Hi, I downloaded and have been using the trial version of Scrivener. I like it and want to buy it (Windows, Regular Licence) but can’t do so online because, I think, I live in Vietnam. After entering all my payment details I hit the following:
“Error 99000: Unfortunately, Literature & Latte does not sell Scrivener for Windows (Regular Licence) to your country, so we are unable to complete your request. This may be due to U.S. trade restrictions. If you have questions about this message, please contact the product’s publisher or distributor."
Is there any way around this? I emailed sales on 26 June, but no response.
Mark,
That’s really awful.
I guess the US is still upset about losing the Vietnam war, and have an embargo as they do with Cuba
But literature and latte is a British company, and I assume follow British law, so why is this a problem?
Very upsetting. I hope you can work it out
Marta
… but this makes it even odder - I’m pretty sure the UK doesn’t have any specific export controls for software in place for Vietnam and almost as sure that the same applies for the US (even though as Marta says, that shouldn’t be an issue, should it?).
So is this an eSellerate problem about software sales to SE Asia?
I am really sorry, but eSellerate (the company that runs our web-store) will not process orders that originate from Vietnam, Ghana or Nigeria. They are under pressure from credit card companies and other regulatory offices to keep their fraud rates very low, so these three countries have a blanket ban. And I’m afraid we have no facility for accepting credit card (or other) payments outside the web-store framework.
We do try to sell Scrivener through other portals, but Amazon.com will only sell to people with a U.S. based address.
Could you get a friend in another country to purchase Scrivener on your behalf and send it to you privately? Sadly, IP addresses originating from Vietnam will trigger the web-store response that you got.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for your interest in Scrivener."
So it is eSellerate. And proxy servers don’t appear to help. Grr.
As someone living behind the Great Firewall of China, I can understand your frustration. One of the apps that I used regularly—Synchronize Pro! X—I could never upgrade as for some totally inexplicable reason, their main download server is considered a threat to China’s national security. The company was very kind, sent me upgrades by email and eventually opened a mirror which wasn’t blocked.
I don’t know what you’re doing in Vietnam and whether you’re able and could afford to get away for such a weekend, but I’d take a fun trip to Hong Kong and make the purchase there. Just try not to spend too much money on other things while you’re there …
Have you tried using a VPN? That’s a simple way of making your traffic appear to be coming from somewhere else. There’s a free VPN tunneling service called “SumRando” you might look into.
Another possibility is TOR. There is a TOR browser package that is easy to set up and use. Both of these things are easy Google searches.
My guess is that if you’re using a proxy and it isn’t working for you it’s because you aren’t actually hiding your originating IP. You can use Privoxy in your browser to fix that. The TOR browser bundle uses Privoxy to scrub your HTML requests, but you can use Privoxy independently if you want.
Mmm … yes, there are parts of HK that are lovely, but most of it feels to me at least like an immense, pullulating rabbit-warren of a place, where you move around underground, coming up to the surface in the middle of yet another vast shopping mall or business complex, and very few people are to be found out on the streets … it certainly seems like that on the Kowloon side.
But there’s lots to enjoy in HK … food particularly, and shopping if that’s your thing.
Me, I don’t particularly like big cities anyway and Hong Kong packs a very big city into a very small area. And even though shopping is not my thing, you can’t beat HK for somewhere to buy things like computers, cameras, etc. … no tax, you see.
The sometime English fiancé of an HK former student friend of mine, when in HK bought three Rolexes. When she asked him why, given that he already had over thirty watches, the answer came back, “Because they’re so cheap!”
Actually no, the real thing, which makes it even more ludicrous. Let’s just say he was working at a level in a particular industry that gave him an income of mega-mega-bucks.
I’ve heard Hong Kong is lovely.