One of my favourite things to do when I buy from PC World is to go on the web site beforehand and then demand that I get the web price. "I'd like to buy it today but if I must then I will buy it off the web site for £15 less"

"We'll match the web price sir"

There's no way you'll get $ prices. If it was possible, retailers would already have gone there. Margins on electricals are very very low as it is.

I meant the correct prices so $150 = £100 as opposed to $150 = £150.

It's amazing that good made here sell for less in the US than here.

I really have to agree with this.

I bought one of those Advent 4211 netbooks two weeks ago from a PCW store.

Friend had a PC from them years ago and it wasn't behaving, we popped the side off to see a loose IDE cable, but said owner wanted it checked over by the shop, so we didn't touch it.

Went back in and they were had a quick look and even though the cable was obvious the "service" kiddy came back and claimed it was serious and going to cost as no extended warranty.

A quick point out about 1 year warranty and had they checked the cabling and they ran off did another check and miracle of miracles it came back to life all without charge.

I shop in PC World because when buying electricals i like to see and feel before i commit. I tend to use the collect@store option as you can save quite a few pounds by doing some research before going into the shop.

I must admit that in my experience the sales staff are ****!!! When i was purchasing my current notebook, after trying to sell me the obligatory Norton Internet Security ( NO THANKS! ) he then preceeded to try and sell me a laptop bag. Eh, NO THANKS again, my note book comes with one in the box!!!

Why would i want two bags?

I just explained politly that maybe they should read up on the sales literature and not listen to the sales manager.

I would have to agree though, if you know what your after, by all means, try PC World. If you dont have a clue, try researching or find someone that does first, then try PC World.

I meant the correct prices so $150 = £100 as opposed to $150 = £150.

That's what I meant too, you're not going to get it. That calculation is reliant on the exchange rate. If they could price like that, then every time the exchange rate altered, so would the shop price.

If you want everything cheaper then companies will have no margin left over to provide any support for their products, won't employ as many staff, we would all become like Argos where the assistants will truly know nothing about the product, just shift boxes. For some people that will be just fine, but for many even a little help is welcomed.

Something selling for $150 on the exchange rate should be £100.

The goods are not made in the US, so they UK to US exchange rate shouldn't really have a huge effect anyway. You don't see the price of mini's, landrovers etc going up and down.

FWIW I work for a UK company selling to the US and we don't change our prices every 5 minutes either.

Cushioning against the exchange rate is one thing, but taking the michael is another.

A perfect example is software. Cost to knock out a CD and manual (if it has one) is next to nothing once it has been created.

So why sell an application or OS in the US for $150 which will have a huge profit margin if you exclude the R&D for £150 in the UK?

The R&D is paid for once and the exchange rate has almost nothing to do with it other then greed in those cases.

Err, lots of stuff is made in the US? To be sold here, you have to take shipping cost, our import duties, warehousing and UK delivery into account.

If it could be done it would have already happened because of the pressure of retail competition. Each step of the process has to be paid for, there is no getting away from it.

R&D is a continuous cost.

Let me put it another way, if the exchange rate flipped over and $150 = £200 would you rather pay £150 or £200 ?

Such as?

The us makes very little as loads of it is done in China.

Also product development might be a continuous process but to develop say windows will have cost a certain amount in engineers time. That cost is then divided by the number of sales projected to give the price and then manufacturing costs and a profit margin are added.

Explain how kit designed in the UK, manufactured in the UK and in China and tested in the UK before being finally released and manufactured in various plants in the UK, US and Asia costs less in the US than in the UK?

No it's a rip off and I for one would rather have exchange rate fluctuations within a certain time. This happens with the Euro, it happens everywhere else, it's just US companies (and others) thinking that the UK is good for a rip off.

If the £ got so much weaker against the dollar, they would just bump prices up to £2 = $1.

It only appears to cost less because of the exchange rate being in our favour. If the rate was against us, we would think we were getting a good deal. If you took that $150 as a proportion of earnings in the US and compared it to £150 as a proportion of UK earnings, I bet it would be close.

If it could be done, it would have been done already. It's not going to happen.

Appears to cost less?

It does cost less in the USA. We buy items from the US at work because the UK retailer wants almost twice as much even when you have taken everything into account and paying the import duty etc.

Sorry but it won't happen because the companies know they can get away for it.

Tell me does a tune on ITunes really cost less in the US than in the UK?

Of course not!

Also the £1 to $1 only seems cheaper in the US due to the exchange rate?

When was the last time the $ was stronger than the pound?

The best electronics stores I've ever been in are Media Markt. Ich bin doch nicht blöd.

Blows Currys/PC world clean out of the water IMO

I just bought a 22" Monitor from Dabs, I didnt read about PC Worlds Price Promise.

I don't hate PC World, I just dont buy PC's from there!!! They do have some good offers every now and again though.