I recently received an AMEX gift card and decided to use part of it to purchase the PDF's for Rite Publishing's Curse of the Golden Spear series (which, btw, is awesome so far, everyone should buy it and buy an extra for good measure). After loading them up in the cart I got to the payment screen and saw that I wasn't able to give Paizo money. :(
I was sad, but then remembered people on this forums here mentioning drivethrurpg, so for the first time I decided to buy a digital gaming supplement from someone other than Paizo. To my surprise I discovered that the PDF's I wanted to purchase were a full 40% cheaper at drivethrurpg!
Given the wider purchasing options (ie, they take tender that Paizo does not) and the hefty discount I think that DTRPG will be a first stop for me now.
Given my druthers I would rather spend money with Paizo because I wish to support their efforts in developing a game system which I have come to greatly enjoy and shopping at paizo.com allows me to do this even if I purchase a supplement from a different publisher.
I could be convinced to ignore the discount for those reasons but I can't give paizo money they are unwilling to take. Why oh why won't you take my money paizo?
---> afterthought... I am keenly aware that processing AMEX entails significant obstacles and fees far in excess of visa/mc, but in my experience (as a merchant) this is offset by being able to take tender in whatever form my customers choose to carry.
Thanks!
Side note: the hefty discount is a temporary sale.
The charge difference is considerable, but it is by no means eating up the entire profit margin on a product that is directly ordered from the website. If it did, no one would do business with AMEX.
That there may be other considerations at work is another matter.
Actually, it has been my experience that AMEX USED to be the big culprit on fees, but now VISA is quite up there.
There is even a class action suit against VISA going on for violating anti-trust laws.
Here is a link,
http://vizant.com/news-item/vizants-perspective-on-new-rules-allowing-merch ants-to-assess-a-surcharge-on-credit-cards-2/
However this seems primarily for swipes, while Paizo strikes me as a primarily online retailer so it may not apply.
Why doesn't Paizo take AMEX?
Because no one takes AMEX. That's why companies all issue corporate AMEX cards for expenses, and then refuse to reimburse expenses made on a different card.
^ relatively true. Amex is like the business to business gold standard of cards, but I'd never bother to carry one outside of those purposes.
You may want to take a look at this thread.