Prices in dollars?

What happened to the pricing system? I have been using the pricing system in dollars since I started using Shapeways, and it's most convienant for me and my customers to converse in. All of a sudden, everything is in Euros and I can't find a way to turn it back.

If there is a toggle, somewhere, could someone please tell me where to find it currently (there was one in the past.)

If this is a permenant change I would like to voice my extreme displeasure, as it will do nothing but cause me problems. For a kick-off it makes it much harder for me to eyeball the prices (as pounds to dollars and vise versa is easily doable), meaning I have to grab a calcualtor every time instead of a rough estimate - particularly important when attending conventions with potential customers, all of whom are from the UK.

(If this is is a locailisation issue, then I would like to know why pounds are not being offered as an alternative, as none of my customers use Euros, being mostly from the UK or US so this is unhelpful.)

Adding my voice too.

My models overview, shows price in USD.
Model page shows price in USD.

Checkout shows price in Euros

I'm in the UK too and prefer USD for the following reasons;
1. USD prices are permanent, whilst Euro price flutuates.
2. Shapeways shop earnings are made in USD
3. Private work I do for clients is paid in USD
4. Personal reasons relating to the whole 'Euro Zone' thing.

There is no option to change to the advertised USD price in the cart or anywhere else.
Please fix this (i.e. return to letting customers having the choice of payment monetary unit)

Paul

[hr]

stop4stuffModeller for hireShapeways ShopTwitter​

Hi guys,

I hear the confusion, and since this is a few different issues, I hope this clarifies a few things:

Shapeways is registered as a business in both the US and the EU, and not in the UK, so we can only offer Euros and Dollars (and not Pounds Sterling)

Our website is in US Dollars, and we convert to Euros. We have always updated the conversion rate manually once a month (on the 1st). We do this unless the currency jumps dramatically, then we update it more often to be accurate.

The price you see is determined by your shipping address. You can not manually change it, sorry.

If, like Paul, you are seeing one currency on your models and another on checkout, check which shipping address you have listed.
It is possible this is a bug, and if you delete and re-enter your shipping address it should fix it. More likely though, is that you can see that you can switch currencies in the cart.

Currency is determined by SHIPPING address - so in your cart, when you choose your shipping country it will switch between Euros/Dollars - this is a way to see what it costs in each currency should you wish to do so.

Remember you can't have different billing and shipping addresses - they must be in the same country, so it is possible you get to the checkout page in the 'wrong' currency, but you wont be able to checkout if your billing and shipping addresses do not match.

I have cross-posted this in the InShape thread too.

Best,
Natalia

Since I started using this site two years ago, I have always worked in dollars, I set my mark-up in dollars, make my cost estimates in dollars, most of my customers purchase in dollars.

Thanks to this latest change, in order to continue to do that, I've had to prat about setting up a second, new pretend US shipping address and fiddling with the shipping options in a pretend shopping cart (wtih shipping address to England) to get back to being able to see my models in dollars (with VAT) as before, so I can check the mark-ups (this incidently, for everyone else, seems like a work-around - I suggest just googling a US postal code for your pretend address but for frag's sake don't forget to change it to the right one when you actually order). This is a job that was already a pain to start with, given the edit/mark-up screen didn't show VAT since before last year's big summer update, requireing me to exit edit mode to see the purchase price and then then re-enter it again to add the correct mark-up.

The fact it took that level of fiddling around - as before I started doing that, the prices in Euros and my markups did not even look like the right numbers (since they should be 10% - which should really be the same in any currency - and weren't) suggests to me you need to have a look at the new set-up, because - once AGAIN - it doesn't look like you've tested it fully before springing it on us unannonouced. (I'm not going to try to replicate the problem now, since it was enough hassle getting to where I am without undoing it all, even if I assume it's a problem I can easily replicate.)

I still quite cross that only a month ago, when I put my last order, I could purchase my models in dollars or Euros as I choose and suddenly I can't, without any kind of notice or warning (not to mention that you haven't updated your FAQs - or for that matter, your terms of service - to reflect this change.) I'm sorry, but this is really just not good enough, guys. Every single time in the last year you have updated your front-end, you've made it progressively more tedious and time-consuming for me, as the shop owner, to use at no gain to me or my customers. It's certainly not doing you any favours in my long-term customer loyalty; if (when?) someone else comes by with a similar service at similar cost, I would be hard-pressed to find a reason to keep using Shapeways what with all the extra faffing about I have to do to get a model ready for putting in my shop at the moment.

This has been going on for around two years, reported multiple times and even declared embarrasing. Other things like shipping via plain post started to be implemented. Reinvesting with a ~5% loss is not a nice hobby. Maybe worth considering if it would improve sales and add new creations (so more sales) for some areas.

What about fixing this? before 2012, european buyers could pay in USD or in EUR, no forced currency choice based on ip.
For detailled explanation,see this topic, for instance: https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=764 80&#msg_58840

Hello,
I live in Mexico and I don't know in wich currency I'm seeing the website. Some prices are absurd for dollars but others are absurd for "pesos". Any one knows in wich currency do Mexicans see Shapeways?

I'd expect US dollars, but there is a currency selection box at the bottom of the webpage. (Internally everything is in USD, I assume you would see a reasonably current exchange rate from pesos applied on checkout. Eurozone customers get a fixed exchange rate that is updated monthly, but as far as I know this is a special case)
Perhaps you could give an example for absurd pricing - could be they are absurdly priced by the respective designer (through individual markup on production cost) so that nobody buys them (yet) but they remain visible in the shop system to show off ?

Example, I quoted a d20 dice in a 3D Printing service in my city. The printing of the model was $48 Pesos in PLA . I uploaded that same model here in shapeways, the cost in PLA in shapeways is of $54.51, that would be absurd if it was in dollars, but in "pesos" it would be reasonable.

Plus in Platinum it cost $205,766.83, I don't think anyone would buy it if it was in Dollars.

I cannot access your model as it is not "visible to the public" (all models are private by default here), but given what appears to be a roughly 1:20 exchange rate for these currencies the most likely explanation would seem to be that the model was uploaded at the wrong scale (size is shown on the model page as "bounding box").
Platinum cost here is 1750 USD per ccm (close to three times the price of bulk platinum but including labor cost for polishing etc and probably some overhead for a relatively exotic order) so actual material used in your model would be about 117ccm or 7.1 cubic inches ?

True, it was 6 cm in width, now i have scaled it and the price is mor reasonable. Still, it is five time cheaper here in my city...
But thanks!,
you resolved my doubt.

Kind Regards,
Dertax0411