Subject:
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Re: Why do so many people say "I will only ship to the us"?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 7 May 2000 23:31:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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802 times
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In lugnet.general, Jonathan Wilson writes:
>
>
> Paul Ferguson wrote:
>
> > I've got to second what Dave Johann writes.
> >
> > Having lived in the UK for about two years over two different
> > time periods, I can say that, on average, the U. S. banking
> > system simply isn't prepared to deal with international currency
> > transactions (in either direction) in comparison with Europe.
> >
> > In my small town in Scotland (population perhaps 10,000 max.),
> > virtually every branch bank could perform currency exchange and
> > make out checks or money orders in foreign currency.
> >
> > On the other hand, in NEW YORK CITY (my home, 1977-86), I had to
> > leave my neighborhood and ride the subway downtown to a bank's
> > main office to perform these tasks. Same story in Philadelphia,
> > 1986-88.
> >
> > And don't even get me started on my current mid-sized
> > Ohio city, where my major commercial bank couldn't figure out
> > how to send money to the UK except by wire transfer, with a minimum
> > $25 fee, which seemed pretty steep to order about $30 of photographs
> > from the National Library of Scotland. In fact, once they discovered
> > that they had a "corresponding bank" in Edinburgh, they still screwed
> > the whole thing up.
> >
> > The bottom line is that in this area, despite all the blather from
> > politicians and others about the "global marketplace," the fact is
> > that the U.S. competes poorly because its banks simply don't want
> > to bother with smaller transactions.
> >
> > So, the bottom line is that while I am sympathetic with people from
> > abroad who would like to buy from the U. S., I'm limiting my own
> > sales to U. S. and Canada, where out banks can seem to manage this
> > stuff.
... [Big Snip here] ...
>
> That, my friend is why they invented the money order: reasonably cheap for the
> buyer, costs nothing the for the casher (I think, dont quote me on this) and • is
> accepted worldwide (you just get it in the correct currency). The buyers end
> handles the currency conversion so the seller gets it ready to go in us$ or • euros
> or whatever.
Yes, well, in theory a nice solution. My most recent event (me in U.S.,
buying from UK -- the one my bank messed up) had the additional factor
that the receiver was a government agency. Darn how they can be picky
about wanting to be paid in their OWN currency, and won't take money
orders. Heck, it almost makes me long for the old days of the cold war
when governments in eastern Europe had such weak currencies that you
HAD to pay them (for visas, permits, etc.) in U.S. dollars, Deutschmarks,
or Swiss Francs.
In any case, I'm sticking with my previous statements. As Shiri correctly
noted, the U. S. (yes, I'm a citizen by birth) has simply been fat, dumb,
and happy in the world market for so long that it hasn't had to hustle.
It's evident from the fact that we also don't make anything like the effort
to teach children foreign languages that the European countries do. Our
theory: if you want to do business with us, do it our way! Great theory
when there's no real competition, like immediately after World War II when
most other industrialized economies had literally been bombed out, but not
so hot now.
Paul
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