Hello,
Having read some of the discussion on payment providers, which has been
something of an issue for EuroPython for the past two years (at least, but
with more urgency this year and last), and noting that PyCon US isn't
experiencing much better, perhaps we should seize the opportunity and set
down what we want, what we don't want, and what we can live with.
Here are a few things which I think have come out of the discussion so far:
Reliability - PayPal seems pretty awful with respect to reliability and
actually recovering from errors, and perhaps something
better that handles credit/debit card payments might be
worth investing in
Integration - having the ability to find out who paid is obviously
important, along with knowing whose payments haven't worked
for whatever reason; I remember looking into some payment
provider API back in the days of Indico and getting their
payment modules working with an account that I think had
expired, but simplicity and security are the key factors
here; to be able to conveniently reconcile registrations
with payments would reduce the organisers' workload
Convenience - for the end-user, I think John's solution is pretty good in
that the payment interface is handled for us, and it's not
like the Reval payment system where you get bounced off to
an iframe served out of Estonia ;-) (but we still rely on
PayPal, currently)
Versatility - being able to deal with major cards, and PayPal for those
who absolutely must use it, is essential, whereas bank
transfers are most likely to get reconciled by other means,
I imagine; handling the EuroPython "absence of VAT"
requirements is a necessity
Maintenance - if such things are going to cost money, and need to be active
(because financial institutions love to declare things
dormant and ask for more money to "reactivate" them), then
perhaps we need to consider an arrangement where more than
one conference can use the provider, although this may well
complicate the administrative arrangements
Does this (minus my opinions, of course) sum up the situation? The stuff about
a common provider arrangement is probably unfeasible, given the need to have
money going into different accounts, having different legal entities of
different kinds in different countries, but then again, perhaps the PSF
should be aspiring to lowering the barrier to entry for Python conference
organisers.
Paul
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