Need to buy Adobe Creative Suite - best way?

Nigel1967

I have put it off for as long as I can, but I now need to buy the Adobe Creative Suite.

I have the Macromedia Studio 8 suite, so qualify for the upgrade to CS3, and need to buy the Web Premium version.

Problem is, it's US$480 in the US, and £560 in the UK.

Does anyone know of anywhere I can get it online at the US price with my UK credit card? At a whole £300+ more expensive, it's *nearly* worth flying to the US, buying it at a shop near the airport, and flying home!

If I have to pay the full £560, does anyone know of a site offering any discount or cashback? It's a big chunk of money to just pay out without even getting *something* extra!

jje_2

Adobe CS4 is now in Beta .
Might be worth waiting to see if any special offers .

A thought could you buy from USA using Pay Pal ??

If you did buy from USA would it get a customs and excise bill in the UK as i know CofE are charging £14 duty on DVds from USA .

jje

isofa

The wide difference in US and UK prices from Adobe has been covered in the press when CS3 was launched - it's absolutely outrageous!

Unless you have friends in the states, or want to set-up a special US mailbox, then there is no cheap way.

If you try to buy from US companies or direct from Adobe, when they see your credit card and delivery address, they'll block the transaction. There might be sellers on eBay, worth checking - but be careful, lots of frauds about on such expensive software.

I upgraded from Photoshop to the full CS2 Premium suite and then from CS2 to CS3 Premium - cost an arm and a leg!

Nigel1967

They'd have to charge more than £320 duty/VAT to make buying from abroad not worth it, but I can't find anywhere that would ship it.

Waiting for CS4 isn't an option - that'll be at the end of the year at the earliest!

Buying the download online would mean no shipment, maybe no duty due I don't know - but I don't see anywhere that will process an order via Paypal or a UK credit card.

jje_2

daft i call it when you can go to a computer fair and but a copy for a tenner .

jje

superscaper

jje wrote: »

daft i call it when you can go to a computer fair and but a copy for a tenner .

jje

Legal? I doubt it, in which case isn't it daft spending a tenner on something that somebody pirated for the cost of a disc.

isofa

Nigel1967 wrote: »

They'd have to charge more than £320 duty/VAT to make buying from abroad not worth it, but I can't find anywhere that would ship it.

Waiting for CS4 isn't an option - that'll be at the end of the year at the earliest!

Buying the download online would mean no shipment, maybe no duty due I don't know - but I don't see anywhere that will process an order via Paypal or a UK credit card.

You could take a trip to New York or Boston (I think Boston has lower purchase tax than NYC too!)

Else try Access USA at: https://www.myus.com (Google for move competitors).

Several are often listed in the broadsheets, I did think UPS offered a similar service...

always_amazed

are you a student? Or are you possibly buying it for a student? Its £165 odd if you get the edu version.

I'd wait till CS4 comes out though, if you can.

isofa

If you need CS3, get it now, CS4 will be ages before even at pre-release stage, then at release they'll be issues, compatibility problems before the first set of updates. I'm still using CS2 for many things, because I'm not entirely convinced by some of the issues in CS3 (esp with Acrobat Pro on the Mac!)

Oh and also you may not be able to have a "cheaper" upgrade to CS4 from the package you are going to use for the upgrade to CS3 too.

Nigel1967

always_amazed wrote: »

are you a student? Or are you possibly buying it for a student? Its £165 odd if you get the edu version. I'd wait till CS4 comes out though, if you can.

No, I'm not a student and won't pretend to anyone that I am in order to 'save' money on an invalid licence. I can't wait for CS4 - it'll be at least a year until it's released/reliable.

isofa wrote: »

If you need CS3, get it now, CS4 will be ages before even at pre-release stage

Exactly - as I said in my original post, I have put it off for as long as I could, but now the need outweighs my misgivings about handing over so much cash!

isofa wrote: »

Unless you have friends in the states, or want to set-up a special US mailbox, then there is no cheap way.

Yes, I remember signing all of the petitions but it looks like they didn't get anywhere!

isofa wrote: »

Unless you have friends in the states, or want to set-up a special US mailbox, then there is no cheap way.

That's what I feared

jje wrote: »

daft i call it when you can go to a computer fair and but a copy for a tenner .

I'm trying to level the playing field between US/UK pricing for exactly the same product, not break the law. I despise software pirates almost as much as I do paedophiles. I hope that you fall off your chair and break your neck!

superscaper

Tiger Direct ship internationally but I honestly don't know if they apply the same US only restriction the likes of Amazon.com do on this software. But if you want to have a look into it: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3190581&body=WARRANTY#tabs