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Extra fees for non-Bilingual keyboard

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  • Dec 4th, 2013 7:15 pm
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Jan 16, 2011
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Toronto

Extra fees for non-Bilingual keyboard

How much would you pay for a non-bilingual keyboard, as extra option, on the same model of laptop for example?

Is it legal outside of QC for retailers to do this?
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Jun 9, 2003
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Markham, ON
ihacki wrote: How much would you pay for a non-bilingual keyboard, as extra option, on the same model of laptop for example?

Is it legal outside of QC for retailers to do this?
with Lenovo...it wasnt even an option...i think there is a kickback or something to Lenovo. God i hate my keyboard
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Oct 24, 2012
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Montreal
ihacki wrote: How much would you pay for a non-bilingual keyboard, as extra option, on the same model of laptop for example?
I am used to bilingual keyboards, I just change the settings in Windows and ignore what's actually printed on the keys.
ihacki wrote: Is it legal outside of QC for retailers to do this?
Outside of QC, yes.
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May 6, 2010
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It's not ignoring what's on the keyboard. The shift, tab and other keys are smaller than usual. It's a pain in the asset to backspace, even this key is smaller. My next laptop will be from Best Buy in Buffalo.
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Jul 26, 2006
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Scarborough
Why should I have to pay extra for it? Make Quebecois pay extra for their bilingual keyboard.
Everyone in Canada should get "US Standard" keyboards. Quebecois should get the option of a CBIL keyboard for extra money.

US Standard
Image

FRENCH STANDARD
Image

CBIL
Image
Deal Fanatic
Aug 25, 2010
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_Allan_ wrote: Why should I have to pay extra for it? Make Quebecois pay extra for their bilingual keyboard.
Everyone in Canada should get "US Standard" keyboards. Quebecois should get the option of a CBIL keyboard for extra money.
Canada is bilingual, which makes what you just wrote extremely silly.
Member
Jan 16, 2011
491 posts
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Toronto
I didn't intend to start bickering, just a valid business question... how much more would average Canadian consumers outside of QC pay for non-Bilingual keyboard?

There are some potential opportunities:
a) Retailers can capitalize on this extra option: i.e. walk in to BB and FS, actually having this option for additional cost.
b) Retailers carry exclusively non-Bilingual keyboards, as reasons to bring certain customers to their shops.

One can also argue, since most products we have in Canada, are distributed from the USA. And since laptops (for example) USA are already non-bilingual, these non-bilingual products should be CHEAPER in Canada. (ie. Making bilingual products increases manufacturer costs).
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Mar 23, 2009
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One of the things about the Mac laptops is they don't force you to get those stupid multilingual keyboards with the short shift keys or short return keys, or else the alternate language keyboards with the rearranged keys. In Canada you just choose French or English.

I got an Acer laptop and swore never again to get one of those precisely because of the keyboard. I ended up buying a replacement US English keyboard off eBay for something like $25.

Note however, you can hack the registry in Windows to convert the key beside a short shift key to function as a shift key, etc. However, that's kludgy at best, and shouldn't be necessary.

So, I guess my point is that I don't think you should pay ANYTHING extra to get a mono-lingual English keyboard, because that should be the default in English Canada. And if you're in French Canada, you should still not pay ANYTHING extra to get a Canadian French keyboard. And in fact, that is what I am used to with Macs. Same price. However, if you had to put a number on it for non-Macs, I guess $30, since $20-$25 off eBay is what I paid for a replacement keyboard for my Acer, and I had to install it myself.
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Feb 18, 2007
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that is the first time i ever saw a bilingual keyboard. i would hate to have to use that over the US version. glad my laptop from a few years ago didn't come with that.

I think you should have a choice even if you live in Quebec but the language police there are ridiculously strong in power.
Poor Grammar and being long winded don't fit well together, Oh well.
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Jul 26, 2006
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ihacki wrote: I didn't intend to start bickering, just a valid business question... how much more would average Canadian consumers outside of QC pay for non-Bilingual keyboard?

There are some potential opportunities:
a) Retailers can capitalize on this extra option: i.e. walk in to BB and FS, actually having this option for additional cost.
b) Retailers carry exclusively non-Bilingual keyboards, as reasons to bring certain customers to their shops.

One can also argue, since most products we have in Canada, are distributed from the USA. And since laptops (for example) USA are already non-bilingual, these non-bilingual products should be CHEAPER in Canada. (ie. Making bilingual products increases manufacturer costs).
When I buy laptops, I'll go out of my way, to little stores, to find laptops without the CBIL (that's the 'code' the manufactures use) keyboards. My current laptop, was ~$100 more than a similar machine (mine has a bit more Video Ram, and a better screen, as well as US Standard KB) but it's worth it. I refuse to buy machines w/ CBIL. If I have to get a Dell or HP, I request a US Standard Keyboard.
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Nov 27, 2005
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JustBob wrote: Canada is bilingual, which makes what you just wrote extremely silly.
There's no law that requires all laptops to be equipped with the CBIL keyboard in Canada. Laptops were sold with the US keyboard for years until around 2010 when OEMs realized they could save a few dollars in the supply chain by using only one keyboard type for all of Canada. It's all about money.
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Mar 8, 2002
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I bought my wife a Lenovo laptop last year from CC. It has the standard US layout. They can be found if you know where to look.
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Nov 27, 2005
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MacGyver wrote: I bought my wife a Lenovo laptop last year from CC. It has the standard US layout. They can be found if you know where to look.
Looking everywhere is not "knowing where to look". Of course such laptops exist, but they're so few in number nowadays that it really diminishes the amount of choice you have when shopping for laptops if you need a US keyboard. For a lot of people, it's very hard (maybe impossible) to find a laptop that they actually like with a US keyboard.
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Oct 31, 2012
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ThinkPad laptops from Lenovo have the option to choose your keyboard layout without any additional cost. Which works perfectly for me since I like ThinkPads anyway.
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Aug 25, 2010
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board123 wrote: There's no law that requires all laptops to be equipped with the CBIL keyboard in Canada. Laptops were sold with the US keyboard for years until around 2010 when OEMs realized they could save a few dollars in the supply chain by using only one keyboard type for all of Canada. It's all about money.
Sure, I don't dispute that. But it's silly to argue that the "norm" should be US keyboards and that people who want a bilingual keyboard should pay extra.
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Dec 22, 2006
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I would pay about $40 max. That's how much I paid including shipping and a bit of my time to buy a US kb and install it on my laptop a few years back. Bilingual keyboards need to go suck a ***** .
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Jun 12, 2003
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_Allan_ wrote: Why should I have to pay extra for it? Make Quebecois pay extra for their bilingual keyboard.
Everyone in Canada should get "US Standard" keyboards. Quebecois should get the option of a CBIL keyboard for extra money.
agreed, it should be the other way around
JustBob wrote: Sure, I don't dispute that. But it's silly to argue that the "norm" should be US keyboards and that people who want a bilingual keyboard should pay extra.
but the "norm" is the opposite and that is just as silly (i couldn't care less that Canada is bilingual, and i'd wager big money to say the majority of Canadians don't either)
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