11-06-2006, 04:58 AM | #1 |
Junior Member
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Device: Sony E-reader
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Adventures of a tourist
Hi, just wanted to share my recent PRS story, and hopefully it will help answer some questions anyone from outside the U.S might have regarding it.
I live in Israel, and I was in the U.S in October for my honeymoon. Also celebrating my 30th birthday, my wife bought me the PRS (at the Caesar's Palace SonyStyle in Vegas - 2 SonyStyles[N.Y and S.F] were out of stock, and even in this one we were lucky to come in 5 minutes after a fresh shipment had arrived). The big question on my mind was "will I be able to purchase e-books using the Connect store, being a non-U.S resident without a local billing address?" Well, I'll make a very long story short by saying: Yes! All you need to do is purchase the Sony Connect gift cards, and redeem them into your Connect account. I went through 7 Borders stores in 3 states before finally finding someone who knew what I was talking about (and I was the first one to ask for them, so they didn't even know how to use them in the cash register for activation). There is currently only a $25 value card, so I stock up on 12 cards for future purchases. Still in the U.S, I entered all the serial numbers of these cards to my Connect account, and got the credit. I made one purchase, and it worked. I have left the states last week, and yesterday I ran the Connect software again, from 2 different computers, and it still allows me access to the store, and keeps my credit. However, I didn't purchase anything yet, but I'm pretty sure it works OK. So, visitors to the U.S can stock up with gift cards, and if you can't do that, find someone you know who lives there, get him to buy the cards, and all you need are 2 numbers (serial number and PIN number, which the person needs to scratch off to reveal) to use them remotely. Hope this helps. P.S - did the same thing with iTunes, but with iTunes I needed to give them also a local U.S address (I entered my hotel address) before redeeming the gift cards. |
11-06-2006, 05:12 AM | #2 |
Jah Blessed
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An easier way would be to have someone in the US buy electronic (rather than physical) gift cards for you. You'll be e-mailed the code and can redeem it right away. There are several members here willing to do that for you, as long as you cover the Paypal fee.
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11-06-2006, 06:22 AM | #3 |
Junior Member
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Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I've spent hours browsing the Sony website and found nothing about electronic gift cards. Like many people wrote here, it seems Sony goes out of its way to make life hard on people buying its stuff - no download of the Connect software direct from the site, no information on e-cards, and did I mention the 6 Borders store which had no idea what I was talking about?
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11-06-2006, 07:47 AM | #4 |
Wizard
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Location: Belgium
Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear
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The electronic gift certificates can only be bought from inside Connect software, not through the site.
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11-06-2006, 07:56 AM | #5 | |
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11-06-2006, 10:47 AM | #6 |
Technologist
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Quatum:
It seems that SONY is not yet ready to sell to customers outside the U.S., though there are obviously many people eager enough and resourceful enough to get around it. ;- I imagine that SONY only posts the e-card info in their software because right now the Reader is for people in the U.S. If they posted it on a freely viewable website, rather than where only people who can buy the Reader can see it, well... It all comes down to SONY not moving into the European/Non-U.S. market at this time. Congratulations on being crafty enough to subvert their business model to get what you want. |
11-06-2006, 02:36 PM | #7 | |
Gizmologist
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11-06-2006, 05:08 PM | #8 |
Member
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Montreal
Device: Sony Reader
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It coulb be about the distributions rights (dont know how that works...) but what about here in Canada ?. Before everything was released in "North America" (remember when they released the PSP). Things have change.........political reasons i suppose....
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11-06-2006, 05:58 PM | #9 | |
eBookin' Fool
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Quote:
My solution has always been to have a US address in addition to my Canadian home address. Best of both worlds! |
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