Halion 3 to Halion 4 upgrade...not $99 as promised?

hi,

i would like to download the halion 3 to halion 4 upgrade but the Steinberg website tells me i am not allowed and i have to contact my local distributor, Yamaha Australia to get it. Fine.

then i am told by the local Yamaha distributor that the Halion upgrade is $139, not $99? what is going on here.

if the $99 quoted upgrade price is in USD then it should translate to even less AUD…around $90!

what gives. This upgrade is meant to make your customers happy Steinberg, not ripped off and frustrated.

Steinberg you have officially stated that the upgrade will cost $99 to customers. please let me know how i can get this upgrade for $99…because i seem to be getting the runaround

With Thanks,
Blackout

I had the same issue here in Canada. Our dollar was better than the US dollar and I had to pay I think 139 as well Canadian for the upgrade. I too was a bit annoyed, but was told this was because of shipping costs, customs, taxes etc and nothing could be done about it. I swallowed the extra $40 and to be honest am not regretting it at all. Halion 4 offers so much, especially after the previous updates and is well worth the asking price.

honestly Cantank if they stated $99 then its $99. Steinberg were adamant about this price. it never said “$99 plus 40% shipping”.

anyways i dont want a “boxed” version im quite happy to download it from somewhere which will cost $0 “shipping”. as a customer i should be given that option…why arent i allowed to download it for $99 if i dont want to pay 40% shipping for a “boxed” version… what is this business of not ever allowing me the chance to purchase at the price stated…what sort of crap are they trying to pull here…

They should be a bit more clear about this - despite the matter being largely out of their hands; Steinberg have appointed AskNet AG as their global reseller partner. I believe it is they who handle all the on-line business and associated distribution - and probably the charging/collection of local customs/taxes/import duties etc.

In SB’s defence, just because it shows a price of $99 on the website, is no guarantee for you - unless you are in the USA. I don’t know where they were adamant to you personally about it being a $99 charge. Isn’t it just an indication anyway…? Its only at the point of payment when you are informed explicitly of the costs for this transaction (for you, in your country/currency). When your attempt failed for you, it was effectively saying “…sorry, we can’t continue the purchase, because we can’t say (calculate…?) how much this is going to be for you at this point.”

As an example, here in the UK it states £84.70 plus shipping. (I don’t know what that means in relation to the $99 USD figure quoted).

Ok, there is no download version of the product (the upgrade). Full stop! Thus, I’d have thought for international sales of a boxed unit (sourced from Germany), there has to be an element of local control - i.e. ship in bulk to the country; pay import duties at source, allow local distributors (via the retailers…?) to charge buyers the extra to cover those costs (then maybe go on to reclaim some of those taxes/duties as befits the individual country’s laws).

This all would be a nightmare for ASKNET AG to police on an individual basis.

So, its possibly easiest for them to simply state as you’ve seen - i.e. please contact your local distributor… :slight_smile:

I can imagine the red-tape extends even further than my feeble brain can make of global business transactions in 2012 - I can’t imagine it would be a simple (full-time) website admin job to keep on top of; not where shipping physical product across borders/continents is concerned anyway…

(this is only my opinion; and also just to quell the SB ‘bashing’ tone a little…! If you feel you’ve been mislead, I suggest its ASKNET AG you should question/complain to…!!)

hi Puma, thank you for your response and taking the time to explain how you experienced things. I appreciated your respectful tone, especially as i have kinda flown off the handles a little about this one in my previous post.

id still like to hear from Steinberg with an official explanation on this one. if what you are saying is that its only $99 in the US then surely they still have to pay import duties and taxes and shipping etc when its coming from germany. i just dont accept the line that theres all these charges so its 40% more for basically…everyone.

has anyone actually managed to purchase this upgrade for the specified $99?

Hi guys,

It is indeed as Puma said. 99 USD for this product is an SRP = Suggested Retail Price. This means this is the price point the HQ feels would be appropriate for this product. Where the HQ is directly involved with direct shipments, this pricing will be kept up.

Since we do work with Distribution companies in several countries, which have to calculate their pricing as well, we cannot guarantee the same pricing globally. As you can imagine importing products to any country is rather expensive as we only ship from Germany, as Puma states a lot of fees will be added at the end for the Distributor. Also, different countries have diefferent price politics for our products.

Sometimes you have to pay some more for the product depending on where you are and sometimes you can make a bargain. I think this pretty much evens out.

I am sorry that you think you have been treated unfair or being misled. This is clearly not our intention.

If you need any help for getting your product now in Australia, I am happy to connect you to somebody.

Thanks.

Melanie Becker
Export Channel Manager