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Belgium and iTunes Store?

tingtongkoenie

tingtongkoenie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2008
13
0
Good day,

I received my new macbook a while ago. It's my first Mac.
Today I started working with i-tunes.
To my big surprise and disbelief, Belgium is not in the country list where i-tunes is available.
When I try to make an account, I get a remark that if my billing address is not in The Netherlands (which is not, since Im Belgian), click here.
Then I get a list whit countries where i-tunes is available, and I guess Belgium must be the only country in Europe that is not mentionned.
Unbelievable :mad:

I've got a few questions now:
1) Does this mean no album illsutrtions for me ?
2) Why on earth is Belgium not in that list ???

[snip]

With the search option, I could not immediatly find an answer to these questions.

Many thanks in advance,

Koen
 
1) No Album art. And even if I have it here in Hong Kong - I wouldn't use it since it's not so good. I'd rather use my own images.

2) Simple, not enough people in Belgium - not enough demand. Sucks but it's a fact. When they get the iPhone, the App Store might appear. Otherwise, low chance, because Belgium just isn't a place with lots of MacUsers.
 
Babybandit said:
1) No Album art. And even if I have it here in Hong Kong - I wouldn't use it since it's not so good. I'd rather use my own images.

2) Simple, not enough people in Belgium - not enough demand. Sucks but it's a fact. When they get the iPhone, the App Store might appear. Otherwise, low chance, because Belgium just isn't a place with lots of MacUsers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your answer Babybandit.
Don't know if that is the reason, it is a small country, but come on, whe are with almost 11 milion people.
Finland is in the list, only half of the population of Belgium. Even Luxemburg is in the list, or Lebanon ....

We (Belgium) had indeed some issues with the i-phone and whether it should be allowed to sell it together with a subscription for a certain provider, etc, etc .... but ..... the whole i-tunes store not accessable for Belgians ?????
I see loads of people with Macs and i-pots here.
 
Eum... this whole thing makes no sense, Belgium does have an iTunes store and it has had one for ages, I have an account at the belgian store, and my iTunes does download album art. It was one of the first countries to get an iTunes store back in 2004. I'm not sure why you don't see the name in the list, maybe you should look for België or Belgique

Babybandit said:
2) Simple, not enough people in Belgium - not enough demand. Sucks but it's a fact. When they get the iPhone, the App Store might appear. Otherwise, low chance, because Belgium just isn't a place with lots of MacUsers.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but that's rediculous. There are plenty of mac users, I see apple resellers even in smaller towns, and the iPhone has allready been released.
 
Lamadude, that's correct.
You can download i)-tunes from the Belgian Apple website.

I tought maybe a "dutch" i-tunes was installed on my new macbook, so I downloaded it again. Same problem.

When I want to make an account I get to the screen where I have to agree with the conditions, etc ...
Above all this conditions is a remark, in Dutch, "If the billing address of your credit card is not in the Netherlands, click here".
I do that, and then I get a country list which jumps from Australia to Brazil to Canada....
No Belgium, Belgie or Belgique in the list.

I chose Uk, and then went again to the list by choosing the "change country" button, and yep ..... Austria and even Belgium were in the list. :)

I thought I got it but .....
again I get to that screen where I have to agree with the conditions,
and again the same remark about the billing address in the Netherlands.

I tought 3forget about the billing address", and just went on, but then the store does not accept the credit card details (and there is no problem with that card, 100% sure, it's that billing address thing).

So, I am sitting with a macbook I bought in Belgium, downloaded i-tunes from apple.com/benl, and yes, I am surfing in Belgium, not in the Netherlands .....

I'm lost. :(
 
You're right...
I just tried to create a new Belgian iTunes account, and for some reason it said something about not having my billing adress in the Netherlands. Very strange, it must be a bug in iTunes 8, you should notify apple.

I assure you that Belgian iTunes store accounts do exist, I have had one since 2004, and I used a Belgian VISA card with Belgian billing adress to get it.

In the meantime you could try to register an account at the Flemish or Francophone Belgian apple store, and maybe you'll be able to register there and then use that login in itunes. I haven't tried that so i don't know if it will work but it's worth the shot.

ps. Also when I tried to register an iTunes account the title was in a Scandinavian language instead of Dutch, clearly the people working at the iTunes localisation are getting sloppy.
 
Lamadude,

A good idea to try and make an account via the apple store.
I did that, but I can not loggin to i-tunes with it.

I also had the Scandinavian title just like you.

I can understand we are a small country and not the center of attention for apple, but mixing it all up with Scandinavian languages and Dutch billing addresses is a bit ..... well, you know what I mean :rolleyes:

I 've send an e-mail to contactus@euro.apple.com and to http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html, so we'll see what and when something happens.
 
Ok, let me know if apple replies to your mails. I'm guessing that they will since it's a bug that costs them money (no iTunes accounts, no money being spent in the iTunes store)

There's really no excuse for this I think, if a huge global company like apple with billions in cash decides to localise in a certain language then you expect it to be done properly, especially when thousands of small companies can do it without any problems.
 
tingtongkoenie said:
Lamadude, that's correct.
You can download i)-tunes from the Belgian Apple website.

I tought maybe a "dutch" i-tunes was installed on my new macbook, so I downloaded it again. Same problem.
Click to expand...
There is only one iTunes for all countries.
The language your computer is set for, is the language iTunes will use.

When I want to make an account I get to the screen where I have to agree with the conditions, etc ...
Above all this conditions is a remark, in Dutch, "If the billing address of your credit card is not in the Netherlands, click here".
I do that, and then I get a country list which jumps from Australia to Brazil to Canada....
No Belgium, Belgie or Belgique in the list.
Click to expand...
Did you start off by selecting Belgium at the main iTunes store screen and then you clicked on Account then New account?

After you agree to accept the terms then create a username , you get to the credit card screen. It should say Belgium at the bottom.
 
Chris CA said:
There is only one iTunes for all countries.
The language your computer is set for, is the language iTunes will use.


Did you start off by selecting Belgium at the main iTunes store screen and then you clicked on Account then New account?

After you agree to accept the terms then create a username , you get to the credit card screen. It should say Belgium at the bottom.
Click to expand...

Yes, this even happens when selecting Belgium at the main iTunes store screen, you can select Belgium there, but if you then want to create an account it warns you to "click here if your billing adress is not in the Netherlands" and if you do click there you get a list of dozens of countries to choose from but no belgium.
The problem really lies with apple.
 
Good day,

I received below reply from Apple.
Still have to try it, but I will keep you informed.

Dear Koen,

I'm sorry to hear that you have been experiencing difficulties with the iTunes application. To resolve this, I recommend uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes. Before beginning, please back up your iTunes library as explained here:

How to back up your media in iTunes
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n302392

To uninstall iTunes, please follow the steps in this article:

Removing iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1224

After you've uninstalled iTunes and removed the related files, you will need to reinstall it. You can download the latest version free of charge from the iTunes website:

http://www.itunes.com/download

After you've reinstalled iTunes, please ensure you have the latest version of QuickTime installed. You can find the latest version here:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download

If you continue to experience difficulties with iTunes after uninstalling and reinstalling it, you may wish to call our AppleCare technical support team. A representative will be able to tell you about Apple's complimentary and fee-based support options and can help you determine which option might be most helpful in this case. To find the appropriate phone number, please visit:

http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html

I hope this information has been helpful.

Sincerely,

Sara
iTunes Store Customer Support

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you. You may receive an AppleCare survey email; any feedback you provide would be greatly appreciated.
 
I had the same problem, but on a Windows PC. You really need to remove everything related to iTunes to get it working again. This did not work at first, but after clearing my IE cache, Windows remember, I could select Belgium.
 
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