Posted by nick on February 26, 2012 at 10:01 pm
I’ve had google’s subscription API in mind to use for my new site for over a year and tonight I tried to quickly integrate with their HTML API. I just wanted a simple button on my site so the customer could click, pay on google’s site, and come back. Unfortunately, that was not possible. Firstly, the documentation for the HTML API is severly lacking; you have to kind of roll your own by looking at the XML API documentation here http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/Google_Checkout_Beta_Subscriptions.html. Secondly, there is no way to send additional data to google such as a customer ID or product ID. Thirdly, there is no pass back to your website after the customer pays! No data is returned to your site and the customer is also not returned to any sort of success page! Google tells you a known issue about their service – “The only control you have over Google-Handled subscriptions is to cancel them, so they’re best used in cases where you won’t want to modify the content or timing of the recurrences at all.”
I then came across this forum post about how google checkout sucks click to read and it sounded very much like my experience with Amazon where they close your account for no reason and you never talk to anybody.
So, it looks like I’m off to find a different cheap subscription solution. I got sick of dealing with paypal years ago; they canceled my account back when I sold nutritional supplements b/c they didn’t like some of the products. I came across Amazon Payments, but I’d shoot myself in the foot working with amazon again. Authorize.net has a good recurring billing feature, but the monthly cost gets too high for my little start up making no money right now. Any suggestions?
By the way, if you’re still interested in google checkout html api, here is some code below I was able to get working for a subscription. Just change the merchant ID to yours.
<form method="POST" action="https://checkout.google.com/api/checkout/v2/checkoutForm/Merchant/MERCHANTID" accept-charset="utf-8">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.item-name" value="Subscription"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.item-description" value="1 Year Featured Level 1"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.unit-price.currency" value="USD"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.unit-price" value="0"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.quantity" value="1"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.type" value="google"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.period" value="YEARLY"/>
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.payments.subscription-payment-1.maximum-charge" value="49.00">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.payments.subscription-payment-1.maximum-charge.currency" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.recurrent-item.item-name" value="Yearly Featured Level 1">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.recurrent-item.item-description" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.recurrent-item.quantity" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.recurrent-item.unit-price" value="49.00">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.subscription.recurrent-item.unit-price.currency" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.digital-content.display-disposition" value="OPTIMISTIC">
<input type="hidden" name="shopping-cart.items.item-1.digital-content.description" value="Congratulations! Your subscription is being set up.">
<input type="hidden" name="_charset_"/>
<input alt="" src="https://checkout.google.com/buttons/buy.gif?merchant_id=MERCHANTID&w=121&h=44&style=white&variant=text&loc=en_US" type="image"/>
</form>
Posted by nick on April 30, 2010 at 10:06 pm
Jeanne Brue daycare in Maple Grove MN
Nice lady and a good weekly price. She’ll let your kids play on the floor all day and teach them little to nothing. When you pick up your kids the TV will be on and she’ll be sitting on the couch every day. She’ll tell you if your child ate good or pooped at lot most days, but won’t notice if he or she has pink eye and a lot of eye matter. Once I asked if anybody is able to help my son walk during the day and she said “there’s nobody here to help him.” That’s when I knew we needed to find a different daycare provider.
When you realize your son or daughter is getting behind and isn’t learning anything (no words, no signing, not being read to, etc) with Jeanne and decide to leave, she’ll stick you with her vague contract and demand two full weeks of vacation be paid out. The first day your take your child there, you owe her two full weeks of paid vacation and two more every year after. She doesn’t accrue vacation with each pay period like the rest of the working world; she gets it immediately. My son was there 14 months and we had to pay her for 4 weeks of vacation or she’d take us to small claims court just as she’d done with at least four other people who also felt it was bullsh*t. I paid her for two additional weeks because going to court all day isn’t worth the time for both myself and my wife as I’m sure it isn’t for most people.
My child is nearly 1.5 years old now and needs a better environment that provides many more opportunities to learn. We’re changing to an organized daycare center, which has staff trained in early childhood development and no paid vacation to worry about.
Continue Reading
Posted by nick on March 23, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Amazon.com will screw you if you’re a seller!
1. They will hold your money for months while they “review” your account. Nobody is actually reviewing it and you can’t talk to anybody as they explicitly state “we are unable to offer phone support”. I’ve been selling on amazon.com for nearly three months and last month they started holding my money while still allowing me to sell. After the 30 “review period” where they held my money, then suspended my account for another 30 days, “but may take up to 45 days…” . I have a good track record and good feedback on amazon.com.
2. Amazon.com will regularly supply you with outdated customer shipping addresses and will hold you responsible for paying the UPS address correction fees. My suggestion of requiring customers to verify their shipping address before ordering was not taken seriously. I was told this is a “business expense” and I’ll have to eat it or cancel my account with them.
Amazon’s notice of account suspension
Take note of their reasoning for holding our money and account suspension – “Because your sales volume or inventory level is not supported by sufficient buyer feedback or established sales history”. Also, they want me to email them a bunch of data to expedite the review (that nobody is performing) including “Tracking numbers of items shipped with corresponding Amazon.com order numbers”. This is a request for information they already have! We’ve provided tracking numbers and timely shipments for all orders.
Hello from Amazon.com.
As previously stated, we have been conducting a review of your Amazon.com selling account. Because your sales volume or inventory level is not supported by sufficient buyer feedback or established sales history, your selling privileges will be suspended and your funds will be reserved in your Amazon Payments account for up to 30 days.
During this review we will be evaluating the performance of your account, including customer feedback and A-to-z Guarantee claims received. It is important that you continue to fulfill any orders completed before the removal of your listings, as we will use buyer feedback from your orders as part of the review.
While our review can take as many as 30 days to complete, you may be able to expedite the release of your funds by providing us with the following information:
1. Tracking numbers of items shipped with corresponding Amazon.com order numbers
2. Current retail or online sales channels including links to selling pages
3. Detailed explanation of your business including your source of inventory
4. Amount of inventory you plan to list for sale on Amazon.com and availability of items for delivery
Please e-mail us at merchant-approval@amazon.com to provide us with information regarding your seller account. Amazon sellers can confirm shipments in Seller Central or seller account by clicking the “Orders” tab and then clicking “Confirm Shipment” for the orders.
We will evaluate the information that you provide to us and respond accordingly.
You will be notified via e-mail when our account review is complete.
Regards,
Seller Performance Team
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
And their automated response to my email message
Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com,
We are currently reviewing your Amazon Selling Account. We will respond to your inquiry within the next business day.
While we review your Account, your funds will be reserved in your Amazon.com Payments account for up to 30 days. Although we will delay the transfer
of funds to your bank account, we will continue accepting orders for items you list for sale on Amazon.com. Once your funds have been released, you
will be notified via email, and funds should arrive in your bank account within 5 business days.
You may be able to expedite this review by providing any of the following information if you haven’t already:
* You may submit tracking information for your shipments. Please include the corresponding 17-digit Amazon.com order numbers with any tracking
numbers. This information may be submitted in plain text, Word or Excel formats
* You may also give us information about any other channels through which you sell.
* We also encourage you to send a friendly reminder to your buyers requesting that they leave feedback on your account after they have received
their orders.
* If you are currently being reviewed due to recent poor performance, you may submit a plan to for improving your selling performance to
seller-performance@amazon.com
While tracking and/or sales information may help expedite the review, it may still be necessary to wait the full review period before funds can be
released. Reviews are typically completed within 30 days, but may take up to 45 days if deemed necessary. We will inform you if that should be the
case.
Please note that, due to the volume of information we receive, we are unable to offer phone support to accept this information or expedite the
review. For this reason we ask that any pertinent information be submitted via email to merchant-approval@amazon.com. We will evaluate the
information you provide and respond accordingly.
It is important that you continue to fulfill your orders and list only
items that you will be able to deliver during this process. Once we have completed our review, we will notify you via e-mail. Please note that
until then, the “Transfer funds to bank account now” link will be visible in your Amazon.com Seller’s account, but transferring funds will not be
successful.
We would like to thank you for your patience during this process.
Best regards,
Merchant Approval Department
What now?
The practice of holding people’s money, in this case thousands of dollars, for stupid reasons like this shouldn’t be legal. Here is another blog on the same topic http://vorg.ca/1065-Selling-On-Amazon.com-Sucks . The two complaints I’ve mentioned here are also mentioned frequently by other sellers on this blog post. One comment on this blog was the following -
“I used to work for amazon (work at home) and guess what, If you sell at amazon, we will take all your money!
If you sell over $1000 a month. Your account well be investigated and guess what, all the money coming in will is forwared to our account. And guess what? I get 50% of all accounts being investigated.
haha. Keep on selling!!!
comment by Amazon on March 27, 2005″
I do not know if this user comment is legit, but it seems pretty inline with what is going on. I am unsure what to do at this point other than fill out the better business bureau complaint form that is open in my other browser tab. Do you have a similar experience selling on amazon.com? How do you get your money from them in a timely manner?
Probably the best thing you can do is file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau at http://www.bbb.org/western-washington/business-reviews/internet-selling-services/amazoncom-in-seattle-wa-7039385/complaints. It seemed to get their attention when I did this.
Continue Reading
Posted by nick on February 8, 2009 at 4:40 pm
It’s been eight months since I originally wrote the below blog post about my first experience at Costco. My first experience did suck, but after shopping there a number of times since then I have the place figured out pretty well. We usually end up going to the grocery store or Target afterward to get the items Costco did not have (or that we could not find). We shop at Costco about once per month and I feel we do save a little bit of money each year after paying the $50 membership, so I put up with it. Original post is below -
My wife and I walked through Costco a month ago and decided to purchase a membership today (Sunday) after church so we could purchase some items and try to save some money. After 1.5 hours at the place, I was ready to go and couldn’t wait to get out of there. Mainly because the place was extremely busy and everybody was lost and standing around in the middle of the isles. Yes, I am an impatient person. I’m the “get what you need and go” type. Anyway, below is a hint at my experience and why I’ve decided Costco sucks.
- Costco does not accept Visa or Mastercard credit cards. Only American Express. This is bullshit. I’ve never heard of a company doing this. I wonder if they realize that Visa and Mastercard are more popular than American Express and that most of the population does not have an American Express card? They will, however, accept a Visa or Mastercard debit card. When you go to Costco you don’t just spend twenty dollars, you spent hundreds. Most Americans these days will need to put that on credit. Many other Americans, like me, do not use credit cards anymore because they always screw you on the fees and cost you more than they’re worth. Costco has dramatically limited the number of customers that will, or can, shop at their store by requiring cash or American Express.
- No isle signs. As a new customer and most of the return customers shopping at Costco today, we were all totally lost. They have huge crowded isles and the customers are pushing a loaded two hundred pound tank of a shopping cart all over the store looking for items. Let me give you a hint Costco executives… have you every been to a grocery store? Ever noticed the handy little signs hanging above the isles stating the kinds of products located in that isle?
- Little to no organization. I might actually be able to answer the question above on my own as I realized there isn’t any organization of the pallet loads of product in each isle. One isle had a pallet of ginormous containers of Pine Sol right next to a pallet of grape juice, the bed mattresses are stocked just above the Velveeta cheese, and the bread is in the opposite corner of the store from the bakery.
- Odd sized packaging. How is the consumer supposed to easily figure out if they’re saving money at your store if all your products are odd sizes and off brand? The house branded Kirkland I can understand, but when it comes to standard brand name products like cereal, soda, and paper products, it’s difficult to compare. The coke products are not standard 12 or 24 packs, they’re 32 packs or something like that. I could easily calculate the saving if it were a 30 pack, but they made it 32 just to be difficult.
- No plastic bags at the checkout. Again, ever been to a standard retail store?
- No “mobile” employees. The only employees you find at the store is the door guards, returns people, cashiers, and a guy in the deli. That’s it! You know why nobody is working the floor at Costco? Because they’d be bombarded by customers who are lost all day!
- Their selection sucks. Costco has a little bit of everything, but not enough of anything. They have six kinds of cereal to choose from, three kinds of shampoo, one kind of any paper product, one choice for frozen pizza, two kinds of dog food, etc. This also limits the customers’ ability to compare costs as Costco doesn’t have what you want. The main reason we paid for a Costco membership is for cheap diapers. They have one brand of diapers, which is fine, but they start at size 2, which is for 15 to 22lb babies. My son was born at 7lbs and is now 9lbs. Huggies makes a newborn and size 1 Costco! Stock the product line or don’t stock it at all!
- They don’t accept manufacturer coupons.
After we loaded our cart I’d had it. I was ready to ask for a refund and had walked half way back up to the returns desk where I just paid $50 for a membership (I did not get the American Express card with the membership). I decided that we’ll just have to come on weekdays when it’s not so busy and we’re limited to a few products there. Cheap diapers is the main reason we paid for the membership and they didn’t even have the right size. It’s difficult to tell if I save any money at Costco, which is the only reason anybody shops there.
Continue Reading
Posted by nick on January 10, 2009 at 12:52 am
My wife and I have been banking with Wells Fargo for ten years. In my experience, they are only focused on big business couldn’t care less about the little guy. As soon as you are viewed as a risk of any sort, they will hike your rates or terminate your accounts without negotiation!
Here’s why Wells Fargo sucks
- Our Wells Fargo VISA credit card has the highest interest rate; triple that of our capital one card.
- Wells Fargo will not give us a loan for a five year old used car at a decent rate. They sent us to their “Wells Fargo Financial” branch and came up with a car loan for 16.9% APR, which is ridiculous.
- Wells Fargo “was” the online merchant for my supplement business until somebody there performed a random audit and didn’t like some of the LEGAL product on the site. My merchant account was terminated and marked as “TMF” (terminated merchants file). Because of this, most other banks and merchants will not do business with me. It’s like declaring bankruptcy on your credit score. There was no negotiation or warning, just termination. After discussions with the rep from Wells Fargo and convincing him that the products were OK, they still terminated the account because they didn’t want to be linked in any way to the product. Why? Because I was too minuscule for them to care about my lost business or change their thinking.
Continue Reading
Hi I'm Nick Bartlett and thanks for visiting my blog. I'm not much of a writer; many of my posts are short and to the point while others are meant to be a reference for myself and other web developers.