Hi Nic and others,
We agree that pricing is a function of many factors -- the most tangible of
which you mentioned are sales taxes (AKA vat in Europe), and the existence
of competition.
Conceding your point that Apple failed to comply with EU consumer protection
law does not alter my original argument that the mandated change will impact
Apple's price to service the affected products. They may choose to absorb
those costs internally by lowering employee pay scales, reducing dividend
payments, etc, but the more likely outcome is that they will conclude that
its costlier delivering products in EU member nations and price their
products accordingly. Then most consumers will blame Apple rather than the
EU!!
Best regards.
Geoff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nicolai Svendsen" <chojiro1...@gmail.com>
To: "Mac OSX & iOS Accessibility" <mac-access@mac-access.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: EU law forces Apple two-year warranty | Macworld
Hi Jeff,
Actually, what truly impacts the pricing of any product here are the tax
rates, and at least last time I studied this, consumers and producers
bargaining. They're usually price ratios which are determined by these two
factors, while competition brings a tendency towards an equilibrium level.
When taxes are levied, business are unable to immediately raise prices to
forward the cost onto the consumer any more than before the tax was
brought into action. It's a consumer/demand supply relationship. Of
course, anyone can figure that out, since it's just common sense. It gets
a bit more complicated, but I don't want to rant on here, since my primary
knowledge is now in business ethics thanks to a friend.
What Europeans know is that Apple violated the European consumer laws,
which is the important factor. The price really is not, as long as Apple
is in accordance with the laws set forth. In this case, they were not.
From what I understand, U.S. consumer law provides one year of limited
warranty, at least from what I can gather from the information off of
Apple. Europeans generally also know that there's a rather big price
difference in products from the U.S. as opposed to buying a similar
product in Europe, at least in some cases. That's not only because of the
25%VAT implied in some countries, but it's definitely what plays the
biggest part and what most consumers are going to know.
Regards,
Nicolai
On Apr 11, 2012, at 8:57 PM, Geoff Waaler <geoff.waa...@gmail.com> wrote:
Amusing that they state: "companies should offer a free two-year
warranty." Do most Europeans actually believe its free of charge without
even a modicum of impact on the pricing of a product? Its incredible
that the vary people who applaud this sort of thing whine about the
disparity in prices for identical products in their countries. Of course
since the US President has been intentionally trashing this nations
currency for over three years, y'all may have a more favorable exchange
rate, but the reality is that all costs have a direct affect on a
company's profit margin which must be offset by increasing revenue. The
only method at a company's disposal to augment revenue is to price their
goods and services accordingly.
To be fair, the pro-EU faction of Europeans don't have a monopoly on
believing politician's fairy tales of a free lunch. Its always amusing
to watch supporters of our current President demand that these evil
energy producers be taxed for various offenses having to do with being an
evil corporation in general and the global warming hoax in particular.
Ironically, those vary people complain when their electric bills
skyrocket and they can't afford to fill their gas tanks, or purchase food
(which generally requires transportation).
To keep this topical, its probably fair to conclude that citizens of the
affected EU nations shouldn't be surprised to discover that this will hit
them directly in the pocket book, which would be identical to the affect
of raising taxes on Apple. Corporations do not pay taxes you see -- they
simply collect them from their customers.
Best regards.
Geoff
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nicolai Svendsen"
<chojiro1...@gmail.com>
To: "Mac OSX & iOS Accessibility" <mac-access@mac-access.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:52 AM
Subject: Re: EU law forces Apple two-year warranty | Macworld
Hi,
Actually, this is perfectly justifiable. Before just now, you only got
one year of warranty if you included AppleCare, which truthfully isn't
any better than what the insurance any other company can provide. In a
lot of countries, you have an insurance which covers all damages to
electronic equipment, like computers, televisions, microwaves and
so-forth regardless of the warranty provided by the manufacturer. And
obviously, Apple misleads customers by suggesting that we pay for
AppleCare for the second and third year when the two-year law in Europe
didn't cover it at the time, which actually should have been the case as
the article says.
So, Apple deserves taking the heat for this one, though I'm kind of
surprised their lawyers haven't acted on this to prevent the misleading
claims. Since I'm into law, at least as a hobby, I've been rather upset
when I've shown up with damaged equipment to find I wasn't covered, but
my insurance company was perfectly able to replace the item if it was
damaged beyond repair, at least if you include the coverage when signing
insurance. Of course, I haven't had damaged items, but I like to test
Apple since they've been rather troublesome, not just in this area but
also when it comes to advertising.
At any rate, I'm pretty happy to see Apple refining AppleCare and
warranty now.
Regards,
Nicolai
On Apr 11, 2012, at 5:26 AM, Sarah Alawami <marri...@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm not so sure what to think of this. but here's the article. the
reader is available in this one.
http://www.macworld.com/article/1166194/eu_law_forces_apple_twoyear_warranty.html#lsrc.rss_products_ipod
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