Pricing for ESS and NOD32 3.0

It's great news that ESS and NOD32 3.0 are to be released within a week.

Sadly, Eset seem to be following the lead set by Microsoft and many others in charging us a premium in the UK for exactly the same software as our cousins in the US.

Today's exchange rate is £1 = $2.06 and has been around the $2 mark for some time.

In the press release on eset.com the suggested price for ESS is $59.99 ( = £29.12 ) and NOD32 3.0 is $39.99 ( = £ 19.41 ).

On eset.co.uk the price for ESS is £44.99 ( = $92.68 ) and NOD32 3.0 is £29.99 ( = $61.78 ). The markup is 54% for EXACTLY THE SAME English version of the software.

Even allowing for differences is sales taxes, this is a huge profit especially considering that there are no shipping costs etc. as it is downloaded from the Internet.

Last time I renewed my subsciption for NOD32 I bought it from the UK Web Site because they were doing a special deal for a 3 year license.

Unless there are any really good deals this time I will definitely be buying it from eset.com and paying in US dollars.

 

there are other situations around the world where it works the other way.... Eset knows about these and we specifically asked about them - they are what they are it seems.

 

Eset is certainly not alone in this practise. Vista and Microsoft Office are examples of where we pay almost double in the UK for the same product.

Software is almost always substantially more expensive in the UK than in the US as are CDs, DVDs, computers, cameras, electronics, cars etc.

I can't think of many things that are cheaper or the same in the UK as the US.

If there was a physical product that had to be shipped from the US, or needed to be translated into another language you could see the justification in paying a higher price.

When it can be downloaded from the Internet and is exactly the same English product, it is very difficult to see any justification for a higher price, other than for differences in sales tax.

This is why Britain is often known as "Treasure Island".

Maybe I should emigrate....

 

you earn pounds though and are spending pounds. Trust me - I'm a Brit who lives in the USA and until you have lived here in the USA and EARNED DOLLARS, you have no concept of what things cost in real terms. If you are thinking of spending pounds against dollars, YES, it does appear to be incredibly cheap. When your earning are in dollars it is all relative and works out fine.

Emigration is what I did... it's a whole different ball game here - I was RICH until the earnings in dollars were my primary source of income. Then going back "home" is an INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE proposition!

Plus points are that gas (petrol) is cheaper - but you do buy it for a car that is much thirstier. Lifestyle wise, I think I have more opportunities here - and I get to own firearms...

Another plus point is the tax system seems a lot more to your advantage here - there is no dreaded 17.5% VAT on everything - and sales taxes are generally lower where they apply - some states don't even have them - that's a nice bonus when visiting - but on the flip side - you tip EVERYWHERE it seems... that's VERY odd for a Brit to get into your head....

 

Used to spend some holidays in England.....ages ago and could buy the Dutch butter and cheese for half as much as in The Netherlands as where the warehouses were filled to the roof and even the butter and cheese were fed to the cows, but we had to pay the top price for our own made products.
This is the way it goes with a lot of products, take a look at Europe.........they seem to want one Europe, but as long as they can't seem to get all the prices one level.......I'll never even believe in one Europe.

This has nothing to do with Eset, but somewhere in the background it all has to do with international politics and I'm afraid.......it'll never ever be different!
Let's just hope Nod32 will be/stay affordable for most people.

 

"The grass is greener..." hurrr

 

54% - wow
Some people have said that by buying locally you get local support.
Er nope. I have 2 licenses for home PC's and am at work 5 days a week so any support I need comes from here (forum) evenings and weekends.
I am sure Aspect (UK) are a good company, but the support they provide can only be for business and not home users.

So if part of the cost is for support then I am subsidising the business customers.

 

I, too, noticed this price difference and I would like to have an official explanation as to why we're paying nearly double what the americans are paying. We're getting exactly the same product so why are we paying more?

 

NOD32 has been one of the more stable and trouble-free pieces of software that I have used and so have never needed support beyond the excellent support to be found in the Wilders forums.

When I joined my current employer I persuaded them to convert to NOD32 and they have used the UK support on a few occasions and been satisfied.

webyourbusiness - I take your point about living in the US and earning dollars.
When I worked in the US for a while I was still being paid in pounds, so it was difficult to judge the true cost of living.
Depending on what profession you are in, you can either be better off or worse off in the States.

Compared with similar products NOD32 and ESS still seem good value in the UK.

I will give ESS a try and see how the firewall compares to Outpost, which is my current firewall of choice.

Outpost 4.0 is a good firewall but can occasionaly be a bit heavy on system resources.
If I like ESS I will probably upgrade, as Agnitum seem to have made a big mess of their latest version ( Outpost Pro 2008 ) .
If not, I will stick with Outpost 4.0 and just upgrade to NOD32 3.0.

Regards,

Tony

 

I agree with above post, outpost 2008 is a big mess. You can go to any forum and everyone has the same to say about OPF 2008. It feels like they outsourced this version or fired their developer team and hired new people to compile this version. I am using eset av and now I will go with ESS as well.

 

Hi,

I am in the same situation as the original poster, but in Australia. Eset want me to pay appox 34% more for the product purchased on the Australian eset website. All I want to do is buy it for the price advertised on the US site, but when I go to the Eset international site and click on purchase, it redirects me to the Australian site again. How can I purchase this software from the US site for the US price, instead of being unreasonably ripped off. I have to say that I don't think I will buy it if I can't, as I really hate being ripped off, and this is daylight robbery, and a matter of principle. Is there someway I can hide the geographic location of my system, so that it will let me purchase in US$$?

Thanks

Greg

 

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=189896

im in the uk and just bought 2 year ESS license on that US reseller for cheaper than i could buy a 1 year license in the uk!

 

Parijat,

I've been pleased with COMODO, a free firewall which I've used for two or so months. It has a small footprint and seems to use resources efficiently.

Caveat: I do operate behind a router and my ISP is very, very good at filtering out malware so my assessment may not be all that accurate. COMODO also throws up a good many 'permission screens' while it is learning, more it seems than other firewalls I've used.

 

thanks KC. They look the goods

One question, if I am currently using Nod32 ver 2.7, can I get a renewal license to 3.0, or does it need to be purchased separately as it is a new version? I would not want to get a renewal if it meant I was buying a new license only for 2.7, as I want to upgrade to ver 3.

Thanks

 

jdm124,
Thanks for the recommendation. Yes I have seen Comodo being the only firewall to support vista since it was longhorn. I will give it a try. The worst thing is that very few firewalls pass pcflank leak test. Outpost is one of the few which passed it. Sadly ESS failed the test.

greg32,
if you want to buy from eset.com usa, then you can ask any of your frioend to do it for you and pay him using paypal ofcourse unless above link does not work. Another option is to use a https supported USA proxy but I won't recommend that for security reasons. Regarding your last post I emailed eset sales with same question and they said if you bought nod32 very recently then you can get a free upgrade to 3.0 so no need to spend additional money but if you want security suite then you have to pay additional fees.

 

This was passed on to me:

Blackspear.

 

i guess what the "Big Picture" really is about is how much more profit a company stands to make from the person who downloads the trial then at the end pays the 45 bucks for a password . On the other hand the person who pays thru the reseller sees only a small margin land in the hand of the manufacturer. so who`s gettin screwed?

 

apologies if this has been asked before, the last time i checked i'm sure we were told that nod32 v2.7 license holders would be able to upgrade to V3 (AV not ESS) for free. Is this still the case?

thanks

 

Who said it wouldn't?

 

Yes

Blue

 

good stuff, thanks Blue

 

and then you have chargebacks and fraud (yes, some people are that stupid to purchase a license we can cancel using a bogus or stolen card) - plus 8% for support is ridiculously small.

A quick look at support stats shows that the majority of our customers do not require support - but those that do take as long as 45 minutes to have their email explained to them because someone in their family or a technician installed NOD32 and didn't do THEIR job of doing it properly.

Even among self-purchasers, it is not uncommon to spend half an hour explaining the download, installation and license entry - especially among the older customers.

Then you have to factor in on these long calls:

1. the caller was using up staffing resources
2. they called in on a toll-free number (probably) - and that all costs

We just had a second person call and ask for a refund because - get this... they thought they were renewing their driving license when they purchased a nod32 license... the first time it happened (almost a year ago) I thought is was a complete fluke and no-one would ever repeat it... then we get another one?!?!?!

I am reasonable sure that most of those complaining do not run businesses - if you did, then there would be NO complaining about costs, because you should see some of the bills we have to pay - e.g. - state and federal withholding taxes, insurances, office expenses - rent, electricity, gas, water, cleaning expenses and the like.

Then you have things like advertising, training, computer hardware and software, office consumables (paper, coffee, tea, sugar and even toilet paper). This list is enormous... and you think that all of this is insignificant and can be slashed by a big percent because of a global economic factor we have ZERO control over? Customers seem to think because they are buying a license key that it's miraculously 100% profit somehow - it's not, so please Get REAL!

Eset's new pricing is a very good step in the right direction - there are significant price drops in the multi-packs for home use and at the higher end, the pricing gets more competitive for business users too. Seriously - I am kind of upset in some aspects because quotes we have out are going to have to redone - the client will get their software cheaper for sure, but we have do double the work because the client is waiting for a pricing change...

You really can't get all bent out of shape because of worldwide pricing differences - those economies are different. Canada, to the USA, to the UK to Australia and everything in between - those economies are NOT tied to each other in the global free market economy - and neither will the prices of goods and services in them - you have NO CONTROL over that, the distributors have to make a living and stay in business - ie, GET OVER IT - the price is the price.

Now...those that live in the parts of Europe that use Euros - I can see how they get bent out of shape when they see 25% pricing differentials between different EU entities... but it has to be said again - those distributors have to make a living!

In a nutshell - the pricing is what the pricing is... if you don't like your local pricing - I'm sorry, please take it up with your local distributor - I'm sure they can enlighten you as to their cost base... it's NOT a discussion matter for the support forums - and you're never going to get it changed griping here!

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA Driving License, wonder if they sit a keyboard on their dashboard.

 

They used a mouse wheel instead of the steering wheel.

 

Blackspear,

these are not stupid price comparisons at all mate. It is pretty simple, and I don't need a economics lecture to understand that any local reseller is not giving me any additional value over and above me buying the software from a US site for a lesser value. I have never approached Eset, or any other company for technical support, and the additional price added in for support I would think more often than not is for efforts being directed to business, not the home user (I would love to know the ratio of home/business support issues). All I end up doing, is lining a local resellers pockets for doing nothing. A local reseller is only of value to Eset, not me, as they will provide a front end for the company in a country where they can source and promote their software, and align themselves with system builders to install Eset software on new systems, thus providing Eset with new users to build their customer base, especially in countries where their product is not that well known. I don't rely on local advice, local system builders, local anything for my computers. The only thing i source within this country is the actual hardware, and this is one area where we are not ripped off over and above other countries as our hardware suppliers have to adjust prices according to their buying power and strength of our dollar, otherwise they go out of business. This is called competition, and is governed by exchange rates. I use the internet to do research, to download and pay for software, and I simply don't want to be treated like a sucker to pay a premium for some local vendor who will never have to spend a minute of their time assisting me with anything.

I also find it funny that they claim this is for support. In the last week, I have punched off 2 emails to Eset through their contact link on their website, for two different issues, and have still not received a response to my queries. One was regarding the upgrade route for their new version, the other was a pricing query. So much for their support, and I am an already paying customer!!!!

I have only come across one other vendor which was also giving me grief with pricing due to living in Australia (I am sure there are more, but not in the pool of software vendors that I currently use). This was Roxio Easy media centre, where they wanted to charge me $69 AUD more than us citizens for the same program. I walked away from that pretty quickly (I think from memory the US price worked out to around $99 AUD, and our local seller wants $169 AUD)!!!

Microsoft have it right, you want support buy a retail version and pay through your teeth, but also get support if needed, or buy a OEM version with the hardware, and expect no support direct from MS if something goes wrong, instead support will have to come from the vendor. I go with the OE version, and save myself a packet on the software. It is all about having the choice. I don't see MS going broke as a result of this practice.

Cheers Greg