UK New Sony a7iii price unfair

[allanarthur]

I have the a7ii already and several Sony lenses.

Sony Zeiss 24-70mm f4 _ Sony 70-200mm f4 G_ Sony Zeiss 55mm f1.8_  Sony 90mm f2.8 Maco G_ and Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f4.

I have been waiting patiently for the new a7iii to come out

The a7iii looks to be a great camera.

In the US it is priced at pre-order $1999.

If you do the conversion at 1.39$ to the £, that should make it pre-order £1438 here in the UK.

But the pre-order price here in the UK is £1999. This makes it a staggering £561 more expensive.

That is 39% more expensive here, than in the US.

Now i expect there to be some price differences, i dont know what tax you pay in the US on cameras etc.

But this UK price difference is wrong Sony.

I was going to buy the new  a7iii and i was prepared to pay around £1600 but £1999 has taken it out of my price range.

I like Sony gear buttttt the prices, especially in the UK.

I have a back up Fuji camera and kit lens, which i also like.

I have to admit, that I have also been looking at Fuji recently.

I might have to look a little harder now.

Regards,

Allan 

[manbitescat]

Well despite that explanation, it's a fact that most corporations regard the UK as a financial 'milch cow' and that has been the case for years. I remember in the 90's there was some kind of enquiry into the price of CD sales, which were around 25% cheaper in the US and the EU. It's commonplace for most products these days to use a $/£ exchange rate of 1:1. A phenomenon known as 'Rip-off Britain'...

[gcoyle]

it has got far worse since Brexit, i noticed all camera related products go up in price by a few hundred pounds. yet the wages havent. bloody tories

[Angelod001]

That doesn't add up...  If you account for an 8% sales tax in New York for example, you wouldn't count that as the equivalent non VAT UK price, because you've essentially added VAT to the US price.  

The price in the UK should be £1725.60 including Tax. In the US it would be $2159.99 (£1,533.31) including tax.  So really the difference is around £200 when taxes are accounted for - and that's if you even get charged sales tax.  I've bought Sony cameras in New York as recently as 2016 and didn't get charged sales tax at all.

I'm not sure what the consumer rights in the UK are compared to the US but I'm happy to be educated, I wasn't aware there were any significant differences. Some stores in the Uk offer extended warranties but that is down to the store, not the manufacturer.  Re warehousing costs, I'm not sure I buy that but again would gladly look at a break down from someone in the know.  I would bet that at least part of the hike we experience in the UK is down to historic costs - where it used to be much more expensive to sell in Europe and it set a precident.  A precident that (at least in part) manufacturers are still taking advantage of, despite actually having much lower costs now.  Another factor is that these businesses struggle to escape corporate taxes as easily as they do in the US, I can't help but feel the money is simply recouped from the European customer by upping the price.  Again, happy to be educated otherwise if people have the actual numbers, but if we're all just theorizing, there's mine.

[asonge]

Unfair indeed! And gap higher than in general for these kind of goods... will have to look for a way to get it cheap...in the meantime, no purchase.