Please allow purchase of Locus in other currencies

[laif]

Some debit card issuers restrict charges on the card to a single local currency. When going overseas, a person needs to contact the issuer and get that restriction lifted temporarily. The upshot of this, is that some US citizens cannot easily purchase Google Market applications which are priced in Euros or British Pounds or whatever else.

Apparently, Google Market allows you to manually set prices in various currencies. This would solve the problem.

[Menion]

Hi,
  this is very weird if I understand it correctly. Because for US there is set value in USD

[laif]

You can see below, how I am first shown the price in US dollars, but then asked to pay in Euros.



I presume that the page I linked to tells of a way for sellers to override that system, where they can manually set a price in other currencies which is not necessarily synced with the exchange rate?

[Menion]

hmm,

[attachment=0:1fug29el]Developer Console - Google Chrome_2011-09-15_11-01-01.png[/attachment:1fug29el]

as you can see, I'm using this mechanism already. If there is any way I can helps, tell me, but I have no idea. Can't this be some problem with your settings (of credit card or browser)? Other apps show you correct price?

[laif]

Well, it's nice to be getting somewhere with this problem! Here are another couple of webpages which talk about the problem: One and  two.

Can't this be some problem with your settings (of credit card or browser)?

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Yet, it doesn't seem to be the case. There don't seem to be any settings in  the Google Checkout panels or Android Market panels where anything related to this can be changed. I just did a couple experiments with logging in through foreign proxy servers. I am encountering the same effect. See if these prices match up with what you've set in your control panels:

3.45 UK pounds
4.80 Swiss francs
36.45 Swedish krona
Australian and Canadian IPs were still shown the $5.45 amount

Yet, when it comes to actually purchasing, the price is charged in Euros.

At any rate, I've solved my own problem. I've just ordered a prepaid American Express card which will allow me to purchase things in foreign currencies. However, you might want to do some research to see if there's something you can do about this. I believe people in your situation are likely are losing a percentage of foreign buyers who either can't use their credit card to purchase your product, or who are charged a foreign exchange fee which dissuades them.

_________

By the way, allow me to offer you my compliments on your work on Locus. It looks like a very polished app. It seems like a lot of the most earnest and professional software developers for Android are from Europe. I hope you're doing well for yourself with this project. Have you actually sold 1,925 copies of the app at 3.99 Euros? I'm impressed.

Since I have the developer's attention, here are a couple more unrelated comments I have about Locus:

• I like the fact that Locus doesn't require people to manually download and assemble offline maps like they do with AlpineQuest.
  
• I was using a competitor's product - "Backcountry Navigator" for a two day mountain bike ride on Monday and Tuesday - and the biggest problem I saw was how much it used the battery. Locus seems to turn off the GPS when the screen is locked and when the app has been backgrounded, and that's probably going to be a significant improvement. Anything else you can do to cut down on battery usage would be really cool.
  
• Finally, I noticed one point of grammar that you might want to change - in the map manager under "Downloads" - the standard English phrase would be "by nation" or "by country" rather than "by state." In the US and Australia, the word "state" usually refers to districts within the federation. For that reason, there might be some initial confusion when people expect the "states" to be things like Vermont, New Hampshire, Florida, etcetera.

[Menion]

Thank you laif,
  quite a complex feedback

  stuff with currency is really interesting. I have checked my selling checkout account for some more clues and nothing. There is no more settings then the one i posted in previous post (or in your second link on picture). So I really have no idea why this happen for you.

  about second part ... you see sold 1925 copies? Hmm interesting, where did you saw this number? Because there's actually sold around 13k copies.

  2. it's still not perfect. Some people (also me) aren't much satisfied with battery consumption, so I have to find some time to reduce it a little bit.
  3. thanks, fixed!