It's always been that way.

SO, North American customers can get their merchandise more than 10% cheaper, constantly, compared to us European customers? And it has always been this way? Absolutely despicable.

What the hell could be the grounds for treating their customers with such inequality? 😠

TOTEM is a business operating from European Union, and they sell the exact same merchandise for varying price depending on whether you live in Europe or North America. How can that be right / or even legal regarding EU regulations?

I'll open a ticket.

@All

Product Pricing is based on your Geographic Locality.
There are Local Currency regulations for doing International business.
For Digital products.
Only Real Tangible Products can Be Sold for Local Currency of the Origin of Production, using Currency Exchange rates.


Even most Electronic Items have to Follow the Local Currency regulations..

Take a TV for Example.
In the EU it might Sell for 299 euro
the Same Exact TV ( using a slightly different Model number )
would sell for $299 in the Us.

The Local value of the Product remains the Same...
A person in the EU spending 299 of their Money has the same local Value
as that of a Person in the US spending $299 of their local Money

@Wyldanimal This can't be twisted into something acceptable!

Of course, if you're buying a TV from a U.S. store for $299 and it happens to be priced €299 in some other store in Europe, of course that is understandable, even if the stores belong in the same chain. But in this case we are buying an electronic/digital product from the same store, and there's the rub.

The product is stored for sale in exactly the same place and availability for all customers globally. Whether it is downloaded from a U.S. server or London server can't have any acceptable basis for different price. The price is different solely based on where the BUYER is - the server is chosen for customer based on their location! - not where the merchandise is. And that simply is not right.

@Dfner - There are also taxes to be taken into account which will differ according to the locations of the seller and the buyer. However, I have no idea how much that contributes to the difference in prices.

Au lieu de faire 20% de ristourne, je vous proposerai bien de les investir dans une vraie qualité audio. Cela éviterait de subir de plein fouet un défaut de perception humaine type "Uncanny Valley" pour celles et ceux qui s'attendent à entendre clairement la voix de la miss en train de se branler avec un niveau sonore constant et sans réverbération.

En bref: qualité audio = qualité graphique.

Just to test this issue (different prices based on location), I...

1) changed my server location from "Europe - London" to "United States - Los Angeles" and Quit iStripper
2) reopened the software, synchronised with server
3) clicked on "Buy credits"

... and it still would charge 49.99 Euros for 500 credits.

Ok, then I also...

4) changed my country to United States and Quit iStripper
5) reopened the software, synchronised again with server
6) clicked on "Buy credits"

... and it STILL would charge 49.99 Euros for 500 credits.

This is absolutely ridiculous...! After these changes my localization settings should be identical to those with users in North America. The only difference left is that I physically live, and connect to iStripper from, within Europe. And for that circumstance, I have to pay 10+ % more for the merchandise. Yeah, doesn't sound right.

@TheEmu I don't buy that taxation excuse for a minute as an explanation to why customers in Europe should pay 10+ % more for the same product, purchased from European Union based company, than North American customers. They must have just thought that 49.99 / 29.99 / 14.99 / 4.99 are cool pricepoints to have, regardless of currency and the changes in exchange rates.

I just sent email to their support address about this issue, and based on their reply (if I'll receive one) I will decide, whether to purchase anything more from this company. Too bad that I already bought 1800 credits due to this weekend's promotion.. for €149.97 while you Americans would have paid approx. €135 for the same purchase - for reasons only Totem must know...

I'll try to keep this issue known here in the forum, though, from now on, in case other European customers, being taken for a ride here, should find it worth knowing.

@Dfner - I also do not completely "buy the excuse" but European VAT is 20%, American sales tax is about 7% so the difference pretty well does correspond to the differemce in price.

< changes vpn exit node to new york... /jk

Edit: i was joking but i tried it anyway...it works, my prices were in euros and are now in dollars.

@totem, don't you dare block vpn's

@Z22 Thank you for your tip! - I tested it, too, and indeed, it seems to work. There really shouldn't be the need for this, but at least you can apparently bypass Totem's faulty pricing policy.

If Totem lets one user purchase the credits in $49.99 (instead of €49.99), same option should be available to other customers, too.

If it is due to tax differences then using a VPN to avoid them amounts to tax fraud - so be careful.

For some countries there is no local payment option and you get to choose euro or dollar! WTF?

Romainia for example.

Re: American sales tax is about 7% so the difference pretty well does correspond to the differemce in price.

Sales tax varies from state to state. In some states it is zero. The highest is 10% in Louisiana. However, there is no sales tax for internet purchases unless the seller has a physical store in your home state. I live in Maryland which has a 5% sales tax, but I pay no tax for Totem sales. I do pay 5% for Amazon purchases.

I bet canadians and australians are really happy to be paying in us dollars...

Canada does not have any digital sales tax yet and australia's is 10% so as was said, its more to do with 49.99 being a nice number than local tax'

I pay $67.28 in Canadian dollars for a block of 500 credits at today's rate of exchange.

@Dorsai6 - In that case Totem are basically charging Americans more than Europeans with Europeans then also having to pay VAT.

@Chicsans even though it says $49.99?

I pay £40.33 for 500

@Z22 - Oh, I am sure that the main reason is to have nice round numbers (minus one cent) for both prices. But there is less of a difference in the prices before tax than in the final prices.

Yup. That 49.99 is US dollars. Currency exchange rates from Canada to US accounts for the difference. I wish I could pay in Canadian dollars, but it doesn't work that way.

And, ignoring tax, any "unfairness" would be in the opposite direction - i.e. Americans are charged more by Totem than Europeans.

@TheEmu, yeh it seems that way. My £40.33 converts to $68.1034 cad or $52.2570 us. What got me is that some countries have a choice of us or euro.

That's just the way of things. I pay $0.65 US for a litre of diesel (before taxes that are applied in the pump price). In Canada I pay about $0.80 US for a litre of diesel before taxes. The real kicker is that the diesel in both countries probably comes from the wells that are on my land.

Thinking about it, i should be paying about £33 because of the way digital sales work atm in the uk. If the sale is made in another country then i don't pay tax on it(this is going to change soon) This is how facebook and google pay sod all tax in the uk(they funnel their sales through ireland and luxembourg).

And, ignoring tax, any "unfairness" would be in the opposite direction - i.e. Americans are charged more by Totem than Europeans.

Please explain. If you buy 500 credits for iStripper, are you really charged more than $49.99 (or more than $55 even, which is the price for 500 credits for us European)? Are some taxes added to your final price?

I am, and surely most others here are, mainly interested in the actual price that is charged from the credit card when making the purchase. If I purchase the credits "normally", I get charged 50 EUR which equals approx 55 USD, but when I purchase the credits with VPN from USA, I get charged 50 USD (~45 EUR).

During the months I have been here, I have paid around 250-300 USD more for my credit purchases than customer from U.S. would have paid for it, simply because I was charged euros instead of us dollars - without even given an option to choose the payment currency. It seems unreasonable, because we are buying exactly same merchandise, from same place, through same payment channel - the only difference being the location of the buyer.

@Chicsans I think your analogy about diesel prices would be more accurate with this issue, if you visited the same gas station to buy your diesel as U.S. customers, but they only gave you the option to pay in Canadian dollars instead USD and you were given 10% less of diesel for the same value of currency than other customers.

@Dfner - For Europeans the quoted price incudes tax (Vaue Added Tax) which is normaly 20%. If this is paid by Europeans but Americans pay no tax then the base price for Americans if 49.99 dollars while for Europeans it is 49.99/1.2 euros, i.e. 41.66 euro. It is only this base price that Totem end up with so Americans pay Totem more, but the tax man less.

I do not actualy know what the tax arrangements are - but they will make a significant difference.

the only difference being the location of the buyer.

which is what would affect the tax - and is nothing to do with Totem

It's still odd that it's based off your ip address rather than the location you entered on your profile.

@Z22 - people move about. For example I live in two countries so my IP address is much more accurate than any address in my profile. This is even more so for any who travel extensively as part of their job or for pleasure.

I live in Poland (central Europe). Many years ago, when there was no iStripper yet and this program was called VirtuaGirl HD, I had the opportunity to choose the currency: euros (EUR) or dollars (USD). Over time, this has changed and the only option left for me is EUR.

Our currency is "Polish zloty" (PLN). After conversion, it looks as follows:
1 EUR = 4.29 PLN
1 USD = 3.70 PLN

If I would like to buy 500 credits for 49.99 EUR today, I would have to pay 214.46 PLN.
With the option of choosing a currency, I would choose USD.
Then I could buy 500 credits for 49.99 USD, or 184.96 PLN.
For me the difference is 29.50 PLN (6.88 EUR or 7.97 USD), so if I could choose a currency, I could pay about 15% less than I pay today.

I noticed that a long time ago and I wasn't happy about it either. Over the years I have already got used to it and now I'm trying to buy credits on the day when the EUR/PLN exchange rate is the best for me.

I didn't think about VPN (I don't use this and even forgot that it exists). Is it illegal? Hmm...
Look at China. Totem encourages Chinese people to use VPN to access their product, despite the fact that the use of VPN in China isn't legal. Why would people from other countries not use it?

BTW: What currency do the Chinese use when buying credits?

I must have a spaceship today then because one min my ip was in southampton the next was in new york the next in romania. People have vpn's too, which is very handy for steam. Exit in russia, £10 for brand new AAA game lol :D