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Pricing question

Former Member

Yes, I know this one has been done to death over on the RaspberryPi.org forums, and probably here too, but here goes.

 

I'm one of the ones who's been following the Pi since last May, and was enormously disappointed with the handling of the launch.  Not that I was actually expecting to get one from the first batch anyway, but really, the whole thing was a debacle.

 

Now, I've registered an interest with both RS and Farnell, and as RS don't seem to be doing anything at all, I figured I'd preorder through Farnell.  At least these guys are taking preorders, right?  I'd initially been very much put off by what appeared to be price gouging by Farnell, especially for shipping to mainland Europe (I'm based in France), but the pricing post on the raspberrypi.org site somewhat allayed my fears, viz:

 

EU £ Credit Card Transactions 27.25 + 5.45 (UK VAT) = £32.70

 

Okay, that's not too harsh.  It's somewhat more than I would pay in the UK, and I really don't like the idea of rolling the delivery charge into the price, but at least it's in the right ballpark.  So, off to xe.com, that's around 39.50 EUR.

 

So, clickety-click in the email link from Farnell, which takes me to piregistration.farnell.com, select "France" as my country, and, to my surprise, the price quoted is...

 

44.82 EUR (or 37.13 GBP)

 

So, where's that extra 5 quid suddenly come from?  If I order at this price will I get charged the 32.70 GBP rate, or 37.13 GBP?  What's the deal?

 

Michel

  • Michel,

        It's clear that there is no real consistency for non-UK customers.  I know that Farnell/Newark are charging $7 more to ship the RPi to Canada.  This is likely a simple matter of the fact that Farnell is getting a big shipment to it's US company likely directly from China.  Those customers in the US get a "cheap" $5 delivery charge by the US Postal Service.  Those of us north of the 45th, they add another $7 and the possibility of UPS customs fees (normally another $10).  Canadian customers ordered from "Canada.newark.com" so it would appear to any customer that they are ordering from a Canadian-based organization, not just a desk in the US sales office that deals with Canucks.

     

        It seems that Newark/Farnell have been around for years.  I'm sure that they can deal with distributing their wares.  But in the age where borders are blurred by business and ordering online from a "local" company means that your item is sourced directly from a factory in China, I'm sure that these inconsistencies could be removed.  RS stated that they will charge everyone the same price (except for taxes of course), no matter where the recipient is.  The RPi is $35 and the shipping if flat rate.  Another good example is Newegg, a US-based computer parts retailer. They have a Canadian branch called "Newegg.ca".  When I order from them, I get one price with one shipping cost based on weight.  I've received orders that originated in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles and Dallas, yet they were all the same shipping price and I had no customs fees.

     

        It seems that we, the customers, are paying for Farnell to "stage" their shipments. 

  • in reply to Former Member

    It's not really the lack of consistency that's a problem.  That it costs more to ship to one country than another, and that one country has higher import charges than another, I can live with and accept - shipping and tax was always understood to be outside the $25/35 price points.

     

    The problem as I see it is the opacity of Farnell's pricing, and the fact that the fact that I'm being quoted a price that's totally different to the one Farnell have stated publically elsewhere.

     

    After the launch debacle, there have been posts, blogs and assorted other massive whines about how Farnell are pricing the Pi, including the "rolling up" of shipping into the unit price and then claiming "free shipping", quoting one price on preorder and then billing another, refusing to accept non-business orders under $50 in certain countries, and various other "oddities" regarding their pricing model.  The response to this (and an attempt to defuse the situation) was a post on the raspberrypi.org front page, http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/826.  That appears to set in stone the pricing model, worldwide, from Farnell/Element 14, and, in my case, states that with shipping and tax included, the Pi should be priced at £32.70.  And yet, on trying to make an order, I am quoted some £5 more. Which is all more grist for the "Farnell are gouging prices" mill.

     

    RS might not appear to be doing very much (although I'm reliably informed that they are contacting the first people who expressed an interest through their site), but at least they are quoting a unit price that corresponds almost exactly to the $35 that they are, as far as I understand it, contractually required to use.

     

    Michel.

  • So, no response from anyone at Element14, then.  Figures.

     

    Michel.