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Immediately went to go buy the bundle of 4 books (good copywriting!) But, some friendly startup advice: 1. There should be no reason to ask for my address and

by dshah 15y ago

Immediately went to go buy the bundle of 4 books (good copywriting!) But, some friendly startup advice: 1. There should be no reason to ask for my address and phone number and such for a digital purchase with PayPal as the purchase option. Your close rate would go up if you just let people go straight to PayPal -- and ask for those details after the purchase is done (eCommerce companies learned this a while ago). 2. You shouldn't have PayPal as the purchase option. It sucks for a number of well documented reasons, and there are better options now. 3. Once I tried to complete the PayPal transaction, got this error message: http://screencast.com/t/c5crNpyDg http://screencast.com/t/c5crNpyDg Happy to try again when you're ready. Just ping me.

dshah 15y ago
Oh, and one more thing: When creating a user account on your site, the password is emailed out in cleartext to the end user. That's a very bad thing generally, but particularly for the HN crowd.
armandososa 15y ago
Except Paypal is the only viable option if you're from outside the us. If she has used Amazon Payments or Google Checkout, I could not have purchased his books.
- Tobu 15y ago
  I can use google checkout in Europe, when did you last try?
todsul 15y ago
Asking for the address for digital downloads is about your only defence against PayPal's chargeback frenzy. Anyone who has sold digital downloads knows how PayPal randomly returns money to customers (and let's them keep the product) because "something triggered a response" in their system. With physical goods, the seller is paid by default (when the seller responds). With intangible goods, nothing the seller says can get the chargeback reversed. You only get the money if the buyer responds, which they rarely do because they are about to get a full refund and free product. PayPal's only recommendation is to capture the address (and send a free CD). I found that just capturing the address made the problem mostly go away. And with the couple of chargebacks, when I responded with the address, I was paid.
- WA 15y ago
  1. I never experienced the described problem. 2. Nothing prevents me from putting a fake address into the form. I just did. 3. The web page does not use SSL-encryption. It doesn't process credit card information, but it surely does process personal information such as my address, which is enough to be a violation of privacy terms in Europe. So, while I found the copy of this web page extremely interesting and it just "worked" on me, the technical aspects were almost a deal-breaker for me and I only circumvented the problem by providing a fake address.

by dshah 15y ago

dshah 15y ago

Oh, and one more thing: When creating a user account on your site, the password is emailed out in cleartext to the end user. That's a very bad thing generally, but particularly for the HN crowd.

armandososa 15y ago

Except Paypal is the only viable option if you're from outside the us. If she has used Amazon Payments or Google Checkout, I could not have purchased his books.

Tobu 15y ago
I can use google checkout in Europe, when did you last try?

todsul 15y ago

Asking for the address for digital downloads is about your only defence against PayPal's chargeback frenzy. Anyone who has sold digital downloads knows how PayPal randomly returns money to customers (and let's them keep the product) because "something triggered a response" in their system. With physical goods, the seller is paid by default (when the seller responds). With intangible goods, nothing the seller says can get the chargeback reversed. You only get the money if the buyer responds, which they rarely do because they are about to get a full refund and free product. PayPal's only recommendation is to capture the address (and send a free CD). I found that just capturing the address made the problem mostly go away. And with the couple of chargebacks, when I responded with the address, I was paid.

WA 15y ago
1. I never experienced the described problem. 2. Nothing prevents me from putting a fake address into the form. I just did. 3. The web page does not use SSL-encryption. It doesn't process credit card information, but it surely does process personal information such as my address, which is enough to be a violation of privacy terms in Europe. So, while I found the copy of this web page extremely interesting and it just "worked" on me, the technical aspects were almost a deal-breaker for me and I only circumvented the problem by providing a fake address.