How to automate Downloadable Software Sales and Registration?

Google Checkout is so tied-up in legal red tape that it's
nearly
impossible to use for anything that's digital.  If a
customer comes to
my website and requests something, even if they somehow told
Google
"hey, it's okay, I want these guys to use all my Google
Checkout info
to create an account on their site, because otherwise I
can't use what
I paid for", I think that we couldn't actually
auto-register them.
According to my interpretation of Google's terms, in order
for a user
to purchase a service (that must, by definition, be attached
to an
account), a user must:
 1.) anonymously purchase the service via Google Checkout
 2.) wait for my company to contact them (we can't create an
account
directly with their Google info)
       a.) user selected to allow us to contact them:
              i.) find out if the customer is already
registered
             ii.) if they are, re-link the purchase &
associated
accounting info to that service, pray no conflicts with
existing
services.
            iii.) if they're not, create an account,
associate the
purchase & accounting info, & upgrade the new
account.
       b.) user selected to NOT allow us to contact them:
              i.) we wait for them to contact us, and
somehow figure
out which order was theirs.
             ii.) wait until we've determined that they
won't contact
us, and we can't contact them, to cancel their purchase.

I haven't even come close to showing this complexity to it's
full
extent.  And don't forget that we have to add an extra step
into our
shopping cart so they can select Google vs. our internal
shipping
system... I don't get it.  Is it even feasibly possible to
use Google
Checkout to sell services?


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
 You received this message because you are subscribed to the
Google Groups "API Integration Basics" group.
To post to this group, send email to
google-checkout-api-integrationgooglegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
google-checkout-api-integration-unsubscribegooglegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-checko
ut-api-integration?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

> I haven't even come close to showing this complexity to
it's full
> extent.  And don't forget that we have to add an extra
step into our
> shopping cart so they can select Google vs. our
internal shipping
> system... I don't get it.  Is it even feasibly possible
to use Google
> Checkout to sell services?

I implemented the Google system on my site until I realized
I couldn't
use it because of these limitations. I need to keep accounts
for
customers in order to allow them to login at any time and
download
software updates. Google simply won't work for this with all
the
restrictions. I use PayPal currently.

Similarly, on another site we send letters for people and
need to
collect the user address in order to send the letter. Google
checkout
won't work in that case either.

Tom Muck
www.ezgram.com


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
 You received this message because you are subscribed to the
Google Groups "API Integration Basics" group.
To post to this group, send email to
google-checkout-api-integrationgooglegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
google-checkout-api-integration-unsubscribegooglegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-checko
ut-api-integration?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---