This sort of thing is becoming increasingly common, both online and with Point of Sale terminals - it recognises a foreign-issued card then, for your convenience of course, offers to bill you in your home currency. Any system I've interacted with has had the option to switch back and bill you in local currency instead (though often with POS terminals the staff either don't know how to do it or simply plead ignorance) - I *believe* that it's a requirement from Mastercard and Visa that such an option exists.ETA - looks like the
Bongo service is more than just billing. It appears that they purchase from the vendor on your behalf, sort out international shipping and customs clearance, and pay any taxes or duties due, so that the price quoted is what you'll pay to have the goods delivered to your door, without the lottery of whether or not you'll have duty and a carrier's handling fee added.
The UK pricing for that same seat would be GBP197.55 (plus delivery) where $250 equates to about £147 at current exchange rates: add in VAT at 20% (giving $300, £177) and the courier's handling charge for customs clearance (£8 and upwards depending on the carrier), and £197 starts to look a wee bit expensive rather than a total rip-off.
I suspect that if you order from Calhoun and the package gets caught for import taxes, the total will end up being closer to AU$400 than to AU$320.
I'd probably still rather have the carrier lottery though, with the chance of not getting stung for tax and duty at all.
