Plenty of US resellers will be happy to ship to Australia. I buy things from Europe and Asia all the time if the pricing is favorable (or many times for things you can't buy here). I sell to Australians on eBay regularly, as it appears there are a number of things you can't buy at reasonable prices down there.

It's a global economy, whether Apple wants it to be or not.

Given the state of geographical knowledge in the USA, I wonder how many of them accidently ship to Austria?

Just kidding.

I used to ship from the States but had some unpleasant experiences with US Resellers. If I did it again I'd want to do it face to face and checking the inventory.

Besides which I could claim the trip as a tax deduction. No Aussie customs official would believe I flew from Australia to Hawaii for the sun, beaches or the food s:-)

Tell ya what, I'll pick up a machine from the low-cost reseller I use, inspect it, and you send me a plane ticket...

Tell you what, you stay where you are, be my agent and I'll keep you well lubricated with a few cases of good Coonawarra reds.

s:-)

I re-ship motorcycle products to people in Europe and Canada all the time, I'd be happy to help if I could. I think most people don't understand how easy it is to ship internationally now, which is why lots of the motorcycle people refuse to do it. So seriously, if I could help in procuring a system and shipping it, would be happy to.

I bought my 17" PowerBook last March -- from MacWarehouse in the USA. The brand new product had not yet arrived in Norway, where I live. The US purchase saved me approx. $1400. With an additional $600 saved on a Nikon CoolPix 5700, and more bucks saved on two iPods, MS Office and other software, I was really happy.

A bizarre detail... I’m sure most of you have seen the TV ads with Bruce Willis: "The future takes VISA". Don’t believe it! MacWarehouse absolutely refused to accept my VISA card since I had a Norwegian address, even when I told them they didn’t have to ship to goods (to a Massachusetts address) until they had actually received payment. So I had to wire them the money.
(By the way, this refusal is NOT dictated by VISA.)

The savings basically paid the airfare for me, my wife and daughter, including two nights hotel in Boston.

For my next upgrade I may just add a few items and purchase them all in the Apple Store in Honolulu, Hawaii -- stopping at the beach on the way.

:)
ArcticStones


PS The VAT in Norway is 24 %. Anyone beat that?

The Visa refusal is understandable; there is nearly no protection for the merchant on this transaction, which can come back to bite them up to 60 days later. It's a high-risk item because it's more of a tradeable commodity than gold or diamonds.

I accept cards for online transactions as well as in-person, and I've had a couple close calls. Had one I absolutely knew would be a scam, but Paypal told me to go ahead and ship it, and when it turned out to be a scam, they covered it under the Seller Protection plan. Otherwise I would have been SOL if it had been a regular merchant account.

My motorcycle friends run into the same thing, so they just Paypal the money to me and I pay for and ship the product. It's annoying, but a hazard of business being so "virtual." It makes it easier to be a thief.

:eek: So I guess I should stop whining that when I moved recently my sales tax rate went from 7.8% to 8%... And in the US, when we buy from another state, there is no sales tax (legally it is still due, but it is not enforced).

To clarify ArcticStones' Visa issue, the Visa billing address (Norway) didn't match the delivery address (Massachusetts). This could easily be exploited by a credit card thief, and the policy of all shippers is to decline it as suspicous.

As far as sales tax goes, isn't it such a huge variable in the States? You have a layering of Federal, State and even Local taxes that make it hard to predict a final price. Not to mention the tip when eating, in a hotel or taxi or even someone handles your bags. This is highly degrading for travellers from Australia, where we have one GST of 10% (included in the price) on everything except food you cook yourself (jokingly called the thermometer test). Tips are purely optional and mostly not done, because people are paid a living wage here.

Ah well different strokes for different folks.

The sales tax varies by locality. There is no federal sales tax in general. Sales taxes are apportioned to and levied by the states, counties, and cities. It is collected as one sum by a merchant. A couple of states have no sales tax, and some have no income tax. It does vary, but generally is within 6%-8%.

Some cities further like to rip off the traveler, since who can they complain to, they don't vote. There are special taxes for hotel rooms, rental cars, and such. For example, if you rent a car in my fair city, you also contribute about $5 to one of our billionaires in the form of a stadium tax. Never mind if you never visit the stadium to watch his loser teams play, and then pay another $50 or so, or not.

Tipping is an interesting thing. My general view with limited world travel is that where tipping is not done, food costs more. The money comes from somewhere. I agree on the issue of knowing the local customs. You might want to buy a book if you ever go to Japan, they seem to have the most convoluted and strict customs.

But back on taxes...federally the average consumer doesn't see much on sales taxes. There is an excise ("luxury" tax) on gasoline, tires, and other items. This is bundled into the prices however, paid for by the manufacturers. Normal sales tax is added at the time of sale.

Tipping is really bad practice, often not optional and frequently demanded despite cr@p service. When I was waiting as a student I found it was applied on mood rather than real service. Someone showing off to his girlfriend, a family man enjoying a birthday with his kids or when I was a raw beginner given out of sympathy. The really rich were tight arses, demanded extra service or priority because they were going to a show and then gave nothing.

Thankfully it plays little part here except occassionally in a restaurant if a waiter has been very nice and even then the waiters share it amongst themselves. I remember an American tourist thinking all his birthdays had come at once when I told him he didn't have to tip.

I think our restaurants are very good and very cheap compared with the States. The reason you may find food cheaper in the States is the huge subsidies paid to your farmers, the low wages paid to staff and may I be unkind and suggest quantity figures higher in your thinking than quality.

Just to clarify the VISA issue: MacWarehouse (and other vendors) have an absolute policy against accepting foreign credit cards. Actually it had nothing to do with the delivery address being my holiday (father-in-law’s) address.
Since I had to wire the money, I chose a well-known reliable vendor (which I assumed MacWarehouse was), rather than the cheapest. I did not want to get screwed. The cheapest (apple-4-less) had a payment address in Romania, and no telephone no. at their "US warehouse"...

Nevertheless I did have a considerable headache with MacWarehouse. I had an absolute agreement as to when the PowerBook would be delivered. It was clear-cut since I was only in the USA for 2 weeks.

When I arrived: no Mac. I called them and was informed that I had been waitlisted. "It would arrive sometime in the next 6 weeks". It cost me a couple of hours on the phone, and I finally had to demand to talk to the head of their shipping department. "No, I was not interested in having it shipped to Norway (even free of charge)." The aforementioned 24%... I had to insist that we had an absolute binding contract, explain my travel situation in detail, and stress the fact that I had NO leeway.

Luckily she cut through the red tape, promised to ship me one of the PowerBooks that they just, in fact, received from Apple that day. I received everything a couple of days before my return to Norway.

Best regards,
ArcticStones

PS I was not aware of the 60 days thing in regards to VISA. Does this mean that, theoretically, a disgruntled customer can rescind payment at a restaurant (minus the tip) once he’s home, safely out of reach of the restaurateurs? :rolleyes:

Theoretically, yes. In the US, credit cards offer a lot of protection for the customer since they can dispute the validity of a charge based on not having received the product/service promised or expected. In the US there is a "warranty of merchantability" implied on every sale. Meaning that the customer can expect that a product or service will work as intended/advertised. The credit card is a way to enforce that, and I've used it once when I was given shoddy service on an auto repair.

The restaurant thing could generate an interesting conversation with the card provider...

OK, thanks for the clarification.
You see, I thought once my money was in MacWarehouse’ hands ...well, that it was in their hands. I was actually offering to prepay them, with my Norwegian VISA, about 6-7 weeks in advance of shipping.

Best,
ArcticStones