TomTom's differential pricing policies (again)

[go930user]

Hi,

Just finished upgrading my the Oz maps on my two devices.

At the end of the process I was "offered" speed cameras updates.

Oz cameras $Au37.50
All of Europe Cameras $Au35.00 by rough conversion from the sterling figure quoted.

I'm pretty sure that the number of cameras in "all of Europe" would be an order of magnitude higher than in Oz.

But the really interesting thing was that during the map upgrades I was offered speed camera files for pretty much every European country at no cost - all I had to do was check the box for the ones I wanted.

Not much use on a unit that only has an Oz map!!

Has anyone seen an alteration on TT's policy of charging VAT on orders from beyond the EU?

Cheers

 

[dhn]

You still may be charged BUT if you call CS, they are **supposed** to remove the VAT from the invoice:

Australia
1300 135 604
Monday-Friday:
9:00 am to 5:30 pm AEST

 

[go930user]

Hi DHN,

Thanks,

So, if ordering something of a software nature and you see a VAT charge on the invoice before you pay, you call the Oz number and then wait for the invoice to be updated - maybe? Would tend to tie up a secure transaction link for a while I would think.

Cheers

 

[canderson]

Ref the difference in price between the smaller Oz cam database and larger European cam database...

Oz is a much smaller market, but with a large geographic area. I'm guessing that the per capita cost of maintaining the database is higher in Oz.

 

[go930user]

Ref the difference in price between the smaller Oz cam database and larger European cam database...

Oz is a much smaller market, but with a large geographic area. I'm guessing that the per capita cost of maintaining the database is higher in Oz.

Hi Canderson,

While Oz is large geographically, it has a very small road network by comparison with Europe or North America. In any event, you don't have to go looking on the ground for locations, because they are advertised at government sites. Here is the link for the Victorian one http://www.camerassavelives.vic.gov.au/home/locations/#mobile consequently establishing a data base and keeping it up to date isn't too difficult. Also user feedback via map changes advises TT of where new ones might be.

I believe it's a marketing decision in that Oz owners will "wear" the cost of the speed camera information, because the margin of error is small (5%) and penalty points can quickly mount to a license disqualification level.

Oh, and there are not 1700 plus mobile cameras, the exact number is difficult to discover, I'd guess a couple of hundred that get "rotated" between the locations. When using the TT I'm often alerted to a camera location where there is no camera active.

Western Europe has roughly 16 times Australia's population and a road network probably 25 times larger in 15 or so countries - keeping the data base for that up to date would be some sort of task, I expect.

But I take your point about market size.

Cheers