Unavailable route

[bootednancy]

Dear Forum users. on June 27 this site posted an activity ("07022danapur-secunderabadspecialfarespecial.zip") which requires a Payware route "IR_Narmada Route". Going to their website to buy it is something MSTS users should be made aware of. With discussions to the Administrators of this Indian website, I was made aware of a few sad facts. This route has become next to impossible to obtain because of their backwards cock-eyed method of ordering and purchase. You're supposed to I assume purchase through some Indian bank, then send a copy of the receipt to them of some squiggly "ink-blot" thing?????

In the words of one of the Administrators to me, they are NOT set up for International transactions (nothing we recognize: Credit cards or Pay-Pal) their trade is more "local" Indian usage. They were prompt in their replies, and promised (maybe) a solution that might modify this handicap, but so far it is over 2 weeks and they have not responded back to me.

Oh, and one other warning they issue......anyone who falsely provides information or does not complete the ordering process will BE BANNED FOR LIFE FROM USE OF THEIR WEBSITE.........double trap because, how can you complete it????

Overall result.....NOT worth the useless effort for one activity which may be for a good route.

[eric]

BANNED FOR LIFE FROM USE OF THEIR WEBSITE

Good luck enforcing that. Really.

[oper190]

Oh, and one other warning they issue......anyone who falsely provides information or does not complete the ordering process will BE BANNED FOR LIFE FROM USE OF THEIR WEBSITE.........double trap because, how can you complete it????

Kind of self-defeating, now you can't spend any money with them at all. DAH.....

[sanjeeb_ir]

I think this issue is more about the website's payment system than India itself.
I'm also an Indian OR route developer, and I accept international payments through PayPal without any problems. If the website administrator isn't familiar with handling international payments, that's understandable, but there are solutions available today.
In my opinion, if a website cannot support international customers or payments, it should clearly mention that or avoid promoting its payware content on international platforms like TrainSim.com, where users from all over the world expect to be able to purchase content easily.
Unfortunately, situations like this create a negative impression of Indian developers as a whole, even though many of us provide proper international payment options and support. I also believe that administrators should be a little more polite and accommodating when responding to overseas users, as a professional and friendly approach benefits everyone in the community.

[TrainGuy6550]

Hello, your frustration seems reasonable. For foreign payments, you shouldn't have to look beyond PayPal.
The issue here is, very few people actually use PayPal, for Indians generally don't need to order anything from another country. Most people don't even know what that is. For special cases, e.g. medicines, specialized equipment, etc. will someone consider having a look at PayPal.
Concepts like "Alibaba", "Temu", "wish.com" don't work here, as the import taxes for the stuff are generally higher than the price of the product itself.

However, as they are hosting a website, and as they are in a business, they should have an international payment system... It is unfortunate you had to face that.
I would say you should not consider purchasing anything from <any> website that doesn't use standard payment systems.

even though many of us provide proper international payment options and support

This is true, but as an international, they probably don't have a way to know that who provides this and who does not. As a customer, their time and engagement with you, as a businessman, is important, and you need to value it. The classic salesman - customer game.

In the words of one of the Administrators to me, they are NOT set up for International transactions (nothing we recognize: Credit cards or Pay-Pal) their trade is more "local" Indian usage. They were prompt in their replies, and promised (maybe) a solution that might modify this handicap, but so far it is over 2 weeks and they have not responded back to me.

Good luck with that, they'll probably not respond, ever. Maybe if they get a PayPal account set up...

----------------------------------------READ FROM HERE ONLY IF INTERESTED------------------------------------------

Oh, and one other warning they issue......anyone who falsely provides information or does not complete the ordering process will BE BANNED FOR LIFE FROM USE OF THEIR WEBSITE.........double trap because, how can you complete it????

This is a classic "PTSD" of Indian developers. I see it everywhere...
When Open Rails wasn't even a thing (probably), some modellers from India noticed the "MSTS" arcade and decided to make content for it. This content was uploaded on various sites, including here. Some time later, a game developer made the first Indian train game for android. This exploded in popularity (today it has been made awful though: Indian Train Simulator by Highbrow Interactive). This game was an original game from South India where all of its content were handmade from scratch, with real effort. Looking at this, some people, who didn't know how to do 3D and didn't know how to code, promised a game that would look better than this game. It seemed to never arrive. However, years later, it arrived, and what did people see? MSTS models converted for use in that game. What followed: MSTS models converted for use in auran Trainz. Dumb repaints without giving the author a simple attribution, and what not.
Seeing this, these developers first made the content hard to get. When that didn't work, they introduced this "Pay for Everything" system. What do you expect to happen now?
This "Pay for Everything" system eventually established a notion: "If you don't make your content paid, it will be pirated and f#cked with in a couple of days"
and was soon followed by "If you can earn money from it, why leave out"
The original MSTS modellers faced multiple difficulties from cheapskates who would do bad stuff with their models. Multiple times.
So all content is paid now. They don't trust you even if you pay. That is why it is hard to get.

I have seen "application forms" for purchasing models where some people even demand your home address (WTF?!), your national identity card photos (back and forth), and what not.
I don't know what they will demand from internationals. This is scary, I'd highly recommend avoiding purchasing any such content.
There's a vendor for Railworks, they develop an app to distribute their content. You don't know what that app does. You don't know what is being sent to them via that application. I believe in FOSS software, so anything proprietary hurts for me. Might be different for you, but I would advise staying away from it.
The situation is unfortunate, but it is established, and the % of the people who legitimately purchase these stuff don't mind, so it keeps working like that.

Overall result.....NOT worth the useless effort for one activity which may be for a good route.

As much as this hurts to say, yes, you will have to deal with that frequently. As I said before, not many people use PayPal or any other international transfer service afaik.

[eric]

I’ve been accepting INR payments for about two years, and the uptake was small until I started taking GPay/Google Payments and some other non-traditional payments.

Bank payments via UPI rule the day in India and Asia, and finding an online provider who doesn’t take 15-30% in fees can be a challenge, especially if currency conversion gets involved.