[mythtv-users] schedulesdirect payment methods

[Braindead]

On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:35:37 -0700
Chris Petersen <lists at forevermore.net> wrote:

First let me say, I'm sorry I got the original thread started down the really wrong track.  Renamed subject.

> Braindead wrote:

> > My wife takes checks and money orders too, why not accept those?
> 
> For one, your wife is making a profit.  I'd have to quit my job and
> take up full-time check-endorsing in order to cover the workload that
> would result from taking checks.  We'll release the actual Labs usage
> numbers numbers when we can, but we're not talking about 2-3
> transactions per day, even if only 1/10 of the Labs users deside to
> use Schedules Direct.

You aren't making any profit, but TMS surely is. And they're making a profit off people paying for advertising (which is essentially what listings are).  Many people obviously feel that the listing data it worth something, considering that at least 98% of it is useless to me... it's worth much less.  

I'm sure we can't for pay per channel listing (just like you can't buy cable ala-cart in most places).. but that doesn't mean I have to not complain about it ;-)

I think that there needs to be some alternative.  A lot of small hosting services take checks (but only for larger time periods), perhaps a 2 year subscription would make the paperwork acceptable considering the fee savings? I suspect that the majority of MythTV users have no problem with PayPal, obviously some do.

> There's a *huge* reason why a large company like TMS didn't even want
> to deal with taking payment directly from users.  It's a huge
> headache.

It's small fries to them, there isn't enough profit in it.  If they can get a non-profit to extract a little bit of profit for it, there's no reason not to.

> Please remember:
> 
>  * None of us are getting paid for this (in fact, it's been costing us
>    money)
>  * We all have full time "real" jobs, and some of us have even had to
>    use up vacation time for this endeavor.
>  * We were given a VERY tight deadline to get things up and running,
> so what you see is NOT (note "is" not "might") the final product.

Honestly I do appreciate what you folks are doing, I'm just pointing out that I believe there should be alternative means of payment.

I suppose that *we* the regular users community could perhaps put something in place.  Maybe there is someone with a PayPal account who will accept checks in exchange for paying our fees.  Of course that would be even more difficult to make work, it would definitely require some sort of 'deadbeat' registry.... and you'd have to give that person with the PayPal account access to your SchedulesDirect account (so he/she could shut it down if you don't pay)..etc...   Never mind, that's a seriously crazy idea.