FAQ
About the Business
What is Go!Places?
Go!Places is a company on a mission to Bring History to Life – to your life in particular. We aim to develop fun tourism and educational products that once and for all demolish the belief that history is ‘boring’.
Why do you have that very ungrammatical ‘!’ in the middle of your name?
To communicate the excitement of exploring the unknown. Don’t just go places – Go!Places
Which locations do you cover?
We are focused on covering various cities in India right now and hope to expand to other parts of Asia in the not-too-distant future.
Why are your products so cheap? How will you survive?
Because, in addition to our business mission, we have a social mission as well. We want to spread education and awareness about history to the majority rather than restrict it only to those who can afford to pay high prices. We hope sales volumes will make up for the lower margins and help us turn a fair profit.
Do you really think you can spread history to the masses over the internet?
No. We will work on offline distribution channels as well but we have to start where our modest means allow.
How will you market yourselves?
Hmm.. we don’t really have much of a marketing budget so we’re thinking of doing mostly online stuff with a mix of contests, free content and so on. Check out the latest on Facebook!
We also aim to partner with at least a few travel organizations. Some mass media mentions (wow, that came out well) would be a great help too!
Last, but probably most important, we are relying heavily on you to spread the word. You will, won’t you? Mail your friends, write something about us on your blog or Facebook or just connect with us using the little ‘Connect’ widgets alongside.
Products and Services
What products and services do you offer?
Our first series of products is called Pictoguides, the world’s first comic-style guide to monuments. These are well-researched, brief and fact-filled PDF downloads that use photographs rather than words to tell you everything you need to know about a specific historical attraction. They are very handy when visiting a site because you can immediately relate the information in your hand to what you are seeing. (Plus they are way easier to carry than a 1,000-page guidebook!)
We are also working on Timehops, a very innovative line of audio tours. In addition, we do custom research and content-development work for museums and other history-related institutions on a project basis.
Do you offer any guided tours or packages?
No. We provide resources for travellers and students with an interest in history and heritage and leave it up to you to design your own itinerary. This allows us to focus on building great products and leaves you free to explore as you want rather than being bound by a pre-fixed itinerary.
Speaking of itineraries, can you customize one for me?
I wish we could but we simply don’t have the capacity to do that. However, we have been thinking about some sort of online planner. Do you think that would be useful? If yes, please do drop us a note to share your ideas.
Purchase, Payment, Billing and Download
Why are your products priced in US Dollars and not in Indian Rupees though you are an Indian company?
There are three reasons for this:
- The majority of our customers are expected to be from outside India and therefore more comfortable with USD.
- Most other sites we are considering as distribution channels are non-Indian and price in USD.
- We use US-based payment gateways like Paypal who charge for currency conversion to and from USD in addition to the fees they levy on every transaction. By pricing in USD, we avoid some of this conversion charge. Given our very low prices, every little bit helps!
So does that mean only Americans can buy your guides?
Certainly not! You can buy our products from anywhere and your card company will convert the purchase amount into local currency (including rupees) based on prevailing rates. You can get a pretty good estimate of your local currency payment here.
OK so how do I buy?
- Browse products. Click name for details
- Click ‘Add to Cart’. Shopping Cart will update automatically
- When finished click the terms and conditions checkbox and then click ‘Checkout’
- You will be taken to the Paypal website to securely enter your credit card details
- On successful payment you will see a confirmation screen with links to download your purchase
Contact us if you have any problem.
Wait a minute! What if I don’t have a credit card or don’t want to use it online?
Don’t worry. Most debit cards nowadays come with a Visa / Mastercard logo and if yours has one, you can use it just like a credit card on this or any other site.
If you don’t have a debit card either or just prefer not to use cards online (we understand perfectly!) we are happy to take a bank transfer or a cheque within India. Please contact us for details.
Once I have made my payment, how long will it take for me to receive my purchase(s)?
If you are using a credit or debit card, you will be directed to a download page immediately after purchase. You will also receive an email with the download links. If you are paying using cheque or bank transfer, we will wait to receive the funds before sending you the email with links, which could take a few days in case of cheque payment.
Is there a time limit within which I must download my purchase?
Each download link is valid for a period of 24 hours from the time you receive the email. In case you are unable to access your download for some reason or have any sort of trouble with your purchase, please contact us.
Is there any form of copy-protection on the download?
No. We realise that you may not always download onto the device that you will actually use. And we trust you.
What if I am a ‘community-minded’ person and want to forward the download to dozens of India-bound travellers?
We’re looking for people just like you! Join us as a distribution partner and help us broaden our audience (really)!
If, however, you are determined to share our content illegally, you know already that you are destroying our business. Take a few minutes to read our Manifesto before you go any further. Thank you.
Others
I have not received a response to messages I sent through the Contact Us page. Where do I escalate?
Please contact Amit, our CEO, at amit.ray@goplaces.in
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