Canyon 15% more expensive in UK than Europe!

Er, read the rest of the thread. They do it so that they can make more money, which fundamentally is what they are in business to do!!

As to how to take best advantage of the forex rates – you’ve hit the nail on the head. Do you hedge the position (i.e. buy the currency from a Forex bureau today, secure the rate with no future fluctuations and pay in cash) or do you risk a floating rate (i.e. pay on credit card when you get there, hoping (!) that the exchange rate hasn’t moved against you during your drive across the channel).

You may end up better or worse on the CC option (also dependent on the way your CC handles forex), you get absolute certainty by buying ahead and “hedging”.

Most credit cards and debit cards will charge 2.5 to 3% foreign transaction fee. Some don’t charge at all though, Post Office credit card for instance. There’s a list on moneysavingexpert.com

I’ve had a quote for courier collection for £87, so you could just pay on in euro for collection and send your courier

Most credit cards and debit cards will charge 2.5 to 3% foreign transaction fee. Some don’t charge at all though, Post Office credit card for instance. There’s a list on moneysavingexpert.com

And you won’t even see it separately identified – it’ll often be built into the exchange rate used on your statement, so you don’t see the extra 2.5% charge.

I’ve had a Halifax CC for years now on the basis that they don’t charge a fee for Euros, so I only use that one when abroad.

Bela, I’m in Germany, have a Euro and also a UK £ account… can I help ?

Paypal gift?

Canyon 15% more expensive in UK than Europe!

Wait until you see the price difference on some outdoor gear – currently Patagonia has US sale on. Compare that with the UK sale prices and retail prices. 👿

aracer, your a very naughty boy !

What’s with all this concern for Canyons margin and comparison to conventional distribution? Come on STWers, I thought you were intelligent!

Anyway,

Jamz –
Thanks very much for your post Mr McGroo – very helpful!

I’m just wondering, can you still pay via a UK bank account if its being delivered abroad

Yes you can, the order system didn’t want to know my credit cards, tried two but it was asking me to change my payment method. Switched to pre pay (bank transfer) and all went through OK. Being delivered to a mate in Zwiebrucken, who will bring it over to the UK.

According to this, they’re not allowed to charge more to one nationality than another unless they can justify it:

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/shopping/shopping-abroad/price-discrimination/index_en.htm

Equal prices for foreigners

As an EU national, you cannot be charged a higher price than local residents when buying products or services anywhere else in the EU, unless the price difference is justified.

It does say you can contact them if you have tried to resolve with the supplier but hit a brick wall.

Clearly they can’t justify charging an extra €600 EUR or so in additional shipping charges because it’s no more expensive than shipping to ROI, and the shipping charges are actually stated when you purchase. They can’t justify it on handling foreign currency either because they still get paid in EUR by UK customers to a German EUR account, not GBP.

I don’t think it’s a breach of EU competition law, but possibly it’s a breach of Article 18 of the Treaty of the Proper Functioning of the European Union:

NON-DISCRIMINATION AND CITIZENSHIP OF THE UNION
Article 18
(ex Article 12 TEC)
Within the scope of application of the Treaties, and without prejudice to any special provisions contained therein, any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited.

Possibly, if the assembly and delivery of bike is a service rather than a product, it’s also a breach of Article 20 of the Service Directive:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32006L0123

Article 20

Non-discrimination

1. Member States shall ensure that the recipient is not made subject to discriminatory requirements based on his nationality or place of residence.

2. Member States shall ensure that the general conditions of access to a service, which are made available to the public at large by the provider, do not contain discriminatory provisions relating to the nationality or place of residence of the recipient, but without precluding the possibility of providing for differences in the conditions of access where those differences are directly justified by objective criteria.[/i]

Canyon’s arguments include:

A) This is what most of their major competitors do. Not sure that is true. YT are also a German based company with the USP as ‘direct sales’. They charge in EUR so they receive the same EUR price from every customer;

B) They want to protect their consumers from fluctuations in price and so they set a price for the season. In reality though they haven’t set the exchange rate at January 2015, but November 2013, during which time the EUR has conveniently (for them) only slid in one direction. I daresay had it slid the other way, they’d have revised the GBP price by now. So whilst people may say “you wouldn’t complain had it fallen the other way” the reality is that Canyon will revise the price each season but only when it suits them to do so.

If anyone fancies chancing their arm, you can sue Canyon using the European Small Claims Court 🙂

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV:l16028

I bet they have some bad ass German lawyers but even if they are right, or think they are right, they might be more worried about their reputation than the legal principle.

PS – you might inadvertently void your warranty if you sue Canyon 🙂 Don’t bite the hand that feeds you etc

My Canyon Dude was delayed slightly but got delivered to my mate in Germany last month, he in turn bought it over as hold luggage with Lufthansa for free so total cost to me was £1887 instead of £2199. A bit of faffing about but well worth it in my opinion.