Paying My Orders In Usd Instead Of Euro

Hello together,

through the search I found this topic is old and has been discussed numerous times without any satisfying result.
It was possible at some point and has been discontinued, but why?

Why can I not pay my own Orders in dollar instead of euro?
This option would allow me to e.g. reinvest my shapeways earnings directly into new parts.

As a result of this I have to pay the Paypal rates. This should then be calcualted on top of the Prices my customers have to pay. This makes the parts more pricey and less attractive to customers. Ergo I'm loosing customers, this is also bad for Shapeways.

I would be good, if this could be resolved.

@ RePro_Delta,

You are a German citizen, isn't that right? If so, the reason you have to pay in EUR instead of USD is because you live in Germany so I guess your PayPal account is linked to a German bank account. As a German citizen you are, you buy 19% more expensive than a US-located buyer for example (due VAT). IMHO no need to complain about it, because at least German citizens make a nice living, instead other countries where buyers need to pay VAT 27% (or more) and their monthly income is less than average German worker's daily salary.

Paying in one or another currency is a different matter than paying VAT. Take for example UK designers/customers. Or Norway ones. SW forces everyone there into Euros, but only the first country is charged VAT by SW. Neither have Euros as official currency.

Paypal allows accounts holding multiple currencies. Forcing people to make "fake" exchanges is just free profit for Paypal, and a loss for RePro or higher price for final customer.

@ stannum,

I think that you misunderstood. My last message had two parts. Please let me explain again:

• 1st part. Question: Why a EU customer (a German one in this case) has to pay in EUR instead of other currency? Answer: Because EU customers do have PayPal accounts, linked to European banks not using USD as their default currency.

• 2nd part. Question: Why a EU customer has to pay more (depending on each country VAT) than a US customer for example? Answer: Because Shapeways supposed to be a US-made company and VAT need to apply on services and products.

Am I wrong?

@Anyuta3D : I'm not Stannum, but yes, in my opinion you are not answering OP question.

Designers on Shapeways receive their markups in USD. They have USD on their Paypal balance. Yet, they can't select USD currency to pay on Shapeways. They have to pay in Euro , Paypal then happily converts the USD on the Paypal balance to EUR, and they take an hefty fee for doing it.

Some years ago, a buyer was free to select USD as currency if he wanted to. For some years now, Shapeways is forcing everyone in Europe (by Geo-IP) to pay in EURO ONLY. Even the people in UK, Norway or Switzerland HAVE to pay in Euro, even if none of those countries has Euro as currency. If you are in Europe but have USD on your paypal account balance, then you have the choice to pay in... EURO. Makes Paypal happy, because of the conversion fee.

@ fx,

Yes, I got your point. IMHO its not about Europen customers only. It's about customers having PayPal accounts linked to a USD bank or customers having PayPal accounts linked to banks using other currencies. I would be very interested to hear views from customers & shop owners located in Australia, Japan or South Africa for example.

Oh wow.
@Anyuta, thanks for the rather condescending reply but love your work, been looking by your shop regularly...

It got nothing to do with taxes.
If living in Europe means paying in Euro, thats fine. But why do I get payed in USD, should I not get payed in Euro?

Back to the point, up until around end 2016 or so I could pay in euro or usd.
This is not possible anymore and I just want to know why?

Background is, everybody is loosing out on this situation.
As I cannot use my usd on my paypal account for much in europe and I cannot pay sw with it, I have to convert. This costs or lets say gives a large percentage to paypal. I could compensate these "fees" by raising prices in my shop (maybe others are already doing so?), what this means is, I think obvious to everyone...

@ RePro_Delta,

While we all shop owners deal with Shapeways here, both sides actually set our own rules and describe our shop policy. Shapeways, a US-funded company, provides a wide range of capabilities (hard to find elsewhere) offering the opportunity to talented 3D designers and shop owners to earn their living by selling 3D printed objects. As return, Shapeways is charging fees and setup their own financial policy - a policy that sometimes may look too greedy for all of us. On the other side, we shop owners and 3D designers, trust our creations to Shapeways and we contribute to the success or failure of this co-operation project. If for any reason a shop owner is not happy with Shapeways terms, it is very easy to seek for new co-operation with a Shapeways competitor, like many of us also do. Same time, if Shapeways is not happy with our shop owners terms, simply terminates the co-operation. It takes two to tango and as long as Shapeways and shop owners are still co-operating with each other, it means that advantages are much more than disadvantages and both sides keep earning money. Our Anyuta 3D team experience while co-operating with Shapeways during the last 6 years, prooves that Shapeways crew always try to keep their ears and eyes open to listen shop owners opinions and learn new things. Critisism sometimes is part of the process to become better.

If you ask me, I also do not like many things in Shapeways. I also do not like paying 3.5% fees of total markup and let Shapeways grabing hundreds USD from sales each month. I also do not like when need to convert USD to other currency. I also do not like that European customers need to pay importing VAT while their products are actually produced within European territory (Eindhoven Netherlands). I also get angry sometimes when Shapeways decides to promote some shops while keep others in shadow...


...as long as Shapeways personnel works 24/7 like being my own employees, checking, preparing, cleaning, carefully wrapping and posting my products to my customers, as long as they are ready to answer my questions almost instantly, as long as they support me, advice me and help me become better shop owner and increase my sales, as long as Shapeways offers the opportunity to a 3D designer to earn $50, $500 or $5000 monthly, I can surely accept their terms and I can ignore few details that irritate and annoy me because I earn enough to understand that this co-operation is paying off and growing. The truth is that above ALL the minor problems may appear, Shapeways offers a great package of support.

Just my 2-cent worth opinion

wow again. That really blows the topic out of proportion and I feel you haven't really understood it.
I think it was a relatively simple question and maybe we and sw could "have" work(ed) something out...

Anyuta: Shapeways started in the Netherlands thanks to Lifestyle Incubator of Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., and based everything around USD. Then Euros were allowed as payment option, customer choice. Later it became Euros or Dollars, no option, only one currency accepted. For receiving markups, it has been USD all the time (or conversion if you didn't enable multiple currencies in Paypal, but SW sends USD).

The 3.5% fee is Paypal's, not SW's. The issue is SW's setup gives Paypal even more in the form of currency conversions, as there is no choice even if you have the money.

RePro: years pass, silence keeps on. Not even an explanation provided.

You are right about where SW fOUnded (further info found HERE), but I wrote "US-fUnded" (not "US-fOUnded") because I had the impression that (since HQ are based in New York, USA) the company expanded and became World's best in the field, because US funds. Therefore, this could justify SW's policy to USD payments instead of other currences.

Yes, you are right again. I stand corrected (following screenshot is taken from HERE)

SW got funds from multiple sources in multiple rounds. For example Inkef Capital was created by Dutch pension fund ABP, Presidio Ventures comes from Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corporation, Lux Capital comes from USA and Index Ventures is from UK. Those investors could handle money from different places.

Yet the choice of USD has been there since day one (Philips times), but never explained. Or any reason given for why other currencies are handled as they are.

This is a finance/PayPal policy by which we have to abide.

Unless something changed without notice (again), the prices in "other" currencies are informational only ?
From your very own FAQ: