webmonkey wrote:



Rossj wrote: Obviously UK only, but now there is a petition asking the government to look into the price gouging for Vista in the UK.  You can even see a list of all the people that have signed so far - and yes I signed it, although I don't expect anything to come of it - but if the government did do something about it they would then have to do something about all the other software companies that do this (i.e. most of them).

I don't think I want to sign it, I wouldn't want the government to do anything about it (and I don't think they would). I think involving the gov in something like this may put off investment from tech (or any other) companies in this country.

Having said that, maybe it will get some media attention around the issue which might not be a bad thing.

cescotto wrote:



phreaks wrote: Why don't you petition the EU to cease their witch hunt. Simple case of cause and effect with some international export costs as well; is it not?

MS is not doing this only in the UK, they're doing this also in other european countries. In Italy Vista Ultimate retail costs about 2x times the american price.

599$* 1,27 ($ to € change) - 399$ = 361$

361/399 = 0,90.

Vista Ultimate retail in Italy is 90% more expensive than it is in America.

The OEM versions of Vista instead have prices similar to the american ones! It looks like MS wants to force people to change computers instead of buying a new vista, or something like that.

Unless they have a hidden strategy for losing marketshare I don't understand why the hell they want to force all the MS enthusiasts to stay away from Vista upgrades because of the high prices.

AndyC wrote:

Is there a particular blocking issue that requires you to wait for SP1?

Jaz wrote:



Mark Brown wrote: Yes, very sorry about that. I work in the US-Sub so there is that to contend with. I don't have the budget to do WW campaigns. There is also a tax issue as well that I wasn't prepared to deal with. If a user decides they want to take both the Vista and Office offer it is a taxable event here in the US since the combined value is over $600. That requires a W9 that we send to the user to be signed and sent back via fax or snail mail before we can ship the second product. Since I can't handle this type of thing for every country in the world you can see where my problem was with trying to do this world wide. Sorry about this really.

Hey Mark, i'm so glad you're part of the community as you give great insights, and this isn't an attack at you really though it may come across as that of which i'm sorry.

Microsoft is a huge organisation you have what 60-70k employee's worldwide.  I completely understand that you alone can't do the whole tax relief worldwide thing, thats not your fault at all, i wouldn't be able to.  But with a company so large with so many resources can't you phone up your UK/European counterpart and say "hey we're doing this cool promotion over here, i think it'd be really great if you could organise it over at your end and we can make it a joint WW event".

We over in europe see so many of these "get Microsoft * free when you watch webcasts" and then find out it's US only and we never or rarely see something our end.  it completely sucks for us and we want some love.

Is there a chance you could make some calls to your european counterparts and see if you can get somethig cool set up with them?

there must be some european MS guys thinking the same thing as you.