I started the SQLServerFast Execution Plan Video Training in 2020. At that time, I chose Vimeo as the platform to use for hosting and selling my videos. The major reason for this choice was their advertised ability to sell video access to customers across the world, so that everyone, regardless of location, can buy access to my videos and learn to read execution plans.

Not in India!

Two months ago, I received an email from someone who lives in India. When he tried to buy access to my videos, he received an error message: “This video is not for your region”.

I have not configured any regional restriction to my videos. So I raised a ticket with Vimeo support, on November 8. On November 19, after some back and forth, they confirmed that “at present, we are unable to complete or accept the VOD payments for users based in India. This issue is being reviewed and is being worked on by our engineering team”.

Two months have passed since I raised the ticket. Though I get regular updates, they are always variations on “nothing changed, please be patient”.

I don’t know how much longer this will continue. I don’t know whether it affects all or only some customers in India. I don’t know how many people got that message and then did not reach out to me, perhaps even concluding that it is my choice to discriminate against the Indian population. Hence this post.

Are you in India? Have you tried to purchase my videos and failed? Please reach out to me, so we can try to look for a way to work around the issues that Vimeo apparently cannot solve. I value all my customers, and I want everyone around the world to be able to learn about execution plans!

Rest of the world?

Vimeo support claims that this issue affects India “only”. (As if the country where 18% of the world’s population lives, and, given India’s large IT industry, an even larger percentage of my target audience, is not a very big deal).

However, Vimeo has yet to send a notification to their customers of their inability to sell in India. And they have yet to put a warning on their website to tell their new customers about this current limitation. So, to be honest, that does not exactly give me a lot of confidence in their open and honest communication.

So, if you are not in India, but you do experience any issues when trying to buy access to the videos, then I also want to know! Please reach out to me with details of where you live and what error messages (if any) you got when you tried to buy access to any part of the SQLServerFast Execution Plan Video Training.

Apologies

I am sorry that I had to write this blog. I had much preferred that this issue with Vimeo’s service had never happened at all. Or, given that it did, that it had been resolved quickly.

But that is not in my hands. I can’t make Vimeo work faster on this issue. The only thing I can do is to attempt damage control. And after two months of this issue lingering, I could not put that off any longer.