I was intending to buy Vue5 at the great upgrade price of $149. I live in the UK and so on E-On's website I chose the UK pricing. BUT, the upgrade price comes up at 101 (EXCLUDING VAT and Shipping). Now at todays currency rates $149 dollars should equate to around 83 NOT 101. Why are we being charged an extra 20 in the UK??? Anyone know?

europe always has higher prices for some reasons, they just cant stand that we are so much better on so many different things :p you could import it, thats cheaper i guess

I agree. I paid way over the odds for D'Esprit 4 and Pro too. Don't forget they add VAT on to our purchases :-(

Agreed, I've started a thread on this pricing issue at E-on's forums, just tag onto it to let them know. Perhaps they change the overcharging policy if enough people complain.

Hmm Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't E-OnSoftware a French firm??? I mean if anyone should be overcharged surely it should be customers OUTSIDE Europe? We always seem to get the bummer end of the stick. Amemrican stuff is always cheaper in America and European stuff is cheaper - well in America! Go figure!!!

And if we buy the cheaper versions from America, customs slaps an import duty on them. I found that out to my unfortunate cost :(

Tried to post this in the E-on forums but it didn,t like it. Can someone at E-on please explain... Extract from E-on product price list: 'All prices include sales tax; Europe and UK prices do not include EU VAT.' Where is this company's registered office? Are we being asked to pay a 'sales tax' as well? What rate of EU VAT are we being asked to pay? Where is this product manufactured? Where is this product shipped from? Also an extract from today's DIGIT website... An upgrade from Vue dEsprit 4 costs $149 (85) or $129 (73) for users who bought Vue dEsprit 4 after October 1st 2003. A sidegrade from Vue 4 Professional costs $99 (55). Vue 5 Professional is expected before the end of the year. For more information see the E-on Software Web site Thanks in advance.

yeah i know it sucks living in eu as far as buying online goods/apps goes.... alot of companies seems to live in oblivion thinking the us$ is worth as much as euro, not to mention the b...it vat we have to pay in europe for anything thats sold online.... greed or oblivion, either way we get handed the end of the stick, month in month out.

Yeah I have used Vue and and I would have considered upgrading but when I look at the price in the UK I think it's too much considering the specialized nature of Vue. I use Mojoworld which is even more specialized but extremely unique and powerful. Potentially very powerful as CPU speeds increase. I will upgrade this program no matter but I want to move into more complex mesh building so I'm considering Cinema 4D but once I have this Vue could become redundant. As for the pricing of Vue 4 Pro. This is way way too much.

Actually, I am not sure e-on can do much about that price difference. Look at other software companies, most of them have that big difference when it comes to selling in the US and in Europe. Check out Wacom, Adobe, Corel, etc..... tehir prices go way up when they get east of the Atlantic.

The thing that I dont like about Vue is that Eon initially started selling this program at a very reasonable price. Then came Vue Pro which was a huge leap in price and it seems this difference will remain. When I consider upgrading Vue I think about the specialized nature of it and then I think why not buy something like Cinema 4D which can handle all sorts and is upgradable by a module basis as you need extra power. Cinema 4D with advanced rendering is more expensive than Vue 4 Pro but immensely more versatile. I think Eon are in a rut with Vue. You have Mojoworld and even Terragen which are capable of extremely realistic landscape generation. Mojoworld in particular is awesome. Vue on the other hand, although capable of beautiful renders, is in danger of becoming a jack of all trades, master of none. This is why I am not desperate to pay a lot for upgrading.

Vue (even Vue Pro) is still a bargain when you compare the features you are getting out of the deal.

Vue 5 is a good solution if you want to start in 3D and get great results very quickly.

Vue Pro has extended features, and can deliver great result for professionals at a fraction of the cost of similar softwares.

Cinema4D is already in a different category - the basic version starts with $100 more than Vue Pro, and that is without some of the best features.

Everybody wishes they could have the powerhorse of a Brazil and Maya or 3D studio, but the cost of these softs makes them unreachable for most hobbyists.

Just compare the current prices :

Bryce 5 $90 (no upgrade price) Vue 4 $180 ( not sold anymore - just kept here for reference) Vue 5 $250 (upgrade $150) Carrara 4 $280 (upgrade $130 from CS3) Carrara Studio 3 $400 (no upgrade price) Cararra 4 Pro $580 (upgrade $200 from CS 3) Vue 4 Pro $600 (upgrade $400) Cinema4D R9 $700 (upgrade $295) Cinema 4D studio $2995

They help to really compare what is comparable.

I am also working on a full feature comparison - it should be available by end of weekend :) Message edited on: 10/01/2004 18:50

There is no doubt Vue can achieve great results for the price but it's not as good for purely landscape as Terragen and Mojoworld. This will be improved somewhat with the new procedural terrain but that's still a far cry from Mojoworld. Vue has great skies and lighting for outdoor scenes and is especially good for scenes with lots of plants but it tends to be better for use as a renderer of scenes containing objects created in other programs so you see then you have to have another application. This is why I'm questioning the value of this upgrade because if you have to buy say Cinema 4D, why invest further in Vue when you can upgrade Cinema for more advanced rendering to match the newer rendering capabilities of Vue 5? OK this module costs but look at the immense power. Then you have the possibility of an XFrog plugin as well, taking Cinema 4Ds plant or any organic procedural mesh generation for that matter to levels not possible in Vue.

look at this price comparison: Vue 4 Pro - 419 which does not include UK VAT. Cinema 4D - 499 including VAT. This is the price for Cinema 4D Basic but it's still a powerful application for the money. I've tried Cinema 4D and I've tried Lightwave and 3D Max. I think Cinema 4D is much easier to use and much better value and clearly has a lot of ongoing development which is fast making it a superb application. I know most people in this forum will be using Vue and will love it and defend it and I like it as well but I'm questioning Eon's marketing. Yes the Vue basic is cheap but where does it leave you when you want to grow as a 3D artist? Eon are asking me to pay a lot for this upgrade but for something that still limits me to a large degree. As for Mojoworld I know the skies the limit as far as that program can go in terms of procedural fractal generation. Mojoworld is currently selling for $99!

I guess it comes down to what you want to do with the software. I personally need more of a swiss army knife than a software specialized in fractal landscapes. I understand it is not the same for everybody.

Well yes Mojoworld is very specialized in what it does and it's complicated but it does the job superbly so its fractal generation is also extremely useful for use in other programs which have next to no capability in this department. Mojoworld terrains were used in The Day After Tomorrow for example. I may be doing Eon an injustice here though because it looks as though they have improved the materials in Vue a lot by adding displacement. If this capability has been added as they seem to be explaining on the website then this is the core most important improvement. I can't understand why this is not at the forefront of their marketing.

What I need is a Demo of Vue 5. I won't upgrade without trying.

Message edited on: 10/01/2004 20:24

It's not just Vue it's all software AND hardware that costs more in Europe. Look at the US, there you pay a State tax only if you're resident in the same state of the company you buy from. Given that there are 50 states you have pretty good chances of not paying taxes at all. Here in Europe no matter where the company is based (USA, Japan, or whatever European state) you ALWAYS pay the VAT which by the way is MUCH more than the typical state tax you pay in the USA - VAT in Europe range from the 15-18% of the luckiest to the 25% of the leat lucky ones. The other hoax is the change: when the US dollar used to have more value than the Euro, the Euro price of software was ALWAYS higher, to compensate for the change. Now that the Euro has more value than the US dollar, the prices of the software are ALWAYS the same for both the Euro and US$. So yes, it is right who wrote that when it comes to software we Europeans always get the short end of the stick. With hardware it's the same, if not even worse: I have paid my Canon Digital Rebel some $200 more than the average US person did. And I got a very good price. And what's more, US buyers can benefit of a special Adobe offer that allows them to buy full Photoshop CS at $299. I have called Adobe Italy to ask for the same offer, but you know what? Yep... it's not available in Europe, it's "reserved to US customers". So... it's not something to be blamed upon E-On only, it's a general situation. :-( We Europeans apparently are considered by general consensus the idiots to take advantage of. :-(

Well Adobe will never get a sale from me with this marketing. Check out the new Paint Shop Pro 9. I think PSP is now better than Photoshop and vastly cheaper. You download and pay in US dollars. Boxed versions in the UK are a joke price. We seem to be prepared to pay more so we do. It's the same with iTunes downloads. More expensive in the UK than the rest of Europe. Just don't buy from them.

Makes you wonder why the difference and where that tax money goes...

and ofcourse E-on ships from France, cost $25 plus $5 tax for 3 day delivery by UPS , while regular airmail would cost about $9 including tax to just about everywhere in Europe with a delivery time of 2 to 7 days. UPS is quite a service, it took them 2 months and 6 tries to pick up and return a package from our office which is 10 miles from their main shipping centre, they managed to visit Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in their attempt to travel those 10 miles and had actually given up on finding the first town down the road.

I think this thread has shifted focus to comparing the value of Vue against other software products rather than the fact that we in the UK are being charged an unfair extra. But while we are on teh subject I'd just like to throw in my 2 cents (or 1 at E-OnSoftware conversion rates!) Basically other renderes are probably a lot more powerful BUT if you want to import poser figures complete with dynamic clothing and hair then you really don't have another choice. For being able to produce the MOST versitile renders includeing Scenery and People then there's no subsitute for the Poser5 Vue5 combination. My beef is not with the application - just the fact that we are being charged more for no reason at all (I mean they STILL are going to add Tax and Shipping anyway) so why bump up the base price for Europe!!

Find someone in the US/Can area, have it shipped there,
They will have to:
1: next make sure the package is not opened
2: put on a new address sticker with your address on the original package (NO REWRAPPING), write somewhere on the package "addressee moved".
3: take the package to a Postoffice
4: ask for and fill in green customs sticker
4a: value=invoice price (in our case $150 for update or $250 for full version), no fiddling with prices, it upsets the customs people when numbers don't match should the package be opened.
4b: description "book with software", not the other way round, there's no import duty on books, remember should the package be opened, you are the recepient and you can not be responsible for a wrong description of the contents of an unopened package, nor can the re-sender for the same reason.
5: send the package by airmail , about $9-$14 to most European countries.

This works for me most of the time ( the 1 miss was a package that came by courier and all I paid was the import duty on the goods), no hassle because the declared value was the same as on the invoice in the package, the rest of the time things just arrived by mail.

Actually, it's not too bad. Vue Pro is $599, or 599 for Europeans. We're overcharged a bit, but other software and hardware companies are overcharging much more. For example: Apple. $1,999 for the entry level G5 in the US, 2,219 for the same machine in the Netherlands. Excluding VAT. Adobe Photoshop CS (US version). US$649 in the US, 729 in the Netherlands, excluding VAT. Those guys won't get any business from me!

The ridiculous thing (and what makes it really difficult to understand) is that we're treated as we had a higher average income and higher consume level than the USA (in other words, like if we were richer), while it's clearly the opposite.

yeah its a sad state of affair (not just talking about e.on) and as you pointed out, we pay more taxes in generel then a usa citizen, we have the extra online vat, and due to the higher taxes in most european countries the average american does have more money, and on top of that the euro is worth more then the us$........

Vue 4 pro was 519.00 inc VAT for me :( No sooner did I buy it when I get a message saying Vue 5 Pro is coming out.