Importing software from US

jllwton

Adobe is about to hike UK prices by 10%, so it looks worthwhile bringing by purchase of CS4 Design Premium forward. Current UK listing is £1249 ex VAT

However, I have found a website called softwaresurplus.com which claims to sell it for $899 (£550) - a whopping saving. Sure, I'll have to pay customs an additional 15% (but I'd have to pay that anyway), and there's some P&P to be added, but it's still a hell of a saving!

Should I even be considering this? Is there any reason to suggest that Adobe could block activation of US products outside of the US?

Even by US standards, the price seems too good to be true (and the old adage springs to mind) - has anybody every used these people?

Thanks

Strider590

You could run into product support issues.

el_gringo_3

I'd agree with the poster above - although I once bought a piece of kit in Germany, needed to ring up after issues and just went through the German number, no questions asked - although I didn't need to return the item (a printer), they may have had a fuss about a return address for couriers. As I can't see this being an issue with software.... you see where i'm going.

Also consider why they would block activation outside a certain country - Microsoft do this with some products i believe - but as the US, EU zone etc all fall into the same catagory (ie countries where the market for the full price is sufficient), they'd stop you activating the Burkina Faso edition in the UK, not the other way round! The software would have a slightly differing version name if this was the case.

I'd be more worried about the website being kosher than software activation on this one tbh!

Lum

Strider590 wrote: »

You could run into product support issues.

It's Adobe CS4, that's pretty much a given even if you bought it in the UK.

OP: There is no technical reason why it wont run. Software isn't region coded like DVDs are. However don't forget that there may also be duty payable on that software in addition to VAT. Not sure what the rates are for software but when I imported my car it was 10% duty (applied to both the purchase and shipping price combined) and then 15% VAT slapped on top of that grand total. It's probably different for software so check with customs first.

isofa

This has been well covered in various magazines, most US companies won't ship to UK addresses, but you can setup a mailbox with a company (Google it, you'll find plenty) who for a fee then ship the product on to you. Beware of unheard of US companies, only deal with known and well reviewed ones.

Also when a new version is released you can often buy the old one and get a free upgrade. A couple of years ago I brought CS2 for around £800 from www.jigsaw24.com and had a free upgrade sent directly from Adobe to CS3.

Try asking on the forums at www.pcpro.co.uk or www.macuser.co.uk both have covered it in detail a year or so ago in their magazines.

andy2004

if you have a good internet connection, why not download the free trial version, and then BUY / pay for the product in $ to get the activation code. Then burn to dvd yourself.
Just burn the .exe file that you'll be downloading to the dvd as a backup.
Wont have to pay any import duty.
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/design/?promoid=BPDDY
note you could actually click on BUY and get the full version via download, which would also be the trial version with activation code sent via email., erm, just had a check current price is £1,799 and thats for the download version.

deejayen

Just looked at Adobe site -- for CS4 Extended cost is $699 - upgrade is $199 which I got -- Buy or try available to download along with all the other suites they have. The one you want is $1,799 not £'s

I use US sites [genuine manufacturers sites] a lot to get the price down -- last one was the renewal of my security suite at half the cost of the SAME program in UK -- no problems at all -- Download, Pay, confirmation of order includes the Licence Keys -- Dave

andy2004

yeah i put the wrong symbol, should have been $ not £, typo, sorry

Jaffa.

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