Buondì.
The Summer Sale starts today, which means you can save a fifth on online Italian lessons and ebooks for learning Italian (assuming you remember to use coupon code: 2020-Summer-Sale-20%-Off ).
The next sale won’t be until the end of September, which is approximately thirteen weeks away. So if you’re one of our regular online students taking one-to-one lessons with a club teacher, make sure you stock up on lesson credits this week, while the Summer Sale is on.
That way, besides saving money, you’ll be able to spend the summer months usefully, building your Italian speaking skills, and self-confidence, with the help of one of our friendly and professional online teachers!
Browse Italian lessons and ebooks.
To get the 20% discount, don’t forget to carefully copy and paste coupon code – 2020-Summer-Sale-20%-Off – into your shopping cart (where it says ‘Coupon code’).
When you’ve done that, press the dark blue ‘Apply Coupon’ button, then finally scroll down to check that the discount has been applied to the cart total (do all this BEFORE you proceed to the payment stage!)
N.b. We’ve been having problems with payment processors lately – some people have used our online shop and the various payment options (credit/debit card, Paypal, Pay with Amazon, bank transfer for those with a UK bank account) without experiencing any problems.
While others have had to try multiple times, which is frustrating both for them and for us. I’m not sure whether this is an intermittent technical problem (because most people do manage to pay in the end if they keep trying) or whether it might be something to do with the new security protocols that all online payment processors now have to use.
Paypal, Amazon, and your bank, of course, have to be sure it’s really you trying to make a payment, not someone who has acquired your card details. This to prevent fraud, but it does mean that all sorts of glitches can occur during the payment process…
For example, if the address you give on the order form is then used also for the payment, but that address doesn’t match the one on your credit/debit card. That would cause alarm bells to ring, probably.
Or if you’re asked for a phone number (so an SMS can be sent asking you to verify that it’s really you making the payment) but the area code you give doesn’t match the address, or even the country. I have an Italian mobile but gave a UK address – you can imagine how happy the system was about that.
Or if (THIS IS NEW FOR MANY PEOPLE) you are asked during the payment process to log into your online bank to confirm the payment – this happened to me recently – and you weren’t expecting it, or didn’t realise that was necessary because you never had to do it before, so didn’t. As a consequence the payment request expires, and when you come to try again you get an unhelpful (and incorrect) message informing you that the order has already been paid for.
For the technically-minded, the payment authorisation has a unique reference ID, precisely to prevent erroneous payments, so if you try again using the same ‘link’ that previously failed, it won’t be accepted. In theory, if you reorder, you should get a new payment authorisation with a different ID, but, well… cookies and stuff.
Oh my goodness, there are so many things that can go wrong, I’m beginning to panic myself!
But remember, these systems are designed to be secure, so fraud probably isn’t one of the many potential pitfalls. People are constantly telling me that they don’t ever buy anything online because it’s so DANGEROUS.
Actually, you know? I’ve been using Paypal to process card payments since 2005 and it has never happened that a client has lost money. Not once. Not for our school, not with the club, not with our online shop. Not ever. Really. No kidding.
People make mistakes regularly – that is indeed common. They add the same thing to their shopping cart twice, for example, then pay the total without checking why it’s more than it should be. I usually notice, though. Or they think the payment wasn’t successful, so order everything one more time just to be on the safe side, and pay for it again, too. But it’s no problem whatsoever for me to refund an unintended or duplicate payment.
Insomma, mistakes can easily be fixed. So there’s no need to worrry, panic, or get stressed and snap at your husband or wife. If you run into issues, I’m here to help!
We are not a big company with one of those customer (dis)service departments that take forever to not solve your problem. Basically, it’s just me and Lucia, plus our team of freelance teachers and writers. If you have a teaching-related issue, write to her. If it’s about an order or something on the website, then I’m the one to bug.
Email me details of what happened, or didn’t happen if something’s not working, and I promise I will reply within a few hours at the most. Unless it’s night in Italy, in which case, I’ll write back in the morning.
Naturally, I’m also happy to answer questions about online Italian lessons and ebooks for learning Italian.
A presto, allora.
2020 Summer Sale!
- Use coupon code 2020-Summer-Sale-20%-Off to save 20% on everything!
- This promotion ends at midnight on Sunday 12th of July 2020
- There’s no minimum or maxium spend
- Use the above coupon as often as you wish while the offer lasts
- The coupon code is valid for items which are already discounted, such as ebook multipacks or packs of online Italian lesson credits
- Payment options include Amazon, Paypal (they process credit cards for us – you don’t need to open a Paypal account) and bank transfer (only advisable if you have a UK bank account)
- If you experience problems at the payment stage, email info@imparareonline.co.uk for help and reassurance!
P.S.
Saturday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news is here.
Read/listen to it before you forget!