Steve Stacher wrote: 
 SS> On 11-Mar-98, Kim Forwood was avidly discussing Re: Registration with
 SS> Steve Stacher
 
 SS>> I agree that the Us Authors do not fully appreciate the
 SS>> difficulty and costs involved with getting funds to the US, and
 SS>> many if not most still do not accept plastic.
 
 KF> What do you think US authors could do to make it easier for you to
 KF> register, if we were able to appreciate the difficulty of your
 KF> situation?
 SS> Some of my comments may seem self serving so I will get the commercial
 SS> stuff out of the way. I am a registration site for a number of
 SS> authors, currently all but one Europe based. I perform a service and I
 SS> charge a fee (not a lot but a fee nonetheless)
 SS> I started as the Uk Reg site for Terminate and expanded to handle a
 SS> number of other programs, some of which you may have heard of, some of
 SS> which you probably haven't.
 SS> The most valuable service I provide is the ability to accept payment
 SS> by credit card. All authors can accept payment by check, just that they
 SS> generally insist the check be in their local currency. Most US banks,
 SS> especially, seem to charge outrageous fees to handle checks in a
 SS> foreign currency.
 SS> For a European resident to obtain a check in $ in many cases is more
 SS> than the cost of registration. The risk of lost mail increases with
 SS> distance and just as many Zone 1 residents are reluctant to deal with a
 SS> foreign author, so too are we reluctant to deal with a US author,
 SS> generally for the same reasons. Many authors seem to disappear.
 SS> having a local (or reasonably local) facility makes it much easier got
 SS> the local populace that wish to register to do so. I mentioned we have
 SS> an intra-European method of writing checks in another currency. It is
 SS> very, very easy and inexpensive for a Zone 2 resident to register at a
 SS> Zone 2 site like mine. It's safer to send cash, if that is the only
 SS> way, and easier to remit by check.
 SS> US authors can enter into agreements with people like me who provide
 SS> the service in Zone 2 at reasonable fees. There are also outfits like
 SS> KAGI (reasonable) and PSL (not as reasonable imo) who provide a similar
 SS> service (at least for credit card...no help with foreign checks or
 SS> cash) 
 SS> If you wish to find out how hard it can be, go try to get a draft in
 SS> Dutch Swedish, Irish or Belgian currency from your local bank. See how
 SS> long it takes. (I specifically did not mention the names of the
 SS> currency as the bank people should be able to sort that out).
 SS> It's easier for us, but not much. Most of our banks know what currency
 SS> is in use in North America.
To be honest, I've recently become a little suspicious of credit card
handlers. I signed a contract with a company in the US called Albert's
Ambry (http://www.alberts.com), who handle credit card orders and
supposedly propagate software for authors, for 20-25% of all sales
through them.
In the last year that I've been signed up with them I've had a total of
four sales... three of which were made immediately after my software
was first released, and the last just a month ago. Unfortunately, I
have only seen one of those registrations to date. I'm supposed to be
paid my registration fees once every three months, but by the time I
get them (or a report on sales), there has been what they call a
chargeback... where the purchaser has supposedly purchased my software
with a bad credit card and so my fees aren't forthcoming yet my software
was still delivered. Now this may sound plausible, but how do I know that
I'm not being duped by Albert's Ambry and they're keeping my registrations?
So you see, it's just as hard on the authors in this business. We are for
the most part people without a lot of money or means to do business with
people in other parts of the world, other than to put our trust in someone
else's honesty in order to make this work for everybody. But when
experiences like my own show that using a third party to handle money
transactions may be a bad idea, there is little more we can do as
individual authors. 
P.S. If anybody else out there has ever dealt with Albert's Ambry, please
contact me.
Kim Forwood
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