TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Production Studio
-- Why are we being ripped off????

Why are we being ripped off????

Hey, I wonder what your opinions are on this matter. I wont to buy a new synth, I looked around, And I wont the virus c. What I am really upset about is "why are we paying thease sky high prices in canada for synths and other electronic equipment?". It's just not fair to us.. This is just an example.. A virus c costs around $2400-$2550 cdn in Toronto area nmusic stores, new of course. Now we have to add tax, which puts this unit at around $3000.00 one of the stores gived me a quote of $2942 including tax.. that's a lot of money... Now thank god for the internet. A place in US has a virus c on sale at the moment for $1379.00us dollars, and the shipping cost is $15.99US It's the Audiomidi.com.. internet store... Now with duties and currency exchange plus all the shipping cost the unit arrives at my door for under $2000.00 cdn, well it's exactly $1995.00 cdn.. The diefferance is around $940.00 of saving if I buy from there. I think we canadians are being ripped off left and right.. And it's not fair.. And for that $900 bucks of saving you can get yourself say a nice new sound card or some second hand synth.... I say think before you buy in canada... it's well worth your time to get someting from US and save big... especially on expensive equipment. And just to give you the idea of warranty, well I can bring that virus c to any authorized access retailer in canada , I asked at a local store and I emailed access about it.. and get warranty work done, and it does not have to be bought in that store.. so There is no way of loosing.. since if something goes wrong with the unit i can take it to my local store thats 20 minute walk from my house... and not send it all the way where I bought it from.. Well shop smart... and try not to get ripped off. Merry christmass everyone..

DJDirty , I'm glad someone finally said something. I totally agree, the prices for musical instruments in Canada is insane. I live in Montreal, and the virus c which I drool over every time i see, is 2800! bucks. I started laughing my ass off when the guy showed me the price tag. I'm gonna start ordering everything online from the states , best thing too do. By the way how much was the duty tax fee on your virus c?

The duty is 7% here in Ontario.. At list that's what i've been paying at my door for anything that I ordered from US. So on every $100 bucks of my order duty is $7.00 It still beats paying 15% tax and some insane canadian prices. And when you buy stuff from states they don't add tax. which is another bonus.. You only pay tax there if you live in that state... for example california or something, but we're are international customers and dosn't pay us tax.. Duty for the virus is $160.00 cdn.

Nice thread, Thanks for the eye opener. Though i'm not quite ready for hardware synths I still had no idea this was an issue. I noticed synths cost alot in vancouver, never occured to me to check other countries.

7 %, thats's peanuts, I wonder if it's around the same in Quebec. I was always worried about orderinf cause people told me duty taxes were alot. But i guess they were wrong. Djmart.com, get ready here i come, gonna grab me those akg k240 studio headphones!

Quit your winging and direct your sorrow to me. Prices in Australia can be almost double what they are in the states (after currency conversion of course). Retail for a virus C here is $3,900 Aus. That's $2,900 US. The cheapest you can get one for is $2,200us. Now think about who is really getting ripped off.

hey cheegy, tell u what, come to Montreal, i'll give u a shovel, u can shovel my front balcony with 2 feet of snow in -20 below zero weather. And i'll move to Australia, and pay a few hundred dollars more for that virus c, deal?

I DON'T PITY YOU AT ALL!!!!

I live in Iceland and we have to get EVERYTHING imported overseas! Not only that, but when you bring something new into the country, customs fees are 25% of the items value. Then there's sales tax, 33.5% and lastly, because there is usually only ONE importer for a certain brand of equipment (there is for example only one importer who own's all right to import Sony items to the country!), the prices are raised 40-50% more!. I was going to buy a Sony V700DJ here in Iceland.... 350 us dollars thank you very much!!

And then there's the last thing. In Iceland live 280.000 people. There is no place in the entire country you can buy an Access Virus! we can not buy them over ebay, because 99.999% of ebay sellers require USA credit cards (although you can get lucky). But then, if you buy something over ebay for, let's say 1300 dollars, there's the customs fee and the taxes + shipping to Iceland, which make it about 2400$ US

Ripped off

Well after rading some of your comments i have no dought that the best place to shop for music gear is in USA. It's cheap compared to everywhere alse, and you also make more money working there, doing same sort of work.. plus living expences are way less than in canada for example.. So you have more money to spend on whatever you wont, or on synths and stuff alike.. A friend of my lives in US and works for sony, he does exactly the same thing as i am doing here, which is junior tech in audio/video/digital camera department.. and he get's paid almost twice what i make a month.. and we both work for Sony.. But i work for shiity sony.ca... No one may like the US for getting in every other country business, and starting a war and on and on, but i do like it for the quality of life it provides to normal working people... Unless you decide to be a bum there, you can't go wrong...

quote:

Originally posted by Low Profile I DON'T PITY YOU AT ALL!!!! I live in Iceland and we have to get EVERYTHING imported overseas! Not only that, but when you bring something new into the country, customs fees are 25% of the items value. Then there's sales tax, 33.5% and lastly, because there is usually only ONE importer for a certain brand of equipment (there is for example only one importer who own's all right to import Sony items to the country!), the prices are raised 40-50% more!. I was going to buy a Sony V700DJ here in Iceland.... 350 us dollars thank you very much!! And then there's the last thing. In Iceland live 280.000 people. There is no place in the entire country you can buy an Access Virus! we can not buy them over ebay, because 99.999% of ebay sellers require USA credit cards (although you can get lucky). But then, if you buy something over ebay for, let's say 1300 dollars, there's the customs fee and the taxes + shipping to Iceland, which make it about 2400$ US

Sounds like it is time to move ..

es

my kc was nigh on �1500 Sterling, get a job and just buy the ******

register a business and get the tax back on synths, speakers, vinyls, cdrs, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Robert register a business and get the tax back on synths, speakers, vinyls, cdrs, etc.

that's a good idea. How do you register a business? Can you get back tax on custom fees too?

Not sure how you go about registering a business in your country, but in Canada it's very simple. Pretty much head down to city hall with 75 dollars and fill out a few papers.

quote:

Originally posted by attacc that's a good idea. How do you register a business? Can you get back tax on custom fees too?

probably the same way as in holland, by going past the chamber of commerce and registering a business. as business activitity you do something like 'produce music and dj'ing'. just keep all you're receipts from synths, monitors, vinyls, cdrs, cables, etc. and declare it as business expenses. you should be able to get back the sales tax that way.

i'm not quite sure if you will get away with it if you don't actually earn any money from it(release/remix something or dj).

just make sure your expenses are always more than your business income (usually the case anyway), cause you don't want to start paying tax over your profit. that's what we're trying to avoid in the first place, what's the point if you have to pay it over something else..

before you go of and do something like this, look into it tho and see if it's worth it.

Thanks Robert and Dj Sean, I will definately do this. I will probably make a little money on my music next year so that shouldn't be a problem, unless if you have to earn more than $50 hahaha

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.