Blackmagic Forum

Why does Fusion sell for 299 USD ( ~378 AUD) in US yet in Aus we pay a 478 aud?

Can't we move on from greedy middlemen and hardware dongles- they just create import issues and poor excuses for domestic price hikes.

Why can't we buy licenses from BMD at one price globally? it is the 21st century after all.

Apart from the above - BMD is awesome, keep up the highly disruptive and market forming products coming!

Correct me if I am wrong but you need to add tax to us prices?

Lucjan Hirszmajer wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but you need to add tax to us prices?

It depends on the state I believe, but most have no or very little tax, and even the saltiest is no where near the amount to balance with the increase seen in Aus. Same in my region, price is higher than what the exchange rate would account for.. and out of stock or special order that will take a month to get in (!).. for something that I technically already have installed except for the license.. vexing to say the least.

I second the OP's sentiment entirely..

Maybe in a hundred years we are going to have global prices. Right now each country or union has their own tarrifs, import taxes or specific bilateral trade agreements that affect product prices.

I remember that 15-20 years ago it used to be much worst. Believe it or not, things have improved.

Lucjan Hirszmajer wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but you need to add tax to us prices?

HMM that would be 26% sales tax.. that is too much.. state taxes ( if you have to pay them) are typically less than 10% .

You also have to take into account the fluctuation of the dollar.
I live in Canada, and a USD price can be very different after conversion from Monday to Friday of the same week. Then there is the import and custom duties.

If you can find the same product at a "local" reseller, and you consider all those factors, you (usually) find what appears to be a large markup on the local end, is pretty close to what you would pay if you ordered it online from the US seller in the first place, then converted the funds, then paid shipping (also in American dollars),then import and custom fees... unless you can find a heck of a good sale price.

Bottom line, best thing would be to just skip the dongle, and sell online only with an online registration instead of dongle. That seems to work for many other software suites in similar price range, where I can just select USD during checkout no matter where in the world I am currently sitting. Well to be fair, even online some some software vendor direct you to a regional site and quote a regional price, but usually the differences are not that extreme and seem to be more coming from the exchange rate variations.

I am unable to get hold of Fusion Studio 9 or 8 in the USA. It is not available on Amazon. On the other hand, I just hate B&H Photo. They never had anything in stock, whenever I order something from B&H Photo. Often I ended up canceling their order with B&H because same was available for immediate shipment from Amazon. Unfortunately, Fusion Studio is not available from Amazon. I wish BM Design start selling these products directly to the customers.

Third party seller, but:
https://smile.amazon.com/Blackmagic-Des ... gic+fusion

Bryan Ray wrote:Third party seller, but:
https://smile.amazon.com/Blackmagic-Des ... gic+fusion

I see thanks. But $24.99 for shipping, that is ridiculous. It is price gouging in the name of shipping. I ordered Resolve through Amazon a few month ago. The seller put the software package in a brown envelope with $4 postal stamp. B&H Photo played the same back order with Resolve a few months ago and I canceled the order. In the case of Resolve, it was also a third party seller but it was shipped from Amazon warehouse. For fusion, I will wait a couple of weeks to see if B&H ships it, until then I can survive with the Free version of Fusion.

Agreed; not sure how they can justify that. Info says four pounds. For a USB dongle and a DVD case? Maybe they send you a complimentary telephone book to go with it.

Bryan Ray wrote:Agreed; not sure how they can justify that. Info says four pounds. For a USB dongle and a DVD case? Maybe they send you a complimentary telephone book to go with it.

LOL, Verizon keeps leaving complimentary phone books every third month at my door step. It goes to the recycle bin directly from the door step. I checked Adorama too, they also have it back ordered. Then I Talked to BH Photo through online chat. They blame BlackMagicDesign for not sending the shipment yet. According to the B&H support guy BlackMagic gave them September first week date. Therefore, he told me not to expect the delivery before the second week of September.

That's crazy.

BMD sells hardware. Hundreds of SKUs. Distribution should be no problem for them. So strange.

On the other hand, the box for the dongle is small. BMD will buy back any that haven't sold. So why aren't resellers stocking it in general? You could stock ten of them in a the space of a shoebox.

That's the trouble with BMD's publicity strategy. Nobody really expected the price drop, so nobody was prepared for the sudden rise in demand. Then again, BMD should have had crates ready to ship out to the resellers ahead of the actual orders. Maybe they underestimated the volume they'd need.

Bryan Ray wrote:That's the trouble with BMD's publicity strategy. Nobody really expected the price drop, so nobody was prepared for the sudden rise in demand. Then again, BMD should have had crates ready to ship out to the resellers ahead of the actual orders. Maybe they underestimated the volume they'd need.

Agreed!!! I was using Resolve and Fusion Free versions. I did not believe a $999 per software, i.e. total $2000 for Resolve and Fusion was justifiable. After the price drop, I believe $299 is a good price. I immediately bought the Resolve Studio version. I hope Fusion arrive soon. Most resellers carry Resolve, but not Fusion. Therefore to shop around for Fusion is limited. Perhaps, that is why the third party reseller at the Amazon is doing price gouging in the name of shipping charges.

Chad Capeland wrote:That's crazy.

BMD sells hardware. Hundreds of SKUs. Distribution should be no problem for them. So strange.

On the other hand, the box for the dongle is small. BMD will buy back any that haven't sold. So why aren't resellers stocking it in general? You could stock ten of them in a the space of a shoebox.

Chad,
I checked your website. You have some interesting plugins for Fusion. However, none of the "Learn More" link work. Are their Youtube videos on examples?

Bernd Klimm wrote:Bottom line, best thing would be to just skip the dongle, and sell online only with an online registration instead of dongle. That seems to work for many other software suites in similar price range, where I can just select USD during checkout no matter where in the world I am currently sitting. Well to be fair, even online some some software vendor direct you to a regional site and quote a regional price, but usually the differences are not that extreme and seem to be more coming from the exchange rate variations.

+1000

I hope with the production release of Resolve, BM will finally change their distribution model for both software products. With an online registration and online check you can forget the dongle. Go to the user account and activate your PC/Laptop whatever. When you want to use the software with another computer you have to deactivate your current computer and activate the new one. Besides, on a laptop I can not waste any USB connection. And even worse, if I lose my dongle I lose my license. This is really not necessary.

Please Blackmagic Design make it happen! Thanks in advance.

BH Photo and also Adorama are blaming BlackMagicDesign for not sending enough shipment of Fusion, and also not providing projected dates for the availability. Below is an email from BH Photo.


Hello Suhaib Siddiqi, my name is Jake B:

Thank you for contacting the Customer Service Department at B&H Photo Video and Pro Audio.

Unfortunately we don't have an expected delivery date at this time for your order as it is currently backordered by the manufacturer.

As soon as we receive it in stock we will promptly ship it to you. Once the order has been shipped we will notify you via e-mail. I apologize for this delay and any inconvenience it has caused you.

Please let us know if you require any further assistance.

Thank you, we appreciate your business.


Jake B
B&H Photo Video and Pro Audio
The Professional's Source.

Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:BH Photo and also Adorama are blaming BlackMagicDesign for not sending enough shipment of Fusion, and also not providing projected dates for the availability. Below is an email from BH Photo.

BM must distribute a dongle free version, how I explained above. Let B&H distribute hardware, but software is totally subject to change and must be supported with maximum flexibility. Sure you can download the software from BM, but why the hell I need a dongle in 2017?

Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:

Chad Capeland wrote:That's crazy.

BMD sells hardware. Hundreds of SKUs. Distribution should be no problem for them. So strange.

On the other hand, the box for the dongle is small. BMD will buy back any that haven't sold. So why aren't resellers stocking it in general? You could stock ten of them in a the space of a shoebox.

Chad,
I checked your website. You have some interesting plugins for Fusion. However, none of the "Learn More" link work. Are their Youtube videos on examples?

Hmmm... the links for me.
Can you access this link?

Daniel Stern wrote:BM must distribute a dongle free version, how I explained above. Let B&H distribute hardware, but software is totally subject to change and must be supported with maximum flexibility. Sure you can download the software from BM, but why the hell I need a dongle in 2017?

but not everyone has its workstation hooked to the internet (for security reasons, because your on the road without connection, ...)

michael vorberg wrote:

Daniel Stern wrote:BM must distribute a dongle free version, how I explained above. Let B&H distribute hardware, but software is totally subject to change and must be supported with maximum flexibility. Sure you can download the software from BM, but why the hell I need a dongle in 2017?

but not everyone has its workstation hooked to the internet (for security reasons, because your on the road without connection, ...)

I said, you activate your workstation online, the license will be activated on your computer and then you work offline. If you want to change your workstation you go online deactivate the old computer and activate the new one, or you buy another license. That's it. No dongle needed. If this works for other software companies why not for BM?

Chad Capeland wrote:

Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:

Chad Capeland wrote:That's crazy.

BMD sells hardware. Hundreds of SKUs. Distribution should be no problem for them. So strange.

On the other hand, the box for the dongle is small. BMD will buy back any that haven't sold. So why aren't resellers stocking it in general? You could stock ten of them in a the space of a shoebox.

Chad,
I checked your website. You have some interesting plugins for Fusion. However, none of the "Learn More" link work. Are their Youtube videos on examples?

Hmmm... the links for me.
Can you access this link?

That link works. Still there is a strange behavior at https://indicated.com/blackmagic-fusion ... -shader-3d. I have click on "Learn More..." twice to open the link. Could my browser issue??? I am using Chrome on Windows 10 x64

Daniel Stern wrote:

Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:BH Photo and also Adorama are blaming BlackMagicDesign for not sending enough shipment of Fusion, and also not providing projected dates for the availability. Below is an email from BH Photo.

BM must distribute a dongle free version, how I explained above. Let B&H distribute hardware, but software is totally subject to change and must be supported with maximum flexibility. Sure you can download the software from BM, but why the hell I need a dongle in 2017?

Russians, Chinese and Indian pirates are expert in breaking licensing mechanism. The dongle is a bit harder to pirate. Therefore some companies still stick to the dongle. Having said that, I do not like the dongle. It takes away USB port. When I doing a round trip between Resolve and Fusion, my two USB ports out of 3 on my laptop are gone. I have to disconnect one of the external devices. I always use a mouse on my laptop. I never liked trackpad. So mouse takes away one USB port permanently. I cannot connect any other device, for example an external USB disk to retrieve files from the backup archive, if I am using Resolve and Fusion both. Dongle is a pain.

Lucjan Hirszmajer wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but you need to add tax to us prices?

No Tax, if you are ordering from BH Photo and do not live in the New York state.

Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:

Daniel Stern wrote:

Suhaib Siddiqi wrote:BH Photo and also Adorama are blaming BlackMagicDesign for not sending enough shipment of Fusion, and also not providing projected dates for the availability. Below is an email from BH Photo.

BM must distribute a dongle free version, how I explained above. Let B&H distribute hardware, but software is totally subject to change and must be supported with maximum flexibility. Sure you can download the software from BM, but why the hell I need a dongle in 2017?

Russians, Chinese and Indian pirates are expert in breaking licensing mechanism. The dongle is a bit harder to pirate. Therefore some companies still stick to the dongle. Having said that, I do not like the dongle. It takes away USB port. When I doing a round trip between Resolve and Fusion, my two USB ports out of 3 on my laptop are gone. I have to disconnect one of the external devices. I always use a mouse on my laptop. I never liked trackpad. So mouse takes away one USB port permanently. I cannot connect any other device, for example an external USB disk to retrieve files from the backup archive, if I am using Resolve and Fusion both. Dongle is a pain.

I too would prefer to see the dongle go away, its a nuisance in my view..

However, there is a best of both worlds solution - dongle licensing can be handled online as well, the user provides their own key and upon purchase receives the license code that is installed onto it through the online system. Companies like eLicenser have been providing this for years, and to my knowledge none of the apps that use the system have been cracked. Most users' concerns/complaints would be addressed by this direct sales method -and BM gets to keep all the profit on their software too.

donaldsmecky wrote:However, there is a best of both worlds solution - dongle licensing can be handled online as well, the user provides their own key and upon purchase receives the license code that is installed onto it through the online system. Companies like eLicenser have been providing this for years, and to my knowledge none of the apps that use the system have been cracked. Most users' concerns/complaints would be addressed by this direct sales method -and BM gets to keep all the profit on their software too.

I totally agree, most important hardware free and totally online shopping.

I do think BMD have dropped the ball on this one. Whilst developing great new tools, they should also have sorted out the delivery system for acquiring the software in the first place.

It's back to the 1990s having to order a dongle, from a reseller, that doesn't have any in and doesn't know when more will be arriving; oh, and there are many back-orders so you may have to wait weeks longer. Seriously??

I get the security stuff, and respect that, obviously, but dongles can be hassle. They do occasionally fail, so you have to jump through hoops of getting it returned and replaced. Plus the more minor point of the permanent use of another USB port.

Just sort out online purchase and delivery - get yourselves into the 21st Century and join the smart folk. Crucially, this is a serious hassle for the very folk Fusion and Resolve Studio are aimed at. At these new price points, surely whole new markets and userbases have opened up, ie. profit and kudos for BMD. But while they're still with the horse and cart brigade, it's not going to work. Please sort this out.

Julian Baum wrote:Just sort out online purchase and delivery - get yourselves into the 21st Century and join the smart folk. Crucially, this is a serious hassle for the very folk Fusion and Resolve Studio are aimed at. At these new price points, surely whole new markets and userbases have opened up, ie. profit and kudos for BMD. But while they're still with the horse and cart brigade, it's not going to work. Please sort this out.

+1000
Wise words!!!