My run training has been going well recently, and my runners are due to be replaced, so I decided to start looking around for prices. I’m currently using Mizumo Wave Creations and they’ve been working well for me, so I figured I’d just get the same ones again. Recommended Retail Price in Australia is $250, but I’d seen them in Rebel Sport for $199.

In a bid to save some cash I decided to do a bit opf WBR (web-based research) and ended up buying from Runner’s Warehouse in the US: a pair of Wave Creations plus a pair of the lighter Wave Precisions, plus shipping to Oz for $230. Bloody bargain!

On a related note, Sydney’s Apple Store opened last week and their global Senior VP of Retail was asked why Australian consumers get ripped of by Apple’s pricing. He claimed that Apple’s prices are fair, which is horse shit. I’m looking to replace my 15” Macbook Pro, and there’s a 29% discrepancy between the US and Australian price - fair enough, 10% of that is GST, but that still leaves an almost 20% markup at a time when the exchange rate is 0.95. Mr. Johnson claimed that he had “never once - and I receive hundreds of emails a day from customers - had one email [complaining] about our pricing.”

So, I decided to send him one: >Hi Ron,

I read with interest your claim from June 19th’s Sydney Morning Herald, that in 8 years you “have never once - and I receive hundreds of emails a day from customers - had one email about our pricing.” If that is indeed true, then I’m happy to be your first.

Simply put, you’re ripping us off. I’m a software developer who has owned Macs since the early 90s a work exclusively on my MacBook Pro and I tend to upgrade to the latest version approximately every two years. I love all things Mac and as such, keep an eye on the goings on in the industry. More importantly, in the last couple of years I have been directly responsible for converting 20+ friends from PCs to Macs and all of them wonder why they didn’t switch sooner. My point is that I keep a regular eye on prices, as, if I’m not buying for myself, there’s a good chance I’m trying to convince a friend to switch.

I’m due to upgrade now and am looking at the better of the two 15” MacBook Pros: AUD$3400 vs US$2500, or at today’s exchange rate AUD$2619, so the Aus version is 29% more expensive than the US version, so if we allow 10% for GST, there’s still a 19% discrepancy to explain. Let’s remember that the laptops are manufactured in Asia, so there shouldn’t be a significant difference in delivery to Aus vs US. Also, I’m sure Apple has negotiated a uniform per unit price regardless of the end destination of the laptop. Every other manufacturer passes on currency savings to the consumer, except Apple. Yes, you make a token gesture with a $100 here and there, but, based on exchange rates, your laptops in Australia should have improved in price against the US by over 20% in the last few years and this clearly hasn’t happened.

I’d be interested in hearing your explanation for this.

regards, Donncha Redmond

I doubt I’ll get a response, or that the PR minions will even forward the letter to him!