Quote:
Originally Posted by moffattm
By "international" they probably just mean that anyone from any country can purchase ebooks from them. There are plenty of online shops that will only sell to customers from the same country as themselves, and so they're not considered international stores.
I'm from New Zealand and we're all pretty much used to having to pay these sort of fees if we want to purchase from foreign companies. They're charged by the credit card companies, not the online store you're buying from. In fact the website you're buying from has absolutely no knowledge that you will be charged a currency conversion fee because each credit card company has their own rules and fee rates. So blaming Kobo isn't really fair since it has nothing to do with them.
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I still think Kobo is misleading about its international presence. For example, Amazon.com has US presence (Amazon.com) and UK presence (Amazon.co.uk). I'm sure Britons buying a Kindle ebook in UK aren't charged an international service fee. Their transaction is handled in the UK, not in US. Kobo is handling the transactions in Canada only. That's why I'm wondering why couldn't Kobo really present a localized web presence so that there won't be the international service fee charges, if Kobo claims to be an international company.
People in Australia getting charged international service fee for buying stuff from foreign countries know at least knows that they are buying from foreign countries and expect that. Nowhere is Kobo saying in the checkout process, since you're buying in the US, we're a foreign country store.
Kobo is sold prominently in the US. Do people in the US have to realize that they are a foreign country store and that they would be hit with a international service fee when they buy Kobo ebooks? (Do people in Australia realize that before making Kobo ebook purchase?) I think most like me would assume that it would just work like Amazon or Barnes and Noble ebook stores.