S2member Pro doesn't fit my needs in Germany

Dear S2member,

I know that there are no refund guarantees, but that you at least are kind enough to consider them, if certain conditions are met:

However, we will consider a refund within the first 30 days of your purchase, if you are unable to install a Product. Or, if the Product fails to perform basic functions, as designed. And, you HAVE already worked with, and followed all advice presented by our support team, in an effort to resolve these issues. Any refunds that are processed, will be granted at the sole discretion of s2Member®. No refunds will be given after 30 days from the initial purchase whatsoever. By purchasing a Product at s2Member.com, you agree to the terms of our Refund Policy. You cannot cancel a purchase or receive a refund for a purchase.

I went straight for the S2member Pro because it offered really great payment integration solutions, e.g. PayPal Pro, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net. Unfortunately none of those services are available in Germany. Authorize.net is available to process payments in Euro now, but S2member is not yet able to integrate with EURO processing.

I was also hoping through these options to have on-site creditcard processing, but without the above services I am only left with the standard Paypal solution that the free version of S2member offers.

If I were in the States I would have really enjoyed S2member pro, and when I do a membership site in the future in the American Market, I will definitely give S2member another look.

But as for now, I would be grateful if you would consider me for a refund.

Warm regards,
BJ

Hi Blair John.

I’ll ask about the refund, although it’s the responsibility of the buyer to know if the payment gateway he wants to use is supported by s2Member Pro and available in the country he’ll work in.

About using the s2Member pro-forms, you may not be able to get on-site payments, since you don’t have PayPal Pro or Authorize.Net, but you can still use them with Express Checkout. I imagine you do have that PayPal service available there.

Hi Christian,

It is my responsibility to know if it works. Paypal Express Checkout is available in Germany and I just assumed that PayPal Pro was here too, which is totally my fault because this is my first time to set up payment processing. But that is not the main problem. I could live with Paypal Express.

I just cant afford to lose those customers who don’t use Paypal.

As for Authorize.net, I don’t know how I could have known at this stage in my online endeavours to ask in pre-sales if the plugin integrated with EURO processing. I just assumed that choice of currency was just as how Paypal typically works, where you select the local currency and the gateway does the rest.

Again, my inexperience.

Anyways, thanks for asking about the refund, Christian.

I just cant afford to lose those customers who don’t use Paypal.

If you’re selling buy-now, the user can pay without a PayPal account. He’ll be required to login to PayPal if you’re selling a subscription. I mention this because I don’t know which you’re selling.

Anyways, thanks for asking about the refund, Christian.

No problem, I’ll let you know when I have news on this.

Thanks Christian. I plan to have both a basic and premium monthly subscription and only the 6 month delux package was going to be a one-time transaction.

I appreciate the help.

bj

Here’s what Jason tells me:

Jason Caldwell said:

Credit card companies will automatically handle currency conversion. With Authorize.NET, you charge always in USD. When the customer pays with a credit card, they are charged in USD.

The currency conversion occurs at the credit card level. The customer is charged the equivalent amount in Euros. So all a site owner needs to do is display the price in USD, along with the actual price that it will cost the customer who is accustomed to seeing prices in Euros.

The important thing to remember is that a customer NEEDS to know they are being charged in USD. And, it would be nice (if you are selling to customers that are accustomed to seeing prices listed as Euros) to display the amount they are going to be charged (e.g. do the currency conversion yourself, and display that on-site for the customer).

And

Jason Caldwell said:

s2Member Pro will officially support Authorize.Net UK in the next maintenance release.

We will be adding support for the [hilite mono]cc[/hilite] Shortcode Attribute to be changed to one of these values.
[hilite mono]cc="USD"[/hilite], or [hilite mono]cc="CAD"[/hilite] or [hilite mono]cc="EUR"[/hilite] or [hilite mono]cc="GBP"[/hilite]

The underlying Authorize.Net account should be configured in this currency as well.

:)

Trust me, I did think about this with regard to how creditcard companies convert currencies. The only problem is that I am then charged at international rates, which is around 1% more per purchase. Or worse my customer gets a surprise with extra credit card fees on their statement. Nearly all of my customers will be European who are used to buying products with all fees included, unlike in the US where sales tax is excluded from the price.

Also 1 EURO is 1.31 USD at the moment and this is not stable. Also I plan for my first level subscription to be a nice looking 27€ not its current more scary looking 35$ equivalent. I can’t afford any possible barriers like that during the sale.

We are launching in the next 10 days and I cannot be dependent on an update.

Jason has some really good arguments, and if that update had been there before I purchased S2member, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

I just can’t wait.

I know that giving me a refund would mean that you would have to forgive my ignorance on the Authorize.net processing issue, meaning I probably don’t deserve a refund.

But I would be again grateful if you could discuss this with Jason Caldwell.

BJ

The refund wasn’t approved, but he coded the integration for Authorize.Net UK and those currencies he mentioned. It’s in the development copy, I’ll check when he estimates it’ll be released, I know he’s working on something else he wants to include in it.

Ok, then I guess I will just have to use it for my next membership site.

Separate question. How does s2member work when an existing paying member wants to upgrade?

When the user is logged in at the time he loads the page with the upgrade button, the button will include his user ID so the payment will go to it. If the user is paying for another level, the account will be changed to it. If he’s purchasing custom capabilities, these will be added to his account.