Guys.......look at this......look at this! EXPENSIVE AS ****

[AngryNil]

People didn't know this? It's plain infeasible to buy phones outright in many countries. You don't get the luxury of many wholesalers, and going to eBay or Amazon means you revoke your ability to claim warranty.

It's not to do with currency conversion, or even any VAT crap. It's simply a different market, economy, etc. The carriers overcharge because they can, and it drives people to sign up for 24-month contracts. Win-win on their part.

 

[12Danny123]

People didn't know this? It's plain infeasible to buy phones outright in many countries. You don't get the luxury of many wholesalers, and going to eBay or Amazon means you revoke your ability to claim warranty.

It's not to do with currency conversion, or even any VAT crap. It's simply a different market, economy, etc. The carriers overcharge because they can, and it drives people to sign up for 24-month contracts. Win-win on their part.

in NZ nobody pays for contracts.

they call you poor

 

[boss.king]

Well OP, I'm a New Zealander. I currently use an HTC Titan that cost me almost NZD1000. I use prepay because contracts here are a ripoff, as is mobile data. A bunch of my friends have contracts for their phones though. NZ electronics prices are pretty high all around, it's just a fact of life here.

Look at eXpansys or mobicity.co.nz for phones, they will be much cheaper than buying them from carriers.

 

[AngryNil]

in NZ nobody pays for contracts. they call you poor

That's pretty funny. In Australia, I consider anyone who buys smartphones outright to be crazy. There are obviously people who do it, but I don't see them as rich - just wasting money.

 

[travis_valkyrie]

Guys, I'm with boss.king here. Most electronics here have added GST valued to their price. I bought a Titan a couple months ago and thought it was cheap, I bought it for $630NZD and when it came here it asked me for a GST import fee, and the actual sum that I paid was $750.

All cellular networks here do plans (or contracts in US), or you could stick to prepay and buy the phone full price. But people here rarely do plans, only business people do that here. New networks like Skinny Mobile are rolling out subsidized phones which are locked to their network, their phones are cheap compared to retail price.

Also, we don't get the 4G-equipped phones as we are just starting our own 4G network with telecom NZ (currently in testing right now) and vodafone in 2013. So yeah, to sum it all up: Electronics + GST = Our retail price, you guys get it there like almost half of the price here.

So just because we're the 2nd country to see the sunshine doesn't mean we all get the goodies. We have sheeps tho.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

My phone, OUTRIGHT, only cost ?440... and that was from a phone retailer (Carphone Warehouse)... that's including VAT at 20%... So how come NZ gets ripped off so badly... if we're playing that game... they should charge ?10billion for a HTC Desire C... for a 50 year ?2million/mth contract that gives you nothing included in the contract... that's how bad it is in NZ compared to UK.

 

[Winterfang]

No phone is worth 800 dollars, no phone except an used Optimus 7, that you buy from me.

 

[12Danny123]

No phone is worth 800 dollars, no phone except an used Optimus 7, that you buy from me.

Duse click on day link from Vodafone

 

[12Danny123]

Guys, I'm with boss.king here. Most electronics here have added GST valued to their price. I bought a Titan a couple months ago and thought it was cheap, I bought it for $630NZD and when it came here it asked me for a GST import fee, and the actual sum that I paid was $750.

All cellular networks here do plans (or contracts in US), or you could stick to prepay and buy the phone full price. But people here rarely do plans, only business people do that here. New networks like Skinny Mobile are rolling out subsidized phones which are locked to their network, their phones are cheap compared to retail price.

Also, we don't get the 4G-equipped phones as we are just starting our own 4G network with telecom NZ (currently in testing right now) and vodafone in 2013. So yeah, to sum it all up: Electronics + GST = Our retail price, you guys get it there like almost half of the price here.

So just because we're the 2nd country to see the sunshine doesn't mean we all get the goodies. We have sheeps tho.

Sheep lol!. You reminded me of that finnish guy on 3 news
"we have Nokia you have sheep" classic