UK Prices

[MikeBrough]

Apologies if this one has already been discussed but I've been on holiday for a week or two.

Have UK prices suddenly increased? I'd been keeping an eye on Harpoon and TOAW but the prices seem to have increased by a pound or two.

Has the exchange rate moved recently?

[Hertston]

Looks that way. Harpoon is now £32.99, and I paid £26.99 (plus VAT) for it. Likewise CotA. And TOAW is £26.99 rather than £21.99. Glad I bought when I did.

A fiver is quite a hike. Any explanation, Matrix bods? The increase seems excessive, but if it is necessary why not just put it on future titles?

[MikeBrough]

Current exchange rate is 1.83 dollars to the pound. Over the past 3 months, the rate has been slightly higher (1.84-ish).

UK price for digital download of WITP is £40. At 1.83 dollars/pound, this equates to $73.20. But the price on the US store site is only $70.

At these rates, we'll have to take the colony back under our control again.

[JudgeDredd]

Maybe they are charging extra because they're gonna produce manuals now! lol! [:'(]

[Hertston]

C'mon Matrix folks.. an answer to this one would be nice, hmm?

[Hertston]

Punt. I'm less than impressed with the absence of a response from Matrix on this, to be honest.

What is the justification for the apparent universal £5 (net) price-hike on existing games for UK customers, please?

[Antmeister71]

Well it is my guess that the reason for the price hike is because the UK can still return the game for a refund within a 30 day window. So it is my assumption, and yes it is just an assumption, that the reason for the hike is to offset some of those returns. The US and a number of other locals can't return the game for a refund.

Edit - It is actually a 14 day window. I had to check it out again to make sure.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: Antmeister71

Well it is my guess that the reason for the price hike is because the UK can still return the game for a refund within a 30 day window.

How on earth do you do that with a direct download?

[Antmeister71]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: Antmeister71

Well it is my guess that the reason for the price hike is because the UK can still return the game for a refund within a 30 day window.

How on earth do you do that with a direct download?

I don't know the true specifics, but I do know for the UK and England store fronts on this website, they are entitled to a 14 day refund policy. I am going to assume that this is meant for the boxed copies only. The reason why I think this may be the case is because Matrix had a no refund policy for all countries. However, Digital River changed the policy on them recently and I guess they decided to abide by it. Here is the thread in which it was brought up:

tm.asp?m=1090569

This, however, is just conjecture. There may be other reasons that I don't know anything about, but if you noticed that the rates went up recently, this is the only thing that crossed my mind as I read it.

[Jevhaddah]

In the UK the Distance selling act allows yoo to return any item without giving any reason within 7 days of the actual delivery date, not the purchase date, for a full refund.

I had to follow this course of action when a piece of software I ordered turned out to be iffy. Did the same with a Hard Drive I bought which the company tried to refuse to take back.

We seem to have a lot more rights than most other countries in regards to returning items we purchased on line.

Maybe its just a way to claw back the postage for physical items. I must check up the Act to see how it gels with downloaded software.

Cheers

Jev

[Erik Rutins]

Er, I'm not sure how I managed to completely miss this thread up until now. I'll have to check on this on Monday. We do periodically update prices to match exchange rates, but this also strikes me as a very sudden increase, unless the initial price was incorrect. In short, I have no idea why the price changed, but I'll find out.

Regards,

- Erik

[MikeBrough]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Er, I'm not sure how I managed to completely miss this thread up until now. I'll have to check on this on Monday. We do periodically update prices to match exchange rates, but this also strikes me as a very sudden increase, unless the initial price was incorrect. In short, I have no idea why the price changed, but I'll find out.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks, Erik. Knew I could rely on you.

[Erik Rutins]

Ok, I started looking into this and I'm not sure now what is being reported. If you guys are seeing something I'm not, please give me some more details. As far as I can tell, there has been no price hike and no price change since we released these games.

Taking Harpoon 3 ANW as an example, the digital download price is right where it was at release: 26.99 GBP. The additional Physical + Digital and Physical Only options are also correct at 32.99 GBP. The 32.99 GBP price did not replace the 26.99 GBP Digital Download price, it's in addition to it for the additional expense on the physical options.

COTA is 26.99 GBP as well and as far as my records go, that was the price it was at release for the Digital Download. The new physical options there are also 32.99 GBP as they have always been.

TOAW 3 is 21.99 GBP for Digital Download, as it was at release. The additional physical options are 26.99 GBP, as they have always been. This is less expensive than COTA or H3ANW because it's also $10 less expensive in US dollars as a release.

As far as I can tell, nothing has changed at all. Before I go back to the DR folks and convince them that I've lost my marbles, can you guys explain what you are talking about exactly?

Regards,

- Erik

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

Looks that way. Harpoon is now £32.99, and I paid £26.99 (plus VAT) for it. Likewise CotA. And TOAW is £26.99 rather than £21.99. Glad I bought when I did.

A fiver is quite a hike. Any explanation, Matrix bods? The increase seems excessive, but if it is necessary why not just put it on future titles?

Based on Erik's comments I would say you bought it when there was only the digital version avaiable and are now confusing the first default purchasing option (physical product) as price increase, since the difference between physical and digital product is exactly the "price increase" you state [;)]

[Hertston]

At the risk of looking a complete idiot I would swear that when I looked at the prices having seen Mike's comment they reflected the increase I have suggested, and that I didn't confuse the DD and physical prices. That said, having looked today... you are quite correct, Marc.

I must therefore conclude that I am either going mad, that there is a conspiracy to drive me mad, or that I didn't look carefully enough. As the third explanation seems marginally the more likely, I must apologise for any inconvenience caused and time wasted. Sorry, guys.

[Marc von Martial]

no worries [;)]

[MikeBrough]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

At the risk of looking a complete idiot I would swear that when I looked at the prices having seen Mike's comment they reflected the increase I have suggested, and that I didn't confuse the DD and physical prices. That said, having looked today... you are quite correct, Marc.

I must therefore conclude that I am either going mad, that there is a conspiracy to drive me mad, or that I didn't look carefully enough. As the third explanation seems marginally the more likely, I must apologise for any inconvenience caused and time wasted. Sorry, guys.

I don't think you're going mad. When I reported the 'problem', the prices were definitely higher. Unless we both get our glasses from the same optician!

Perhaps a site hiccup?

Still, £39.99 for WITP vs. $69.99 still makes the game 5% more expensive in the UK.

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: MikeBrough

I don't think you're going mad. When I reported the 'problem', the prices were definitely higher. Unless we both get our glasses from the same optician!

Perhaps a site hiccup?

I wish I had taken a bloody screenshot now! [:D]

That said, as long as things are back as they were - if indeed they ever changed - all's well that ends well, I guess.

[Cmdrcain]

ORIGINAL: Jevhaddah

We seem to have a lot more rights than most other countries in regards to returning items we purchased on line.
Jev

In USA, if buy with a Credit Card anything, even online, you can if seller doesn't make good refuse the charge and order a charge back on the seller.

So [:D] Us in the "colonies" have quite a bit of rights ourselves.

Don't forget also we have 50 states, each with their own consumer protection laws too[8|]

[Jevhaddah]

Heheh Aye, [:D]

I see Dell have been called to task for attempting to breach UK distance selling rights.  Mostly in regards to warranties and there 90 days warrantly return policy.  We get a years manufacturing warranty an all new purchases and at no time are 'all sales final' [;)]

Mind yoo HM GoV just tried to charge a friend of mine VAT and import duty on a CPU he won in a competition.

He is still fighting it but it beggars belief that the 'MAN' can make money out something that was given freely and at no cost for the compettion.

As a Tightfisted Scot it makes wanna don me kilt, drop me drawers and go waving my claymore in the VAT mans face [:D]

Cheers
Jev