On Wed, 2 Mar 1994, Simon Cox wrote:
Re your payment conditions
"We can only accept prepaid orders in US funds."
at the risk of sounding like a whinge (it is!), us outside the US
are continuously frustrated (and a little insulted) that US orgs,
more or less uniquely, refuse to process funds received in other
currencies.
I'm aware of that: I lived in Europe almost my entire adult life. I would
love to be able to accept payment in any currency at the going rate. If
you would like to pay in Australian Dollars, then as long as you also tell
me where the nearest bank is that will exchange them for me (with
something left over for us, I mean), then do so by all means. The fact is
that piddling amounts of Marks and Francs and A$ and NZ$ and Yen just
don't get exchanged much in this country except at big international
airports (and then usually just cash, credit cards or travellers' checks).
So it's not the US orgs (such as the well-known, multinational megabucks
corporation Open Pathways) that all refuse to process non-US funds, it's
the US consumer/small-business banking system. If you can think of
anything we can do about it, please clue us in.
This has been eased a little in recent times by the
increasing acceptance of credit cards like VISA.
We won't be able to accept credit card payments simply because that would
make Chirp! too expensive. Sorry.
Imagine the outcry
if the aliens started to say "we will not accept greenbacks".
I guess you're implying that most Australian periodicals with an
international readership accept any currency, not just A/NZ$. In my
experience, Aussie periodicals accept A/NZ$ or US$, but no other
currencies. Am I mistaken? If not, then the practice is not really any
different from ours: we accept US$ (the currency used here locally) as
well as US$ (the currency most used in international trade).
Flame off.
I was wondering if my new Chirp! posting would start another flame war.
Stupid of me to wonder.
-- Mark
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Mark P. Line Phone: +1-206-733-6040
Open Pathways Fax: +1-206-733-6040
P.O. Box F Email: markline@henson.cc.wwu.edu
Bellingham, WA 98227-0296
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