To top it off, the person I was dealing with agreed that when he received my payment (money order or wire transfer) he would just email me the invoice along with the certificate number and that way there would be no shipping, brokerage or duty. As promised, the email arrived today and I successfully registered it.

As mentioned before, the Apple Care Protection Plan seems to only come in one flavour for North America and states that the agreement is valid in both the USA and Canada. The part numbers for the agreement is the same in both the Canadian and US Apple stores. I haven't received my certificate yet so perhaps I will be burned at that point but so far so good.

So if you Canadians want to save some money bypass the Apple Canada store and find some deals somewhere else.

That was the first thought that crossed my mind. Those lovely Value Added Taxes imposed before the product even reaches the store for which you then have to pay sales tax as well. I don't know that is the case here but it is something to look into. (Now how you go about looking into it I haven't the slightest idea...)

@Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler:

Magazine prices differ because *gasp* they're produced locally.

Much like copies of the New York Times sold in Los Angeles are printed in LA, copies of MaximumPC sold in Toronto are printed in Toronto. This is because the difference in printing costs are minimal compared to the shipping fees for heavy paper.

Since the people at the printing facility in Canada are likely getting paid a lot more than the people at the printing facility in the US, you pay ever-so-slightly more. There really isn't a massive difference for magazines, but I don't understand some of the $5-$10 book pricing differences.

Then again, copies of the Sunday Times are printed locally, but we pay nearly $10 for them. WTF is that?

@canerican:

Then you can spend all of your newly-acquired money on $200/mo health insurance plans.

I would say it is partly that though the dollar in canada has increased dramatically as compared to the us, the prices have not been adjusted accordingly, virtually anywhere. The reason is the us dollar has sunk and the canadian dollar has only risen slightly in the world market.
The second part is likely that canadians will simply pay more. I work for a dsl company and our 12 Mb/s plan costs $30 less in some areas than others. It doesn't cost more, need different equipment, etc. People in area "A" are concerned with speed and people in area "B" are concerned with price. We charge more in area "A" only because we know we can.

I was excited about Wal-Mart's US parity on magazines until I noticed a minor detail: many magazines have stopped printing their US price on issues distributed in Canada (*not* Canadian editions, there is a difference). So we're still paying $5.99. Bah. Subscription rates, etc., have yet to be adjusted too.

My one experience with Apple warranties (same as AppleCare?) required me to courier an iPod to the US, and pay for Apple to ship me a box so I could send it back to them with a fried iPod... long story short, the shipping wasn't included in the plan, so I can't imagine that would influence the warranty cost one bit.

So, rather than buying flimsy American crap, I've decided to invest my valuable dollars. They say housing prices are at an all-time low in your land of debt and freedom...

Leopard costs $129 in the US and Euro129 in Germany. Which is $87. Including 19% tax.
Price has nothing to do with cost (apart from the fact that the difference between the two is generally defined as "profit"
You take what the market will tolerate...

@CFLURY: There are plenty of local authorized Apple resellers who can service Apple products, so it's not simply a case of everything having to be shipped/serviced in the US. When my MacMini suffered a memory failure a month after I bought it, I was able to bring it in to a shop in walking distance to my home. They had to order in the appropriate RAM, but I had my Mini back within a week. In my city alone, there are at least a half dozen Apple resellers. Now the situation most certainly is different for someone living outside of a major city, so maybe the AppleCare price difference stems from covering all location/repair scenarios.

What do you expect?

I would charge someone more if they called their dollar "the loony"...

I have to say though, I love this kind of stuff: Buy a Mac! They just work, though you'll DEFINITELY want Applecare.

If anything, it should be cheaper here since we have smaller and fewer service departments.

And Apple charges more just because it can. Greed... If a product ''need'' an extended warranty, then it's a piece of Chinese-made crap.

(p.s. I don't think everything Chinese-made is crap.)

It's not Canadian dollar that went up, it's USA's who dropped in value. Canadian dollar compared to Euro/Pounds is pretty much the same.

If they want to charge that price, that's their right. Take it or leave it.

If you're Canadian and want to take advantage of the shit dollar then just exchange your funny money (CAD) for tp (USD) before making purchases. Too lazy to do that? Too bad.

Also, all the financial know-it-alls are still saying that the Canadian dollar will drop in comparison to the US "soon", so no one wants to readjust everything, then readjust it again when it happens.

@JDOTTO02: Wal-mart is offering books and magazines at that price to get you into the store and rip you off on other stuff, like those tempting impulse items at the cash register. MMmmmmm... chocolate....

The answer is simple:
1: they haven't caught up with the Canadian backlash of higher prices in Canada for the same things even though our dollar is at par or better.
2: Smaller population therefore less of an incentive to offer deals (or keep up with the dollar's parity)
3: Apple's greedy and wants huge profits in Canada.

7. General Terms
d. This Plan is offered and valid only in the fifty states of the United States of America, the
District of Columbia and Canada. This Plan is not offered to persons who have not reached the
age of majority. This Plan is not available where prohibited by law.

The part numbers for the Plan are the same on both the Canadian and US sites.

I ended up ordering a Plan from the US for $119 - I just saved $80. Of course the proof will come when I try and register it.

Canada (or at least Quebec) has much stricter/stronger consumer protection laws than the states. So the company may have obligations to consumers that they don't in the US. This may influence their prices.

You guys keep using the example of book prices as showing price differences between the Canadian and American dollars but what you fail to mention is that Wal-mart is selling all their books, magazines, and greeting cards at the US listed price instead of the Canadian one. So if Wal-Mart has found a decent solution the book price difference then I don't see why apple can't also lower their Canadian prices.

Apple's pricing is due to the old pattern of charging more in Canadian dollars than in U.S. dollars. That scheme no longer is valid because of the decline in the dollar, but it was five years ago. This plan price has probably not been reexamined in some time.

I'm at the Apple Store Canada right now, and the price of the MacBook is $150CA higher than the U.S. model. The MacBook Pro is $200CA more, the iMac $100CA more, and the Mac Pro $300CA more. The iPod shuffle is $10CA more, and the iPod Nano is $20CA more.

I don't think tarriffs are to blame since NAFTA covers most things, but that could be too (since most Macs are made overseas). Still, the exchange rate seems the most plausable answer, since exchange rates have only been at parity for a little while.

That's my hypothesis, anyway.

You don't have to hear them speak when selling products online, but when you have to sit on the phone and listen to them complaining "about" their computer's "processes, eh?"?!?!?

Otherwise think of the Worker's Comp. premium-increases Apple would be facing due to grimace-induced neck injuries.

/hee hee hee

Ha! Ripping people off, that's funny..

I thought paying $499 for a Dell (already overpriced, S/B &10), with Spyware, Spamware, Virusware, Trojanware, causing me hours of my productive time to fix & reinstall & reboot & poor resale value was ripping people off. There's more, but my time is more valuble, than to list them all. From a Mac user, forced to use a PC at work 8hrs a day, so I know what I'm talking about.

Canadians are getting a bit hosed on this one, eh? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Apple does not ship your laptop to a local repair station in Canada, it ships it to the USA and apple care does this free of charge. It is more expensive to ship between the US and Canada than the US and the US. Mystery solved.

BTW: Apple Care = Smart Move

I'd love the company that says, "you pay the US price at current exchange" and leave it at that. So much easier.

I am Canadian, lived in Montreal until two years ago.

If you hate high prices, and government regulation try to get a Green Card in America. What else can you do?

saw*

Maybe it's an 'importing/exporting' kind of law. I don't actually know. i just wanted to say 'importing/exporting'.
I do reside in Canada though... and wish I had never seen this story and was able to remain in an ignorant world, since I've already purchased all my apple products.

because apple rips everyone off.