Thread: eventbrite/on-line registrations

Has anyone here ever used Eventbrite for on-line registrations? If so, how do you rate it? Are there any places like this that you would recommend more?

I want to do on-line registrations without opening a merchant account but I want to make it as easy as possible for the customer.

I use paypal for my online registrations.

For special events, I just create 'add to cart' buttons in Paypal. If I didn't have a complicated pricing system, that's all I'd need.

For my regular classes, I needed a cart that would automatically give tiered discounts if people register for 2 or more classes. For over a year now I've been using a FREE shopping cart utility. It does my tiered discounts and also lets me issue gift certificates and coupon codes. The shopping cart is just an interface between me and Paypal, though, all the payments still go through Paypal. The free shopping cart I use is Mal's E-commerce.

I know paypal rates are considered high, but even though a large number of my students pay with Paypal, it's still way cheaper than a merchant account would be for me. (because there are no monthly fees and I don't have to have any equipment). Plus I earn interest on any funds that sit in the account (my old merchant account held my money for up to 7 days, they never paid me interest!) AND I pay a lot of my business bills with my Paypal debit card which earns cash back. I'm pretty happy with the whole arrangement, knock wood!!!

Hey Lauren,

Thanks for the response.

I need something a little more complicated. When your students pay through Paypal, do they have to sign-up for a Paypal account?

Khaleela

It looks like they charge their own fee plus processing for credit card payments taken through PayPal or Google checkout (your customers will have to have those accounts). What would be the benefit instead of just using a PayPal cart?

~~Kimahri

The Eventbrite is more user friendly as far as what I need it for. It works like a ticketmaster. You can add and subtract easily whereas Paypal keeps taking you away from the page you need. Plus with the horror stories of Paypal I'm not sure I want to go there.

Has anyone seen an alternative where you don't need to have an account to pay?

Originally Posted by Khaleela

The Eventbrite is more user friendly as far as what I need it for. It works like a ticketmaster. You can add and subtract easily whereas Paypal keeps taking you away from the page you need. Plus with the horror stories of Paypal I'm not sure I want to go there.

Has anyone seen an alternative where you don't need to have an account to pay?

Well they're still paying with PayPal so you're not avoiding those potential problems. If you don't want people to have to have an account with a third party you need your own merchant account.

~~Kimahri

Actually, people don't need a Paypal account to pay through a paypal shopping cart. They can pay by credit card.

My paypal shopping cart lets customers pay with visa, discover, mastercard, american express, bank draft (I think) or paypal.

As far as horror stories... besides people who fall for phishing scams, I've mostly heard them from merchants who had funds removed from their accounts after a customer defaulted on payment and were unable to get the funds back. I had MUCH bigger issues with that when I had a regular merchant account.

I think most people who've had both a regular merchant account and a paypal account would agree with me that it's at least equal, if not better. The fees may be higher, though, for those who do a high dollar volume of business.