Adobe rips off customers in Europe
This is a well-worn issue by now, but I thought I’d throw my two cents worth in.
The American list price for Adobe CS3 Web Premium is $1599, which is £798 (give or take a few pennies). Yet mysteriously it is £1404.12 (inc VAT) in the UK! What’s even stranger is that if you select the ‘download’ option instead of ’ship the box to me’ on their website, it costs £1,445.95.
Let me recap: It costs more to download it than to get the boxed version!
In the UK we’re quite used to being overcharged. They don’t call it rip off Britain for nothing, but do the sums for yourself. You could book a return flight to America to buy it and have a night out with the change!
Adobe’s excuse for this appalling behaviour is the cost of localisation. Yet I look around my Adobe apps and find US English with ‘color’, ’stylize’ etc. So that is clearly a bare-faced lie. Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen states:
Our customer is not typically price sensitive. The cost of the tool isn’t what’s critical – it’s the productivity and what their output can be. They want to pay for value as long as we deliver innovative features that allow them to be more productive and creative.
Which sounds to me like “screw you guys, we’ll charge whatever we want.”
In an ideal world, designers and photographers across Europe would exercise the only power we have as customers and boycott CS3. Since that’s unlikely to happen, we can at least sign the petition on the matter.
It seems to me that Adobe has lost the plot and the acquisition of Macromedia was detrimental to the industry. They’ve turned from a company that cared about creativity to a fat, arrogant monopolist that should be taken down a peg or two.
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April 26th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Stupid arrogant tossers. To think we just recieved out CS3 Design Premium upgrades yesterday.
I noticed in the box that came from Jigsaw24 if you get Adobe CS2 Premium full for £938.83 inc VAT you get a free upgrade to CS3 Premium. That’s a saving of £646.25 inc VAT! I know what I’d do if it was myself wanting to purchase a full version of CS3… …yeah I’d just waste £646.25 and get the full CS3 pack, dur…
April 26th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Since the EU have their knickers in a twist over the pricing on iTunes one would think that they should be all over this…
April 27th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
S’nothing to do with Adobe and everything to do with general UK economics.
The UK pretty much pays a set pound for dollar rate on ALL items from the US, from software to hardware.
Rarely, if ever does the exchange rate even enter into it. Take the Wii for example, around $250-$300 here, 300GBP for you guys.
Adobe are just continuing the practice of every other company, they are hardly deserving of being singled out or special mention.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
What are you talking about?
The Wii retails for £179.99 equating to about $360, which is a bit of a gyp but it’s a far cry from almost double!
April 27th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
was looking at Game.co.uk who were charging about 300GBP for console and two games.
McDonalds pound menu… replicated here as the dollar menu, with the same items.
It is part of why I’m enjoying life out here so much, most items cost their dollar equivalent, but wages are considerably higher.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Ah, that’s just Game capitalising on the shortage.
Surely there can be no doubt that the Wii cost a great deal more to develop, manufacture and ship than CS3. Charging one territory almost double what another pays is indefensible. Making it more expensive to download it than to receive a boxed copy is absurd.
So what are Adobe’s remaining excuses? That their added value activities like seminars and their “complimentary support” add to the cost.
Well pardon me, but I don’t care to subsidise events that I won’t be attending. Those that do can pay a ticket price…
Furthermore the last time I checked Mr Chizen, complimentary means free, not “compulsory and grossly inflating the price”.
If it’s such a burden to them then they should also deliver an English language only, downloadable version with no included tech support for a reasonable price.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
The day they make CS un copiable, i’m boloxed!