Apple and reseller prices - read more...

As everyone knows, i`ve been yearning for a Mac for almost 5 years now and since the release of Mac mini, even i was for the first time (almost) able to afford one. So i went to the official Apple reseller (we don`t have an Apple store in Serbia, which is expected) and looked at the lil marvel.

First they wouldn`t let me turn it on, so i could just look at it, but anyway, i was impressed.

Then things started to get interesting.

First i asked for Belkin's iPod Battery pack that in US costs $50-60, depending of the seller. However the price i was given was 88.9 euros which converted in dollars is more than double.

Then i asked about the mini. Stock version of 1.25 is 48.498 dinars which is 613 euros (around $797). The stock version of 1.42 is 51.410 dinars which is 650 euros ( $845). As u can imagine, i was shocked with this.

When i asked about the huge price difference between Serbia and the rest of Europe (Serbia is in eastern Europe), they almost told me to **** off.

Their reply was "Well we`re not forcing you to buy it and it`s our right to price things the way we want to".

I would buy the mini somewhere else but my friend who bought his iPod in US had his Apple Worldwide warranty refused by these pple who are "official Apple resellers" and i`m afraid that if anything happens to the mini, i might end up paying even more for fixing it. They also laughed when i asked for student discount :slant:

My question is this. Does Apple have any kind of control over resellers? How can they set prices so high? From what i know, resellers are allowed only to have their price in the +/- 10% range of the Apple's prices?

For a second i thought it might be taxes but after going through all of them (i have a friend who is an economist and knows these thinsg) and using the 429 euros no-tax price in the rest of European stores, the mini shouldn`t be more than 510 euros.

Is there anyone i could contact about this? If i`m stuck to this price, i can say bye bye to my (even now distant hopes) of ever owning a Mac.

Thanks

PS Today i got to try the mini at that store, even though i had to lie and tell them i was gonna buy it after i try it. Of course it`s out of my range but i at least got to try it. It`s an awesome machine

#256265

Unfortunately my friend, Apple always has been a bit snobby about the parts of the world that weren't star spangled bannered - from the very beginning an Apple II costed 6.000 Deutschmarks in 1982 which was about twice its price than in the US. As far as I can see, things are getting a bit better over the decades so the being an alien tax has dropped from 200% to a meagre 20%... As for the snobiety of the "resellers", welcome to the club man...

#256272

Man. Thats terriable. It would be cheaper to have someone buy and send it to you.

#256277

That really sucks how they are so anal about trying the mini. If I were you, I would have someone buy it in the US and send it to you. I am not exactly sure how the worldwide warranty works, but its probably the best way to do it. I hope you have friends in the US!

#256282

as i said, if it breaks down (even during the warranty period), i`ll probably end up paying for repairs more than it would have costed me.

if herd is right, i`ll have to say byebye to Macs for at least few more years

#256285

What a crummy deal. I think we should take up a collection for Unbeliever and send him a Mac Mini.

#256286

Some case here in Israel, the Apple reseller (Yeda) do whatever they want, they take a lot of money, and a lot of people try to conect Apple and nothing.

/aviel

#256308

have you considered making your purchase in hungary or croatia or even austria?

i mean, if you want your mini that badly.

#256317

i want ANY Mac badly

i`ve been crawing for a Mac ever since 2001, and i was able to afford an iPod after almost a year of working during high school >.

#256321

Austria would be a good idea for you mate You could do something like this:

1. Get to know if mac mini has international warranty, independent of the country where you buy it.

2. If yes, make friends with someone in Austria.

3. Buy mac mini in US, send it to Austria (so it 'officially' stays there) and take it to Belgrad.

4. If it breaks take it back to Austria and repair it in official Apple repairing office or whatever they call it there.

I know it sounds like James Bond scenario but it might work out. If it was me, I'd go for it (luckily there are official Apple stores in Poland).

#256328

Istn't there an online apple store in serbia?

i'll never buy via a reseller, i prefer to order online on the real apple store rather than going to one of these resellers.

Quite often, when they see people who are quite uninformed about new products, they will try to sell you the old version rather than the new one, just because they want to liquidate their stock...I think that's not really fair...

I don 't understand why Apple don't harmonize their prices...that's quite weird.

I mean in South America, people don't have that much money and the products are so expensive. By putting so expensive prices, how will pwople be able to afford their products? It's like if Apple didn't want their products to be sold in some countries.

Forinstance,if you compare France with Switzerland, prices are more expensive for everything in Switzerland, except for Apple products, who are much more expensive in France...

That's unlogical...

Very expensive prices in countries where people have low salaries and cheap prices in countries where people have a high salary...

#256331

@ Piotrek - sounds good BUT trip to Austra is not a small change to me

@ bondjames - no, there`s not online store in Serbia

but i agree with you on the prices. Serbia is not a rich country (on contrary). But still they price it soo high it`s unreachable for 99,99% of pple.

#256332

You also have to take in to consideration scarcity. When a product is scarce in a particular area, the prices will be higher....I think your economic friend failed to mention that to you.

#256334

@Shark

I supposed I am the economic friend??

You're talking about scarcity...which scarcity my friend? You know all the products come from Shangaï, regardless of the country you're living in. I mean I ordered a computer 10 days ago and it's shipping from China... another friend of mine did the same. It also shipped from China. And that's only for Switzerland. As I could read on this forum, people ordered from UK or from The US and for all of them, the products always come from China...The computer is always built in China and then sent to the dfferent countries. The computersd are generally not produced in the different countries, but in one centralized place, sometimes China, sometimes Nederland, or other, I don t know

When you order a product in a given country, whatever it may be, they will send the product from China... so there is no big deal between sending a product to Serbia or to Switzerland... The distance is even smaller in the case of Serbia.

Maybe the argument holds for resellers, but for official Apple stores, this does not make sense..

#256337

myself having easy access to an 'Apple Reseller' from whom i get discounted prices ofcourse, i can safely say apple really dont care what price they sell their products at. However usually where there is an apple reseller there is also an official Apple Store, so the only way for the reseller to make a sale is to keep the price down. Consider yourself lucky however, becuase ive heard of one country with "Apple Resellers" selling MacMini's for $1199USD. My suggestion is to get one shipped in, the mini comes in an extremely small package so the shipping cost will definately keep the price down below that you can find locally.

and if all else fails, come talk to me... im reasonable certain i could get one to you for less than that.

-The Unknown

#256342

Yeah man, but you guys cant compare the dollar to the euro.

The dollar is so low at the moment.

#256356

Maybe move to an other country... Or the next best idea would be the buying from america dn getting a friend to send it to you.

#256374

@Shark

The computer is always built in China ....

When you order a product in a given country, whatever it may be, they will send the product from China... so there is no big deal between sending a product to Serbia or to Switzerland... The distance is even smaller in the case of Serbia.

yeah, but they're designed in cupertino Its expensive to ship design.

@unbeliever... if you are worried about repair costs if you buy through a foreign friend, keep in mind that even dealing with that a-hole reseller will likely involve high costs as they will probably try to screw you around/not help you if you have problems anyways. They've proven themselves unworthy of your sale - not letting you try the computer before you buy is outrageous! They sound extremely rude.

Also, wasn't there something about the mac mini (or was it the g5 imac?) not having a switchable dual (NA/Euro) powersource, so euro's were frying their US bought computers? Which would mean you'd have to add the cost of a transformer(or whatever they're called) if you bought US?

I'd stay away from that reseller like the plague though. :slant:

#256381

i know what you feel. once while complaining to this guy that sold me "radeon 9800pro" which actually had geforce fx 5900 xt inside they told me "go on, call the police. or we will get the police to get rid of you" jabbing their finger at my chest. i did call the police, but they coulden't do anything because the reciept says only damaged products can be replaced. WTF! really harsh words can seriously make me want to pop off their balls, grill it and feed it to them like omlete!

#256393

When I had been to visit my grandma in India this Xmas in India, I had been to a one of the Apple resellers there. The prices were about 15%-25% higher than compared to here in the US. But guess what, they offer a COMPLETE LIFETIME WARRANTY on any Apple product including the iPods and the batteries. . I paid an extra $50 on a 20gb 4th Gen iPod but I feel it was worth it,cause here for $59 bucks u get only an additional year. Oh, they were polite too. . Guess I know where to my buy my next powerbook.

#256470

Then i asked about the mini. Stock version of 1.25 is 48.498 dinars which is 613 euros (around $797). The stock version of 1.42 is 51.410 dinars which is 650 euros ( $845). As u can imagine, i was shocked with this.

In Russia it costs 1179 $

#256476

In Russia things cost money, but, even if you have these money, you can't buy these things just because they are not available... For example, iMac G5 20" still is not available here and nobody knows when it will be. It is ridiculous. :slant:

#256498

i was thinking about this and it occured to me - apple should care about reseller prices. serbian market isn't big but it's not small either, especially considering that in the next few years there should be a substantial growth in pc sales (the government supports this via tax reductions etc). if they want their share of the profits, they'd better put an end to overpricing.

i'm not talking about the reality here, but rather about the way it looks to foreign investors. new market, eager to jump onto the digitalization_21st_century_blah_blah_blah bandwagon, reduced taxes, bank loans... by allowing the distributor to keep macs expensive and only available to the rich, they only lose profit.

on a more realistic note, have you considered a bank loan? i hear there are special student loans targeted at exactly what you need - learning equipment.

#256536

by making ridiculous prices (2x times of original price) to maximize revenues is plain stupid (it does work (paintings, etc), but not here in the computer word). it's actually going to make them out of buisness obviously. that store owner needs to rethink his decisions. a bit more should be ok, due to understandable reasons, but charging a cocacola for 30 bucks US is not smart at all only ok if people are desperate.

#256836

A bank loan *could* be an idea, Unbe, i took one for my Dualie ^^ (yes, it is finally mine though )

#256839