Yes - I was rather surprised by the minging note on the front of UK Amazon's website that essentially denied the existence of the new colour Kindle and played the good year blimp trick of 'look over here at the cheaper Kindle' in the hope you wouldn't notice the colour one or the silly price.
I could be persuaded to get a cheap Kindle with lifetime 3G if I could do some jailbreak things with it for eg. ssh but with the company playing such silly tricks I'm a bit disincentivised. Dollar for pound exchange rates are rather old fashioned. Dollar for more than a pound? I don't think so!
[Which does raise the interesting question of whether one could buy a US 3G Kindle in the US and use it over here...]
ETA: Actually, having just looked at the letter to users on the Amazon US page whcih states 'There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.' I was so annoyed that I wrote to Amazon Uk and complained.
Here's what I wrote (and yes - this is Dr Angry coming out when I should be working on the novel. Displacement activity or what?
Dear Amazon,
I read on your US site that you consider yourselves to be a company that works hard to charge customers less. And yet your new Kindle is just $79 in the US while you are charging £89 for it in the UK. At current exchange rates that is the equivalent of $138, nearly the price of a Kindle Touch 3G in the US.
This is not working hard to charge customers less. It is a rip off and I am disgusted that you think you can make claims that you're trying to charge customers less.
Your international customers deserve much more than this kind of deceptive shell game.
I would like to hear what you're going to do about it.
I could be persuaded to get a cheap Kindle with lifetime 3G if I could do some jailbreak things with it for eg. ssh but with the company playing such silly tricks I'm a bit disincentivised. Dollar for pound exchange rates are rather old fashioned. Dollar for more than a pound? I don't think so!
[Which does raise the interesting question of whether one could buy a US 3G Kindle in the US and use it over here...]
ETA: Actually, having just looked at the letter to users on the Amazon US page whcih states 'There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.' I was so annoyed that I wrote to Amazon Uk and complained.
Here's what I wrote (and yes - this is Dr Angry coming out when I should be working on the novel. Displacement activity or what?
Dear Amazon,
I read on your US site that you consider yourselves to be a company that works hard to charge customers less. And yet your new Kindle is just $79 in the US while you are charging £89 for it in the UK. At current exchange rates that is the equivalent of $138, nearly the price of a Kindle Touch 3G in the US.
This is not working hard to charge customers less. It is a rip off and I am disgusted that you think you can make claims that you're trying to charge customers less.
Your international customers deserve much more than this kind of deceptive shell game.
I would like to hear what you're going to do about it.
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