|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I would love to spend money at the Paizo site when I want to buy a PDF, but you don't accept Paypal. I'm in Canada (you know, that far-away country), so don't tell me the Paypal Debit Card will work, because it won't. Also you don't accept money order or cheques for non-domestic shipping (not a problem for PDFs) or for things that are not physical (there's the problem with PDFs).
So... I guess I ask again - a question that was asked probably in the first week of you guys starting to sell things from your website and several times since, all those years ago... why the heck can't you figure out the Paypal thing? Or find a third-party vendor who has figured it out (like, say, drivethrurpg).
|
Here what Vic said in the past (back in 2007) regarding their use of PayPal...
We looked into it, but it's not going to happen.
The problem is that PayPal's authorization system is designed for paying for items that ship pretty much immediately. As with credit cards, an authorization is opened when you place an order, and gets closed when the order ships. But unlike credit cards, PayPal expires payment authorizations quickly (in a matter of days, whereas credit cards authorizations can stay open for weeks), and they limit the number of times you can reopen them, and they limit the amount of time they can be reopened after the initial transaction. Worst of all, if you have too many authorizations that expire without being closed, they say they'll close your account.
In short, this means that subscriptions, preorders, backorders, and even some plain old out-of-stock items that we have to order from our distributor would take too long to fulfill for PayPal's authorization standards, so we can't use them until that changes.
|
Then accept Paypal for in-stock PDF and in-stock items only with the warning that if you choose to pay by paypal your account will be charged immediately even if the item doesn't ship right away (which is kind of what people assume anyway when using Paypal).
The issue with this is that it would require an entire rewrite of the backend of the system. Even for in stock items, if you order in the middle of a subscription shipment, it could take up to 4 business days sometimes to have something ship. Since Paizo currently makes the authorization when you place the order, and the actual charge is tied to closing the transaction (when the item is shipped and/or you get access to your PDFs) This can still be 7 days (4 work days plus a 3 day holiday weekend) apart during Con season or a particularly big subscription, which is more than paypal allows. For Items they don't have in stock, they need to wait for the distributor to ship the item to Paizo which would add 3-4 days to that estimate.
There are other online pay systems such as AmazonWebpay, and Googlecheckout. I don't know how reliable they are, nor do I have any other information on them, and how they affect merchants. If you google "similar to paypal" there are a few more. If googlecheckout uses a credit card also then it might not really help, but I think Amazon's system is email based like paypal is.
|
|
The issue with this is that it would require an entire rewrite of the backend of the system. Even for in stock items, if you order in the middle of a subscription shipment, it could take up to 4 business days sometimes to have something ship. Since Paizo currently makes the authorization when you place the order, and the actual charge is tied to closing the transaction (when the item is shipped and/or you get access to your PDFs) This can still be 7 days (4 work days plus a 3 day holiday weekend) apart during Con season or a particularly big subscription, which is more than paypal allows. For Items they don't have in stock, they need to wait for the distributor to ship the item to Paizo which would add 3-4 days to that estimate.Then accept Paypal for in-stock PDF and in-stock items only with the warning that if you choose to pay by paypal your account will be charged immediately even if the item doesn't ship right away (which is kind of what people assume anyway when using Paypal).
No, I don't think it would.
if (item_type == PDF)
{
include_paypal_as_payment_option();
}
Lots of places use paypal, and they make it work just fine.
And perhaps you missed the part about me saying that they just need to tell people that their paypal account is going to be charged at the point of checkout rather than at the point of shipment (if they even wanted to tackle using it for physical items - which I don't necessarily care about). Instead of running an authorization through paypal, run the payment through paypal.
Anyway, I didn't expect my post to actually change their minds - they are stuck in the idea that it just won't work, and can't be made to work. It was really just me expressing my frustration that I want to give Paizo money but they won't take it from me unless it's via credit card. :)
|
Same here, I'm from the Netherlands and to me the idea of a creditcard is ridiculous. The only time I would ever need one is when I would order something from Paizo...
In Germany credit cards are quit rare too. I got a debit card from my bank just for paizo orders, cost me a about 20 € per jear.
Of course having a debit card is really usefull when I find a new awesome kickstarter.
|
|
As long as your debit card has a CVV security number on the back you should be able to use it.
Out of my 3 debit cards and 1 credit card, only one debit staunchly refuses to cooperate with Paizo (and for that record, with any other online store as well). And I'm based in the backyard of Europe (Poland), so highly civilized establishments such as Canada and Holland should have it covered far better then I can ever hope to see.
And perhaps you missed the part about me saying that they just need to tell people that their paypal account is going to be charged at the point of checkout rather than at the point of shipment (if they even wanted to tackle using it for physical items - which I don't necessarily care about). Instead of running an authorization through paypal, run the payment through paypal.
Perhaps you missed the part where it was explained that this isn't allowed by credit card vendors or PayPal.
The credit card companies and PayPal have directives to merchants that items are not to be charged until they're ready to ship.
Yes, many people violate this, and charge immediately for pre-orders, or charge and then wait days/weeks to ship.
These people are violating the merchant agreements.
Paizo does not wish to violate the merchant agreements.
This is why it "won't work" - and given past discussions on it, Paizo doesn't have a desire to implement a payment system for only part of their catalog of goods.
I'm really struggling to understand the issue/problem here. My main questions are:
a) how is it possible for anybody to function in the 21st century without one, or indeed multiple, credit or debit cards - at least one of which is Visa or Mastercard badged. I simply couldn't live or function in the UK (or any westernised country) without mine.
And b) how does Paypal help? You need a credit card to set up a Paypal account anyway.
|
|
Anyway, I didn't expect my post to actually change their minds - they are stuck in the idea that it just won't work, and can't be made to work.Or they just don't want to take the time and effort to make it work.
Or they would rather not change the whole system for a Paypal users. Such as having to charge credit card users (which is the majority of their business) immediately just so paypal users could use the system too.
Look Paypal is a viable source but it is to rigid in it's settings as far as dealing with distributors and not dealing with the way they work using delayed orders and subscriptions. Until Paypal changes their minds on that I can't blame Paizo for not wanting to deal with them. They have a good system going now, so why risk breaking it. Credit cards work just fine as it is, even European users can order from Paizo just fine.
Aaaand, nevermind, because the OP said it doesn't work for him. Don't know how I missed that, didn't realize that non-US couldn't get a debit card.
Sorry 'bout that.
Edit: Does the PayPal pre-paid MasterCard have these restrictions? A cursory glance appears to indicate that you can recharge it from your PayPal account.
I'm really struggling to understand the issue/problem here. My main questions are:
a) how is it possible for anybody to function in the 21st century without one, or indeed multiple, credit or debit cards - at least one of which is Visa or Mastercard badged. I simply couldn't live or function in the UK (or any westernised country) without mine.
And b) how does Paypal help? You need a credit card to set up a Paypal account anyway.
b) is not true. I set up a PayPal account once so I could purchase something that was only available thru PayPal and tied it to a *very* limited checking account of mine.
-- david
Papa.DRB
ps. This is in the USA if that makes a difference.