Frequently Asked Questions
On this page you can find answers to common questions about my newsletter and the guide books.
Also, occasionally someone runs into a problem when downloading the free pocket guide or buying the Destination Kimberley guide.
The most common problems are also covered here.
Where am I and when will I be back?
I will be overseas until October 20. I am in Europe during August, running up and down the Alps. (Or at least trying to.) If you need to contact me you should hear back from me within a few days, though at one stage I may be unavailable for 5 to 7 days.
September/October is a different story. I will be in Tanzania, hiking in the crater highlands, climbing OlDonyo Lengai, Mt. Meru and then Mt. Kilimanjaro. Then I'll go to Zanzibar and from there further south. I have no idea how often I will be able to find a computer and an internet connection. During that time you may have to wait for a while for an answer.
Assuming I survive camping in the freezing nights on Kilimajaro, I should be back home on the 20th of October.
Your Questions:
Pocket Guide Questions
- Does this subscription cost anything?
- I tried to subscribe but got the message "Confirmation Failed".
- I subscribed but haven't received the email with the free guide yet.
- I can't download the free guide!
- I forgot to save the free guide/had a problem with the download and now I can't get to it again.
Destination Kimberley Questions
- Do you sell a hard copy version? Can I get your book in a book store near me?
- Do you have a German version?
- I have a Mac. Is this some PC only file?
- Can I pay for your guide offline?
- I am leaving soon. If I buy the guide today, when will it arrive?
- I bought your guide but did not get the download!
- I can't access the download. It says the link expired.
- I bought your guide three weeks ago but it still hasn't arrived!
Does this subscription cost anything?
No, of course not. I would not call it free if I didn't mean it.
I explained this in detail on the sign up page. You may not have read it. Here is that section again:
What happens once you click "Subscribe"?
You will be receiving an email that asks you to confirm your "subscription". (It's an automated email. Unfortunately I can't change the wording.)
Once you click the confirmation link in that email you will be taken to a "Thank You" page. That page tells you where to download the guide.
I also send out free updates. If I make any changes to the information on the website, in the free guide, or even in the full guide, then I will let you know. Things here change often and I don't want you to go on your trip with outdated information.
I send out updates maybe once a month. If you don't want to receive those updates, just click the "unsubscribe" link that is included at the bottom of every update. Easy.
There is no catch, all of this really is free, and I hope you will find it useful.
I tried to subscribe but got the message "Confirmation Failed".
The full message on that page, below the "Confirmation Failed" headline, said:
"You have already clicked on this link. No need to do it again, but we do thank you for your effort."
What I suspect happens here is that people double click on the link in the confirmation email. Many people are used to double clicking on files from using Microsoft software. (Don't double click on internet links. It is not necessary.) But it can also happen accidentally without you noticing.
The first click would have confirmed your subscription. With the second click you got the notice that you are already subscribed. It happens so fast that you can't see the first page.
So, you should be successfully subscribed to the guide updates, but since you did not see the first page and did not get a chance to download your free guide, here it is again:
If you did get a different error message and wonder if you are subscribed to the updates or not, please send me a message through the contact form and I can check it for you. Please include EXACTLY what you clicked when and where, and the error message you received.
I subscribed but haven't received the email with the free guide yet.
You don't get an email. You simply download the free guide from this website. The link to the download page was on the "Thank You" page you saw after confirming your subscription.
Since you can't get back to that "Thank You" page, here is the link to the download page again:
I can't download the free guide!
Theoretically something to do with the free download could break at my end, but to date that has not happened. Chances are that this is a problem with your computer or internet service.
Since there are so many different internet browsers, possible browser settings, operating systems, software programs etc. it is impossible for me to give a general answer here.
And I can't troubleshoot technical problems with your computer.
All I can do for now is to send you to the download page directly and ask you to try again:
If it still does not work and you can't figure out the problem, then get in touch and I will send you the file manually.
I forgot to save the free guide/had a problem with the download and now I can't get to it again.
No problem. Here it is. Try again :-).
Do you sell a hard copy version? Can I get your book in a book store near me?
Sorry, no hard copy.
I'm afraid the choice is to buy the e-book or to go without the information.
Do you have a German version?
Sorry, there is no German version of the book.
(It's not that I wouldn't love to offer the book in German, but a translation would be a massive project. At this stage I see no way to fit that into my schedule.)
I have a Mac. Is this some PC only file?
The file is in PDF format, the most common format for printable files. PDF was developed specifically to allow sharing of printable documents across all platforms.
No, it is not PC only. Yes, you can open it on your Mac with any software that opens PFD documents.
The most popular free software is Adobe Reader. On the download page linked below, click on "Different language or operating system?" and select your operating system to get the newest Adobe download for it.
Can I pay for your guide offline?
Yes, you can pay via direct deposit. (Sorry, no checks or money orders.) But you would have to wait until late October.
This is a manual process. I need to check my bank account and as soon as I see your payment (usually within 24 hours) I send you the file manually.
Send me a message through the contact form and I will follow up with you when I get back.
By the way, credit card payments via PayPal are totally secure. There really is no need to be concerned. The days where every online purchase was fraught with huge risks are long gone.
Just make sure that when you are asked to provide credit card details online you can see a little picture of a lock on the grey bar on the bottom of your screen, and that the web address in the browser bar at the top of your screen starts with https:// (Note the "s" for "secure". Normal web addresses start with http://).
Another safe thing to do is to close the window you are using once you have completed your purchase and downloaded the goods. Do not navigate away to another website, but do close the browser window.
I am leaving soon. If I buy the guide today, when will it arrive?
This is an e-book. You receive it within minutes.
- On the book page, not far above the "Buy Now" button is a whole paragraph that explains how e-books are different from normal books.
- Below the "Buy Now" button I explain what will happen when you buy.
- Near the top image of the book and right above the bottom image of the book, next to the "Buy Now" button, is a link that says, "What's an e-book?" It takes you to a page that explains e-books in detail.
Please re-read those sections. That should clarify things.
I bought your guide but did not get the download!
This is rare but it has happened a few times.
One person entered their email address with a typo. If your email address is wrong you will not get the email. Please, don't worry about your money! I can see if you paid and what email address you entered, so I will sort this problem out as soon as I return from my trip and can check what happened. The worst case scenario is that it will be too late for you and you don't want the guide any more, in which case I will refund your money.
(But please do make sure you enter the correct email when you contact me. Another reader recently entered a wrong email address in Paypal, and then a different misspelling in my contact form... There's not much I can do for you if I don't have a correct email address for you!)
One person entered one of their email addresses when purchasing, but expected to receive the guide at another email address. How they thought that would work I don't know. The download link will be sent to whatever email address you enter when you make your payment. So if you have several addresses and are not sure which one you used, check all of them. If you do have a PayPal account the guide will be sent to the email address associated with your PayPal account.
Emails get filtered or nuked by overzealous spam software. Please check your spam or junk folder.
Emails are sometimes delayed. Although they should, they do not always arrive instantly. Delays of 10 to 15 minutes are common while they do a few laps in cyberspace. Please wait for at least an hour before you conclude that something went wrong. (In one exceptional case the email with the download link arrived nearly 24 hours late!)
A payment can simply fail. I am not sure why. It may be that people abandon the process too early without confirming their payment one last time, it may be the internet connection drops out and resets during the process, I don't know. It's very rare but since it has happened a couple of times I dare say it will happen again at some stage.
How do you know if your payment went through? If it does you will receive a receipt from PayPal (provided you entered the right email, of course) and you will also see the charge in your credit card statement. So please do check your emails, including junk or spam folders, and do check your credit card statment.
If you can't see the charge on your credit card statement, then the payment didn't go through. (Give it a working day or two to make sure.)
Please try again. Enter all your details very carefully, and make sure you confirm and confirm again etc. Every reader who had that problem was successful on the second attempt.
If you have been charged but did not get the download, the problem was with the email, either a typo, or your spam filter filtered or nuked it. Please get in touch through the contact form and indicate in the subject line that you have been charged but can not get access to the book. (This helps my find those important emails in my overflowing inbox while in Tanzania...)
I can't guarantee that all technical things will always work totally hassle free for everyone. That's just not how technology works. But the one thing I can guarantee is that your money is totally safe with me! Please do not worry about your money. If for some reason you really could not access the guide in time, or if you made some error when paying and ended up paying twice, whatever may have gone wrong, if all else fails I can and will refund your money. The worst case scenario is that you have to wait for it until I find a Tanzanian computer.
By the way, if you do realise that you made some error and therefore did not receive the guide (entering the wrong email, waiting too long to download it and the link expired) and if you can't wait for me to help you with this, and if you need that guide urgently, then I suggest you try again. Email me at the same time to let me know that there might have been a double purchase, and I can refund one of your payments (or both, if necessary) as soon as I return.
And that's about all I can think of for now! Any other problems I am afraid will have to wait until I get back. Sorry about the inconvenience.
I can't access the download. It says the link expired.
This was explained in the email with the download link: the link will be active for 48 hours or 5 downloads, whichever comes first. After that it expires.
Sorry about the inconvenience, but expiring links are necessary to prevent abuse.
If this was your first download attempt and it has been less than 48 hours since your purchase and you get that message, then it is because your download manager opened more than five connections at once. This would cause the link to expire prematurely.
In any case, we have a problem.
Please do get in touch through the contact form. Indicate in the subject line that your link expired. (This helps my find those important emails in my overflowing inbox while in Tanzania...) I will send you a fresh link or the file itself if needed, as soon as I get a chance.
Check your email regularly. (Yes, I know. This is a real hassle since it may take a while until I get to see your message. Sorry about the inconvenience.) Once you receive the link, download the guide as soon as possible.
You only need to download it once. You save it to your computer and then you can open, view, read or print it any time and as often as you like.
If you found my website and guide so late that you leave for your trip before I have a chance to get that guide to you, then I will of course refund you.
I bought your guide three weeks ago but it still hasn't arrived!
This is an e-book.
- On the book page, not far above the "Buy Now" button is a whole paragraph that explains how e-books are different from normal books.
- Below the "Buy Now" button I explain what will happen when you buy.
- Near the top image of the book and right above the bottom image of the book, next to the "Buy Now" button, is a link that says, "What's an e-book?" and takes you to a page that explains e-books in detail.
Please re-read those sections. That should clarify things.
I'm sorry that you misunderstood what you are buying. Unfortunately, if you didn't download and save the e-book when you first bought it then the download link has expired. I can reactivate the link for you. If you still want the book, that is.
If you do, please do get in touch through the contact form. Indicate in the subject line that your link expired. (This helps my find those important emails in my overflowing inbox while in Tanzania...) I will send you a fresh link or the file itself if needed, as soon as I get a chance.
Check your email regularly. (Yes, I know. This is a real hassle since it may take a while until I get to see your message. Sorry about the inconvenience.) Once you receive the link, download the guide as soon as possible.
If you are absolutely not interested in an e-book, then you can of course get a refund. That's not a problem at all!
Please use the contact page and let me know that you would like a refund.
If you need the e-book urgently because you are about to leave on your trip, then the only thing you can do is to buy it again. Email me at the same time to let me know that there has been a double purchase, and I will refund one of your payments (or both, if necessary) as soon as I return.
I realise that most people will not be comfortable doing this, but unfortunately it is the only way you can gain access to a fresh download link without my help. So I thought at least I mention that the option exists.
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