Want to live in NZ? be prepared to kiss goodbye to your cash.
Continuing in our series of Migrant Tales – first hand accounts of migrant life in New Zealand.
This tale was written by a British migrant.
I will start this with an apology, as the content of my letter does contain a fair bit of profanity. However, it isn’t written glibly, without meaning, but in fairness to myself, it is heartfelt. I think it will strike a chord with many, and may cause pause for thought to some, who might otherwise think NZ is a Shangri-La of utopian values.
…..I have HAD IT with New Zealand’s rip off culture. Its official, I am sick to death of it. They can stick their over-inflated prices up their arses.
NZ has to be the biggest rip-off country in the world when it comes to pricing, well, for just most things. My latest occurrence was when trying to purchase a demolition drill bit for a particular drill I have had for years. I rang around for ages trying to find anyone who stocked them. It was as if I was trying to find a stockist of rocking horse shit. Eventually I managed to find a company in Timaru, who said they had one in stock, but they weren’t sure of the price??!! It’s not the first time I have come across that here, a company who has what I want, but doesn’t know by how much to rip me off… errrrm, charge me for. Eventually I got a price out of them. It would be $120 plus 15% GST plus postage, which might be around another $20 on top. So, circa $160 all up. OUCH!!!
So, I decided to look again locally, on the off chance. I rang Makita, as apparently they did the same item, under their brand (although I had been told differently by one of NZ’s top tool companies, who swore absolutely they didn’t!). Anyway, I contacted Makita NZ who said yes, we have them in stock. Okay said me, how much are they. We don’t know they said. What do you mean said I. Well we can’t sell them to you, you will have to go through a retailer, and we have no idea what they will charge you….. And so here we go again I thought! Once again, New Zealands ‘lets see how many hands we can run it through’ culture. Anyway, I ended up contacting the tool store that I was directed to, and they eventually gave me a price of $58 +GST or less… yes, or less, is what the guy said. He promised me the $58 would be a maximum, but he was sure it would come in under that (why, God only knows). I ordered it, and they said they would phone me when it arrived. A day or so later, I ended up chasing them, and guess what. I was then asked how much had I been quoted (it was the same guy), and then a silent pause and followed by “well we can’t do that I’m afraid, that’s what WE pay…” in other words, they had stuffed up. They now wanted circa $100….. or more! He would tell me exactly when I go in to pick it up. WTF… seriously?
Bottom line, I will not be picking up the tool I ordered from them. Instead I have gone back to my old friend Amazon. I decided to check overseas (UK) prices. Yep, sure enough they were in the stores from around seven quid upwards. That is around $14NZ to you (less than a tenth of the price of my first local quote). Postage would be less than $14NZ, so all in all $30NZ gets it to my door.So, my first quote here was over TEN TIMES what it should have cost, or at least what it would cost in the UK. My second quote was more reasonable, at first, being only nearly five times the UK price. That was until they told me they had stuffed up with the price (yeah right!). Anyway, now I will have to wait a few days, but hey, its worth it, as I will be saving about $70.
Thoughts…
John Key plans to jump on anyone who orders online for (overseas) goods. Why? Well it’s a combination of reasons, but mainly so that they can bleed us for more tax, as if we don’t pay enough already that is! But also, because NZ retailers are trying to get the government to stop, us, the consumers, from buying online, as they are losing out. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for buying local, keeping the money circulating here that is, whenever possible, but not when I’m paying three, four, five… TEN times what I could be getting the same goods for, and when the retailers are getting their goods from overseas anyway!Kiwi’s with their gullible sheep-like attitude, do not actually stop and think when it comes to such things, but let me highlight just how badly we get ripped off here.
At first glance, we might think we are better off than some countries, with our 15% GST. The UK for example have 20%VAT. That said, many countries have far lower sales added tax, and many have none at all. Hong Kong for example. Many well-off migrant workers live the high life in HK, and when they spend their money they get stuff at rock bottom prices, and no sales tax to boot! Here however, we are taxed on every dollar we earn, then taxed again when we spend whatever’s left! Okay, well that can be said for the UK too, but the rub is this. If for example we take the previous item, a tool bit, and say we live in the UK. We would buy this for seven pounds (say $14) including the 20%VAT. The tax element of this would be about $2.30 Now, lets suppose we have bought locally, here in NZ. After the same item has been imported by a business for re-sale, shuffled through a whole selection of distributors, and finally the retailer, who sticks a price tag of $120 +GST on it, well, then the tax element we are to pay will be $18 In other words, not only are we asked to prop-up local businesses who often do nothing more than order in products from the same overseas companies you can yourself, then charge you absolute extortionate prices for the privilege, when these same retailers and other hangers-on have finally gouged up the price as much as anyone could ever think possible, we are then asked to pay a 15% tax on the whole dam lot!
No wonder the government want us to pay as much as dam possible for our goods, because when we do, it ensures that they rake in a HEFTY sum for doing absolutely NOTHING. In other words, the more we are stung by unfair overinflated local prices, the more the tax man takes.
Now, if we look at it another way, if we say that the tool bit has a sensible worth of $14, however we are asked to pay $120+GST just because we live in NZ. We pay 15%GST here, but instead of paying it on the real (the sensible worth) cost of this item, which would be $2.10NZ, we have to pay $18.00 GST, which in real terms is a whopping 128% Yes, that’s 128% In other words, a tool worth $14 (to the rest of the world) has netted the government 128%GST from you, do to the fact the value of the article has been artificially hiked up by the old “well you’re in New Zealand now mate” mentality.
This is only one example, but if you take this across the board, you will understand why here in New Zealand, people generally can’t afford to buy decent (most) goods, and are penalised when they do have to put their hand in their pocket.My wife and I used to wonder why Kiwis in general looked so shabby, so “yesterday”, and why the whole country seemed to be held together by bits of wire and string, for want of a better way of putting it. Now we know. Because NO FUCKER CAN AFFORD BETTER! Yes, foul language, but that’s from the heart. That’s how we feel. The only thing that makes Kiwis feel like they are better off these days is all the cheap nasty plastic throw-away shite that they buy from places like The Warehouse. Do you remember back in the eighties in the UK we had a company called Franklin Mint, who advertised their wares as “collectables that will only increase in value over time”, and other such claims. Well, it came to pass that they sold overpriced shite to the working class, who wanted (bless ‘em) to impress each other with their latest collection of medieval Japanese swords or statues of Elvis, complete with gold plated rings and cape… and so on. Don’t even get me started on the “miniature cottages..” Well, here we go again it seems! But now it’s the Chinese who are running the show. But I digress. If however, you want anything, and I mean ANYTHING approaching quality goods in New Zealand, from the UK, Europe or even the US for example, expect to be grabbed forcefully, stripped, bent over and fucked up the arse… not once but twice. Once by the retailer, then again by the government.
But here’s the problem. Should you even dare question the fact that the price seems awfully high, you are dicing with death. You run the risk of being tarred, feathered and run out of town. Thankfully, they stopped burning witches at the stake back in the eighties here (no… the nineteen eighties!). Well, in the more populated parts of NZ that is!
Interestingly, I was fairly recently admonished by the NZ customs when I rang to ask advice about a certain category of personal import. I was told quite sternly that I should buy local, and I had (get this) “no right to go importing things privately..” man I kid you not, I was absolutely spitting fucking blood. Who the hell was this brain-dead fucktard, who obviously had a notion that she had some sort of power over ANYONE who wanted to import goods, for their own use. I mean, it wasn’t as if I had asked, “hey, can I bring in ten kilos of smack for my own personal use?”, no, it was work boots…. Yes, fucking WORK BOOTS! Which by the way were a third of the NZ shelf price! Anyway, this jumped up bitch tried to tear me a new arse, telling me, and I quote “you should buy locally and support New Zealand’s manufactures…” AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!
Are you fuckin’ kidding me? Do you hear what you are saying? Okay, lets calm down, lets analyse this. If I go into a shoe shop, of all the dozens of pairs of shoes/boots that I see, how many are made here in good ol’ New Zealand?
Answer: NONE…. Absolutely fucking NONE! Unless you count the furry Possum slippers that cost slightly less than buying a human kidney on the black market. Hang on, wait a minute mind, although these are made from New Zealands very own furry tree rats, and marketed as genuine Kiwi products to unsuspecting tourists, why the fuck then are they actually made in China?…. yes CHINA. Oh I see, its so the Kiwi owned company can remain “competitive” is it!… So why the fuck does a pair of these cost more than did my first car? Anyway, while we’re at it, what about Fisher & Paykel and Norsewear? Good ol’ Kiwi companies who put all their Kiwi workers out on their arses, only to set up production in China, employing, well, CHINESE. Where was their loyalty to their beloved Godzone country huh?
So, back to the near brain-dead customs employee, lets see, shall we have that fucking conversation again luv, regarding “supporting local manufacturing”?… come on, lets, I just fuckin’ DARE you to say that again!To summarise:
Many NZ stores are ordering from a wholesaler, who gets from a distributor, who orders from overseas, well, you get the point. And each time it goes through someone’s hands, the cost gets added too, and not slightly, they hike it up further than a hookers G-string on a Friday night, and the GST is only then added on top. When I can get on the phone, or the t’inernet, as we now all have access to, and order the fucking thing m’self, why in the flying fuck sake would I want to order it locally, and pay double, triple… more, for having to drive into the city and pay someone else to order it for me?
The world is, no it HAS changed, but NZ is trying to stay put and fight against it. The people here are being punished for taking the initiative and seeking out better products, better prices. We are being fleeced by government, by scared retailers, by greedy tradespeople who until now have had the monopoly… we are being fucked up the arse every time we want to get our moneys worth. I’m sure, no I’m absolutely adamant, that the ploy is, keep ‘em sweet, keep ‘em dumb, by promoting sport, promoting the “kiwi way of life” (which is sport… booze, low expectations etc)… all in a bid to keep the average Joe, working hard, being tough, expecting little and being grateful for all of the above.
No wonder Aussies knickname Kiwi’s as “their poor cousins”…. Yep, the jokes on us!
E2NZ.org 
Economies of scale and being a small island country all by itself down at the bottom of the globe makes everything more expensive. I have tried to order items from USA amazon and they would not ship to New Zealand because it is too far for them to make any money. NZ companies may rip people off, but this is due to we are not really competitive in a global market. Hell, our countries economy is less than the size of a UK supermarket chain. Also let’s be honest, economists barely get anything right (GFC anyone?),
Most of NZ is concerned with just getting by, let alone having quality products for a reasonable price. I also feel that globalisation has been a big contributing factor in the quality (or lack thereof ) of the products we have and the quality of the people/lifestyle that has now obviously for the main part, become the norm.
I do not say sorry for any mistakes made, grammar or otherwise. I may not be entirely accurate with what I have said, but it is to the best of my ability at this point in time.
Woody, have you ever heard of You Shop? Go to the NZ Post website and check it out. It enables you to buy things from other countries if a company won’t ship to NZ.
My husband and I buy from overseas, online, all the time. Most of the time we save a shite load of money and the service is way better than we get at most places in NZ. But the main reason is choice – the variety of designs, styles, types of products that we just can’t get in NZ. That is the biggest driving factor.
YouShop is a rip-off. I ordered a small piece of jewellery from Amazon and the shipping cost me $36 for something just over a couple of grams (more than twice the price of the item). I ordered a whole lot of clothes it cost me $75 for the shipping. I decided to just pay the shipping cost directly instead of using YouShop. The only time YouShop is useful is if you’re keen to purchase from a retailer who won’t ship to NZ. Sadly, being in NZ lowers your options and variety choice so much as a consumer 😦
What else could you expect from rip off N.Z ,ever heard of a country where the council charges kids to use public parks and playgrounds,as said above,you couldn’t make this stuff up! I do feel I should mention on returning to this shithole after 25 years living in a civilised country I had to pay for a driving with excess alcohol charge from 1991. I was forced to attend drug and alcohol counciling as well as having a liver function test and a doctor had to check my motive functions before I could get a N.Z licence ha ,I then had to go to court and was given 100 hours community service even though my lawyer made it clear that I was more than happy to pay a fine ,again you couldn’t make this stuff up this was for a 26 year old conviction ,rapists thieves and murderers roam the streets here and receive lesser sentences if they are ever caught,I had proof that I had maintained a perfect driving record in the U.S but they weren’t interested,they didn’t want me to pay a fine in lieu of community service as this wouldn’t have pissed me off or humiliated me as much as getting community service would ,this is a country where they incarcerate people for failing to pay court fines however when I offered them money they weren’t interested ,fuck this retarded rip off confused place.
Just arrived at this site. I am a Kiwi. Could not agree more on all fronts. Planning my escape back to australia. The rip off culture in ingrained in every form of business. Cannot even buy milk at a reasonable price that hasnet been striped it goodness and lactose crap waste product fuller put back in and Try pinning down any professional to keep to a quote is like trying tame a wild ferret. I simply don’t pay , back up in written emails , see you in court. Unfortunately even the court systems is 50 shades of grey. I put it down to the deep rooted culture of the country. land of the long white cloud – should really be land of the Dark blanket cloud. No one is really happy. Kiwis don’t even have a national day to be proud of . There is no respect for other people as see in the media. There is deep rooted culture of steal to survive dating back to the maori culture of robbing neighbouring tribes for food when hungry and to lazy to work. There is no black or white , Yes or No honesty as also seen with 70% finance companies collapsed due to no regulation, 50 Billion in leaking housing due to no certification of builders , CHCH earth quake rebuild hijacked by a the govt (guess who owns Fletcher Challenge) and then there’s the rollover attitude – let the govt do anything they like. New Zealand is becoming a Fiji tourist spot with natives running around crazed (drugged up on P or weed) in crappy cars, crappy roads trying to kill you. Shite cannot even have a glass on wine or beer with my picnic at the beach or park due to NZ dumb ass -es culture. Sad
Evidentially, the word is getting out. The new proposed tax on online purchases is soon to become. I would [unusually] be able to get things [often not offered in NZ] much cheaper online than available [anywhere] in country. Now, even though you’ll have to look outside of NZ to find what you’re looking for, you’ll have to pay a tax to get what should be readily available.
That just doesn’t seem right.
I stopped taking my car to this particular Challenge garage for a WOF, as the wanker would quote me $800 every time. So I paid it the first time thinking the car was needing some work, but going back for my next wof I was quoted the same. To test out my theory that i was being scammed i got someone i knew to take their car their for a wof (i paid for the wof) and you guessed it….he was quoted $800.
Scamming little twats. Yet they still have lots of custom. I took my car to a recommended garage via family and the mechanic passed the wof. The car had nothing wrong with it.
I used to have a tape based movie making camera which went faulty. Took it to a well known camera repair place…guy quoted me $1800 for a lens replacement or some bollocks. I laughed in his face and said why the fuck would i pay you that when i could buy a brand new HD camera for less than that thats ten times better than this tape based camera mate? Twat didn’t even haggle or anything for my custom just fobbed me off on the spot, probably in a ‘hissy fit’ because he failed to rip a pom off.
I also went to the MAC shop here to ask how much 8GB of ram would be to install…answer was $500….hahahaahahaha……i could buy it for $30-50 and do it myself.
Rip off NZ, full of losers, who make out they are actually doing you a favour by charging you through the roof for a service. Muppets.
Don’t forget that for the computer shops in NZ, you are charged hourly AND for the most part they don’t guarantee their work (unless the parts are new)
Scoped them out, and in those places, my opinion is that even their diagnostic ability is poor (along with unqualified staff — any with DEGREES from a university there — not a polytechnic — or “certification”(which actually has to be kept current, otherwise it may not just be outdated but plain irresponsible to use as there is risk of damage or liability?) …crickets, but … they still get paid for the work. LOL.
My experience was with PB Tech.
I was the university go-to guy for PC issues at my hall of residence. So yeah. Interesting how the people with a shopfront … happen to be hopeless.
A mechanic place near my house had dropped a flyer into my mailbox offering free servicing, oil change with a WOF. I took my car there and it was immediately failed. I needed a new brake, some work done at the panel beaters and a tire fixed. We went to so many panel beaters and mechanics, the quotes altogether were $600, then my father found a decent panel beater who offered to replace the brake and fix the car for $200. He advised us to always go to VTNZ because they are unbiased. Most mechanics will offer WOF checks only to fail your car to keep their workshops still in business. After that, I began going to VTNZ and my car has never been failed since then!
My parents asked some gardeners to come in for a hedge trimming quote… $800. I brought the electric hedge trimmer and started doing it myself. Before purchasing our lawnmower, we paid $40 for a lawn-mowing service, the grass barely cut and grew back much faster than when we do it ourselves.
In NZ, the only way to not get ripped off is to DIY it!
If you’re able to use a VPN and have an ‘address’ in one of those sales-tax free states – I can’t see how they could impose GST on any digital download / streaming.
I would be a more concerned with the shipping of physical goods.
The efairness mob would seem to be intent on pushing for the imposition of the
import entry transaction fee (IETF) - NZ$46.89 on low value purchases. Your NZ$ 30 book from bookdepository.com would no longer be such a bargain.
Fairness ?? I don’t think so.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/efairnessnz
http://www.whatsmyduty.org.nz/faq
I have bought online many times, and generally, even with shipping costs included, it works out to be cheaper and better [more selection/availability] than purchasing in NZ. I am wondering how this will work out with the new tax being proposed? Kiwis are not slow to see an opportunity to suck some revenue up.
In the States, there were some States that did not have sales tax, so even if you went to a next door State to purchase, no tax. How can NZ justify this taxation on something they have little to do with [online sales]?
I do think it’s a bit crazy the prices we are paying here but then if you look at it, there aren’t more than 5 million people in the country at one time, maybe you could start up the overseas market goods for us kiwis as we seem to not have a market for international online shopping that is wholly accessible to us easily enough to know these things.
Its not that I am anti “Kiwi”, as there are many who are good people, and some who are terrific. Also, there are plenty back home who are as bad and worse. However, there does seem to be an awful lot of Kiwi’s who seem, well, if I say “laid back” I am being kind! I have never seen so many people who have a boat in their front yard, but have houses that look like they should be condemned, single glazed wooden windows with hardly any paint left, and rotten woodwork, rusty tin roof etc etc… It seems like they have their entire priorities upside down. Cold wet filthy houses, but with a new six cylinder Holden ute on the drive, hooked to a boat trailer!… go figure!
‘All fur coat and no knickers’ was the expression my mother would have used. LOL It’s more important to have beer, smokes, a shabby old bach and a boat for Dad and his pals than it is to provide basic necessities of life for the bairns. Who cares if the kids don’t have any shoes, a coat or any breakfast? She’ll be right!
Spot on!
I retained a lawyer for a legal issue that arose (the issue itself, Kiwi chicanery), and when I went in for my appointment, I happened to glance at the secretary’s desk and saw my personal annual income figure scrawled on the office folder containing initial notes from our telephone conversation . If you ever get out of NZ, you’ll do it with your shoes patched with cardboard.
Fantastic post, so true – you couldn’t make it up. The ‘bargain’ hunting, scrimping Kiwi culture is hugely at odds with retail trade and no wonder there is such demand for shabby old tat on Trademe. I get a lot of satisfaction seeking out alternative options and shopping from overseas. People really do believe that Briscoes are doing them a personal favour in having a sale every week. How gullible are they? They really do believe it’s their lucky day when they scored a $120 blanket for 60% off or they ‘win’ a ten year old oven for $150 on Trademe.
Mistaken,
Oh how right you are when you mention shabby old tat on trade me… the laughs I’ve had looking at some of the stuff on there! Some of the crap is that pathetic, I would be ashamed being seen taking it to the tip! I tell you what, if Kiwi’s thought they could polish up a turd and make a dollar, there would be a whole section on Trade me dedicated to human excrement!
There’s hardly a week goes by that I don’t send a few Trade me adverts to my mates back home. They can’t believe em! Best part is, so much stuff is filthy, I mean MINGING. Its as if they have no concept of basic cleanliness, moreover, they have no sense of shame. The number of times you see things (HiFi for example) where the owner states that it needs a clean, and you can see its got a eighth of ‘n inch of dust on the top and a few coffee cup rings… WIPE IT DOWN you lazy twat, and you might actually get some bids on it! I’ve seen chests of drawers where some of the drawers are half open with nickers and socks hanging out, tables for sale with a weeks worth of dirty plates on the top…. It makes the mind boggle that some people can go to the trouble of setting up a TM account, taking photos and adding a description (oh, and the spelling!!! LOL), but then they cant even be bothered to even wipe the fluff and baby vomit of the stuff they are trying to sell. Of course this isn’t across the board, but there is an awful lot of it. It is a bit sad though if you think about it, as it highlights just how poor the people of NZ are generally speaking. When they dare advertise piss stained mattresses and the like and expect (and sometimes even get) a sale, it highlights a problem that runs deep, and that is one of abject poverty, and not just a small pinch of apathy.
Do you also notice that people are so lazy they can’t even be bothered to take the original manufacturers and sales stickers on their lunchboxes, fridges, dishwashers and tumble driers. So weird, perhaps they think they will get $1 more if they can kid other people that the items are still new. LOL I think it shows slovenliness and certain lack of cleanliness, they look tacky as hell and would drive me crazy.
Sales are very misleading. My mother always says they over-inflate the price of goods, then after the “sale”, you get them for the price of what they’re actually worth even though they are still overpriced. Thank goodness for eBay, Fishpond, Bookdepository, Etsy… and free shipping 😍
Jesus Christ mate, I couldn’t have put it better myself, every word of it! If it wasn’t for the fact that my wife has been brainwashed by all their bullshit about how great this place is I’d be on the next plane out of this miserable little outpost. I’ve been here for 25 years and every day it feels like prison.
Good luck in escaping this dump.
Well, I don’t know about escaping, as all our eggs are in the one basket so to speak, for now anyway. What I am doing however, is waging a personal war with all and sundry who would rip me off, by telling them just how much I’m saving, by shopping overseas. I even did this with a chainsaw store, who wanted about $1100 for a particular chainsaw, and which was on sale in the US for less than $400. They told me it is against the law for me to parallel import, as they had the rights and sole distributorship blah blah blah…. Honestly, they make stuff up as they go along. When I told them how much I could get one for they said rubbish, we can’t get them for that ourselves. Which actually could be true, as companies do ‘price-fix’ according to local economies (they must think all Kiwis have oil wells in their back gardens!) Anyway, I gave the retailer a link to look at and he did… he was furious. Anyway, he insisted I wouldn’t be able to get one from overseas. Ahhuh, okay I said….. About ten days later, there I was, logging up with my new $400 chainsaw. Sure, it cost a bit more with delivery and GST etc, but I still saved a whopping $500 on local cost. Made sure I went back to get a chain sharpened, oh, and took great delight in rubbing this guys nose in it. I’m not normally like that, but after all the BS he gave me about Illegal this and that…. This wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last time I take great pride in knowing that I have circumvented the whole crappy system here, and purchased intelligently.
Did you know that if you run a company with that attitude, by which I mean consciously pay over the odds for goods, well you are effectively knowingly damaging the company, and you can be brought to court in some instances and fined, or worse. So why the hell should we manage our personal affairs any differently? What right has anyone got to tell us how or where we spend out hard earned, and already once-taxed money. Anyone who tells me I should support local businesses will get a full and unreserved broadside from me, I’ll tell you that much. When I have paid my dues once, if I want to set fire to the rest of my cash, or spend it a little more wisely, then that’s MY business. Sales tax is robbery at the best of times. When you think about it, why should we get taxed twice?, I mean really, which evil minded prick thought that one up? But to inflate prices many fold, then make us pay 15% of the whole lot, seriously, does no one else see how wrong this is? Or are they all too busy getting fucked up on cheap piss, while they’re watching the Rugby. Guess it does take a bit of working out, and, well…………
…and more, … I know that some of our local business owners have overseas homes. Two in fact, I have spoken to who have Fijian holiday homes, and they “get away” as often as possible. So lets look at this. As a consumer, I’m told to “support” Kiwi businesses, but then the well off proprietor of said business, who is known for charging like the proverbial wounded bull, takes my cash, along with many others who “support” him, and spends it buying Peach Malibu’s whilst lounging by a pool in Fiji. Who’s the idiot here?
Good to see that you are still a fuckwit.
Not to mention the fact that you can’t leave me alone. That’s pretty sad. You are such a loser.
“Ripping people off…”
Do you mean applying a legal fee for work performed? By labeling it a rip off you are simply continuing the theme where you are just a whining immigrant. And yes, by all means, delete this, since it’s a sensible discussion that you simply don’t agree with.
Whatever mate. You’re still a whiney little fuckwit with a sad little life that’s just crammed full of complaints. Get a life, loser.
Sorry…left out the bit about you being obsessed.
Christ you’re a nasty piece of work. Did someone hurt you or have you always been this twisted and broken?
Thanks E2NZ for holding this pond life to account.
Regardless of context, NZ does charge a lot for value. Most everything is very expensive, available cheaper elsewhere, and for no real good reason. Product bought online [even including shipping] ends up being less expensive. So charging more is phony. Limited selection is another factor, poor customer service, high prices. I would say that is a rip-off.
Hi Kev – I have only recently been woken up to how much we’re being ripped off. I wanted to a buy a particular NAD hifi component, a small DAC (digital to analogue converter) and on checking all the NZ shops the cheapest was $600. After a quick search of UK online retailers I found the same component for under $300. Postage took this to $300 ie 50% saving. Why would I even bother bargaining with the local retailer when I’d never get this much off? And how much are the local retailers making and why would I bother to subsidise this?
Hey Stan
I hear what you say about HiFi. I have bought a few bits under the radar myself, if you get my drift! Got caught out just once, when I added a small component to the list, which took it to just over the $400 allowance (free of GST that is), and was hit for a whopping extra $100 for the privilege. This was $60GST and $40 comprising of two other spurious levies, like Bio-Security levy and some other trumped up tax…. Robbing bastards! Made sure I didn’t get caught like that again! What a prick though, no sliding scale, if you go over by a few cents BANG.. $100+ bill! Its fuckin’ crazy!
Bought a condenser Microphone which I was told would be over $1000 here (can’t remember exactly how much), got it landed for about $350 as I recall. But the list is endless… I have even tried to reason with businesses here, saying look, can you at least come close or even drop the price a little, and I will buy from you instead of online. Always the same answer, a resounding NO. The daft sods would sooner lose a sale than compromise on their ridiculous profit margins. I know of one sports shop who went out of business because he, the owner, wouldn’t back his prices off a little. One of his mates (former) wanted a pair of quality walking boots, and he told him how much he could get them for online, hoping that he would match or at least come close to the price (his were more than double the cost)…. He didn’t budge. Anyway, upshot was, the friend did the sensible thing and bought online. That was the end of that friendship. He ended up losing the business. Of course sometimes profit margins have to be met, as bricks and mortar establishments do have more overheads than webstores. Then there is the fact of service, returns etc etc. I would sooner pay a little more and buy local, its just the right thing to do for all concerned. But, there has to be a cutoff point where you say hold on a minute….. that price is just fucking ridiculous! To be honest, whenever I have tried to reason with a NZ store, instead of entering into reasonable dialogue with me, they just put the shutters up and don’t want to know. Its almost as if they think you are trying to scam them or are asking them to break some sort of law. You leave the store feeling like a pikey whos just asked them if they want their driveway tarmacking. I have had at least one instance where I was told, “hey, if you don’t like our prices, you can always go back home mate!” Unbelievable but true. This was early days, and I was gobsmacked. Didn’t know what to say. I have a few answers these days however, for such bigoted idiots.
Anyway, I’m over that now. I just smile and say okay, your loss mate, if they want to play hardball.
I do understand though, why people in the know said, if you want to be successful in NZ, you have to have your own business. It just means you can fleece people, just as all the other businesses do. No wonder the retailers here are all kicking and screaming about online activity. Its shown them for the robbing dogs they are. Cats out the bag now eh!
I totally agree with the author above. For the most part this has been our experience too. The Hubs and I do a lot of our shopping online now. Not only do we get much better prices, but we get a lot better service! A lot of NZ companies we try to deal with have no idea of what good customer service looks like. They don’t return phone calls or emails. If you dare to enter their establishments of business and interrupt their day, they will give you the minimum amount of info and get you out of there as fast as possible so they can go back to their smart phone games and coffee.
We have struck 2 or 3 places where we live that give excellent service, but they are definitely the exception rather than the rule.
Even if the govt slap GST on imported items, they will still be cheaper by far than they are to buy here! It won’t change our shopping habits one bit.