Last year I purchased Panda Internet Security 2007 as my Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Personal Firewall solution. It is coming up for renewal in the next couple of weeks and that got me looking into renewing and upgrading.
Here is the problem I ran into.
When checking the Panda Store I found that as a Canadian I am charged more to download their software than if I were from the United States. If you choose Canada as your location the cost for their Panda Internet Security 2008 is $88.95 for a download version of the software licensed for up to 3 PCs. Now if I change my country to USA the price becomes $69.95 US.
Now taking into consideration the current Bank of Canada exchange rate $88.95 Canadian works out to $84.59 US. A difference of $14.64 US.
So I wrote an e-mail message to the Canadian Sales address asking about the discrepancy. They have had one business day West Coast time to respond and I have yet to hear back from them.
I know I can go through the US side of the store and purchase the product that way for the lesser price but why should I have to. It does not cost them any more to make, stock or ship the download version to Canada than any place else in the world yet they want me to pay a higher price because I am in Canada.
Before the Internet when everyone purchased their software at stores, software companies could get away with charging more for the same product in different countries. In today's global marketplace the companies that respect their customers and treat them as educated consumers will be the ones that survive long term. This means realizing that your customer can easily find out what others are paying for your product. Companies which cling to old ideals will lose market share and unless they adapt will perish eventually.
I am only asking that we be treated as educated consumers. eBay can display prices in US and Canadian currencies and the Canadian price will change with the exchange rate. Why can't the Panda store do the same? They have different store setups for different countries it really would not be that much harder to code in a standard price based on the US dollar and conversion to the local currency for the country chosen.
CA has one site for the US and Canada which avoids the issue entirely. Kaspersky also has one site for both countries and therefor one price for their software.
Panda is not the only company that doesn't get it. McAfee also has problems with their pricing between countries. This time it actually almost favours Canadians. Check here and you see that for $79.99 Canadian you get a 3 User License for McAfee Internet Security Suite. But here you can purchase a single user version for $49.99 US or a 3 user License for $69.99 US after rebate.
It is time that many companies doing business on the Internet began to realize that the people shopping online are smart and deserve to be treated as such. It is also time that we as consumers started to user our power to force companies to change their behaviours. If a company treats you like you are stupid or charges you significantly more based on where you live don't buy from them. Take your business to a company that respects you.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
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