Play.com FINALLY fixes their Euro conversion rate!

Basq

Not a specific Bargain Alert but worth a notification!

As brought to my attention by cianos1 in the 'play.com easter sale', Play.com have finally improved their sterling rate.

For example, the 'Spaced' Boxset which is at £9.99 sterling converted to €16.49 last week now converts to €13.99 (that's €2.50 of a saving).

Fair fecks to Play.com and hopefully it stays this way.. now begs the question, what about all the cash they made off us when they have the rip-off exchange rate?

indiewindy

Great stuff

Makaveli

Bah, I bought Spaced last week, except it was €15.49. Funny you should pick that as your example.

Padraig Mor

£9.99 converts to €12.63 at today's rate so they're still taking a mark up on the exchange alone. However, don't forget that the sterling price includes 17.5% VAT to the UK government; Play pocket the whole euro price. i.e. Play make €10.76 (£8.51) from that boxset when sold in sterling, but €13.99 when sold in euro - still smells like a rip off to me!

red_fox

That's good news, thanks for the alert, but why don't they just allow us to pay in sterling again and be done with it...

Basq

Makaveli wrote: »

Bah, I bought Spaced last week, except it was €15.49. Funny you should pick that as your example.

Cos I bought it too!

Padraig Mor wrote: »

£9.99 converts to €12.63 at today's rate so they're still taking a mark up on the exchange alone. However, don't forget that the sterling price includes 17.5% VAT to the UK government; Play pocket the whole euro price. i.e. Play make €10.76 (£8.51) from that boxset when sold in sterling, but €13.99 when sold in euro - still smells like a rip off to me!

Jaysus.. talk about over-analysing! :rolleyes:

Beggers can't be choosers. And do bear in mind remember Play.com are one of few DVD retailers to offer free postage to Ireland.

ongarite

Yeah, great news, their PS3 games are now much cheaper.

Saving of €6 from yesterday's price on GTA4.

TheDriver

Remember they still have "free" delivery so presume thats why we must pay in euro

eamon234

In fairness it does cost them more to send an item from UK to IE

311

The price drop has to be because of posts here and maybe a few people emailed play aswell.

It's good to see a company ,making an effort for business:)

machiavellianme

eamon234 wrote: »

In fairness it does cost them more to send an item from UK to IE

They arent in the UK
Jersey is not even a member of the EU

Jimbo

machiavellianme wrote: »

They arent in the UK
Jersey is not even a member of the EU

Yep, I've been caught with customs ordering from Play a couple of times

guinnessdrinker

By not fixing the conversion rate they may have been making a profit in the short term but in the long term it would have backfired as consumers became resentfull about being ripped off. So they may have had long term vision and realised it would have been a mistake not give Irish consumers a fairer deal.

Akula

Padraig Mor wrote: »

£9.99 converts to €12.63 at today's rate so they're still taking a mark up on the exchange alone. However, don't forget that the sterling price includes 17.5% VAT to the UK government; Play pocket the whole euro price. i.e. Play make €10.76 (£8.51) from that boxset when sold in sterling, but €13.99 when sold in euro - still smells like a rip off to me!

Hangon.... I'm pretty certain this isn't actually the case. In fact they are obliged to charge vat at our rate of 21% like Amazon does.

PWEI

I've been using play for the best part of six years but a few months ago,I deleted all my personal information as I wasn't able to cancel my account.I then emailed them and asked told them I wanted my account closed because of their rip off euro mark ups.They might have brought their euro prices down but they are still marking their euro prices up.EG I Am Legend £9.99 or €13.99.At today's rate £9.99 is actually €12.60.No reason for them to be even charging euro prices in the first place as we are using credit credit cards for our purchases.

bk

guinnessdrinker wrote: »

By not fixing the conversion rate they may have been making a profit in the short term but in the long term it would have backfired as consumers became resentfull about being ripped off. So they may have had long term vision and realised it would have been a mistake not give Irish consumers a fairer deal.

True, I know I had stopped shopping at Play for this very reason. I mean we buy stuff off the web because it is cheap, if Play are expensive, then there are plenty of other sites to order from instead.

therecklessone

PWEI wrote: »

At today's rate £9.99 is actually €12.60.

xe.com does not give you the retail rate of exchange, there is no way you'd get that rate from your card provider.

Oracle

Great thanks for the heads up Basquille. Can you fix their Irish electronics embargo now?

ongarite

PWEI wrote: »

I've been using play for the best part of six years but a few months ago,I deleted all my personal information as I wasn't able to cancel my account.I then emailed them and asked told them I wanted my account closed because of their rip off euro mark ups.They might have brought their euro prices down but they are still marking their euro prices up.EG I Am Legend £9.99 or €13.99.At today's rate £9.99 is actually €12.60.No reason for them to be even charging euro prices in the first place as we are using credit credit cards for our purchases.

You have got to factor in the extra 4% VAT and extra cost of delivery.

therecklessone

ongarite wrote: »

You have got to factor in the extra 4% VAT and extra cost of delivery.

Play do not pay VAT to the Irish government, so there's not factoring to be done at all.

x keo21

play.com advertise Free delivery however if they are factoring deliverly charges into the cost of items then it ceases to be 'free'. Blatant false advertising if you ask me.

jayteecork

Yeah since play.com say their delivery is "free" then of course there can be no "factoring" delivery costs into the exchange rate.

red_fox

I would prefer a more open system of item costs £x, delivery £y (notice the £ not €) but I am still glad the play.com rate has changed to reflect the real rate, I had more or less stopped considering them and I've always liked play.

Now if only they'll ship even small items like memory cards here too...

x keo21

x keo21 wrote: »

play.com advertise Free delivery however if they are factoring deliverly charges into the cost of items then it ceases to be 'free'. Blatant false advertising if you ask me.

I hope you're being sarcastic.

jayteecork

What is the exact reason they don't ship small electricals here?

tman

Nice to see them finally get around to it, but I'm sickened that I could have saved about €10 on purchases from the past couple of weeks

Tony

jayteecork wrote: »

What is the exact reason they don't ship small electricals here?

Irish producer recycling fund, way too much red tape and expense

http://www.weeeireland.ie/downloads/Code%20of%20Good%20Practise%20Distance%20Seller%20Producers%20300606.pdf

shayser

therecklessone wrote: »

Play do not pay VAT to the Irish government, so there's not factoring to be done at all.

If I'm reading this right they might have to. Would have to register anyway.

If you are a distance seller selling into Ireland you must register for VAT if your turnover from the supply of goods in the Republic of Ireland exceeds, or is likely to exceed €35,000 in a calendar year.

http://www.taxworld.ie/taxes/vat/2006/summary

I gave out to them and stopped buying from them over their exchange rate. Must have another look now.

ei9go

http://www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/asda/home.dept

Also posted from Channel Islands. Free delivery to Ireland and pay in Sterling.

steve 0

ei9go wrote: »

http://www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/asda/home.dept

Also posted from Channel Islands. Free delivery to Ireland and pay in Sterling.

Are you sure? Their site states

Which countries do you deliver to?
We only deliver to addresses in the UK.
Other countries are displayed should you wish to send the invoice to an alternative billing address however we do not offer delivery outside of the UK.

http://www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/asda/orders.info?q=orders1

Oracle

ei9go wrote: »

http://www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/asda/home.dept

Also posted from Channel Islands. Free delivery to Ireland and pay in Sterling.

:eek: The Asda on-line store delivers to Ireland and for free? (Rubs hands together in expectation of super cheap deals from Asda UK, otherwise known as US mega-discount retailer Wal-Mart. )

They're a new kid on the block if it's true, next question of course is, what will they deliver to Ireland? What types of items have you ordered from them? Thanks for the good news anyway, ei9go.

Basq

Oracle wrote: »

They're a new kid on the block if it's true, next question of course is, what will they deliver to Ireland? What types of items have you ordered from them? Thanks for the good news anyway, ei9go.

The reason you were unaware if because they don't have nearly as many bargains as you'd expect. The Wal-Mart affiliation is just a name.. don't expect to get stuff for that cheap in their online store.

DVDs, CDs, & Games all have free delivery.. but don't think they ship anything else outside Europe (similar to Amazon.co.uk).

Darwin

Asda - nice find! At least it gives us another site to price check when buying games etc other than the usual trio of blahdvd, sendit and play. Just picked up God of War for the PSP for 17.71stg (slighty cheaper than blahdvd, way cheaper than play)

Oracle

'Tis true what you say Basquille, just browsing through the DVD's I've seen most of them cheaper elsewhere.

therecklessone

shayser wrote: »

If I'm reading this right they might have to. Would have to register anyway.

My understanding is that regulation only applies to sale of goods within the EU, i.e. from one member state to another. Jersey is NOT in the EU.

A number of posters have been caught for VAT on play.com packages in the past, do a quick search.

shayser

So Play don't charge VAT? See same prices on Amazon and dvd.co.uk with VAT.

311

Surely if play can't ship electronic goods to Ireland ,they are obviously in contact with some sort of consumer agency here.

therecklessone

shayser wrote: »

So Play don't charge VAT? See same prices on Amazon and dvd.co.uk with VAT.

AFAIK, Play do not pay VAT to the Revenue Commissioners.

Amazon may charge the same for products, but will charge you for delivery. As I understand it, Play's offer of "free delivery" is covered by their pricing model, as are all of their overheads...you don't get free delivery, you pay for it everytime you purchase a product, it's just included in the item price.

RobertFoster

Darwin wrote: »

Asda - nice find! At least it gives us another site to price check when buying games etc other than the usual trio of blahdvd, sendit and play. Just picked up God of War for the PSP for 17.71stg (slighty cheaper than blahdvd, way cheaper than play)

Has the ASDA site any affiliation with TheHut (also mentioned here a few days ago)?

Any game I've looked at on the ASDA site is the same price as on the Hut. Like, Orange Box (PC) is £15.93 on both, and Metroid Prime 3 is £26.93 on both too. Even God of War is the same price.

Either they're connected, or they price match each other.

therecklessone

For clarity re. VAT:

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/consumers/mail_order_distance/index_en.htm

Goods

The rules applicable to mail order and distance purchasing are identical whether goods are ordered by telephone, from a catalogue or via the internet.

The general rule for supplies of goods to private individuals in the single market is the "origin" principle. This means that private individuals pay VAT in the Member State of purchase, and do not have additional VAT to pay on return to their own Member State .

However, for "distance selling" (where the supplier and the customer are located in different Member States , and the goods are dispatched to the customer), there are a number of different possibilities, all related to the level of trade of the supplier, which determines whether the "origin" or "destination" principles apply.

The general rule is that it is the VAT rate of the supplier which applies ("origin" principle). However, if the level of sales in any one Member State exceed a certain threshold (either €35.000 or €100.000 depending on the Member State), then the supplier must register for VAT and charge VAT at the rate applicable in that Member State ("destination" principle).

This means that distance sellers must charge the VAT rate applicable in the Member State of the customer where the supplies to all customers in that Member State exceed the relevant threshold.

Goods supplied from outside the European Union are subject to VAT on importation.

EdgarAllenPoo

I've just compared some of the £ to € prices on some games and books, for example the paperback edition of Lawrence Dallaglio's autobiography is £5.99 but is then listed in € as €8.49 when £5.99 is roughly €7.54. They're still screwing us.

Sarn

They're using €1 = ~0.714 GBP.

If I get stung for VAT and duty I'll be seriously paying over the odds.

rubadub

Originally Posted by eamon234 View Post
In fairness it does cost them more to send an item from UK to IE

machiavellianme wrote: »

They arent in the UK
Jersey is not even a member of the EU

It costs less for people/companies in jersey to post to the UK rather than Ireland or europe. They are close to the UK so I presume this is why. Just like it is cheaper to post from Ireland to the UK rather than the rest of europe. I expect they might have massive containers going daily to the UK so get a really low rate.

I would prefer if they openly disclosed the postage, and gave discounts on multiple items, by packing them all in one box.

There is no such thing as "free postage", I have never heard of volunteer postmen. Pizza places now do "free delivery" and "walk in discounts". The potential walk in discount is the delivery charge.

okidoki987

www.currency.ie will give you close enough to the "interbank" rate
(the rate that the banks deal with other at for the larger amounts).
Knock off approx 3% for the margins and the rate on the credit cards
will be about 0.7680, then there's a 1.75% foreign currency charge which leaves the rate at
approx 0.755, still a bit higher then Play's 0.7150!

Zaph

Slightly OT, but I was up in The Outlet in Banbridge the other day and went into Burger King for something to eat. Anything I bought up there I put on my credit card put I paid in Euros in BK. The rate they gave was 60 pence to the Euro, which was only pointed out to me after I'd handed the money over. Don't know if everywhere uses the same rate, but it'll be interesting to see what reply I get from the centre's management company to the e-mail I sent them. By comparison Play's rate seems extravagently generous.

loyatemu

its a burger joint - they're not obliged to take your euros at all.

plenty of places down here used to take sterling on a 1 to 1 basis before the euro changeover. needless to say this was not a good deal for our northern brethren.

Stephen

TheHut run the Asda entertainment site so the prices are the same and the stock comes from the same place. I've ordered a good bit of stuff from them (games and DVDs) over the last few weeks and all of it was delivered so I wouldn't pay much attention to their UK-only delivery policy.

steve 0

Why is the rate not the same across the site, the latest offer is 'everything for £5' or €7.49, if you dont mind

podgeandrodge

yeah that makes it a rate of .67. Still a total rip off.

311

Play.com don't put anyone under pressure to buy stuff ,but some of their stuff is still cheaper than other sites.

PWEI

Sorry to be bringing up and old topic but the play.com euro mark up has gone beyond a joke now.I'm encouraging people to avoid buying from play even
if it's cheaper than other sites.Just a few examples, Iron Man £10.99,current euro conversion €12.30 but play are selling it for €15.49 that's over a €3 mark up.The Dark Knight £11.99,current euro conversion is €13.41 but play's euro price is €16.99.I can buy it at that price in HMV.:mad: