Oxymoron of the Day: Humble Steve Ballmer
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Man forced to go to Belgium for a Wii
CHARLIE LIKES computer games and fishing. Which is ironic, since he works for a security firm called MarkMonitor.com, where he spends most of his time trying to stamp out phishing.
As a keen angler, Charlie desperately wanted to try trout fishing on his Nintendo. But when he tried to buy one of these ground breaking games machines, they’re way out of his price range. “They wanted £300 for a Wii in England,” Charlie sobbed to the INQUIRER today.
You wouldn’t have thought the price would bother him, seeing how he’s the VP and General Manager for EMEA for the global IT company. I imagine, if he wanted he could afford to be ankle deep in hookers and gin every day, on his wages. If he wanted to.
Anyway, Charlie went online and fond that Amazon in Germany (amazon.de) only charges €250 euros (about £179). But they wouldn’t sell him a box, because he’s at a UK address. Isn’t this against EC trading laws? Perhaps if Amazon gets back to us, it might comment.
It was the same story with the French version. (Amazon.fr) Whatever happened to free European trade?
So, Charlie took himself off to Belgium. "Ah, I’m just off to the Global IT Summit. See you soon." And there, he picked himself up a brand new Nintendo Wii, for €250.
Meanwhile, mug punters in the UK, who haven’t got a Belgian office to visit, or a ‘Summit’ to attend, will have to pay £300.
The Nintendo games forums have gone bonkers over this, says Charlie, when we phoned to check the story. (He sounded like he was in his bedroom) There are some very stern messages to be read here.
Meanwhile, many hospitals are using the Wii as an occupational therapy tool. If you’ve had a stroke, for example, it’s a great tool for inducing movement. Of course, the Nintendos are cheaper in Belgium .
So, once again, British patients have to travel abroad in order to get affordable healthcare.
I want to develop a game for the Nintendo. It’s called spank the Wii marketing manager. Does anyone know what he/she looks like?
Would Nintendo like to comment? µ
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for 235€ is you look good...!
I don't know what they did here, but so far I haven't noticed any major shortage of Wiis here in Finland. Just about every shop has them, even the local supermarket I recently visited had one for the usual .fi price of 269e (incl. 22% tax). I'd post a picture if I could. ;) Super Mario Galaxy seems to be in short supply though, I'm happy I pre-ordered it back then.
In General, electronics are much cheaper in the UK and Germany compared to Belgium. I have to luck to travel frequently to the US for business, so I buy most of my electronics there and save a lot of money. As an example, in Belgium you pay 800€ for a MAC mini, while the same costs 800 USD in the us. Saves you 200 €
French company Bookeen (www.bookeen.com) who has a nice e-ink based reading device does the same : US$350 for US and Israel, 350 eu for the EU and 295 EU (350-VAT) for other countries like Australia. I was going to buy it until I saw that and felt completely ripped off.
I say this as someone who lives in Germany, and isn't terribly interested in buying a Wii: Amazon should be stomped upon by the EU Competition Commissioner, hard, and should be fined a couple of hundred million euros for such behaviour. This should serve as a very good reminder of what happens when you try to curtail free trade and try to impose restrictions on who may buy what.

There is such a thing called the Treaty of Rome. It says that you cannot treat any buyer of a product differently from another, just because of which EU state they live in. The car makers lost out big time when people were saving tens of thousands of pounds by buying their cars on the continent - and thus, UK dealers had to reduce their prices sharply in order to stay alive.

It's called a free market. By allowing Amazon to treat UK consumers differently (by not shipping to them), they are breaking the law - and are being anti-competitive. It's not as if the UK isn't part of the EU - nor is it a fact that the UK and EU are separate regions for the games being sold - we're all Europeans - nor are we using a different television system (except the French, because they just need to be different from everyone else).

Watch this space.
Is there a lawyer who can comment on whether Amazon.de can legally refuse to ship to the UK. Free trade? No barriers?
Amazon.co.uk stopped shipping everything electronic to Ireland last year so now you know what it feels like! You might like in Blighty but i live in the Ripoff Repubilc where its not just Wiis that are bloody expensive :(
That's what happens when you live on some distant island and stubbornly stick to some medieval currency ;-)

Many things are so much cheaper in the UK than in Belgium (cars, ...) and many other items are released way earlier (iPhone is still nowhere to be found here...). About half of our pay goes directly to taxes. ...

No matter where you live, the grass will always be greener elsewhere... as long as you don't look too closely!
How much ? Blimey.. I picked mine up in the middle of the year from Comet for £179 - surely there must be laws against this apparent over pricing.. in fact I am sure there are
You have to ask yourself why is it so much across the pond ? In Canada Wii's (when there in stock) are $269 CAN. whats that £120 out the door ? 

It just amazing just how big the price difference between Countries. 

Belgium rules!
(even without a new government for a 187 days now....)
We have plenty of PS3's and X-Boxes too. (probably because we like drinking Stella and eating chocolate more than gaming).
Amazon france and germany stopped selling wii,s to uk people about 3-4 weeks ago.

Nintendo didnt like it apparently.

There was some responses on the money saving site from amazon germany saying the big N had stopped them selling to the uk.
I was in paris last weekend and went to the big virgin megastore there and they had a pile of them there for 250 euro. so you could probably have a nice day trip over there and get a wii for cheaper than it would be here.
Is that all? Anyone who needs one for Christmas can have mine for £500. It's only 3 months old and has 5 games.

What? You think I'm trying to rip you off? Bit like what the UK stores selling for £300 are trying to do. It's not the Nintendo marketing managers at fault because when I bought mine, I paid less than £300 for it. I guess this is what's commonly known as supply and demand. Without the supply there is more demand. 

Therefore people can ask what they want for the consoles just so fat little Jimmy can have his Christmas present he so desperately needs and will strop about until he gets. As per usual, the UK bends over and takes this (petrol price hikes anyone? Roll on December 15th - you'll find me at my local refinery) without saying a word. 

Me? I'm happy. I've got my Wii, my PS3 and a lovely telly to play it all on. However I won't be in at Christmas so I'm not fussed either way.
amazon.de and amazon.fr changed their policy in November. They were shipping loads of Wiis to uk (reported from loads of forum posts) then suddenly blocked shipping to UK addresses.

I surmise this is to 'protect' amazon.co.uk marketplace sellers, who are charging up to £400 for a basic wii.

I was lucky and had a business trip to Germany, where they can be had off the shelf.
During the Wii shortage in Feb this year I ordered one from Amazon.de and they happily delivered it to my UK address, for only 5 Euros at that.
This must be a new policy for Amazon.de. I got sick of waiting for them to come back in stock in the UK around Easter, and successfully got one shipped from Amazon.de in 4 days (and £5 cheaper!)

Maybe its something to do with some geezer on the Beeb mentioning it as an option last week...