Early Birds in UK

[tkay]

Can any of the FI users get one without pre-ordering..? ;) :D

[imashination]

Originally posted by tkay
Can any of the FI users get one without pre-ordering..? ;) :D

FI?

[tkay]

..nland.. :D

[slouchcorp]

Hey mash do you actuly have them there now?
I made the call and was informed youll be getting them in a few days?

cant wait:bounce:

[astrofish]

Yes, I got the same thing - they said they didn't have them yet but would add me to the list.

Whilst I'm pleased that a pre-release version is being sent out, I'm also slightly puzzled as to why they are doing it...

I mean the release isn't late, and Maxon are giving themselves a bunch of extra work and shipping charges by doing this.

Cheers - Steve Baines (Astrofish)

[imashination]

- The CDs will be getting here very soon

- Yes the release is still on schedule

- The reasons for doing it are numerous.

The main ones you guys should be interrested in are that you get to play with most of the new stuff earlier than you normally would, plus you get a cool limited edition set. If there are any left over then I'll be the first to grab one ;-)

[slouchcorp]

cool cheers mash, i for one am looking forward to getting stuck in.

mike.

[AdamT]

I'm also slightly puzzled as to why they are doing it...
When you order the prerelease they charge your credit card. Maybe they need the cash to pay for boxes and manuals? And salaries?

[flingster]

Top result.....
I'll give you a call tomorrow.
A bigs thanks to Mr Maxon....for considering its loyal user base.

[tkay]

Originally posted by AdamT
When you order the prerelease they charge your credit card. Maybe they need the cash to pay for boxes and manuals? And salaries?

Ouch! Hope not.

[Pate]

I've been harassing our local (finnish) distributor Ravenholm with my queries about R8. Basically, they still don't know how much R8 will cost in Finland, nor do they have any idea when they will get to know the prices.

It is somewhat difficult to preorder when you have no idea of the cost. Usually all Maxon products cost about 300EUR more here than in Germany...

I hope they will get SOME info at least by the time R8 is already shipping to everywhere else!

Pate

[Pate]

Well, well..

I just got email (Cinema 4D Newsletter) from Maxon's Swedish distributor.

What was interesting was that they now had the prices for the separate modules of R8, which is something I haven't seen before.

In case any of you read swedish (I do only barely) here is the link to a PDF file containing the prices, in SEK.

http://www.programpaketet.se/bilagor/Uppgradera_til_Cinema_R8.pdf

I haven't yet heard from the Finnish distributor, hopefully they will know the prices pretty soon as well.

Sorry for taking your time if none of this has any relevance to you..

Pate

[Erik Heyninck]

Pate, sorry if I'm wrong, but isn't Finland part of the European Community? Can't you order directly from Maxon Germany like I did? Over here in Belgium things are also much more expensive than in Germany and the local distributor doesn't even seem to know of C4D8's existence. But Maxon Germany accepts international orders within the EC, and you have a free transport of goods within the EC too.
Just a thought...

[Pate]

Yes, Erik, Finland is part of EC. However, Maxon does not want to sell directly to Finland, since they have a distributor in Scandinavia ("Program Paketet" in Sweden).

I have exchanged several e-mails about this with Maxon, and I even made an order via www.maxonshop.com, but my order was cancelled by Maxon.

In the end I purchased my current version from another mail-order net shop in Germany, but this was so much hassle (not to mention that my manuals are in German) that I have decided to bite the bullet and purchase locally this time.

I am not very happy with Maxon's customer support in this regard, I have to say. I was under the impression that people should be able to purchase where ever they choose within the EC, but it seems Maxon has a different idea about this.

Pate

[AdamT]

Any idea why it's so much more expensive in Finland? Doesn't seem to make any sense, what with the supposedly open market and all.

[LucentDreams]

If you have to go with a scandinavian distributor, check this Thomas Andreasen He is part of a German distributor, and a talented C4D artist too. Hopefully he could help you out.

http://www.cinema4d.dk
a3d@mail.dk

hopefully he can help you out a bit.

[Erik Heyninck]

Well, then I must say that I am shocked, and I mean it!

"MAXON products are available worldwide either through a local distributor or the MAXON International webshop. Please select a country to find the best way for you to buy MAXON products online." quote the Maxon website.

I can understand that they want to give support to their newly built and hardly flowering network of resellers, but the website says clearly that you can buy online from the international webshop.

This said, I can only deeply sympathise as I also know the extremely high prices over here. (When someone wants to buy, say Poser5 and Photoshop7, he can take a plane to NY, buy over there, take a decent hotel room, come back and still have spent less money...)

Me, I prefer the MacromediaMethod: you can buy online and download with a special aid-tool to make shure the download is perfect. It saves CDRoms, postage, printing manuals etc. So I agree with you that in fact the "dear valued customer" is sacrificed on the altar of supporting the different countries with their specific tax systems. Let's hope that the dawn may come soon and enlighten the sales departments, and that the Internet's freedom will not be limited by shortsighted conservatists.

To AdamT: we have over here a thing called Value Added Tax, which adds, depending of the country you're living in 16 to 25% to the price paid by people living in countries that don't have this VAT. To give you an idea: Poser5 can be bought from CuriousLabs for 359 USDollars. One dollar is appr. one Euro, but Poser5 (English version), which is cheapest) costs in Germany some 500Euro, and will cost on Belgium probably nearly 600.
A PowerMac G4, dual 1GHz with 256MB DDR, 80GB HDD, Superdrive an ATI Radeon9000Pro video card costs here 3.215 Euro. Without monitor of course.

So, like Paul Simon wrote: "God bless the US of A, God bless our standard of living; let's keep it that way..."

[AdamT]

Oh well, at least you have good, free health care and decent schools! Maybe not such a bad bargain.

[Erik Heyninck]

Thanks, my friend, for mentionning that. Indeed, every coin has two sides, and everything has its price.:thumbsup:

[flingster]

Well bud....I feel for you....cos its usually the Brits that are complaining about prices being cheaper in the EU (eg Rip off Britain!). That said I do feel you have a point I personally object to this variance in prices within the EU...otherwise what the hell is the point of reducing barriers to trade. There is usually a reason for differences...."cos then can get away with it!":shame:
This doesn't mean its right though, I think you should definitely object with Maxon and bring them round to the right way of thinking...would there be much difference if you bought from the UK...then you could get the manuals in English at least (if thats a good thing). dunno just a thought.

[Pate]

Thanks, Kaiskai et al. for your sympathy, understanding and help!

Indeed, as Erik said, VAT is the main reason for the higher prices, together with the freight cost and the queue of (re)distributors who all take their share of the profit.

After I get the prices from the finnish distributor I'll look around for other shopping options and see how much they would cost.

Thanks again!

Pate

[Per-Anders]

hmm.. well while i think the eu should have a common price throughout... that might make matters worse for some, after all wage differences between areas could badly impact on overall economy (i.e. hoarding) but enough of eu monetary union... i have to admit that i too like the macromedia way of being able to download software immediately (provided you've got a decent connection that is), but i abhor their lack of printed material... when i bought flash mx from them all i got in terms of printed material was the standard manual/quickstart guide... which left me with the deep joy and expense of printing out the actionscript dictionary myself. needless to say i was highly underimpressed at the cheapness (at the price i paid, to not print decent manuals, or even have a box is terrible, then the fact that the special designers cd that if you bought it early you'd get free was basically just a compilation of stuff that's free on their site anyway... grrrr i hate shamromedia big :thumbsdow ).

i like to have printed material for convenience, it's actually faster to open a book and find a reference than it is to use acrobat. it's a lot easier on the eyes, and you don't have to keep switching back and forth between programs (regardless of if you have one on one screen and the other on another it's still a painful switch with menus rebuilding etc.). gimme printed manuals... i want it like it was at the dawn of the personal computing age when my acorn electron came manuals thicker than the computer! (ah the golden brick :) ) manuals which went in depth into every feature. i like the maxon manuals, they're really useful (especially the tutorial manuals, which i were the best tutorials i've ever come accross for any application)... i hope that they're even thicker for this release... there's so much more in the program now.

[Erik Heyninck]

I fully agree with the fact that a printed manual is much better than a pdf one, most certainly from people who have only one comp. On the other hand, I often prefer a book to the company's manual. MM's option to simply download the apps gives one the option to buy a book that has an approach one likes, and this can be a different one for different readers.
I was indeed disappointed when my C4DArt7 upgrade came without any manuals at all. All I had was the pdf which I printed out, only to find that in fact the colour images were so much more pleasing to the eye, and made absorbation of the bare facts so much easier that I did print out the complete cinema manual, and the Bodypaint one. The verso-sides, which were left blank, and ideal to add personal notes.
Still, I do hope that the upgrade to version 8 comes with manuals, and that their approach if less "talkies" and more to the point.
(I read and saw on the German forum that there is a game of chess included in v8...hahahaa).

[flingster]

imashination: I called the maxon number at the beginning of the thread...twice....I eventually got someone to call be back who was very helpful. But she did state this pre-release CD costs £10 + shipping costs......does this mean that our US counterparts get this for free and users in the UK are charged?


Erik Heyninck - mdme_sadie
ps. I agree with the whole printed manuals being better than pdf's and at the end of the day with the cost of this software I don't feel I would be able to accept substitutes. Maxons manuals and tutorials are great, when I originally bought 6 it just came as CD and I ended printing them all out, took an age and they just aren't as compact/practical as 7s original manuals.

[AdamT]

Another :thumbsup: for printed manuals. No software this deep should come without them. I'm about ready to sell my copy of Messiah:Animate, in large part because of the inadequate, .html-only manual.

[LucentDreams]

least yu have HTMl manual for it, when I was testing for PMG on the MA C4D port (whatver its caled), they didn't have the documentation done yet so not only did Ron Griswold have to type instructions just on how to use the port, he actually did a real time chat with me to help me understand the basics so I could get dowen to testing. Worst thing was I did all my testing using a restricted version of MA as well (even more than the demo) which later got upgraded to the demo release that everyone could get. Not like testing for maxon at all. but lets not get me on what I tink of MA after using it, really mixed feelings on almost everythingi in that program.

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