Its been a request for 4 years now and up until very recently was not even touted as something of "importance". Even now it is not officially on the planned Radar as far as I know. If there was say a commitment that something would be in place by the end of 2010 for instance a lot of people would at least have something to plan with. With my renewal coming up in just over a months time ( I think ) A drop down to Power user is certainly on the cards.
I think those that dont live in the USA have been VERY patient thus far
I follow this thread as a UK SmugMug user who doesn't use the cart option on my site, I also down graded to Power User and then back to Pro.
There's a lot of pompous talk in the thread about what SmugMug should do and when, how it will affect their business etc if they don't do whatever the latest demand is and when they should implement it by.
There are plenty of solutions, many of which have been mentioned before - it makes no difference what currency is quoted in the cart, the bottom line is your orders will still come from the US and you will pay a premium (however small) for that either in delivery costs, delivery time, currency rates, conversion etc. Is it really such a big deal? As business professionals surely you can provide your customers with a satisfactory solution?
SmugMug is still the best, has the best customer service, and does its best to please it's customers. We can't have everything we want, when we want it, if you can find a better service - which I doubt - then walk don't winge.
Actually yes, because not everyone who wants pictures is as internet savy as we are and will suspect something irregular is going on if his shopping car is not in his currency and the photos are supposed to be shiped from another country.
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
― Edward Weston
One minor problem with this... the rates fluctuate between when they place the order, and when the order is captured. My bank at least uses the rates at capture time, dunno if that's "standard" or not. The charge isn't captured until it ships out.... that could be several days in the case of some complex products.
I've ordered things from several quite large shopping sites that use RBS Worldpay as the processor, they handle multiple currencies really nicely (apparently 120 different ones) http://www.rbsworldpay.com/
The card companies will also let you put a pre authorization on the card and then put the charge through several days later. If you're wanting to handle it inhouse and you're worried about fluctuations, banks or other currency services will let you hedge or place forward currency orders so that you could set your exchange rates month to month or even six months ahead if you wanted to. Manufacturing exporters (essentially what smugmug is) deal with these things daily and have been doing so for decades. I'd be surprised if smugmug's current payment processor doesn't already have a handful of solutions for this kind of stuff.
Read the message below. It is exactly why we need to have foreign currency transactions available to us, and to have the sale be as seamless as possible. This client did not return to get the extra prints once he found out it was shipped from the US and in US funds. He was not pleased about the entire transaction to be honest. I usually get this question before the order is placed and they don't order. I do 95% of my printing locally after the client views the images on SM.
"Hey Monte, Joy and I did up a$200.00 order last night for grad pics. SmugMug just sent this to me. I was without internet today and wanted to talk to you about this and adding a pic before the order was processed. The site would not let me add a photo last night so I tried to buy it alone and would be billed more freight from USA?? I am certainly confused by this SmugMug stuff? Will these pics come from the US? Thanks Ric"
[snip]
SmugMug is still the best, has the best customer service, and does its best to please it's customers. We can't have everything we want, when we want it, if you can find a better service - which I doubt - then walk don't winge.
[snip]
Caroline
I agree their customer service is great, and I don't know of any other provider that gives as much customisation capability.
But the lack of foreign currency support is a total killer. I enable it once a year for the one international event I travel to, and then disable it for all other galleries and make people buy digital prints only through Paypal (in New Zealand dollars)... It sucks that I can't offer prints locally (not without doing everything myself).
On most events, I now make more about twice as much through paypal digital DL sales than I made in total using Smugmugs own print and Digital DL solution.
I still love SM for the support and the customisation, but I've totally given up on them catering to non-US pros. I don't care what they say they are thinking about - I will continue to judge them on their actions (or inaction).
Read the message below. It is exactly why we need to have foreign currency transactions available to us, and to have the sale be as seamless as possible. This client did not return to get the extra prints once he found out it was shipped from the US and in US funds. He was not pleased about the entire transaction to be honest. I usually get this question before the order is placed and they don't order. I do 95% of my printing locally after the client views the images on SM.
"Hey Monte, Joy and I did up a$200.00 order last night for grad pics. SmugMug just sent this to me. I was without internet today and wanted to talk to you about this and adding a pic before the order was processed. The site would not let me add a photo last night so I tried to buy it alone and would be billed more freight from USA?? I am certainly confused by this SmugMug stuff? Will these pics come from the US? Thanks Ric"
This happens to US folks, too, Monte - and our Support Heroes routinely handle the request to add an additional item, if we're asked. Did you or the client think to email our Heroes? We do this stuff all the time.
I will continue to judge them on their actions (or inaction).
Regards
Neil G
Good, we'd not have it any other way. But this isn't happening in an instant. We have to first change some payment infrastructure at SmugMug, this process is in place (it's not a trivial task at all!) and this lays the groundword for us to be able to offer other currencies. I've posted this before. We are working on it!
Read the message below. It is exactly why we need to have foreign currency transactions available to us, and to have the sale be as seamless as possible. This client did not return to get the extra prints once he found out it was shipped from the US and in US funds. He was not pleased about the entire transaction to be honest. I usually get this question before the order is placed and they don't order. I do 95% of my printing locally after the client views the images on SM.
"Hey Monte, Joy and I did up a$200.00 order last night for grad pics. SmugMug just sent this to me. I was without internet today and wanted to talk to you about this and adding a pic before the order was processed. The site would not let me add a photo last night so I tried to buy it alone and would be billed more freight from USA?? I am certainly confused by this SmugMug stuff? Will these pics come from the US? Thanks Ric"
I really doubt it will do a lot of good as the foreign lab one has been at the top of the list for quite sometime and ther are still apps and other stuff being released for crap like iphones, ipads kotex mini pads, facebook and twitter and the likes...
I was asking for this stuff almost as soon as I got my SM acct over 5yrs ago ( and I have lots of sales from people in Czech Republic, Germany, South Africa, Lativa, Slovakia, Austria Flanders and norway just to mention a few.......) and was told then that it prob would never happen...even tho I sent links to show mom and pop flower shops in Prague and Tabor in the Czech republic that had multi currency right on their sites...all you had to do was clik the flag on the top corner of the sites and all the currency was transformed into your currency and that was long before the Euro........
I am looking for a Central European site similar to SM that has printing thru a localized lab...........
I really just wanted to point out with the quoted message how confusing and unfriendly purchasing prints are for non-US residents. The foreign currency idea would go a long ways to eliminating this. How hard can this be? It is prolific on the Internet...from much smaller services.
I don't really expect a lab here in Canada anytime soon and although it would be the perfect situation I am not banking on it.
Good, we'd not have it any other way. But this isn't happening in an instant. We have to first change some payment infrastructure at SmugMug, this process is in place (it's not a trivial task at all!) and this lays the groundword for us to be able to offer other currencies. I've posted this before. We are working on it!
So - is it time to update the status on the feature request(s) to 'Planned' :andy
Foreign Currency Feature Request NeedS MORE VOTES..
The Foreign Currency Feature Request NeedS MORE VOTES from every person that it can benefit......It doesnot matter if you live in the U.S. or Spain....you can benefit from this feature......it opens your doors up aq whole lot more to people ordering from you, than if they have to go to a currency converter and back to you to place the order....simply put they will not do it............
Follow the link below to the feature request page and sign up and vote.............
I have to say after reading this thread, that it is annoying that the feature to show multi currencies or bill in multi currencies or print by local labs(Oz) has not been implemented. I certainly understand that it may be a huge project requiring much careful planning and testing, but it has been several years coming, not weeks or months.
As a pro user, I like many have lost sales as soon as people see that they are being billed in US$ by an Aussie photographer and that the product will ship from the USA. I have had a number of inquiries as to why I do things this way, and it is tiresome and frustrating trying to explain it repeatedly to potential buyers. The greatest issue of all though, is that Aussie credit card issuers usually charge an FX conversion fee as a % of the amount charged in the foreign currency, and that extra $1-2 is chump change to most, but sure leaves a sour taste in the mouths of many Aussie buyers who will never visit your site again.
When my subscription is up, I will certainly be looking at a local solution with direct fulfillment or at worst a site to display works with manual fulfillment by me. SM is a wonderful platform, and it has the greatest feature set and support, however for non-US pro's this one lacking feature is a very sore point.
It really doesn't We know it is important! Thanks Art
Yes - but it's not even showing up as 'planned'.
Just wanted to say that if it wasn't for people like you (Andy) and the great options SM offers - that I would have left long ago.
But, maybe you can't appreciate just how frustrating it is to have a great service like SM, but for practical purposes not to be able to use it for sales outside the US. Hence the regular 'reminders'.
Just wanted to say that if it wasn't for people like you (Andy) and the great options SM offers - that I would have left long ago.
But, maybe you can't appreciate just how frustrating it is to have a great service like SM, but for practical purposes not to be able to use it for sales outside the US. Hence the regular 'reminders'.
I'm not gonna mark it planned until we get closer. It's a huge deal. Thanks.
I'm not gonna mark it planned until we get closer. It's a huge deal. Thanks.
So what's happening with this?
Nothing related to the shopping cart (currency, self fulfilling orders etc) has been set as "planned" I'm sure they are all to be implemented together but gees, how much longer?
Nothing related to the shopping cart (currency, self fulfilling orders etc) has been set as "planned" I'm sure they are all to be implemented together but gees, how much longer?
I think they need to wait for the development team working on Duke Nukem Forever to get that out the door and then stick those guys on the foreign currency feature.
I think they need to wait for the development team working on Duke Nukem Forever to get that out the door and then stick those guys on the foreign currency feature.
Cheers - N
now is that helpful?
I'll say again: we have to do some major underpinnings to our payments infrastructure. That work is underway. Once complete, we then have the basis on which we can build out foreign currency.
This is something we want and plan to do. Thanks everyone for your patience, I know it's taking a lot longer than any of you care to think about.
To everyone asking - It won't happen at all in the next 5 years so I suggest moving along.
I'm a 5 year plus pro account holder living in Japan.
This has come up again and again and then again with all the empty promises that they are working on it.
It won't happen in the next 5 years, maybe not in the next 10.
Smugmug likes to tell you everything is on the table but this is a different story. I like everybody else hung on listening to that hoping it would be next year, then the next. Guess what? Never happened.
I'm a programmer and system admin by day so it hurts that they can't program something that I've had to program many times for foreign companies in Japan. It costs me money and my friends here because I can't offer to sell online digital downloads to the many events I have done in Japan.
They actually don't need the business and don't feel it's part of what they want as a business because that's just the way it is. It a business decision.
I love Smugmug but after discussing with my fellow photographers here we are moving along, because we have to. 5 years is enough. I suggest you do the same.
I'll say again: we have to do some major underpinnings to our payments infrastructure. That work is underway. Once complete, we then have the basis on which we can build out foreign currency.
This is something we want and plan to do. Thanks everyone for your patience, I know it's taking a lot longer than any of you care to think about.
Couldn't agree more with you (including the "I love Smugmug" part).
However, while I expect that it will happen sometime - it's not on a basis on which I can plan a photos sales business around. Accordingly, I am exploring all the alternatives - as I can't afford to wait any longer.
To everyone asking - It won't happen at all in the next 5 years so I suggest moving along.
I'm a 5 year plus pro account holder living in Japan.
This has come up again and again and then again with all the empty promises that they are working on it.
It won't happen in the next 5 years, maybe not in the next 10.
Smugmug likes to tell you everything is on the table but this is a different story. I like everybody else hung on listening to that hoping it would be next year, then the next. Guess what? Never happened.
I'm a programmer and system admin by day so it hurts that they can't program something that I've had to program many times for foreign companies in Japan. It costs me money and my friends here because I can't offer to sell online digital downloads to the many events I have done in Japan.
They actually don't need the business and don't feel it's part of what they want as a business because that's just the way it is. It a business decision.
I love Smugmug but after discussing with my fellow photographers here we are moving along, because we have to. 5 years is enough. I suggest you do the same.
They actually don't need the business and don't feel it's part of what they want as a business because that's just the way it is. It a business decision.
We do need and want your business - yes - and it's taking way too long for us to do this, we know. I'm sorry for that!
Dont sell through the Smugmug. Or ask your client to send you thumbnails of photos they want through e-mail. Recently this way I have sold more than 140 photos without Smugmug even knowing that.
I use Photoshelter for all other internet activity, as they know already about euro and other curencies. They also did, find out that some use centimeters, instead of Inches.
Such a nice site like Smugmug
I know GTA, but learned through live that out of New York there is still civilization. Someone should explain that, on the next meeting of, Smugmug managers.
By the way. Dont talk to ANDY. I think he is, a answering machine.
Ouch! I can assure you, I'm real, I'm a photographer like you, and that foreign currency on our site is a big priority. Is it taking too long? You bet. But know this: we'll get there.
Ouch! I can assure you, I'm real, I'm a photographer like you, and that foreign currency on our site is a big priority. Is it taking too long? You bet. But know this: we'll get there.
I wish you all the best this holiday season!
Andy <--- who is decidedly a real human being
Heh - we all know you're a real human Andy :-)
Can you explain why if foreign currency is a big deal, that while 3 of the top 5 requests on the uservoice feature voting site relate to foreign curreny of foreign print labs, none of them are even planned?
You have an item at position number ELEVEN which is started, and one at FIFTEEN which is planned.
(I know some are more difficult than others, but come on!)
Cheers - N
ps. I still love Smugmug, but this year I have had 2 more local friends let their accounts die because they can't easily sell locally (and aren't prepared to put the effort into supporting Paypal like I have)
Can you explain why if foreign currency is a big deal, that while 3 of the top 5 requests on the uservoice feature voting site relate to foreign curreny of foreign print labs, none of them are even planned?
Sure. I've answered this a few times, both here and on our feedback site. We love being transparent, but we won't open up every bit of our company to folks out there that we compete with. I have said here and on uservoice, that we've begun the critical underpinnings some time ago for this feature, and that's the absolute truth. We'll get this done! Thanks!
I'm hoping Andy that it is sooner rather than later. I have again received emails asking why I am in Aus, yet bill US$ and print there. The Smugmug offering is everything any photographer selling images/prints will ever need............. as long as you are in the USA.
If you guys get this up and running and especially if you offer printing from Australian based labs, you will get so much new business from Aus that is currently going to your competitors. I know many photographers who love SM, but the first thing that comes out of their mouths when we discuss it is the sole US based billing and fulfillment quickly followed by the statement that it is why they use an alternative.
Comments
I follow this thread as a UK SmugMug user who doesn't use the cart option on my site, I also down graded to Power User and then back to Pro.
There's a lot of pompous talk in the thread about what SmugMug should do and when, how it will affect their business etc if they don't do whatever the latest demand is and when they should implement it by.
There are plenty of solutions, many of which have been mentioned before - it makes no difference what currency is quoted in the cart, the bottom line is your orders will still come from the US and you will pay a premium (however small) for that either in delivery costs, delivery time, currency rates, conversion etc. Is it really such a big deal? As business professionals surely you can provide your customers with a satisfactory solution?
SmugMug is still the best, has the best customer service, and does its best to please it's customers. We can't have everything we want, when we want it, if you can find a better service - which I doubt - then walk don't winge.
Squeezer, this isn't aimed at you personally :-)
Rant over,
Caroline
www.carolineshipsey.co.uk - Follow me on G+
[/URL]
Actually yes, because not everyone who wants pictures is as internet savy as we are and will suspect something irregular is going on if his shopping car is not in his currency and the photos are supposed to be shiped from another country.
― Edward Weston
I've ordered things from several quite large shopping sites that use RBS Worldpay as the processor, they handle multiple currencies really nicely (apparently 120 different ones)
http://www.rbsworldpay.com/
The card companies will also let you put a pre authorization on the card and then put the charge through several days later. If you're wanting to handle it inhouse and you're worried about fluctuations, banks or other currency services will let you hedge or place forward currency orders so that you could set your exchange rates month to month or even six months ahead if you wanted to. Manufacturing exporters (essentially what smugmug is) deal with these things daily and have been doing so for decades. I'd be surprised if smugmug's current payment processor doesn't already have a handful of solutions for this kind of stuff.
"Hey Monte, Joy and I did up a$200.00 order last night for grad pics. SmugMug just sent this to me. I was without internet today and wanted to talk to you about this and adding a pic before the order was processed. The site would not let me add a photo last night so I tried to buy it alone and would be billed more freight from USA?? I am certainly confused by this SmugMug stuff? Will these pics come from the US? Thanks Ric"
Monte
I agree their customer service is great, and I don't know of any other provider that gives as much customisation capability.
But the lack of foreign currency support is a total killer. I enable it once a year for the one international event I travel to, and then disable it for all other galleries and make people buy digital prints only through Paypal (in New Zealand dollars)... It sucks that I can't offer prints locally (not without doing everything myself).
On most events, I now make more about twice as much through paypal digital DL sales than I made in total using Smugmugs own print and Digital DL solution.
I still love SM for the support and the customisation, but I've totally given up on them catering to non-US pros. I don't care what they say they are thinking about - I will continue to judge them on their actions (or inaction).
Regards
Neil G
http://www.nzsnaps.com (talkiet.smugmug.com)
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here is where you and everyone needs to go and vote on the multi currency and also the foreign labs request...........
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug
I really doubt it will do a lot of good as the foreign lab one has been at the top of the list for quite sometime and ther are still apps and other stuff being released for crap like iphones, ipads kotex mini pads, facebook and twitter and the likes...
I was asking for this stuff almost as soon as I got my SM acct over 5yrs ago ( and I have lots of sales from people in Czech Republic, Germany, South Africa, Lativa, Slovakia, Austria Flanders and norway just to mention a few.......) and was told then that it prob would never happen...even tho I sent links to show mom and pop flower shops in Prague and Tabor in the Czech republic that had multi currency right on their sites...all you had to do was clik the flag on the top corner of the sites and all the currency was transformed into your currency and that was long before the Euro........
I am looking for a Central European site similar to SM that has printing thru a localized lab...........
I don't really expect a lab here in Canada anytime soon and although it would be the perfect situation I am not banking on it.
Monte
So - is it time to update the status on the feature request(s) to 'Planned' :andy
http://photos.frankcourtney.com/
Wedding Photographer Dublin
The Foreign Currency Feature Request NeedS MORE VOTES from every person that it can benefit......It doesnot matter if you live in the U.S. or Spain....you can benefit from this feature......it opens your doors up aq whole lot more to people ordering from you, than if they have to go to a currency converter and back to you to place the order....simply put they will not do it............
Follow the link below to the feature request page and sign up and vote.............
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug
As a pro user, I like many have lost sales as soon as people see that they are being billed in US$ by an Aussie photographer and that the product will ship from the USA. I have had a number of inquiries as to why I do things this way, and it is tiresome and frustrating trying to explain it repeatedly to potential buyers. The greatest issue of all though, is that Aussie credit card issuers usually charge an FX conversion fee as a % of the amount charged in the foreign currency, and that extra $1-2 is chump change to most, but sure leaves a sour taste in the mouths of many Aussie buyers who will never visit your site again.
When my subscription is up, I will certainly be looking at a local solution with direct fulfillment or at worst a site to display works with manual fulfillment by me. SM is a wonderful platform, and it has the greatest feature set and support, however for non-US pro's this one lacking feature is a very sore point.
It really doesn't
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Yes - but it's not even showing up as 'planned'.
Just wanted to say that if it wasn't for people like you (Andy) and the great options SM offers - that I would have left long ago.
But, maybe you can't appreciate just how frustrating it is to have a great service like SM, but for practical purposes not to be able to use it for sales outside the US. Hence the regular 'reminders'.
http://photos.frankcourtney.com/
Wedding Photographer Dublin
I'm not gonna mark it planned until we get closer. It's a huge deal. Thanks.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
So what's happening with this?
Nothing related to the shopping cart (currency, self fulfilling orders etc) has been set as "planned" I'm sure they are all to be implemented together but gees, how much longer?
w. www.laraluz.com
s. about.me/laraluz
I think they need to wait for the development team working on Duke Nukem Forever to get that out the door and then stick those guys on the foreign currency feature.
Cheers - N
http://www.nzsnaps.com (talkiet.smugmug.com)
now is that helpful?
I'll say again: we have to do some major underpinnings to our payments infrastructure. That work is underway. Once complete, we then have the basis on which we can build out foreign currency.
This is something we want and plan to do. Thanks everyone for your patience, I know it's taking a lot longer than any of you care to think about.
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I'm a 5 year plus pro account holder living in Japan.
This has come up again and again and then again with all the empty promises that they are working on it.
It won't happen in the next 5 years, maybe not in the next 10.
Smugmug likes to tell you everything is on the table but this is a different story. I like everybody else hung on listening to that hoping it would be next year, then the next. Guess what? Never happened.
I'm a programmer and system admin by day so it hurts that they can't program something that I've had to program many times for foreign companies in Japan. It costs me money and my friends here because I can't offer to sell online digital downloads to the many events I have done in Japan.
They actually don't need the business and don't feel it's part of what they want as a business because that's just the way it is. It a business decision.
I love Smugmug but after discussing with my fellow photographers here we are moving along, because we have to. 5 years is enough. I suggest you do the same.
Tour Leader - DPRK
Uri Tours
SmugMug - photos.japanphotos.jp
However, while I expect that it will happen sometime - it's not on a basis on which I can plan a photos sales business around. Accordingly, I am exploring all the alternatives - as I can't afford to wait any longer.
http://photos.frankcourtney.com/
Wedding Photographer Dublin
I have waited for more levels (Available on Zenfolio)
I can have prints made in the UK with Zenfolio.
Sorry smugmug.
Roy Palmer - Digital Images
http://www.digital-images.org.uk/
We do need and want your business - yes - and it's taking way too long for us to do this, we know. I'm sorry for that!
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http://www.phillipcullinanphotography.com
I use Photoshelter for all other internet activity, as they know already about euro and other curencies. They also did, find out that some use centimeters, instead of Inches.
Such a nice site like Smugmug
I know GTA, but learned through live that out of New York there is still civilization. Someone should explain that, on the next meeting of, Smugmug managers.
www.mirophoto.com
smooth photography of...
www.mirophoto.com
smooth photography of...
I wish you all the best this holiday season!
Andy <--- who is decidedly a real human being
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Heh - we all know you're a real human Andy :-)
Can you explain why if foreign currency is a big deal, that while 3 of the top 5 requests on the uservoice feature voting site relate to foreign curreny of foreign print labs, none of them are even planned?
You have an item at position number ELEVEN which is started, and one at FIFTEEN which is planned.
(I know some are more difficult than others, but come on!)
Cheers - N
ps. I still love Smugmug, but this year I have had 2 more local friends let their accounts die because they can't easily sell locally (and aren't prepared to put the effort into supporting Paypal like I have)
http://www.nzsnaps.com (talkiet.smugmug.com)
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If you guys get this up and running and especially if you offer printing from Australian based labs, you will get so much new business from Aus that is currently going to your competitors. I know many photographers who love SM, but the first thing that comes out of their mouths when we discuss it is the sole US based billing and fulfillment quickly followed by the statement that it is why they use an alternative.
I'm really not going to say. But it's a huge high priority project for us.
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