Still no PayPal option?


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Hi,

I live in Europe and would really like to buy some of your stuff in the store mainly old DRAGON Pdfs. Over here not everybody has a credit card. Several years ago I asked if PAYPAL is planned as a payment option, and it is still not possible to pay by it.

What reason is there for a company to hurt it's earning by not offering PAYPAL as an easy, safe option for itself and it's customers?

Please explain this to me.


From here:

Vic Wertz wrote:
Sorry—last I looked at PayPal's terms of service, it conflicted pretty hard with our requirements. Specifically, they expire authorizations really quickly after an order is placed, so it wouldn't work with the majority of the more than 31,000 items we offer (because we order them from our distributor when you order them from us, which takes more time than they allow) and setting up a system that said "you can use PayPal, but only if you buy X, but not Y or Z" would increase customer confusion and frustration. (Also, the way they allow processing of "subscriptions" doesn't work at all the same way that we do subscriptions, so even if they changed the first part to suit us, it still wouldn't work with a lot of what we do.)


Azatoth wrote:

Hi,

I live in Europe and would really like to buy some of your stuff in the store mainly old DRAGON Pdfs. Over here not everybody has a credit card. Several years ago I asked if PAYPAL is planned as a payment option, and it is still not possible to pay by it.

What reason is there for a company to hurt it's earning by not offering PAYPAL as an easy, safe option for itself and it's customers?

Please explain this to me.

Is the Paypal Debit Card not an option for you? That's how I often make my Paizo purchases.


My understanding is that the Paypal Debit Card is only available in the US. I might or might not be right, however.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Azatoth wrote:

Hi,

I live in Europe and would really like to buy some of your stuff in the store mainly old DRAGON Pdfs. Over here not everybody has a credit card. Several years ago I asked if PAYPAL is planned as a payment option, and it is still not possible to pay by it.

What reason is there for a company to hurt it's earning by not offering PAYPAL as an easy, safe option for itself and it's customers?

Please explain this to me.

As someone who declined to accept PayPal on their web store, I can tell you that they charge an outrageous rate to process transactions.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

These days most banks in Europe offer non-credit cards ("flat" cards) that can be processed by online vendors. I personally have 2 flat cards from different banks and both work perfectly fine with Paizo.


My bank, Swedbank, has a service where I can get a new number that lasts between 1 month to 2 years for every purchase I make if I want (and I kinda do - if someone breaks, say Paizo's, security, congratulations! You made 0.25 SKr off of me.)

The Exchange

There are even debit cards on the market for under 18s now. This on in the UK is for 8-18 goHenry

If the OP can state what country they are in, maybe someone who knows more about that locale can help.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

We have no announced plans to offer PayPal on our website at this time.

Should that ever change I am positive we would make sure to alert the community by shouting it from the proverbial rooftops.


Azatoth? One thing that might work for you is a PREPAID Visa Gift Card. You can usually find them at drug stores and grocery stores. You'll have to pay a $4.95 fee I believe but you can put up to $500.00 dollars on it (just be sure to register the card at Visa's gift card site). Of course, all of this hinges on the possibility that prepaid visa gift cards are legal where you are (which I honestly don't know).


i understand the problem with hardcover purchases and Paypal, but i see no reason why purchasing PDFs should cause any problems. I'm from europe and i purchase PDFs from DriveThruRPG for years now, watermarking takes seconds and the payment is imminent. it never caused any problems.
Also it would be fine when one could purchase gift certificates via any other way than credit cards, because credit cards are the initial reason why many europeans will refuse buying at Paizo.com.

I know Credit Cards are part of american buying culture for as many reasons as they are not for europeans. I don't want to write an Essay about the pro and cons of credit cards but this situation is as inconvenient for us as it might be for paizo.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Debit cards work just fine at Paizo, you don't a credit card.


I've never had a credit card.


Regardless if it is a credit card or a debit card. This way of purchase is still connected with additional expenditure for many in europe. Including the risk of financial data exposure. Many are not ok to give direct access to critical data when there is an easier and saver method like paypal.

i don't say Paypal is the ultima ratio - there is nothing like 100% safety and there will never be - but maybe there is a possibilty to use a similiar service instead. Personally I will not purchase anything as long as there is no alternative to the current purchasing methods. Simply because it is connected with expenses that exceed a tolerable degree - and there is a good chance that i'm not alone. Really bad for me, as i am a great fan of Pathfinder. Worse that the local assortment is less than desirable and often badly translated. Probably bad for Paizo too as there might be a great amount of missed sales

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Look, I live in Poland. We're pretty much the backwater of reality. But I can pay for Paizo orders with any of my 5 cards across 3 Polish banks. Maybe the problem isn't Paizo not offering PayPal, but your country having a backwards banking system and/or you having some weird card when you could have a regular Visa/MasterCard and join the XXI century?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Beron4223 wrote:
i understand the problem with hardcover purchases and Paypal, but i see no reason why purchasing PDFs should cause any problems.

As Vic explained a few years ago, having a system that allows a payment method that only works for specific products would create customer confusion.

The absurd number of times I've personally explained to psychotically-enraged people how failed preauthorizations work and why their banks locking funds that have not been allocated to Paizo doesn't mean they're "being charged X times OMGWTFDEADPONIES!ELEVENTY11" illustrates that if things aren't silky smooth, someone is going to melt down.


Holy thread necromancy, Batman.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
SnowHeart wrote:
Holy thread necromancy, Batman.

Honestly, I think it's for the best. I'd far rather have an old thread that already has the answers it it get brought to the surface than a brand new one that means we have to go looking up the answers again.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

*nods*

“Was this answered/any news on this?” type of necroes are perfectly fine.

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