No politics discussion-- this is strickly about life on the other side of the Atlantic. I have taken over operations of our India office, as I may have mentioned. We own the majority of a daughter company that does web development, in addition to functioning as a cost center for our company. Anyway, I frequently need to financial manage web projects. Most of the vendors that deliver hosting, dotnetnuke modules, and so on are ecommerce businesses themselves. Most require credit card transactions. Most are based out of the US. Most have no one answering a phone if we have problems.
Most require a STATE field for the credit card billing address.
Most will not accept a four digit zip code.
Most do not have nation fields.
Most make it very difficult for non-Americans to do business.
Seriously, you would think it was the 18th century, that there were no easy mechanisms for credit card transactions. I encountered enough of this nonsense over Christmas trying to shop online- from US websites and shipping to US relatives. I would expect better from some of these dotcoms that we TRY to work with.
Note to American companies with a web presence-- particularly those that offer services (where NO shipping is involved). The US is only one corner of the world. Please make it easier for the rest of us to send you our money. I am beginning to take this personally.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Its like americans assume they are the only ppl on the net, as if they are the only country technologically advanced enough to have access to it.
The rest of us have to suffer because of this! I can give several personal examples of how americans assume myself (proudly South African, btw) and others to be Yanks.
The rest of the internet community happily uses .co.za/uk/au etc, but now, if an american wants to make a site, its .com, which i assumed is an INTERNATIONAL domain, with the appropiate differences taken into consideration. Whats wrong with co.us? Is it beneath the americans?
This has been seriously bugging me since ive decided to join online communities.
Oh but wait, americans have no sense of basic geography, indeed curiosity towards the rest of the world. They live in a cozy liddle bubble with no idea how tiny that bubble is.
I realize how generallizing these statements are, but the onus is on any americans reading this to prove me wrong!
I feel that the last hurdle for the Internet to overcome is this rampant Americentrism.
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