The payment side is powered by Google Checkout, so the fee structure smacks Apple around all over the place. The most expensive tier (under $3000 in monthly sales) is 2.9% + $0.30. The cheapest is 1.9% + $0.30.
> The payment side is powered by Google Checkout, so the fee structure smacks Apple around all over the place.
Except for the part where as a vendor it's only available in half a dozen countries or so, and several major countries can not pay via Checkout either (does Checkout work at all from canada yet?), and where the customer service is non-existent (a Google constant).
>>Where the customer service is non-existent: Hi. Any specific problem we can help with?
In my experience, "Customer Service" can mean one or both of the following:
1. Actual help to resolve real problems
2. A human voice on the phone to walk you through resetting your computer (or otherwise generally offering moral support)
I find that most folks get nervous when #2 is not available, even if they would never use it or it would be unlikely to solve any of their actual problems.
The big G does not even pretend, and I think that is possibly to their detriment.
Except that Google's forums don't help when Google locked five figures from you on a spiky day, continues to accept money with no way to withdraw, provides no telephone support, and offers only an (apparently overloaded) email support. (Eventually I got my account unlocked and funds released... six months later.)
Coincidentally, I've never had such a problem with Paypal. (My gripes with them generally revolve around the glacially slow history search.)
I say this every couple of months but no one believes me: Paypal has gotten religion on business support. Fraud sucks for everybody, but they really are making AB effort on it.
I got my account auto locked when an apartment move, sales spike (Valentine's day), and large withdraw all hit at once this week. It took one call and two minutes on thhe phone to resolve. "Sorry Mr. McKenzie, we just saw an unknown individual try moving a lot of money in and out of your account and wanted to make sure it was you. You're good to go."
I'm glad they're working well for you, but I'm not working on rumours - I just spent over a week and about a dozen phone calls trying to fix a mistake they made. Eventually they did accept that the mistake was at their end, but until that point their service was appalling. To their credit, though, they did seem to take a lot of notice of the feedback form I submitted.
Considering OnePass was just announced and isn't shipping yet, I don't think we can know yet if it will be billed the same as Android's existing in app purchasing.
Agreed, but i read that "One Pass offers payments in mobile apps (i.e. in Android apps)" Maybe there will be a differently tiered charging system depending on the content (news content vs application specifc content like a new level for a game).
They need to add other payment options then CreditCards to Google Checkout. Nobody uses CreditCards in Europe and it's kinda stupid that I can't even buy Apps on the Marketplace and have see if the vendor support direct purchase form their website via PayPal or something.
They're talking about debit cards - I know in the UK and Germany many people do not own credit cards, certainly in the young twenties sector in the UK debit cards are the norm.
What payment options would you suggest? Apple only accepts credit / debit cards too (well and gift cards which are also primarily purchased with credit cards).
Okay I realize I shouldn't have said 'Europe', because it seems to differ quite a bit from country to country. I myself are from Germany and while its relativly easy to get a credit card from your bank, only a small minority owns one. The plastic cards, that we get from our banks are called EC-cards (for "eletronic cash") and are completly different than credit cards. They are tied to your bank account, work just like debit cards, and you can pay at every store with them. At online shops you would usually just enter your bank account number and it's directly withdrawn. So the additional monthly fee of owning a credit card is not worth it for the majority of people.
On the other hand, even debit cards are usually called credit cards, at least in france (either that or "carte bleue" which is the french standard for these things).
Except for the part where as a vendor it's only available in half a dozen countries or so, and several major countries can not pay via Checkout either (does Checkout work at all from canada yet?), and where the customer service is non-existent (a Google constant).