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Old 03-22-2020, 09:32 PM   #221
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Originally Posted by tgunter101 View Post
Out of curiosity, was your build sheet (or whatever document you sign) priced in USD at the time of original purchase agreement? If so, I can see ETI enforcing that pricing. When I asked about paying in CAD, the person I spoke with knew I was from the US, so I’m wondering if purchase in CAD can be established up front. From ETI’s perspective, I’m not sure why they would care, unless they are trying to leverage the exchange rate.
I am from the US. This was a new process so I chose the US pricing. When I dug in these threads and learned about the exchange and the way it had previously been handled, I called Escape and spoke with Meg, who was exasperated and none too helpful. I suppose that I could/should have called Karl, but I did not. I assume this will be an ongoing issue. It has caused me to feel a bit taken, but caveat emptor!
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Old 03-23-2020, 01:54 AM   #222
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Originally Posted by kdelaney View Post
.... but caveat emptor!
The underlying principle of "caveat emptor" is that the buyer bears the burden of conducting due-diligence before entering into the purchase agreement.

In any international transaction involving a fixed-price agreement with delivery and payments in the future, both parties assume some risk relating to currency exchange rate fluctuation, and both parties (should) assess that risk prior to entering the agreement to each assume their share of that risk.

IMO in that sort of transaction 'the bed is made' with regard to currency related risk when the agreement is entered; that's the time to settle on the currency of the transaction, and thereafter to 'lay in that bed' without complaint of feeling "a bit taken" (particularly when the circumstance giving rise to that feeling is in no-way due to the other party's action).

It strikes me that when one party proposes to alter the currency-basis of the agreement after the fact in order to enjoy a windfall benefit presented by exchange-rate vagaries, that's very likely to alter the risk-basis agreed and accepted by the other party, with understandable accompanying "exasperation".

So yes, timely "caveat emptor" is certainly in order.

Just one man's perspective.
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Old 03-23-2020, 02:05 AM   #223
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As Centrex implies: Negotiate which currency to use for payment at the time you contract to purchase your Escape trailer. Then live with it.
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Old 03-23-2020, 03:01 AM   #224
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Reasons why US customers might want USD pricing:

1. Convenience (just mail a check or tell your bank to wire money; you're done).
2. Price certainty (because ETI takes on all of the currency risk).

These services have value - just look at the angst expressed in the various threads about how to pay for Escape trailers from the US.

Reasons why ETI might want USD pricing:

1. It provides a ready source of USD to pay their USD denominated costs (mainly component purchases, one assumes).
2. They can charge for the services listed above, and make a little extra profit.

Reason why Canadian customers might want USD pricing (for US customers):

1. Because of the advantages for ETI, it might well moderate CAD price increases otherwise required to pay USD costs.

Potentially a win-win-win outcome. However, because of the long lead time between ordering an Escape and building it (from ETI's side) and paying/taking delivery (from the customer's side) and because they surely don't want to adjust prices more often than about yearly, the currency risk is real and significant. But ETI is in the RV business, not the currency trading business: they're going to charge US customers for convenience and price certainty in a way that effectively shifts nearly all of the currency risk back to the customer. Since the exchange rate has been hovering around $0.75US/$1.00CA for the last several years, setting USD prices using an implied exchange rate of around $0.80 provides a cushion of around CA$2,500 per trailer against adverse currency moves. And if the exchange rate doesn't move, or moves as it has recently, then the cushion goes pretty much straight to the bottom line and may be (as now) much larger.

If you're a US customer willing to pay $2,000 or more for the convenience of paying in USD, then there's no issue. If not, presumably ETI will contract with you for payment in CAD at CAD prices if you ask for that up front, but of course once you sign a USD contract you will be expected to honor it.

If ETI insists on only USD contracts with US based customers, then you have about three choices:

1. Take your money elsewhere; or
2. Pay the price because Escape trailers are worth it; or
3. Find a friendly (and honest) Canadian, send him the money to buy the trailer for you, then figure out how to import it.

I'd choose option three in that case, but then I have the advantage of a friendly (and honest) Canadian brother-in-law.
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Old 03-23-2020, 08:53 AM   #225
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I'm scheduled to pick up my Escape 5.0TA on May 5th but that timeline might change given our current situation. I did sign my contract with ETI and agreed on a USD price so I'm sure they ordered all the items to build my 5.0TA a couple of months ago based on the exchange rates at that time. I know, the rate has changed so I'll ask ETI if they're willing to adjust my contract price but I don't expect them to honor the current exchange rate pricing since they paid higher prices for the items needed to build my 5.0TA.
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Old 03-23-2020, 09:00 AM   #226
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I'm scheduled to pick up my Escape 5.0TA on May 5th but that timeline might change given our current situation. I did sign my contract with ETI and agreed on a USD price so I'm sure they ordered all the items to build my 5.0TA a couple of months ago based on the exchange rates at that time. I know, the rate has changed so I'll ask ETI if they're willing to adjust my contract price but I don't expect them to honor the current exchange rate pricing since they paid higher prices for the items needed to build my 5.0TA.
Exactly, and if the rate went the other way, would you volunteer to pay them more? and I quote: I don't think so, Tim!!
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Old 03-23-2020, 09:56 AM   #227
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CAN back up to 70 cents at the opening today.
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Old 03-23-2020, 07:39 PM   #228
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There has been a lot of discussion on this topic over the last several days as the exchange rate has been hitting an all-time high. I wasn't sure I wanted to get into this discussion or not but I decided that I wanted to share my experience with "The Escape" family..

After reading about other people’s success, I signed up for TransferWise alerts several weeks ago and have been receiving their daily alerts. Mid last week, the exchange rate hit $1.44 USD to $1.00 CAD and I made the decision to pull the trigger and initiate the payment.

I emailed Escape and indicated I wanted to pay for the trailer (due to be born at the end of April) and do so in Canadian funds. I received an email back from them indicating that I could do so and the $37K balance in USD was $52K CAD. By my calculations the balance owed, based on the general exchange rate of 1.25 that their published prices are calculated at (as well as their published CAD price list, the balance should have been closer to $46K CAD, or $6K less CAD then what they said I would owe if I wanted to pay in CAD.

I have to say I was both perplexed and to be honest, pretty pissed off. The way I looked at it was that if I am buying the same trailer as Canadian, why was I having to pay several thousand dollars more for the same product? If this was truly the case, I was ready to cancel my order, forfeit the deposit and buy something else.

I responded by email to Meagan providing her with my calculations and my displeasure (nicely). I received a call from her a couple of hours later and she was both very pleasant and helpful. She indicated that they would have to rewrite my build sheet into Canadian dollars and to do so there would be an administrative fee of $250, as my export paperwork had already been submitted. I agreed to that and the next day, I received a new build sheet in Canadian dollars for the amount I calculated.

As for the TransferWise part of the equation, it was both painless and smooth. Did it all online, provided them with a copy of my driver’s license and it was done in 10 minutes. The cost to transfer $32K USD was $177. Drove to the bank the next morning and made the transfer to TransferWise. They had it in a couple of hours and they confirmed delivery to Escape’s account later that night. I highly recommend their service. By using them we saved close to $5K, enough to pay Uncle Sam his share in taxes….

Someone else had said that they had negotiated the contract in US dollars and that is what was owed. I would argue that point. Purchasing the trailer from Escape is not a negotiation like going to a car dealer. There is no give and take. There is no offer/counter-offer, it is a one-sided contract; they have a published price list and that is what you pay… period. Any US customer should be able to purchase the trailer for the same price as a Canadian would pay.

Other than the “blip” email, indicating the increased price, their response and handling of this has been exceptional. As all of the people I have worked with at Escape, Meagan was very pleasant, helpful and professional when I spoke with her.

Now if we only survive the pandemic and can pick up our trailer this year….

Just my wooden nickel’s worth…
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Old 03-23-2020, 10:40 PM   #229
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There has been a lot of discussion on this topic over the last several days as the exchange rate has been hitting an all-time high. I wasn't sure I wanted to get into this discussion or not but I decided that I wanted to share my experience with "The Escape" family..

After reading about other people’s success, I signed up for TransferWise alerts several weeks ago and have been receiving their daily alerts. Mid last week, the exchange rate hit $1.44 USD to $1.00 CAD and I made the decision to pull the trigger and initiate the payment.

I emailed Escape and indicated I wanted to pay for the trailer (due to be born at the end of April) and do so in Canadian funds. I received an email back from them indicating that I could do so and the $37K balance in USD was $52K CAD. By my calculations the balance owed, based on the general exchange rate of 1.25 that their published prices are calculated at (as well as their published CAD price list, the balance should have been closer to $46K CAD, or $6K less CAD then what they said I would owe if I wanted to pay in CAD.

I have to say I was both perplexed and to be honest, pretty pissed off. The way I looked at it was that if I am buying the same trailer as Canadian, why was I having to pay several thousand dollars more for the same product? If this was truly the case, I was ready to cancel my order, forfeit the deposit and buy something else.

I responded by email to Meagan providing her with my calculations and my displeasure (nicely). I received a call from her a couple of hours later and she was both very pleasant and helpful. She indicated that they would have to rewrite my build sheet into Canadian dollars and to do so there would be an administrative fee of $250, as my export paperwork had already been submitted. I agreed to that and the next day, I received a new build sheet in Canadian dollars for the amount I calculated.

As for the TransferWise part of the equation, it was both painless and smooth. Did it all online, provided them with a copy of my driver’s license and it was done in 10 minutes. The cost to transfer $32K USD was $177. Drove to the bank the next morning and made the transfer to TransferWise. They had it in a couple of hours and they confirmed delivery to Escape’s account later that night. I highly recommend their service. By using them we saved close to $5K, enough to pay Uncle Sam his share in taxes….

Someone else had said that they had negotiated the contract in US dollars and that is what was owed. I would argue that point. Purchasing the trailer from Escape is not a negotiation like going to a car dealer. There is no give and take. There is no offer/counter-offer, it is a one-sided contract; they have a published price list and that is what you pay… period. Any US customer should be able to purchase the trailer for the same price as a Canadian would pay.

Other than the “blip” email, indicating the increased price, their response and handling of this has been exceptional. As all of the people I have worked with at Escape, Meagan was very pleasant, helpful and professional when I spoke with her.

Now if we only survive the pandemic and can pick up our trailer this year….

Just my wooden nickel’s worth…
This is the same call I made and I got the same inflated Canadian price that you got from Megan so I was confused whrn I priced the trailer in Canadian dollars and came up with a significant difference too. Rather than streamlining the process, it seems that those of us who chose US dollars did do for the convenience of paying several thousand more dollars than the exchange rate indicates. In my case 5K. I did not get the same resolution from Megan and I am confused by that, too. BTW I wrote to Karl about this situation and have yet to hear back from him.
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Old 03-24-2020, 12:38 AM   #230
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I emailed Escape and indicated I wanted to pay for the trailer (due to be born at the end of April) and do so in Canadian funds. I received an email back from them indicating that I could do so and the $37K balance in USD was $52K CAD.
It's fairly obvious that what Megan did, when you asked to pay in CAD, was take the USD price on your build sheet and convert to CAD at the published exchange rate. Because superficially, that would be correct: your account showed you owed $37K US, and right now that's about $52K Canadian. I doubt if it ever occurred to her that what you were really asking was to recalculate the cost of your trailer using the Canadian price list. It's good that it worked out well for you in the end.

I think that many people may assume that ETI has one price list expressed in two different currencies, with the differences explained by the exchange rate. In fact, they have two different price lists - one for US customers and one for Canadian customers - and the US prices are higher. It's somewhat analogous to the way a Coke costs more at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse than it does at McDonald's. Same drink, but different prices for a different clientele.
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Old 03-24-2020, 12:49 AM   #231
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This is the same call I made and I got the same inflated Canadian price that you got from Megan so I was confused whrn I priced the trailer in Canadian dollars and came up with a significant difference too. Rather than streamlining the process, it seems that those of us who chose US dollars did do for the convenience of paying several thousand more dollars than the exchange rate indicates. In my case 5K. I did not get the same resolution from Megan and I am confused by that, too. BTW I wrote to Karl about this situation and have yet to hear back from him.
It does streamline the process, but yes, US customers are paying several thousand dollars more for the convenience. I imagine that you haven't heard yet from Karl because he's busy working out a policy response that won't irritate (read as "p**s off) his US customer base too much.
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Old 03-24-2020, 07:43 AM   #232
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tburt,
I'm a little confused, your balance was $37K US and you sent 32k US? My next question is once you got them to agree, could you have sent a check?
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Old 03-24-2020, 08:11 AM   #233
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tburt,
I'm a little confused, your balance was $37K US and you sent 32k US? My next question is once you got them to agree, could you have sent a check?
My build sheet was originally written in USD and the balance after the deposit was $37K. By having them change the build sheet to Canadian and applying my deposit, my balance was now $46K CAD. When I used TransferWise to pay the $46K CAD, the amount needed due to the exchange rate was 32K USD.
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Old 03-24-2020, 09:29 AM   #234
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Old 03-24-2020, 09:53 PM   #235
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It does streamline the process, but yes, US customers are paying several thousand dollars more for the convenience. I imagine that you haven't heard yet from Karl because he's busy working out a policy response that won't irritate (read as "p**s off) his US customer base too much.
Still no answer from Karl or Megan to address this. Let alone no spray insulation under the trailer or word on the missing table base. The fact that I contacted them and have yet to hear back troubles me.
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Old 03-25-2020, 09:25 PM   #236
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My build sheet was originally written in USD and the balance after the deposit was $37K. By having them change the build sheet to Canadian and applying my deposit, my balance was now $46K CAD. When I used TransferWise to pay the $46K CAD, the amount needed due to the exchange rate was 32K USD.
Apparently this solution was provided to some who complained or threatened to terminate and withdraw altogether and take a 2K loss, but not across the board. It appears that the strategy is to charge several thousand more to US customers. Do a build sheet in each currency and it is plain there is a several thousand dollar surcharge to US buyers that is independent of the current exchange rate.
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Old 03-25-2020, 09:38 PM   #237
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Escape can charge buyers whatever they like, but if their charge to US buyers doesn't reflect the exchange rate and is simply set, that would not sit right with me if I were purchasing. I like the way Reace and Tammy did it. The price was in CAD, and the USD exchange rate told you what you'd wind up paying. Simple, and no nonsense.
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Old 03-25-2020, 10:37 PM   #238
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It appears that the strategy is to charge several thousand more to US customers. Do a build sheet in each currency and it is plain there is a several thousand dollar surcharge to US buyers that is independent of the current exchange rate.
The way I understood it, is that when they set the prices back in the fall for the 2020 model year they used 1.25 CAD to 1.00 USD as the benchmark. I went back and looked at the historical rates when they did that and the exchange rate was very close to that (within 5%)

So with that said, I think that they were trying to make it simpler for the US market, as many people didn't want to go through the perceived hassle of exchanging their US dollar into CAD to pay for the trailer.

Until recently the exchange hovered around 1.30>1.00 and the difference would have only been a few hundred dollars, which would have been worth the convenience to many.

I agree with many that there should be one price for all customers in Canadian and it is the responsibility of the US customer to watch the exchange rates and time their payment appropriately.
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Old 03-26-2020, 12:15 AM   #239
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I have been watching the exchange closely the last couple of weeks, almost obsessively. My trigger finger is just itching to pull the trigger on an order. But as a US customer, if I was not able to pay in Canadian funds to take advantage of the conversion rate. it would be a deal breaker for me. I live only an hour or so from the border, and to know Joe Blow up the road can get the exact trailer as me for several thousand dollars less would not sit well.
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Old 03-26-2020, 12:25 AM   #240
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to know Joe Blow up the road can get the exact trailer as me for several thousand dollars less would not sit well.

Of course those would be Canadian dollars.
Daughter posted about the current economic shutdown that men were suffering so much more than women. Being laid off, they were losing dollars, while women were only losing 79 cents.
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