UK Price Rises

I'd bet that Sonos do not pay for everything they make in US dollars and a more accurate reason could have just said it was about the change in $/£ exchange rate.
Serious question jgatie, if you were to buy a Play 5 or a Playbar from Amazon how much would you pay? Equally if you were to buy one from wherever you may normally do so (local store?)?

From Amazon or a local store I would be charged list price plus my home state's sales tax (MA - 6%), so the total price at checkout would be $499 + $30 = $529 for the Play:5 and $699 + $42 = $741 for the Playbar. Note that this is because Massachusetts is one of 23 states for which Amazon pre-charges state tax on purchases, as of 2014. All other states (which have a sales tax, some don't) require the customer to declare online purchases at tax filing time, which allows most in those states to not declare anything at all and they very rarely get audited for it.

As a side note, I could drive 1 hour north to New Hampshire, which has no state sales tax, and buy either for straight list price. Technically I would owe MA sales tax at filing time, but again, that is very rarely enforced.

[quote=Toolio][quote=jgatie]

Talk about missing the forest for the trees. The issue here is a significant price increase. Nobody, no matter where they live, likes a price increase. It is quite common for people, no matter where they live, to complain about rising prices. Frankly, I doubt that the residents of the UK shopping for now-more-expensive Sonos gear care what the US pricing is. I certainly do not, because I do not, nor have I ever, lived in the US. As others have pointed out, what should be more relevant are exchange fluctuations between the ringgit and the UK pound, since the products are made in Malaysia and presumably exported to Britain. Over the past year there hasn't been much change, although there have been significant fluctuations.

Even the Apple fanboys would laugh at the Sonos fanboys like Jgatie applauding a £100 price rise on outdated technology.

Now I have seen it all.

Lol. ;););););)

There are others reading this thread, who might be interested. Your continued involvement or lack of involvement in this discussion is immaterial. Feel free to not be interested, or to not care what the price is in the UK, or to be counted out. The original poster was not comparing UK and US prices. The message said: "Although the dollar rate is blamed", in reference to the fact that Sonos did just that. He did not start this discussion by comparing prices in the two countries, but by lamenting a price increase in the UK and the fact that "the products are much cheaper in some countries."

My replies were to those (particularly alberto98) who were posting about the disparity between US and UK list prices. As such, they were on-topic and to the point. Up until then, I never said anything in this thread beside a humorous reply to a cheap shot attack. Why you are trying to make my posts out to be an attack on the OP, a statement on the right of others to be angry, or anything else other than to clarify an oft seen mistake due to included VAT vs. excluded state tax, I'll never know.

Go ahead, have the last word. I've spent far too much time on your BS. :8

I've never compared us to uk prices; I couldn't give a monkeys what they cost in the US. My post was about using the bullsh!t excuse for us and uk currency to put the prices up. If currency rates dictated the cost to the end user we'd have seen price reductions before now.

It's like catnip to a cat.

From Amazon or a local store I would be charged list price plus my home state's sales tax (MA - 6%), so the total price at checkout would be $499 + $30 = $529 for the Play:5 and $699 + $42 = $741 for the Playbar.

Well that's basically £104 more than the new UK price with todays us to gbp conversion; but as mentioned, who cares. The UK price is a comical, and people here are obviously peeved. Business suicide, as reported in the press here.

There are others reading this thread, who might be interested. Your continued involvement or lack of involvement in this discussion is immaterial. Feel free to not be interested, or to not care what the price is in the UK, or to be counted out. The original poster was not comparing UK and US prices. The message said: "Although the dollar rate is blamed", in reference to the fact that Sonos did just that. He did not start this discussion by comparing prices in the two countries, but by lamenting a price increase in the UK and the fact that "the products are much cheaper in some countries."

My replies were to those (particularly alberto98) who were posting about the disparity between US and UK list prices. As such, they were on-topic and to the point. Up until then, I never said anything in this thread beside a humorous reply to a cheap shot attack. Why you are trying to make my posts out to be an attack on the OP, a statement on the right of others to be angry, or anything else other than to clarify an oft seen mistake due to included VAT vs. excluded state tax, I'll never know.

Go ahead, have the last word. I've spent far too much time on your BS. :8

I've never compared us to uk prices; I couldn't give a monkeys what they cost in the US. My post was about using the bullsh!t excuse for us and uk currency to put the prices up. If currency rates dictated the cost to the end user we'd have seen price reductions before now.

It's like catnip to a cat.

It's difficult for some Americans to fathom that the U.S. is not the center of the universe. "Some," but by no means all.

Laying the bait out thick this morning are we? Sorry children, not going to bite. The sandbox is all yours! 😉

Interested that people are defending this. Sonos have gone out on a complete limb and raised prices significantly more than any other AV company that I can find (I'm seeing no prices rises and then a band in the 8-10% range), it smacks of opportunism to be honest. Compounded with that is that the price rises now bring them very close to Bluesound pricing, which I don't think many people would argue against being a stronger product.

It's an odd decision. I'm mid-house renovation and was about to pull the trigger on 3 connects to compliment my other Sonos kit, now pausing and considering shifting my kit onto ebay and moving wholesale across to Bluesound. Without the prices increases I think I would have stayed static.

Sonos are entitled to price as they like. If they have got it wrong they will suffer the consequences. If any company can maximise profit in one market by charging five times what it charges elsewhere, or whatever, that is what it should do. It's market capitalism.

I am NOT saying Sonos is right. Or wrong. I just think the ignorance about business and economics demonstrated by some of the critics on here is staggering,

Actually, I think many people in this discussion have stated their cases quite clearly, showing considerable knowledge of business and economics--including those with whom I have disagreed above.