Entourage not opening database

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Dr Khaldoun Sharif

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Oct 15, 2009, 5:22:49 AM10/15/09
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Hi,

Please help if you can.

I use Entourage for email and yesterday it wouldn’t open the database, and it suggested that I rebuild to fix the problem, It wouldn't rebuild despite several attempts (kept hanging on the last step).
My latest database back up is a couple of weeks old (so many emails not backed up).
Also I did not back up Microsoft user data in Time Machine (because of how it all changes with any slight modification).
My question is: can I find a way to open/ retrieve what is in the database that can not open?

Thanks

Khaldoun

Drew Reece

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Oct 15, 2009, 3:56:23 PM10/15/09
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Microsoft's site would be a good place to start. Have you been holding alt as Entourage opens?

I'd suggest you make a backup of the entire Entourage DB to an external disk before you fix anything incase it only gets worse. Do this with the backup before you use it too.

I wonder if you have any way to look at the email via the web, it is possible that the most recent sent/ received emails are still on the server & you may be able to use the older backup and then get the newer messages from the server. It really depends on a lot of things, eg do you use IMAP, do you move messages to other mail boxes, is sent mail set to be saved on the server…

Re:co

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 15, 2009, 8:20:51 PM10/15/09
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I have an iMac which is only about a year old. Last night I
encountered a problem when it froze whilst on the screen saver
(revolving beachball). i turned it off with the switch at the back,
and when I turned it on again, all I got was a picture of a file in
the middle of the screen with a flashing question mark. I tried
switching off and on again, with the same result. I thought there
must be a problem with the hard disk, but when I switched the machine
on this morning it booted up normally. I thought I'd better contact
technical support today, to see if there really was a problem. They
got me to do various things with the SL installation disk, but the
disk utility didn't function , and eventually I was told there must be
a problem with the hard drive, as the flashing question mark came on
again. I've contacted the Birmingham store, and got an appointment
with the 'Genius bar', but I really don't want to be without my
computer for any length of time at the moment. Strangely enough, I've
just got home and turned the iMac on, and it has booted up as
normal! Just wondering if any of you have encountered a similar
problem, and what the outcome has been. Fortunately I've got an
extended warranty, but I'm not impressed if the hard disk has failed
in such a short time.

Gordon

Robert Sharl

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Oct 16, 2009, 12:56:22 AM10/16/09
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On 16 Oct 2009, at 01:20, Gordon Thornett wrote:

> I've contacted the Birmingham store, and got an appointment
> with the 'Genius bar', but I really don't want to be without my
> computer for any length of time at the moment. Strangely enough, I've
> just got home and turned the iMac on, and it has booted up as
> normal! Just wondering if any of you have encountered a similar
> problem, and what the outcome has been. Fortunately I've got an
> extended warranty, but I'm not impressed if the hard disk has failed
> in such a short time.

I had what sounds like a very similar problem with a white MacBook a
couple of years ago. It was intermittently failing to boot, which
eventually became not booting at all. In the process of crashing it
managed to corrupt something on the hard disk which disk utility
couldn't fix, and system reinstall disks couldn't fix either (the
reinstall in place just failed).

The Genius Bar said that something like Disk Warrior might fix it, but
rather than making me buy it they let me run it in the store. It found
and fixed a few problems, but still didn't boot. However it seemed to
fix enough to get the system to reinstall, and I managed to lose
practically no data (a couple of corrupted files).

What was clear though was that the crashing and disk corruption were
hardware-related, and I personally traced it to a single RAM slot on
the motherboard (it eventually refused to boot with any memory present
in that slot). Apple serviced and replaced the motherboard, and fixed
a few other developing problems at the same time. They took about 3
days, which is not unheard of at all, assuming they have the parts you
need. They'll even order the parts in before you drop off the Mac if
possible.

The HD I eventually replaced anyway: HD technology is hugely prone to
failure, and any glitches are warnings to be heeded. This isn't unique
to Apple (in fact I hear of few HD failures on Macs in relative terms)
and the drives they fit are pretty good I think. In normal use drives
develop bad sectors which the OS is good at spotting and marking as
unusable. Occasionally one of these in in a critical sector and you
start to get bootup issues, Fix regularly, and back up lots. If you
get a problem with the hard disk before you lose your data then thank
the gods of technology, back up, and swap the disk out without
complaining. Things could be much worse.

Robert

Russell May

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Oct 16, 2009, 3:31:19 AM10/16/09
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Hi,

I had a similar problem (not the same) recently that required the
replacement of a motherboard. Sorry, to say the repair, at the
Solihull store, took three weeks!!!

Russ

Richard Reader

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Oct 16, 2009, 7:16:48 AM10/16/09
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You  might want to try installing something like SMARTReporter which monitors the status of your hard drives. You can also see the status in Disk Utility in the info at the bottom of the screen when you select the physical drive rather than the logical volume. I had a drive start to fail in an interesting way on my work Mac Pro. It was used for Boot Camp and while it would boot quite happily into WinXP it would not start up a Parallels virtual machine. When I checked the SMART status it was showing as failing.


Cheers,
Richard


2009/10/16 Russell May <russe...@mac.com>

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 16, 2009, 10:37:04 AM10/16/09
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Thanks for the suggestions. My iMac booted up ok again this morning.
I contacted tech support, and the lady said it was definitely a
software problem. She told me to view and repair the permissions, and
if necessary reinstall SL. I did the repair, and all seemed fine, but
as I'd already made an appointment with the 'genius bar' at the Apple
store, I thought I'd best check again with tech support before
cancelling the appointment. This guy got me to try a few things, and
said it's definitely a hardware problem! One of the things that
confirms this is that if I try to reinstall SL, it doesn't come up
with any drive to select - I just get a blank box. So it looks as
though i'll have to trudge along to the Bullring with it after all.
BTW, I've got an external hard drive which has been backing everything
up via Time Machine. Is it easy/ time consuming to reinstate
everything, assuming they replace my internal hard drive? (I'm
hoping, perhaps, that the store may offer to do it for me!)

Gordon

Drew Reece

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Oct 16, 2009, 12:20:50 PM10/16/09
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Apple repairs don't offer restore or file recovery. You should assume
(the worst case) it will come back with a clean drive or reinstalled OS.
You can reinstall files from a Time Machine backup, Migration
Assistant will offer to move items back from TM backups. Check you
haven't excluded any important items in the Time Machine prefs >
Options.
If it is in some form of 'working order' I'd try to get a copy of the
disk to an external drive (via SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner or even
Apples built in Disk Utility). At least so you have a copy to pull
files out if you need them whilst it is away, Time Machine is
browsable in the Finder, but searching/ navigating it isn't too nice.

Since you don't know if the disk is in a good state or if the files in
the Time Machine backup are part of the issue, be careful what you
choose to reinstall. Personally I'd avoid restoring Applications or
plugins & redo them from installers.

Re:co

Robert Sharl

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Oct 16, 2009, 12:46:31 PM10/16/09
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On 16 Oct 2009, at 17:20, Drew Reece wrote:

> Since you don't know if the disk is in a good state or if the files in
> the Time Machine backup are part of the issue, be careful what you
> choose to reinstall. Personally I'd avoid restoring Applications or
> plugins & redo them from installers.

All good advice. I'd also do multiple backups of stuff you really
need. DropBox is good for 2GB of free storage that syncs between
machines (and iPhone!), and you could always upgrade to 50/100GB for a
month or two (I'm now on the 50GB account and keeping all my working
files there). Archive your iPhoto library, back up your iTunes
purchases and the music folder to somewhere else. You really can't be
too backed up.

Robert

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 17, 2009, 3:33:20 PM10/17/09
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Quick question. I'm due to take the iMac in to the store tomorrow.
They say that as I have a full backup on an external drive, that will
be all I need to reinstall my stuff if HD is replaced. However,
following your advice, I've installed Carbon Copy Cloner, but find I
don't have a hard drive big enough to clone on to. My question is,
would it be safe/advisable to use the the same external drive as I am
using for the Time Machine backup? There seems to be plenty of room
on it, but I don't want to risk corrupting or overwriting what's on
there already from time machine. Time isn't on my side, and I don't
even know if things will crash when I try to do the copying. (Please
don't give me a technical answer involving partitioning the external
drive or anything, as I wouldn't have a clue how to do it!) My
instinct is to leave well alone, and trust the genii. (I do have all
my docs backed up on flash drive.)

And I thought that getting an Apple would end all my troubles!

Gordon


On 16 Oct 2009, at 17:20, Drew Reece wrote:

>

Drew Reece

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Oct 17, 2009, 4:00:48 PM10/17/09
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Carbon Copy & SuperDuper! are designed to give you a bootable copy of
everything. I'd only clone to another blank drive since you risk
overwriting the TM backup out with incorrect settings.

I would be tempted to manually copy important files & folders over to
a new folder on the TM disk. So at least you have them in a form
outside of the Time Machine archive. Taking a whole copy of your
User(s) folders is decent protection. How easy is the Flash drive to
loose?

Bear in mind once the TM disk is nearly full it will start purging
older backup copies, so you may want to remove the extra backup items
once the iMac is back up & running.

I expect you have enough protection with the Time Machine backups,
open System Prefs > Time Machine & check it ran recently! When it
comes to my own data I think at least 2 copies is a good starting
point for any recovery.

Re:co

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 17, 2009, 5:13:07 PM10/17/09
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Thanks, Drew.

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:09:30 AM10/19/09
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Well, the deed is done, and my precious iMac is now in the hands of the Apple genii at the Bullring store. It wouldn't boot up at all yesterday, and a quick test at the store seemed to confirm that my hard drive has failed.  I took along the external back up, just in case they would offer to restore it for me (as tech. support had indicated they would), but no such luck.  They have to order a drive, and I'm told it should be done towards the end of the week.  I just hope the time machine restoration works as easily as they said it would.  Apparently it will be set to Leopard when I collect it, but the time machine will automatically reinstall Snow Leopard.
 
Thanks for your various suggestions, which I will bear in mind in the future, though I hope this HD failure isn't a common occurence!
 
Gordon
 
(I tried to send this via my Touch yesterday, but for some reason it won't send out hotmail mails, although it will receive them.)

Peter Boynton

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Oct 19, 2009, 6:10:58 AM10/19/09
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Interesting comments about TM reinstalling Snow Leopard.
I thought TM would only allow you to reinstall docs and apps etc not OS's?
Anyway I am no expert so don't rely on my comments.

Pete

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 19, 2009, 6:20:23 AM10/19/09
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I specifically asked them if the computer would come back to me with SL installed, but was told that it would be the same version of Leopard as when I bought the machine a little over 12 months ago.  They said that Time Machine would restore everything, including SL.

 

From: pete.b...@mac.com

Subject: [MMUG] Re: Flashing question mark!
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:10:58 +0100
To: mmug...@googlegroups.com

Berkeley

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Oct 19, 2009, 7:52:57 AM10/19/09
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Hmmm - not impressed with this story, particuarly  "... I bought the machine a little over 12 months ago".  I bought my iMac just under 12 months ago after hearing all the stories about wonderful Macs.  I still think it's wonderful, but ...   At least I back up with TM. I look forward to hearing how the repair goes, Gordon, and any advice you may wish to share, following that.

Brian in Bewdley

Gordon Thornett

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Oct 19, 2009, 8:17:53 AM10/19/09
to mmug chat
They told me that any drive can fail, at any time - it's nothing to do with it being an Apple computer.  Fortunately I bought an extended warranty, something maybe worth considering, so won't have to pay for the new drive.  I think it's comparatively unusual for it to happen so soon. I'm so glad I've backed up with TM, otherwise I would really be up the creek without a paddle...  I agree with you, Brian, that the iMac is a great machine, but I'll sleep a little easier when I have mine back and fully restored!
 
Gordon
 

From: bri...@btinternet.com

Subject: [MMUG] Re: Flashing question mark!
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:52:57 +0100
To: mmug...@googlegroups.com

graham thompson

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Oct 20, 2009, 5:53:22 AM10/20/09
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I have had two drives fail in the last two years, both LaCie. This
email is being written on a six year old iBook with original HD. The G5
I bought four years ago is still going strong, albeit in someone else's
hands and my present G5 is nearly two years old and no problems but
Apple is not perfect so someone has to suffer. Hope you come out of
this OK Gordon.

Graham

On 19 Oct 2009, at 13:17, Gordon Thornett wrote:

> They told me that any drive can fail, at any time - it's nothing to
> do with it being an Apple computer.  Fortunately I bought an extended
> warranty, something maybe worth considering, so won't have to pay for
> the new drive.  I think it's comparatively unusual for it to happen so
> soon. I'm so glad I've backed up with TM, otherwise I would really be
> up the creek without a paddle...  I agree with you, Brian, that the
> iMac is a great machine, but I'll sleep a little easier when I
> have mine back and fully restored!
>  
> Gordon
>  
> From: bri...@btinternet.com
> Subject: [MMUG] Re: Flashing question mark!
> Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:52:57 +0100
> To: mmug...@googlegroups.com
>
>
> Hmmm - not impressed with this story, particuarly  "... I bought the
> machine a little over 12 months ago".  I bought my iMac just under 12
> months ago after hearing all the stories about wonderful Macs.  I
> still think it's wonderful, but ...   At least I back up with TM. I
> look forward to hearing how the repair goes, Gordon, and any advice
> you may wish to share, following that.
>
> Brian in Bewdley
>
> On 19 Oct 2009, at 11:20, Gordon Thornett wrote:
>
>> I specifically asked them if the computer would come back to me with
>> SL installed, but was told that it would be the same version of
>> Leopard as when I bought the machine a little over 12 months ago. 
>> They said that Time Machine would restore everything, including SL.
>>
>>  

William Gallagher

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Oct 21, 2009, 9:43:14 AM10/21/09
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I wish they'd answer the phone sometimes... I've just been in to the
Bull Ring store and they say it'll be another couple of days before
they have Magic Mice on sale.

However, they do have a couple on display and they're even nicer in
the flesh.

I was concerned about wireless lag and battery life: I had a wireless
Mighty Mouse that ate batteries very frustratingly, was slow to
connect. And while it seemed fine enough, when I then tried a wired
one, that was so much faster and more response than the Bluetooth model.

But I just tried a Magic one at the store and I want it. I hear
battery life is four months, I don't know what the source for that
information is, though.

William

Robert Sharl

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Oct 21, 2009, 9:57:01 AM10/21/09
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>I was concerned about wireless lag and battery life: I had a wireless
>Mighty Mouse that ate batteries very frustratingly, was slow to
>connect. And while it seemed fine enough, when I then tried a wired
>one, that was so much faster and more response than the Bluetooth model.

That's useful thanks! I was going to look too but I saw the shipping delay online and figured it meant the stores wouldn't have it either. FWIW, I've not had any battery issues with my wireless Mighty Mouse. I routinely get several months from it. Does the new one feel lighter or heavier? My girlfriend complains about the weight of the wireless Mighty Mouse (yeah I know..).

Robert

William Gallagher

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Oct 21, 2009, 1:19:35 PM10/21/09
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Oh, that's encouraging about the battery, thanks: maybe I was just
unlucky.

It felt like the lightest thing in the world. I've just lifted my
wired Mighty Mouse to compare and it doesn't feel much different to
the Magic Mouse in the store. It must be; the Magic one had batteries
in it, but it's definitely very light indeed.

And I see your girlfriend's point: I work one day a week in an office
with PCs and the mouse feels clumsily awkward.

William

J. C. D. Rocke

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Oct 22, 2009, 6:25:52 AM10/22/09
to MMUG Chat

But 'rip-off' Britain strikes again… The US price is $69, and the the
UK price is £55

$69 converts to about £41.50, which with 15% VAT that still only comes
to about £48

Boo

Patrick Neame

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Oct 22, 2009, 6:29:33 AM10/22/09
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Don't forget to add import duty to the UK price and then add VAT on
everything. Also, don't forget to add US state sales tax to the US $
price although I'm not sure how they decide in which state you're
conducting the transaction for online sales.

William Gallagher

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Oct 22, 2009, 11:31:24 AM10/22/09
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I've just noticed that my update email doesn't appear to have rippled
through. In case I sent it to the wrong address, the word now from
both the Birmingham and Solihull stores is that they won't have Magic
Mouse shipments until the middle of next week.

William

Peter Boynton

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Oct 22, 2009, 11:41:14 AM10/22/09
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Big shame as I am in Birmingham tomorrow :-((

William Gallagher

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Oct 22, 2009, 11:43:18 AM10/22/09
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I'm in London on Tuesday but apparently it's the same there too.

But do nip in to have a play on the display models: you'll be so
convinced you want a Magic Mouse that you might end up buying an iMac
to get one.

I'll have the iMac off you if that's the case. Just to help.

William

Peter Boynton

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Oct 22, 2009, 11:52:36 AM10/22/09
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Errrmm - let me put that past my wife!

I am more than welcome to by a new iMac as long as I don't need the
dangly bits between my legs again!

I thought my 24" iMac was big but I want that 27" - for two reasons
yes it comes with a free Magic Mouse but also as it allows you to use
it as a monitor so I am hoping I can plug my PS3 into it if the
correct cables/adaptors come out.

I am assuming they are having to nail the MM's in the shops down to
stop them running off or being helped off!!

Pete

William Gallagher

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Oct 22, 2009, 12:13:27 PM10/22/09
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Sheesh, I was just being nice... And generous, too, as frankly it
would've been so inconvenient, having your iMac around my house.
Nonetheless, I stand ready to put myself out at a moment's notice.

Yes, the Magic Mouse I saw had a wee little alarm wire connected to
it. For a moment I thought it was a wired version, but no.

I've no idea about whether you can plug other things into the monitor.
Hadn't thought of that. Hmm.

William

Peter Boynton

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Oct 22, 2009, 5:54:15 PM10/22/09
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William
I really appreciate your offer to help facilitate me obtaining a magic
mouse by the quickest option.
If I manage to find the ability to let's say re-enhance ones self
before the apple store take stock of said Magic Mice then you can
gladly take guardianship of the new iMac and I ofcourse would
reimburse your energy costs. Hope you regard my offer to be fair.

Yours truly
Pete

Sent from my world

On 22 Oct 2009, at 17:13, William Gallagher

J. C. D. Rocke

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Oct 23, 2009, 4:49:11 AM10/23/09
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I wasn't actually proposing to buy one in the States, I was just
observing what Joe Customer has to pay in each country. The various
states (as you know) have different Sales Tax, varying from 0% (New
Hampshire) to ?% (I don't live in the US anymore, so am not familiar
with the various State Sales Tax, but I remember New York State, a
neighbour of New Hampshire, is quite high, 7 or 8 percent I think -
and then there may be City Sales Tax on top of the State sales Tax).

So in practice, the US price of $69 is quite possibly what a US
customer could pay. I seem to recall that the tax charged for Online
sales is what would be charged by the state to which the purchase is
delivered, and for Overseas deliveries, NO sales Tax.

I still say 'Rip-Off' Britain… (Boo again)

Dave
____________________________________________________
On 22 Oct, 11:29, Patrick Neame <PatrickNe...@me.com> wrote:
> Don't forget to add import duty to the UK price and then add VAT on  
> everything. Also, don't forget to add US state sales tax to the US $  
> price although I'm not sure how they decide in which state you're  
> conducting the transaction for online sales.
>
> On Oct 22, 2009, at 11:25 am, J. C. D. Rocke wrote:
>
>
>
> > But 'rip-off' Britain strikes again…  The US price is $69, and  
> > the
> > UK price is £55
>
> > $69 converts to about £41.50, which with 15% VAT that still only  
> > comes
> > to about £48
>
> > Boo !!!!

Patrick Neame

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Oct 23, 2009, 7:02:34 AM10/23/09
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Even if you buy it online from the Apple store in the US and have it delivered to you here Custom and Revenue are still going to charge duty and VAT so you do have to factor that in to the US price. At the same time when Apple get them shipped in to the UK from Taiwan, or wherever they're made, they also have to pay duty and VAT on the base price. As we know VAT is 15% which doesn't compare too well with the New York City total tax of 8.875 % which brings the $69 quoted to $75 which my widget coverts to £45:06.
I have no idea what the duty rate it but assuming it to be 4% we get a total of just under £49:58 if we start with the base price of $69, convert it,  and add that rate of duty and VAT. Granted this is still less that the £55 Apple are charging in the UK but it's considerably less of a rip off than appears to be the case if you compare the £41:45 ($69 converted straight to £sterling) with the £55. 
The alternative of going to New York and buying one in the shops there might save you £10 but would, of course take about 12 hours flying time, the time getting to and from the airport, and the cost of the flight. 

J. C. D. Rocke

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Oct 24, 2009, 5:43:28 AM10/24/09
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As I said before "…I wasn't actually proposing to buy one in the
States, I was just
observing what Joe Customer has to pay in each country.…"

It seems by your arithmetic "…I have no idea what the duty rate it but
assuming it to be 4% we get a total of just under £49:58 if we start
with the base price of $69, convert it, and add that rate of duty and
VAT. Granted this is still less that the £55 Apple are charging in the
UK…"

That seems to be about 10%, which is why I still say 'Rip-Off'
Britain'… (Boo again)

I'm beginning to regret making that comment in the first place, but
even after five years back in the UK after 30 years in the States, I
occasionally get reminded of how much more many things (Housing, Cars,
Apple products) cost over here than in the US.
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