dated currency conversion rate on Steam (they only change once every year or so), while we change on a daily basis.

Hi Iain,

No, GST (New Zealand's version of VAT) is not currently charged on imported digital products. Physical goods bought online and worth less than $400 also usually escape GST.

The price shown on the Matrix store page is NZD 34.99+tax, and in checkout it is NZ$34.99. On Steam, it is shown as NZ$29.99 in the store and at checkout. Steam only introduced the NZ$ since the 24th March 2015, so I assume their currency conversion is fairly up to date.

I prefer to buy my Matrix games through your store so hopefully this can be looked into.

Cheers.

[IainMcNeil]

Unfortunately we can't do anything about this as it seems to be working as intended. If you look at xe.com (http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/con ... USD&To=NZD) it gives a rate of $32.48 but that's a mid rate between the buy and sell rate and doesn't include any currency conversion fees so when you ad those in it brings it to the correct amount. The system also rounds up to the nearest 0.99 so overall this appear correct. Steam seem to be using a different exchange rate which doesn't match the reality. I don't know why they would do this. We don't have a way to use an incorrect exchange rate, we can only use the real ones. We also cant force Steam to sue the correct rate

[JiminyJickers]

Okay, no worries, I will buy it from you guys anyway but will probably wait a bit anyway so maybe the exchange rate will change in my favour.

Thanks for looking into it.