FastSpring

I use FastSpring for order processing, when you buy a yaTimer license you are actually buying it from FastSpring, they do all the credit card processing, handle taxes, send you the e-mail with activation code and take care of all the tiny details that needs to be taken care of when selling stuff on-line, once a month* the money just appears in my bank account.

There are many other companies that have similar offering but what makes FastSpring unique is their customer support, you send them an e-mail anytime and you always get a quick response from someone that not only knows the system but also knows the business of selling software and can (and will) actually solve your problem – even if there is a lot of work involved.

As a side note this is the exact opposite from PayPal, where you get a sort-of-timely answer from someone that doesn’t know anything you can’t read on the site yourself and can’t do anything you can’t do on the site yourself.

FastSpring is the only company handling critical business function for me that I know that if I find a problem late at night I can just send them a message and go to sleep knowing everything will be fixed by the time I get up in the morning** (if there’s a problem in some other aspect of the business it’ll be a long and sleepless night)

I have in the past recommended FastSpring both on-line and in person to everyone who is even considering opening an on-line business, so now I’m also writing about it here, if you are selling stuff on-line check them out

Full discloser: there’s actually nothing to disclose, I’m just a customer of FastSpring, no one asked me to write this and I didn’t get anything in exchange for this post.

* you can also get the money every two weeks, I’ve opted for once a month to save on my bank’s international wire transfer fees.

** I’m on the other side of the world, my night is their afternoon, so it’s ok to send them a message late at night – I actually try not to send them messages on my morning (their night) because they will answer on nights and weekends and thinking I’ve might have woken up Ken (my account manager) in the middle of the night, or made him work at night for something that is not an absolute emergency makes me feel guilty.