[Will Brocklebank]

I was looking into ways to get digital audio out of my iMac 24" to my receiver which is 25' away and in my searches I came across the Griffin Firewave for $39.99

Griffin Technology: FireWave - Surround Sound for Mac

Seeing as I am based in the UK I looked it up on the UK Griffin site - and guess what? It is £69

I don't know whether to or .

FireWave - The first product of its kind - EuroStore

With the current exchange rate hovering around £1:$2 (it peaked above that for the first time since 1992 yesterday) this equates to a staggering 345% price increase for us lucky Brits.

Previously I thought Adobe's £ for $ pricing was bad. Sheesh.

(Oh, and if anyone knows of a reliable and effective way to port audio from an iMac over a Cat5e cable without using AirTunes, either wired or wireless, then I'd love to hear it.)

[ghporter]

How much is the importation tax? How much does it cost them to ship to GB? I'd want to know if there was something else going on besides price gouging before I started calling for a boycott. You might actually ASK Griffin about the price difference by email.

[Will Brocklebank]

OK - your tone suggests you think I have over-reacted. Fair enough - let's do the math:

Shipping of multiple units from manufacturer to subsidiary - a conservatively high estimate of $5 each (this is absurd based on packaging and freighting hundreds of units per delivery as would be the case) = $5

VAT in UK 17.5% = $39.99*1.175 = $46.99

Total cost in US$ = $51.99, Cost equivalent of UK version (£69) in US$ = $138

Price rise = 265%

'Email Griffin' - I suspect this would be a waste of time as I'd only get some CS jockey with no incentive/desire to resolve it.

(OK - maybe boycott is a bit harsh but I just thought people might want to know.)

[olePigeon]

Can you buy the US version and have it shipped?

[Deestar]

Originally Posted by Will Brocklebank 

OK - your tone suggests you think I have over-reacted. Fair enough - let's do the math:

Shipping of multiple units from manufacturer to subsidiary - a conservatively high estimate of $5 each (this is absurd based on packaging and freighting hundreds of units per delivery as would be the case) = $5

VAT in UK 17.5% = $39.99*1.175 = $46.99

Total cost in US$ = $51.99, Cost equivalent of UK version (£69) in US$ = $138

Price rise = 265%

'Email Griffin' - I suspect this would be a waste of time as I'd only get some CS jockey with no incentive/desire to resolve it.

(OK - maybe boycott is a bit harsh but I just thought people might want to know.)

I agree the price rise is a complete piss-take, however I just checked amazon uk and they have it listed for £41.99.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Griffin-4019...60&sr=1-36

Hope this helps, think I may pick one up for myself too.

[ghporter]

You're right that I thought you overreacted. Maybe you're thinking that too. But since I did NOT know whether there was anything beyond the VAT (nor did I know the VAT rate), then I had to phrase my response that way.

Emailing Griffin couldn't hurt, and it might get you an answer to why the price is so high in the UK. I'm pondering that too, and perhaps there's some sort of business tax that they have to pay, or some other, unseen (by us) cost that they incur to do business there.

But as Deestar points out, Amazon UK wants 42 quid for that product... Maybe making a statement with your money is the way to go.