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 Final dollar amount?
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Clicker
Starting Member

Canada
18 Posts

Posted - January 07 2009 :  19:23:08  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
In a new Canadian VP-ASP 6.50 store, we have the Currency Switcher enabled to show Canadian and US dollars. In the International settings, the xcurrencybase is set to Canadian dollars and Canadian dollars are set to 1 in the Currency Tables. US dollar rate is whatever rate is current for the day.

The dual rate (xdualprice) that shows in the cart is not enabled.

When a test order made in US dollars is displayed in the Admin control panel, it shows only the Canadian dollar amount and the exchange rate that applies to the US dollar. It does not show the US dollar amount at all.

We will have a gateway to Virtual Merchant (VM). I am assuming that when the order is passed to the VM server, it will be in Canadian dollars even if the order was entered in US dollars.

When the customer receives their credit card statement, it will show the primary charge in Canadian dollars and also the US dollar amount after exchange and credit card transaction fees are applied. That means that the final US dollar amount charged to the customer will normally be greater than the amount shown on our store invoice.

Anyone know if this sequence is correct or am I missing something?

VPASP 6.50

Clicker
Starting Member

Canada
18 Posts

Posted - January 09 2009 :  21:20:19  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
What I described above is a problem. A customer may feel that they are being cheated if the store uses VP-ASP currency features in 6.5.

If I enable the Currency Change feature, a US customer gets the impression that he or she is buying in US dollars because that is all that they see. Canadian dollars are not shown. When they get their credit card statement, they will discover that they were charged in Canadian dollars which was exchanged back to US dollars at an amount greater than the invoice amount due to additional currency exchange fees added by the credit card company.

To avoid confusion and to keep the customer informed and happy when the Currency Change feature is used, the price of each product should show both the currency chosen by the customer and the base currency that will be passed to the gateway. That way at least the Canadian dollar amount shown on the customer's credit card statement will match the Canadian dollar total on our store invoice.

We have used a system like this for the last five years without one complaint from customers. Each product shows the price in both currencies and the checkout has totals in both currencies. But I know that the VP-ASP Currency Change feature will result in problems.

The optional xdualrate feature does not make things better. The dual rate only shows in the cart and checkout from what I can see so far. It should show on each product listing to be consistent. Otherwise the customer is choosing items in a currency that is foreign to them until they get to the cart.

The solution? I need to be able to add the xdualrate to each product price shown OR if I enable Change Currency, show the base currency on each product price. The result is the same.


VPASP 6.50

Edited by - Clicker on January 10 2009 07:35:52
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Clicker
Starting Member

Canada
18 Posts

Posted - January 10 2009 :  08:45:40  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Let's move one step more on this issue. Sorry about rambling on but it took writing it out to think it through.

We really like VP-ASP. Great features and a perfect match for our online stores. This currency issue is the last glitch before we launch our newest store and we have to get it resolved.

I am new to VP-ASP and if my arguments are wrong. please let me know. Here's the issue from a different perspective:

If VP-ASP was set up to pass two or more separate currencies to the gateway, this issue would not exist but VP-ASP only passes the base currency to the gateway.

Use of the Currency value tables the way they are now could be seen as deceptive trade practices in court. You cannot give a customer a choice of currencies then actually charge them in a different base currency. In our case, the base currency is Canadian dollars and the secondary currency is US dollars. A US$ customer could point to the US$ total on our store invoice and insist that they should be charged only that amount and not the amount that shows on their credit card statement which is stated in our base currency, Canadian dollars, along with the US$ equivalent based on VISA's exchange rate and includes VISA's additional currency exchange fees.

You can bet that VISA's exchange rate is always higher than the bank rate so that the US$ total on the customer's credit card statement will always be higher than the US$ total on our store invoice.

Again the solution is simple.
First, the price for each product and the cart and checkout totals must be stated in both the currency of choice and the base currency. That way the total in our base currency, CAD$ is exactly the same as the CAD$ seen on our customers credit card statement.
Second, the customer must be warned that our store, as an example, sells only in the base currency CAD$ and that the currency of choice US$ is approximate and based on that day's bank rate and does not include extra fees charged by the credit card system.

VP-ASP should update code so that all product prices and checkout totals are shown in the base currency as well as the currency of choice when the currency value tables are used.


VPASP 6.50
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Clicker
Starting Member

Canada
18 Posts

Posted - January 18 2009 :  22:40:48  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Just want to close this one-sided discussion so that you know how we resolved the problem.
We hid the values in the Currency Table and enabled the xdualrate. Then we added (US$[Dualprice cprice]) to the product templates. That way the US customer can see their cost from the product pages to checkout.
We still are not convinced that the Currency Table is adequate for the reasons stated above.


VPASP 6.50
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