Digital River goes up the creek ...

.. and finds Westpac already there.

I have commented in my previous post about the good screen capture program - Screenshot Utility- I have just tried.  I believe that where someone has done something well, and is doing it as a commercial operation one is obligated to support them.  Thus I felt I should register my copy of Screenshot and pay the $US19.97 required for that purpose.

This all seemed simple.  However the payment is arranged through a mob (rabble, gaggle - your call) called Digital River who reckon they are a leading e-commerce operation.  Specifically this was Element 5 of their operation which I found to be a totally electronic operation from which no information could be provided.

The initial problem arose, at about 1145 with their form which had "State" as a required field.  Unfortunately it only allowed one to enter 'State' level names for the US, Canada, China or Japan.  It objected when I put in a random State name but left the country as Australia. So I put in our address from New York to see what happened.  I got to the final stages of the process with Mastercard Secure and it rejected me.  It wouldn't give me any reason why it had done so but I assumed it was because the NY address didn't match the address for my credit card.

I was not happy by this time and sent an email to the developers of Screenshot Utility - QSX Software Group  - in Canada explaining how Digital River were costing them sales.  They replied very quickly saying just ignore the field for State.  Que??  But it worked!  I have told them to explain to Digital River that a required field is one that is required in all cases, not just a subset!  Who knows how many sales this has cost QSX?

So we now re-enter the fray with Westpac at about 1945,  Their wonderful sign-up to Mastercard Secure rejected my password and everything else.  Basically told me to ring Westpac which I did and after some 12 minutes in a queue (which is why I hadn't rung them earlier)  I spoke to a nice young lady who told me that all she could do was to reset my password to my date of birth and I had to start again.

Off I went.  This time it wouldn't accept my date of birth (one of the few dates I can now remember).  So back on the phone to Westpac.  This time - after another 12 minutes in a queue -  I spoke to a bloke who said my card was blocked in the morning because of an incorrect expiration date. I explained that it had never given me a message about this problem.  I also said what about the two attempts I had made to use the system in the evening?  They didn't show up on his system at all!! I asked him to stay on the line as I tried again so that I could tell him if things went pear shaped, which he did and they didn't.  End result was that I got the code for the software and can now take screenshots to my hearts content.  This should have shown up on my helpers computer but didn't!

There are obviously many, many problems with the Mastercard Secure system.  I just hope they did record my calls and will do something about the problems.  The first of these wishes is a possible, the second is ridiculously optimistic!

It is probably symptomatic of the activities of Digital River that the email containing the receipt  for the Mastercard funds was directed to my Spam folder.  Google recognises electronically generated prose!

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