US$ = EUR ? and GBP < EUR ?

Started shopping from this page : http://www.acronis.com/smb/

After adding all required items to my shopping cart, I exchanged currency from US$ to Euro.
To my surprise only the currency sign had changed. Amounts were exactly the same. I expected to see lower Euro amounts (with VAT to be added later).
So I changed the currency to Pounds Sterling, just to check.
This time the amounts were exchanged. Exchanged to Pounds Sterling, AND exchanged to Euro.

All amounts in Euro are lower when exchanged from US$ to Pounds Sterling and Euro, then when exchanged from US$ to Euro only ?
Huh ?

Also are the amounts in Euro in the screenshots already inclusive of the 15% VAT or not ?
It looks like it when checking with the Universal Currency Converter (UCC)
When I add 15% of VAT to the Euro amounts (exchanged from the US$ amounts with the UCC), the results almost equal the amounts shown in Euros in the screenshots.
Or are we also looking at an uncompetitive exchange rate ?
Too bad, but I'm holding off my order until this is cleared.

Order in US$
Order in EUR
Order in GBP and EUR
US$ order total exchanged in EUR (@http://www.xe.com/ucc/)

 

This has been adressed several times on these forums without any action being taken other than them saying it is the way it should be as they said here

Here are two of the currency exchange discussions:
this and this.

The pricing is apparently identical no matter what. If you select a country having digital tax then that tax is included in it, and if
your country doesn't have any tax the price still stays the same.

$ to Euro conversion is 1:1 no matter what.

They're not alone doing this though.. I purchase 2 products from another site (not acronis) that didn't do 1:1, but not far from it.
I paid 188.85 Euro for them, and a day or two ago I noticed they charged $228 from americans (when converted it was about 148 Euro at the time),
and I'm not in a digital tax country (EU).

 

Seems we are a bit selective with our globalization ~.~

 

Major consideration in international pricing, and in any pricing decisions really is to stay competitive in a given market. Taking foreign currency calculation into account on small orders is probably too complex, and ultimately too expensive, since currencies fluctuate daily.

European software companies did not offer US customers Euro pricing when Euro was valued much bellow the Dollar. This was also done for competitive reason. They knew they did not have to lower the price to sell in US. Now they don't want to lose the market.

 

Well.. What is easier, charging one currency no matter what and leave the conversion to the banks/cc companies or doing fake conversions between several currencies?

Especially when the latter easily is interpreted as a ripoff if a customer must pay alot more for a product only because he/she is european.
Most likely that customer is going to be less than happy, and a likely consequence is that he/she generates serious amount of negative
WOM (word of mouth).

How competetive do you think you are if you get that kind of reputation?

It did take a while for anyone to get Euro pricing that's true, one of the reasons being that in the beginning it was electronic currency only (until 2002 when the coins and such arrived).
Apparently Euro hasn't been lower than dollar since 2002 if the xe.com charts is anything to go by.
Maybe it is a coincidence that the real coins and its increased worth came the same year?

The reasoning for the fake exchange rates is quite obvious if you ask me..

 

No one is asking for daily updates of exchange rates. Weekly or bi-weekly will do. Only when running a business on Micky Mouse servers would that be a problem.
And Acronis only offer a handfull (41) of all 189 world currencies. And some of those 41 currencies on offer are obsolete and illegal to use : Deutsche Mark, Dutch Guilder, etc. These are not legal tender anymore since the 1st January 2002.
The problem is not frequency of update, but "suck my kiss" exchange rates.

Going back to the first post.
Of the last 4 links, click the second and third.
second shot : US$ to EUR exchange 1:1.
third shot : US$ to GBP exchange 1:0.68 and US$ to EUR exchange 1:0.852
Then say it again :

So what are you saying ?
It seems that they are willing to take into account 2 exchange rates for Euro, instead of just one. And the target group of customers have to pay for this indeed expensive (if not silly) way of running a business.
Oh, and did you say "staying competitive" ?


Further about "small orders":
Increase all quantities in your shopping basket to 49 (the maximum).
The US$ amounts = EUR amounts.
That is greed multiplied by 49, or let's insult our customer's intelligence 49 times.

I''m not funding greed.
The current exchange rate for US$ to EUR is approximately 0.735.
So 1:1 is a complete rip off. Period.

 

Actually, I believe the exchange rate at checkout it all down to the Digital River payment system, and that is where the rates are derived that are displayed on the Acronis websites.

If that is the case then that is a DR problem, though acronis ought to have enough clout to ask DR to revisit their exchange payment methods.

I can only suggest you purchase via the australian website as from Europe or the US you'll get a heck of a saving at current rates if purchasing in AUS$ but using a foreign credit card.

Colin