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Quantum · 11-06-2006, 04:58 AM

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, 04:58 AM	#1
Quantum Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony E-reader	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.