FSX-MS FYI Turbine Duke V2 release

[gpbarth 12]

Geez! Thirty-six pages! I'm ready to buy this beauty, but I'd like to know if it works with FSX SE. Sorry if the answer was somewhere in these thirty-six pages...

 

Just say yes, and I'll pull out the credit card.

[Artem Crum 5]

Geez! Thirty-six pages! I'm ready to buy this beauty, but I'd like to know if it works with FSX SE. Sorry if the answer was somewhere in these thirty-six pages...

 

Just say yes, and I'll pull out the credit card.

Works fine.

[gpbarth 12]

That's all I needed to know. It will be mine within the hour!

[gpbarth 12]

If there is one thing I detest, it's pricing that says one thing and does another. Went up on the RealAir site, chose to purchase the Turbine Duke V2, which was priced at Eu 32.95. Prior to that I had gone on the Eu to USD converter, which showed me a $35.47 price. Sounds good to me.

 

Well, when I got to PayPal to pay, that price was $38.99. And because I'm honest and use my real address, I had to pay an additional 6%, which brought the total to $41.33. Don't get me wrong - after paying almost $80 for the PMDG 777, this is a real bargain, even at $41.33. But I don't like thinking I'm paying one price and getting charged another. Even if it's only $3.52. As a retired guy, I'm on a fixed budget - that Triple 7 cost me a a lot of saved up time and money, but I knew up front what it cost.

 

Why is there a difference between the Eu price and the USD final price? Is someone taking a cut?

[robert young 2,897]

Why is there a difference between the Eu price and the USD final price? Is someone taking a cut?

 

Yes, lots of people are taking a cut. Almost every e-commerce portal uses intermediary banks. Searching google for the supposed international currency rate typically gives you the lowest possible inter-bank rate, not necessarily the consumer rate, which is why consumers are surprised that they always get hit somewhere along the line. Any bank involved always take a cut on the exchange between currencies. however small. Add to that local taxes (and please consider yourself lucky compared with EU-based consumers who get mugged for 20%...YES 20%...VAT), and there is nothing we can do about that. That amount is taken automatically by the e-commerce agents. I have no idea at all whether some of them actually pass that tax on (I assume most do and are honest but I have no doubt some might not be). The tax you mention is very modest compared with European customers who get hit over the head with a 20% hammer anytime they buy anything apart from what is considered "essentials".

 

We get exactly the price advertised, less of course everyone else's cut imposed on us as well as you: the commission for the e-commerce agent, which ranges from 14% to 30%, plus website costs which are considerable including unlimited download bandwidth we offer. Everything else is added by tax authorities and a small amount for currency conversion. The whole bank commission subject is a minefield. No-one declares exactly what commission banks take. It is like living in a world of secretive financial ether. And you are right...someone, somewhere, is always taking a sly cut -  quite small per product but add them all up and there is a very large industry of currency subterfuge. No-one will discuss it if pressed. We are utterly powerless to influence this, apart from protesting, which I have done many, many times.

 

Over fifteen years not a single intermediary has agreed to tell me exactly how they arrived at the supposed bank conversion rate, after many requests.

 

You mention Paypal. Well how do you suppose paypal makes any profit: They take a cut too, if not directly from you, then someone else, who then has to get that cut back from you.

 

Selling globally is also a hindrance and again I sympathise. Most middle/intermediary sellers cannot declare the final price until they log your IP after you press "buy now" and assess what tax if any applies to you (it doesn't matter generally whether you declare where you live or not, the IP capture will tell 'em where you live anyway) and that's why you do not get the final price until you press buy now, and annoying as that is, you can always withdraw after seeing the price plus tax etc.

 

And that, in a nutshell, is how the whole thing works.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Rob - RealAir

[ryanbatc 12,775]

Wow what a mess, never thought it was so involved.

[gpbarth 12]

Well, I'm not complaining about the final price, only that it wasn't up front. I love the aircraft - downloaded it and set it up, and it's a beaut, worth every cent (euro?) But I have bought other flight sim software from overseas without this same problem, Navigraph, for instance.

 

Oh, well... Just had to get that rant off my chest. Now back to flying!

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Best GA aircraft ever, worth every penny/cent IMHO... :rolleyes:

 

Filling up my car is $60 each time, so what are we fussing about..

[wizzards 99]

i do not understand your conversions.your buy now Euro 32.95 =£23.50,your price GB £31.95 diff euro to pound £8.45 that is not 20% vat on 23.30,why should I pay you £8.35  for what I can purchase 30 miles away from me for £23.60 approx ,could you kindly explane how you pricing works

[pete_auau 1,152]

Easy solution is  to buy what ever  the cheapest  you can get

[CFIJose 5,485]

I'm probably in the minority, but I feel sad when I see Realair planes on sale.

 

These airplanes are simply the BEST value for my money. I have never (EVER) purchased any Realair plane on sale. I get the discount upgrade price, but I buy on release and I honestly don't care about the price.

 

PMDG doesn't lower their price and Realair doesn't need to lower their prices in order for me to buy their planes.

 

YES, every other service is trying to get a cut, except the developer. This, IMO, is the person that really deserves the extra money.

 

No rant, just expressing my affinity for Realair & PMDG in a different way.

[shivers9 1,174]

I'm probably in the minority, but I feel sad when I see Realair planes on sale.

 

These airplanes are simply the BEST value for my money. I have never (EVER) purchased any Realair plane on sale. I get the discount upgrade price, but I buy on release and I honestly don't care about the price.

 

PMDG doesn't lower their price and Realair doesn't need to lower their prices in order for me to buy their planes.

 

YES, every other service is trying to get a cut, except the developer. This, IMO, is the person that really deserves the extra money.

 

No rant, just expressing my affinity for Realair & PMDG in a different way.

I could not agree more! Real Air has proven itself over and over to be just the very best GA that can be bought. I am embarrassed for the community when someone starts complaining about their prices or worse still about the exchange rate that no one can do anything about. Some folks just got to ######!!

[gpbarth 12]

Sorry to have started this price debate - I still think I got my money's worth at $42 USD. Great plane, and nowhere near the cost of a PMDG A/C. No complaints on the price I paid. I just do not like to go to a Web site and see an advertised price (in euros, which I know is going to be more in USD), check to make sure of the current exchange rate, then click on the "Buy Now" button and see a different price on PayPal. That's my gripe here.

 

I'm not blaming RealAir, but when I buy groceries, I don't expect the prices to change at the cash register. When I buy gas (sorry - petrol), I expect to pay the price shown on the pump. I recently bought Steve's DX10 Fixer, which went through a similar set-up, and the price he charged never changed, even though it went through a 2nd-party seller.

 

And what really surprised me on this purchase was that, although I saw the price in euros, the product was "sold" to me by DR MyCommerce, Inc. in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a U.S. company.

 

Anyway, I am very happy with the Duke, and have no problems with the money spent. Let's go fly!

[robert young 2,897]

Sorry to have started this price debate - I still think I got my money's worth at $42 USD. Great plane, and nowhere near the cost of a PMDG A/C. No complaints on the price I paid. I just do not like to go to a Web site and see an advertised price (in euros, which I know is going to be more in USD), check to make sure of the current exchange rate, then click on the "Buy Now" button and see a different price on PayPal. That's my gripe here.

 

I'm not blaming RealAir, but when I buy groceries, I don't expect the prices to change at the cash register. When I buy gas (sorry - petrol), I expect to pay the price shown on the pump. I recently bought Steve's DX10 Fixer, which went through a similar set-up, and the price he charged never changed, even though it went through a 2nd-party seller.

 

And what really surprised me on this purchase was that, although I saw the price in euros, the product was "sold" to me by DR MyCommerce, Inc. in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a U.S. company.

 

Anyway, I am very happy with the Duke, and have no problems with the money spent. Let's go fly!

 

When you buy groceries you are buying in a localised market so it is easy to apply a known tax at the point of purchase. Software sold through a global market is completely different. In a global market, and especially in the EU, the law has changed and we can be prosecuted and jailed for interfering with the tax laws. The new EU rules now say that tax is applied NOT based on where the digital product is sold or made but the location of the buyer. Taxes are not uniform so different levels of taxes apply on that basis, and this also applies to some US states, some of which, bizarrely levy no tax at all while other states do.

 

Until the seller (in this case that doesn't mean us, but the agent or merchant seller acting on our behalf) cannot know what tax to apply until your location is known, usually from your IP address. Some sellers manage to get round this, usually in countries where they operate that have less clout to hammer you if you break the law.

 

There is NOTHING whatever we can do about any of this. I can ASSURE you that we HATE the virtually mafia style in which draconian sales taxes are implemented in the EU. It is a form of mugging: "Ah, I see you are selling something....ok, pay us xxx or we'll close you down". I'm a supporter of tax. It is needed and necessary, but the EU rules are simply a form of protection money levied at as high a percentage as they can get away with.

 

We don't see the tax. It doesn't even pass through our hands. I have already explained that the banks are also a law unto themselves. They charge an unknown and undeclared currency exchange fee and never explain it. They too get away with what they can.

 

If you have a gripe about this please don't blame us or any other developer. With a few rare exceptions most addons now cost much less in real terms than they did ten years ago, for twice or three times the work and detail. The extra you are paying is not given to us. We never see it. We get strictly the advertised basic price, less of course our own very considerable expenses. 

 

As Bert mentions, just filling up a car of fuel where I live, or buying some modest groceries, costs far more than an addon that has taken up to two years to produce. I live in the EU and have to abide by EU law otherwise I would go to jail for fraud.

i do not understand your conversions.your buy now Euro 32.95 =£23.50,your price GB £31.95 diff euro to pound £8.45 that is not 20% vat on 23.30,why should I pay you £8.35  for what I can purchase 30 miles away from me for £23.60 approx ,could you kindly explane how you pricing works

 

They are NOT our conversions. We do not convert anything. We have NO control over currency conversions. The banks decide the conversion rate on a given day. We do NOT have any influence on this. We get paid the price we advertise, less our own expenses. Do not rely on google-searched currency data. They are generally the lowest available inter-bank rate and have nothing to do with actual consumer rates. Please read what I posted earlier.

[Boeing or not going 578]

To anyone that experienced loss of clickspots in the cockpit randomly in the Duke v2, instead of replacing the model file can you try a theory of mine? I had no problems flying for over 40 hours and then I changed some settings in the configuration program and started getting lost clickspots all the time through out the flight. I went back and noticed one setting was changed, I had disabled the Real Air clickspots option because I use EZCA. I enabled the clickspot option in the Real Air config again and have not lost my clickspots ever since. I do not have to run the lower quality model file that removes the reflective glass.

Best GA aircraft ever, worth every penny/cent IMHO... :rolleyes:

 

Filling up my car is $60 each time, so what are we fussing about..

I agree. I wish it had the ability to add weather radar, and better cockpit lighting options like a separate gauge and dome switch... but I have bought the original Duke and Turbine, and now the V2 Duke and going to get the Turbine this month