Tapaninaho.com

So I contacted Adobe about their pricing policy and If I’m allowed under the EULA to buy a copy of Creative Suite 3 from US to save some money. Here’s what I wrote:

As Creative Suite sold in the UK and rest of Europe is so over priced compared to what it is in the US, I’m thinking of traveling to New York to purchase my copy. Am I allowed to do this under the EULA? It is a very tempting option as this way I would save hundreds of pounds even after paying for the flights. I believe I can’t order direct from Adobe Online Store in the US? If you can, could you also explain some of the reasons behind charging customers in the UK almost twice the amount? I understand if you cannot comment.

Yours Sincerely, Kristian Tapaninaho

And Adobe responds:

Dear Ms [sic] Tapaninaho
It is possible for you to go the USA and buy the product.However you will not be able to receive support from european support. I would also have to mention that yyou [sic] can only upgrade to North American versions. The offical [sic] reason for the pricing is as follows. The price of software in EMEA (europe-middle east-africa) reflects both the additional expense to develop and test Adobe’s applications for local markets and operating systems, as well as for the delivery of complimentary Warranty support. Adobe’s complimentary Warranty support covers product installation and defect issues for the life of the current version of Adobe’s desktop applications.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Lennon [update: I'm only referring to him as Mr. Lennon to protect his privacy, he was not made aware that this would be made public and I think it's only fare to not show his full name]
Adobe Customer Service

This to me raises at least three questions:

1. Does it really cost that much more to localize it to Arabic, Chinese Simplified (Windows only), Chinese Traditional (Windows only), Czech, Dutch, English, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean (Windows only), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (North American), Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian?

2. There is no ‘UK English’ or ‘International English’ version of the apps. So if it costs more to develop it for UK market, is there some extra features we’re paying for? Of course not. Does support cost more for UK customers than US customers? No, the call centers are probably in India in both cases. (I realise that I can’t back this argument, I am merely assuming)

3. If this is the ‘official’ reason, what is the unofficial reason? To loosely quote Chief Executive Bruce Chizen: ‘We can charge as much as we want’.

Anyhow, I’m gonna stop complaining about this and start paying up.

Take care, people!

kristian