Why this price jump?

Hortator Indoril Nerevar

Hey everyone so I am a Aussie thinking of getting the new chapter. So I went to the page and found the price shown below.



however when I go to click "pre purchase now" I get given this price as shown below.



So I figured the $29.99 was USD and the $44.95 is AUD right?

well...



So I am wondering why I am being told I need to spend $5.09 more than I should.

Hopefully I have just done something wrong and its closer to $40AUD like it says in the converter.. because even at $40 I am eh feeling.

NewBlacksmurf

make sure you're looking at the same sku.....there are different upgrades but regarding the USD vs AUD, take that up with your country exchange rate

Androconium

Because it's ok to rip us off.

Anotherone773

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself

2) You pay the same price $44.95 AUD regardless of fluctuations in exchange rate. So to keep the price consistent they determine what the AUD is doing against the USD and trends over the last X months. They calculate this into their final price and you pay one set price rather than a price based on day to day market fluctuations.


Dont fret, US people dont pay the price listed either. On $40 here i pay like $2.50 in tax or something. It will be higher or lower depending on where in the US you live. The price you see listed in USD for US peeps is a before tax price since our tax system is kind of (overly) complex. The price on everything in the US digital or otherwise is before tax unless it says with tax or tax included( which is very rare) as their are many different taxes that may apply to a single item. Like i can buy a game from the local shop and pay 3 or 4 taxes on it before i actually get to leave the store with it.

EDIT: BTW the AUD is losing value against the USD. Its worth 75% of what it was when this game was released. They use to be matched almost dollar for dollar in 2014.

Edit 2: My actual cost when converted from US to AUD is $42.41 AUD. Some US people will pay up to nearly $44 AUD after tax. You are actually paying about $1.10 AUD more for the game before taxes are applied than an american. So its not THAT terrible.

Edit 3: At $0.73AUD to $1 USD exchange rate you will pay about the same base price as an American. So hold out for that .02 drop.

Nemesis7884

jeeez you know how far away australia is and how long it takes until all the bits and bytes are there? Thats obviously transportation cost!

DanteYoda

Still cheaper here than steam or any resellers... I could not find a cheaper copy than that official ESO price...


Its insane and retail $89.95 up...


What the royal $&#@..

TheRealPotoroo

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

JamieAubrey

People have asked this before and I thought AUS earn more minimum wage over USD or I could be pulling this from my ass, thats why its such a price jump

Anotherone773

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

That is incorrect, i mean unless ATO is wrong, they probably arent though.

Nyladreas

Hortator Indoril Nerevar wrote: »

Hey everyone so I am a Aussie thinking of getting the new chapter. So I went to the page and found the price shown below.



however when I go to click "pre purchase now" I get given this price as shown below.



So I figured the $29.99 was USD and the $44.95 is AUD right?

well...



So I am wondering why I am being told I need to spend $5.09 more than I should.

Hopefully I have just done something wrong and its closer to $40AUD like it says in the converter.. because even at $40 I am eh feeling.

Just checked this for CAD. Canada seems to get the ripoff too. :C

Invincible

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government.

You're lucky you don't live in Australia or the feds would be knocking on your door for that remark.

Anotherone773

Invincible wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government.

You're lucky you don't live in Australia or the feds would be knocking on your door for that remark.

I hope that is sarcasm.

Nyladreas wrote: »

Hortator Indoril Nerevar wrote: »

Hey everyone so I am a Aussie thinking of getting the new chapter. So I went to the page and found the price shown below.



however when I go to click "pre purchase now" I get given this price as shown below.



So I figured the $29.99 was USD and the $44.95 is AUD right?

well...



So I am wondering why I am being told I need to spend $5.09 more than I should.

Hopefully I have just done something wrong and its closer to $40AUD like it says in the converter.. because even at $40 I am eh feeling.

Just checked this for CAD. Canada seems to get the ripoff too. :C

I cant teach everyone in the world how their tax system works. Also CAD gov not as good about nice clean easy to use sites like the Aussies. This is what happens when you hang around us Americans to much. You get a bloated ineffective( got error 404 on CAD gov site about your GST/PST/HST tax) system that is a nightmare to navigate.

maroite

I'm guessing this isn't a Zenimax thing, its an Australian trade/government thing. I hear on a lot of forums that imports to Australia are taxed and tariffed beyond belief.

If you want cheaper game prices, find the politician who is willing to lower taxes/tariffs and vote them in?

Edit: My wife is British and I just /facepalm at the pricing on stuff she's offered. Then I say "We're married, you live in the US now. Time to update that address." And she gets the US prices. hah But seriously, items that are $4.99 USD are like 3.99 GBP...

Slick_007

Anotherone773 wrote: »

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

That is incorrect, i mean unless ATO is wrong, they probably arent though.

do we pay our monies to zenimax europe? because only zenimax europe and zenimax australia have abns. and zenimax australia has nothing to do with this as far as i can tell so far.

maroite

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

You're most likely not purchasing anything "over seas." That's why it switches to Aussie dollars when you log in to make the purchase.

Klixen

Check out Greenman Gaming: https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/the-elder-scrolls-online-summerset-standard-upgrade-pc/

It's $29.99 US dollars, but they have a 22% sale on at the moment if you use the code 'MAY22'. After conversion, this makes it about $32 AUS dollars (I have a friend who bought Summerset this way and she paid $32 AUS. I haven't bought it yet, cause I still feel it's too expensive).

But this is the cheapest I've seen for Summerset.

Walting

If have seen it cheaper than $32AUS. Check the thread opener's activity

AzraelKrieg

Not this thread again. And no surprise that the person who made it last time is in here spouting the same nonsense regarding tax on digital purchases. All overseas companies doing business in Australia that make $75k from purchases of goods within Australia, digital or otherwise have to apply GST to their pricing.

Here is the ATO document explaining this, same as last time this thread popped up
https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?DocID=GST/GSTR20171/NAT/ATO/00001"

Suck it up.

Kalante

LOL australians always getting shafted. The first original meme.

TheRealPotoroo

Anotherone773 wrote: »

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

That is incorrect, i mean unless ATO is wrong, they probably arent though.

No, it's not incorrect. That change was meant to come into effect 1 July 2017 but the Senate pushed it back a year. Right now any Australian who purchases any good or service overseas under AU$1,000 is not liable for GST.

DMuehlhausen

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

jeeez you know how far away australia is and how long it takes until all the bits and bytes are there? Thats obviously transportation cost!

You say this in jest, but yet when computers charge like 20$ processing fees for a flipping computer to compute taxes or that you are paying something. They might just start paying a fee based on how far you are from the server.

TheRealPotoroo

Kalante wrote: »

LOL australians always getting shafted. The first original meme.

"The Federal Parliament has passed law that will extend goods and services tax (GST) to low value imports of physical goods imported by consumers from 1 July 2018."

https://www.ato.gov.au/General/New-legislation/In-detail/Indirect-taxes/GST/GST-on-low-value-imported-goods/

"Imported goods below AU$1,000 are not currently subject to Australian import GST, however, the Australian Government announced in the 2016-17 Budget that from 1 July 2017, GST would be applied to imports of goods under AU$1,000 made by Australian consumers. This has now been postponed until 1 July 2018."

http://www.greenwichco.com.au/gst-imports-new-rules-goods-1000/

SkillzMFG

DanteYoda wrote: »

Still cheaper here than steam or any resellers... I could not find a cheaper copy than that official ESO price...


Its insane and retail $89.95 up...


What the royal $&#@..

You just haven't looked hard enough...

Gargath

I guess if the region is global, you may buy the upgrade key in other countries with lower money purchasing power, like Poland for example, i.e. less money. Here the digital upgrade starts from 88 PLN = 32,88 AUD = 20,60 EUR = 24,71 USD. You may search in other countries too, ask friends from that countries for better offers and reliable sellers.

AzraelKrieg

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

That is incorrect, i mean unless ATO is wrong, they probably arent though.

No, it's not incorrect. That change was meant to come into effect 1 July 2017 but the Senate pushed it back a year. Right now any Australian who purchases any good or service overseas under AU$1,000 is not liable for GST.

No, it's correct.

Australian goods and services tax (GST) applies to sales of imported services and digital products to Australian consumers.

Overseas businesses that meet the A$75,000 registration threshold will need to:

register for GST
charge GST on sales of imported services and digital products (unless those services or products are GST-free)
lodge returns to the ATO.
Merchants who sell services or digital products or electronic distribution platform operators who facilitate these sales should consider whether they need to register for GST.
https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/International-tax-for-business/GST-on-imported-services-and-digital-products/

And from the link that @Anotherone773 provided
If you buy imported services or digital products from overseas you may be charged GST.

Suppliers (generally with an annual Australian turnover of $75,000 or more) will:

charge Australian consumers the Australian GST rate – 10%, and
pay that GST to the ATO.
Examples of imported services and digital products
Examples of imported digital products include:

video streaming services
online subscriptions
digital books, movies and games
virtual goods and currency for apps and online games.
Examples of other imported services include:

online legal services
design jobs.

You are wrong. You have been proven wrong before and you still spout this nonsense. ZOS is clearly making over AUD$75k in a 12 month period from sales of the game and any online services such as crowns and ESO+. Therefore under Australian Tax laws that came into effect on July 1, 2017, they have to charge GST on anything they sell if the origin of the purchase is within Australia.

NoTimeToWait

Nemesis7884 wrote: »

jeeez you know how far away australia is and how long it takes until all the bits and bytes are there? Thats obviously transportation cost!

It is also necessary to turn bytes upside down, so they would work properly in Australia. You know, it's guite a bit deal, changing big endian to little endian

Juju_beans

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

Was already a thread about this. Aussies always pay more for everything. Id blame much of that on your government. So here is how it works:

1) Aussies pay a 10% GST imposed by your government on all digital merchandise. So that adds $3.98AUD buy itself.

Goods and services under AU$1,000 purchased overseas do not attract GST. That will change 1 July, 2018.

That is incorrect, i mean unless ATO is wrong, they probably arent though.

No, it's not incorrect. That change was meant to come into effect 1 July 2017 but the Senate pushed it back a year. Right now any Australian who purchases any good or service overseas under AU$1,000 is not liable for GST.

Individuals aren't subject to that until July but companies are subject to it and have to pay it.
While YOU don't have to pay it Zos does.

Nestor

I always thought the price difference was because of the mandatory "Keep the Koala's Cute" campaign to promote tourism.

You don't go from this:



To this for free, it takes time and money

Ley

There are many articles online that discuss the issue with video games (and other things) being disproportionately more expensive in Australia for seemingly no reason. There are reasons but it's hard to point to just one thing and put the blame there. A fairly significant factor is, essentially the importing laws in Australia are not conducive to a competitive market, when it comes to video games. This basically means that video game retailers can sell them for whatever they want with no fear of competitors undercutting them.

AzraelKrieg

@Nestor That first image is not a koala. That is a drop bear. You need to be incredibly careful when treading in their territory.

Nestor

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

@Nestor That first image is not a koala. That is a drop bear. You need to be incredibly careful when treading in their territory.

When you google "wet ugly koala" that is what you get.