Egyptian Professionals, having a problem?
Hey Everyone,
Just like every professional in Egypt – especially web professionals – I’m suffering from the unavailability or exaggerated cost of some services, which for me have to do with human rights before having access to professional services.
Online payment to start with, PayPal still have problems with Egypt while it’s available for the lucky 10K citizens of Nauru ; Egypt, still not recognized by PayPal. Putting majority of Egyptian professionals and freelancers in a not-so-cool position when it comes to accepting payment and online transactions.
Yes, it can work if you have an address in a “good” country where PayPal is supported or you can use some services to get an address and get your account setup, but it still doesn’t work out of the box and involve more efforts and charges to get it working. Why? why just Egypt shouldn’t be supported by PayPal. I’m still searching for an explanation, If you have one, please let me know.
Also, talking about books. I’m a professional and a business person who need to constantly stay aware of what’s going on in the industry, I deserve to get the latest published books in a price close to everyone else in the world. I wanted to order 3 books through some service that facilitate shipping to Egypt from the US and ended up paying around 200% the actual cost of the books to get them.
It’s really disappointing for the shipping costs to exceed the actual price of the book, while I ended up paying less than the proposed 235.40 EGP, I paid around 165 EGP for shipping but it’s still so much. I heard that shipping directly from amazon.com might be more cost efficient and I’m seeking more information, you have any?
Isn’t it my right to get these services, just like anyone else in the world do? I’m thinking of creating some kind of online group to share experience about getting such services and bypassing challenges already set for us, Egyptian professionals to reach the level of professionalism we’re aspiring to.
I’ll be keeping you posted with any updates or any more information I get in that concern. At the mean time, feel free to let me know any tips or advice you know about having access to such services.
P.S. Having a web solutions start-up, I’m thinking of developing some services that might be an acceptable alternatives in the Egyptian market, that will make life easier for Egyptian professionals. No solid ideas yet but having serious thinking about it.
– Abdelrahman
By Ahmad Alfy
ebooks solves the shipping issue … it would be a problem if you're not a fan of reading on screen :s
I solved the PayPal through Freelancer.com
My clients pay me through deposit the money for me through PP and I withdraw it using MoneyBookers. It's cool!
By Abdelrahman
Yup, that's quite right Ahmed, sometimes I just need to have the book as a reference and while working on projects physically having the book is way better for me than looking it over in a screen.
I don't fully get it on how you resolved the PayPal through Freelancer.com you mean the deposit goes to Freelancers.com and then you get it to MoneyBookers. Can you explain more please.
Thanks a lot 🙂
By Ahmad Alfy
Your client can open an account on Freelancer.com and can deposit money using PayPal … He then opens a project and you bid on it … After you're done he transfer this money to your account on Freelancer.com
After this you withdraw the money using several way … PayPal , Check , Moneybookers …
Problem is, the fees on Freelancer.com became high … 10% of the money transfered to you is acquired by Freelancer.com which is annoying! You can subscribe to Gold membership for $20 per month to decrease the fees to 3%
I've been working like this for 3 years … If you need further help don't hesitate to call me 🙂
By Omar Badr
I was just having the same idea of the group yesterday 😉
not having PP for egypt is really annoying
By Abdelrahman
Yes, exactly. We really need to seriously find a solution to that. I searched Facebook for such groups and found a few with average of 40 members and inactivity since it started. Any suggestions on creating and marketing one big group to follow up with the issue.
Thanks Omar for your comment 🙂
By Rasha Nour ELDIN
Same Problem Here , shipping cost is a too much on me , i solved paypal problem by using my relative account , and about having the book as reference i buy it PDF and then print it in some xerox shops , its cheaper than shipphing
By Abdelrahman
Interesting, the quality of the printed book is acceptable? I'd like to see one of though, I might go with this option if the quality is fine and it would be amazing, if the cover can also be printed.