Maybe I'm just impatient, but I think it's really weird that when you buy software online using a credit card, and all you need is a registration number or a tiny file that turns your demo into a registered program... it can take days to go through.

I've had goods shipped to me from Amazon and buy.com in less time than some software registration emails.

You'd think those third-party services most software developers use would have some kind of automated way to send a registration key :/

Not all systems are totally automated. Some developers are set to send codes as soon as payment is received. Other developers don't have that automation. They have to check their email for purchase information, then send the codes to the customer. I have learned that if you purchase during the weekend not to get in a hurry. You also have to watch times. A lot of software comes from Europe. If you are in the US and you place an order late in the day, the developer may already be in bed.

What I don't understand is why Shar-it does not take Discover. They frequently delay my purchases so that my debit card can be cleared before they process my purchase.

Robert

I would like to point out that there are considerable dangers for the developer involved in using a completely automated system, and the number one issue here is credit card fraud and piracy.

Whenever we've shipped a brand new product, our site gets plagued with plainly fraudulent orders for several weeks. Special digital "watermarks" built into Tau Pro and Electron (when they were first released) linked the pirate versions that eventually surfaced on the net to a few of these fraudulent transactions that we failed to spot. It is a fact of life that if you use a cracked version of a plugin you are quite often party to a credit card fraud without even knowing....and you have to worry about where the crackers suppliers got the credit card numbers to use in the first place!

For the developer, it ends up being a double whammy - the credit card company issue a "chargeback" to recover the stolen funds from the merchant, and the software is pretty often warezed on the day of release.

Thankfully, our new upgraded Worldpay payment integration includes security code checking, address verification and their patented anti-fraud system - but I still wouldn't trust a fully automatic authorisation system just yet.

Regards
Dave
Muon Software Ltd
www.muon-software.com

Interesting points -- I never made the connection between credit card fraud and warez.

But I would have thought that the billing service (WorldPay, ShareIt, etc.) would guarantee the developer doesn't get burned directly by credit card fraud -- they take their cut of the sale or transaction fee or whatever, to pay for having taken on the risk?

The guy one cube over at work who ordered a new computer Tuesday afternoon and received it Wednesday morning. I ordered something that cost 1/10 as much and is delivered via email, but I'm asked to wait 48 hours after I've been charged for it. (It's been 46...) Just doesn't seem right.

Maybe some kind of temporary key sent automatically and the permanent one after manual review, but I suppose that's just one more hole for hackers to exploit :/

foosnark,

I think you can't expect a shareware developer to whom you paid $20-$40 to have staff that sends out orders 24/7. Most (if not all) don't even have ANY staff. There are a lot of one-man-companies around. These people have to sleep sometime, or there is a public holiday, or they have to go on a business trip for one or two days.

On the other hand, if you fork out ten times as much, you can expect a bigger company having staff just to handle customer support and fulfill orders.

If we would get $250 bucks for a software-synth (as the big-guys do) AND selling in the same volumes the big-guys do (and not just the 5% we sell) THEN it would be a different story.

I am happy I can pay my rent and upgrade my computer and software from time to time, let alone hire anybody to do support and fullfill orders. I do this myself and since I have to do other stuff as well (like developing new products) I have set myself a fixed time-window when I process orders and do support (2h a day from 8 to 10 pm). If an order arrives later than 10pm (GMT+1) it has to wait until next day 8pm. So the worst that can usualy happen is 22 hours and the best that can happen is instant delivery (if you order between 8 and 10 and your order gets through without problems).

What I really find strange is that lately some people complain about delivery-times. Just a few weeks ago everything was fine. Now all of a sudden these threads pop up, I get mails ("when will my order I just placed arrive?") etc. Is this just a coincidence or is the lack of patience (common, we are talking HOURS here, not weeks or months) a new trend I've missed...

Puzzled,
Mike

I totally unerstand the difference between physical deliver and email delivery. When the UPS person drops off a package he has an address, phone number and signature. When you get a VST by email you have a virtual address that may be hard to trace. It would be much, much easier to buy something virtual using credit card fraud than to have something delivered do your door or office. I just never thought about it before now.

Robert

Quote:

But I would have thought that the billing service (WorldPay, ShareIt, etc.) would guarantee the developer doesn't get burned directly by credit card fraud -- they take their cut of the sale or transaction fee or whatever, to pay for having taken on the risk?

No, absolutely not. The merchant takes the hit directly for each and every fraudulent transaction that gets through the net. This is quite normal when dealing with credit card transactions. As I said, a double-whammy.

Cheers
Dave

Rabid wrote:

I totally unerstand the difference between physical deliver and email delivery. When the UPS person drops off a package he has an address, phone number and signature. When you get a VST by email you have a virtual address that may be hard to trace. It would be much, much easier to buy something virtual using credit card fraud than to have something delivered do your door or office. I just never thought about it before now. Robert

Actually even if you'd use your real address ánd have it physically delivered there still is enough room for fraude as many ecommerce sites had to find out. Some people even protested the order after delivery, the CC Company and bank charges back, and they are still happily using the product. Go figure ! There's plenty of stories around of these scams. Some people have the guts ... and there's not much one can do about it.

Quote:

No, absolutely not. The merchant takes the hit directly for each and every fraudulent transaction that gets through the net

Blech. So it's basically a mess on all sides then.


BTW, the problem I was having turned out to be a lost email -- I'm not getting bad service from any software developers, quite the opposite -- just unlucky internet weirdness. I'd still prefer automated, instant gratification of course but it's no big deal.