Ok, so why does Dell FORCE me to go to the Belgium site? I don't speak neither French nor Flamish and English is not an option there. If I go to the US site, I am simply told that with my address being in Belgium I have to buy from the Belgium site. In case you don't know, there are a LOT of foreingers here in Brussels: NATO headquarter, European Commission & Parliament & Council of Ministers, Euro Control, Swift,.... the list goes on and on....
Anyway, let's compare.
Only the XPS series is available in Europe, so I picked one of those for the example
Dell Dimension XPS R400, PII 400/512k Minitower, 64MB, 8.4GB, 19" P990, ATI 8MB 3D AGP, 40x CDROM, AltecLansing speakers + SubW, USR V.90.
US Site: US$1,877
Belgium: BEF 75,300 ($2,166)- 91,113 with VAT ($2.621)
Comparing apples with apples (net prices) there's a difference of ~ $300 or 15%. You may think that's nothing, but knowing that I can build my own equivalent for around half that price I'm not much likely to buy a Dell. I could even buy another brand name PC from the US from other vendors who don't force you to use a certain store to shop in.
QED |
