# Why are British people so easily ripped off? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 7, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488 "2004-11-07T13:10:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/1 "2004-11-07T13:10:37Z")
Jesus! Why did you Britons put up with this stuff for so long! [New laws to stop British rip-offs](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1348457,00.html) > [@](#): > > Last week British consumers booking a luxury trip to New York over the internet had to pay almost twice as much as French residents for the same flights and hotels. > > A business class British Airways seat costs British residents £2,353 — compared with £1,071 for the French on the same flight from Paris via Heathrow. > > Three days’ basic car hire from Hertz costs Britons £129.05 but French travellers pay £108. Three nights at the Sofitel hotel in New York, booked with Thomas Cook, costs £1,074 for Britons but just £801 if you live in France. > > Kate Cowper, 26, from Nottingham, said she welcomed the plan after falling foul of differential pricing. She said: “I booked a car on an Italian website off Hertz but when I arrived I was told that I had to pay almost twice as much because I was British. I contested the higher fee but the contract I had signed meant they just took the money from my credit card.” > > Similar differential pricing is also used by Sony and other electronics firms. British consumers using Sony’s website are charged £278 more for VGNA217M laptop computers than Spanish residents and £107 more than their counterparts in France. > > However, for some products Britons are offered lower prices so the proposal will also benefit other Europeans. For example, some products bought online from Ikea are cheaper. > > Amazon, the online bookshop, favours British residents with prices consistently lower than in France and Germany for the same products. > > Britain has long had a reputation as one of the most expensive countries in Europe and has been called “Treasure Island” by multinational firms. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/2 "2004-11-07T13:17:57Z")
So this is how the EU works. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/3 "2004-11-07T13:48:18Z")
That’s silly, **don’t ask** ; the EU is made up of separate countries, and the lower prices quoted are from other EU nations. This is actuall yhow an island nation works. Ireland’s even worse. Captive populations. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/4 "2004-11-07T13:52:15Z")
Most likely, if the law passes, you’ll see prices go up in other countries, and prices drop somewhat in Britain. If you’re a company like British Air, and you are trying to increase your market share in France, you’ll cut your profits to the bone to get market share. In Britain, where you likely have a large share of the market, you charge what the market will bear. Fiddling with this may mean slightly lower prices in Britain on some things, but it will mean less competition. Why would you want to use British Air when you could probably use Air France without the stopover at Heathrow, if it cost you the same amount of money? As far as the computer goes, if your expensive computer is selling better in Britain, where the wage rate is probably higher than in Spain, then you will probably cut the price in order to sell more of them. I can’t explain the internet car rental deal, though. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/5 "2004-11-07T13:53:46Z")
But isn’t the idea of the EU that the separate countries form some kind of union? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/6 "2004-11-07T13:55:03Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > That’s silly, **don’t ask** ; the EU is made up of separate countries, and the lower prices quoted are from other EU nations. > > This is actually how an island nation works. Ireland’s even worse. Captive populations. Captive? Isn’t the chunnel like a big bridge? Does it really cost a shipper 100-300 pounds extra to schlep a 20 lb PC notebook retail box through the chunnel vs what a Frenchman pays? What happened to the English mercantilist spirit? I thought you guys were world class bargainers. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/7 "2004-11-07T13:57:49Z")
There is a negation of trade and tarrifs between the EU members, and monetary union between some of the members, but that doesn’t mean that services that are only available in one country somehow gain the same price as in other countries. It’s still “what the market will bear”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/8 "2004-11-07T14:00:13Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Captive? Isn’t the chunnel like a big bridge? Does it really cost a shipper 100-300 pounds extra to schlep a 20 lb PC notebook retail box through the chunnel vs what a Frenchman pays? What happened to the English mercantilist spirit? I thought you guys were world class bargainers. Clearly not any more. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/9 "2004-11-07T14:05:23Z")
But not a perfect union. If you go across the United States, for example, I’ve noticed that the same product in the same store will sometimes not be the same price. Lowe’s seems to be a big offender at this. If there’s a Home Depot close by, the prices will be lower than if they don’t have this competition. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/10 "2004-11-07T18:59:20Z")
A lot of these “business practices” of charging what the customer will bear are hangovers from the days when we traded as an island nation and Europe was somewhere else. One example is the cost of cars, manufacturers fought for years to maintain their huge profit margin on British sold vehicles. We had all the excuses imaginable why there was such a large differential on prices e.g. different standard of accessories, better after care… The internet, has helped by allowing people to order and collect cars from the continent (of Europe) at a cheaper price. The dealers there are only too pleased to sell to Brits as it’s still profit to them. The manufacturers tried putting pressure on the dealers by threatening to withhold their cars from them. Eventually through a combination of legislation and publicity car prices have dropped a bit. Businesses anywhere will fight tooth and nail to keep their profit margins as high as possible. Levi Strauss went to court to stop one British supermarket selling their goods cheaper than the recommended price. > [@mike1dog](#): > > … Why would you want to use British Air when you could probably use Air France without the stopover at Heathrow… Small correction, there’s no such company as British Air, I’m sure you mean British Airways. They have been called lots of things mostly uncomplimentary but not that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/11 "2004-11-07T19:13:35Z")
Average incomes in England are far higher than those in France. The companies in question are simply charging what the different markets will bear. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/12 "2004-11-07T19:52:18Z")
Perhaps I’m missing the obvious, but shipping charges aside, I didn’t find an answer in the article to **why** they were charging the British more. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/13 "2004-11-07T19:52:36Z")
What the others said. Anyway, the role of the EU in trade is to form a free market, basically. That would tend to bring prices closer together, but there are many other reasons why prices may be different, apart from government barriers to trade, namely, supply and demand. That said, the EU has levelled the playing field somewhat, by not allowing unfair state aid to their nation’s comapanies, regulating standards so that goods, especially electrical, do not suffer from barriers due to incompatible standards. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/14 "2004-11-07T19:54:38Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Perhaps I’m missing the obvious, but shipping charges aside, I didn’t find an answer in the article to **why** they were charging the British more. Like many others have said, supply and demand. The Brits will pay more, so they charge more. End of story. Why do you expect the companies to charge less when they know that they can charge more? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/15 "2004-11-07T19:59:13Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Perhaps I’m missing the obvious, but shipping charges aside, I didn’t find an answer in the article to why they were charging the British more. Capitalist greed: companies will charge what people are prepared or able to pay. It’s a slow process, but there are changes happening. A friend of mine travelled from the UK to the Netherlands to buy a Subaru Impreza. He got a model for use in drive-on-the-left countries, and saved himself nearly £10,000. In Ireland there are German supermarket chains opening up (Lidl, Aldi) that sell foodstuffs for 50% of their Irish counterparts. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/16 "2004-11-08T00:10:04Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > Like many others have said, supply and demand. The Brits will pay more, so they charge more. End of story. Why do you expect the companies to charge less when they know that they can charge more? Because they will sell more. Perhaps the British should refuse to deal with companies that charge them an arbitrarily higher price. I know that is being simplistic and unrealistic, but if the loyal customers of my store were to suddenly and in concert refuse to pay what we charge them for engraving, and were to inform the company that they felt our engraving charges were too high…or if another company began to offer engraving services cheaper than ours and as convenient as ours in close proximity to us…prices would change. Especially if they bought the product from us and had it engraved elsewhere, because then all our profit would disappear. Yes, I know this is a bad example and short-sighted. But for non-necessities (like books and electronics) the customer does have some power. It’s like the lettuce shortage we had a few years back. All of a sudden, due to a bad freeze, lettuce prices went sky-high. Instead of $1 a head, it was $3 a head. There seemed to be as much lettuce in the stores as before . The problem was that nobody bought the $3 lettuce, and it rotted in the stores and the store lost money. So their attempt to make more money on lettuce backfired. When they dropped the price to $1.25, people didn’t feel gouged and bought more lettuce again. They ended up making more money. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/17 "2004-11-08T00:14:28Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Because they will sell more. In some cases, that’s not the simple answer. Such as in the OP, there’s only a fixed number of business class seats on each BA flight. So if the British market can manage to fill most of them with a thumping profit, then so be it. (Of course, BA’s profits suggest they’re not managing to run their business this well, but that’s another matter.) > [@](#): > > Perhaps the British should refuse to deal with companies that charge them an arbitrarily higher price. When the opportunity is there, we do - such as with the growth of low-cost airlines. But often there simply is no viable alternative, which is why legislation is being suggested. ---
**Author:** ![tryout1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6de8d8/32.png) [@tryout1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tryout1)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/18 "2004-11-08T02:24:10Z")
Just a question–I have no idea what the answer might be–but is it possible that taxes are higher in Britain than France? Import taxes, export taxes, sales taxes, airport taxes, etc? As I recall, the Value Added Tax in the UK by itself is pretty substantial, and it is built into the price of most products and services, rather than added to the total as a separate line item. What would the British/French price differential be like if you excluded taxes? ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/19 "2004-11-08T03:20:46Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Average incomes in England are far higher than those in France. The companies in question are simply charging what the different markets will bear. Cite? A quick check of the [CIA World Factbook](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html) places the per capita GDP of the U.K. only very slighter higher than France. Of course, it could be France has a much more unequal income distrobution, leaving the typical Englishman with more money to spend than your median Frenchmen that marketers are aiming at, or there could be a significant difference between the English & other members of the U.K. in income level. Just curious to see what the case is. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488/20 "2004-11-08T03:24:13Z")
Ack, I just remembered that the CIA World factbook uses a purchase-parity benchmark when calculating income levels, not direct conversion of currency. So if an average Englishman made more than the average Frenchman, but paid more for everything, their purchase-parity levels would be about the same. That could explain your observations as well. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-british-people-so-easily-ripped-off/273488.md?page=2)