I ordered a graphics card from Overclockers yesterday thinking there's no way they can inconvenience me with a simple NIB purchase. I would have avoided them but alas they were the only ones who offered worldwide shipping and had the desired item in stock. So this morning i received a lovely email from them... So they let me register and place an order, they happily took my money and THEN they decided to pull this nonsense on me. Why would a shoddy online shop require such information? I've never seen anything like this before. This may or may not be rant-worthy, i don't know but i'm sure as hell ticked off and it feels good to vent. (As far as i can tell the email is legit, they have my order details and the address looks ok)
The reason is simple - central Europe is 3rd world to some western European shops and especially if you paid using credit card they fear that you are not you, but someone who stole a credit card of someone else. Yeah, we are all bad boys who steal and rob in their eyes.
It's OcUK, I wouldn't expect much more, they've always had a reputation for being one of the shoddiest UK companies (in my opinion).
Funny, i just learned that OCUK was purchased by Caseking and they started sending out those tiny packs of gummy bears. Too bad they haven't adopted Caseking's "don't be a pain in the ass" policy yet.
It's unfair to brand OCUK a "pain in the ass" when something like this happens - if you're buying internationally you have to applaud shops for taking precautions... at the end of the day and though it might very well be a pain in the ass, they are actually protecting you from credit card fraud. Before everybody else jumps on the "OCUK sucks" bandwagon, take some time to read the praise they have received recently from a couple of forum members. This is not bad business practice... it's just the way the world goes round.
^^^^ This Seems like good business practice to me. And remember once you have confirmed your details with them, all future purchases should run without a hitch (assuming you buy again).
Don't blame OCUK. Blame the thieving sods they are trying to protect themselves from. The alternative is they don't sell internationally at all, or raise their prices to deal with the collateral damage of selling internationally.
FTFY I tend to agree that they are improving, but they have left a very sour taste in the mouths of many of us over the years, and a bad rep is hard to shake.
Clap clap. So i guess all the other online stores i've dealt with, including ones in the UK are doing it wrong by not making me jump through hoops to maybe receive the product i paid for.
DragunovHUN, you should be happy they at least include your country in possible delivery addresses. They still didn't noticed this small EU member called Slovakia who joined EU in 2004 (they didn't noticed Slovenia either). And LennyRhys, it is a bad business practice. They are not protecting you from credit card fraud, but they protect themselves from the fraud. You as a card holder can report and request a refund for a credit card transactions for days after it happened - but once the shop shipped the package, they can only hope the card holder will not reverse the payment.
www.aria.co.uk pulled the same stunt on me, I live in the UK and the card in question went through the Verified by Visa process!!!!! At the time I was aghast and spitting teeth It was their loss however as (pardon my language) I just thought f*ck em, promptly cancelled the order which was for £560 and went elsewhere. Their loss I would never ever use them again on principal alone
Personally I've had mixed results over the years. I tend not to buy from them now unless they have a spanking special offer. I would agree its nice to see these people double checking orders etc but I think it wouldn't be asking too much if they put something in place where international orders which need double checks don't get billed for items until AFTER the checks are complete and they know the transaction will be safe to take place. I'd also be a little niffed if I ordered, had the money taken and only then did they start to make extra checks. Hope you get it sorted matey, sometime it seems dealing with any retailer (online or otherwise) is a roll of the dice
It's not really international though is it, since it's within the EU. Technically different nations, sure, but since EU law covers the entirety of the union, it's not like someone buying from Russia or Guatemala.
This. Jeeze, some people love a good whine. If you want to buy very expensive GPUs from UK shops from a foreign country, you'll just have to accept that they may require more proof of ID than normal.
True, but then if it was the other way around trading standards etc wouldn't be able to do a single thing if something went wrong. Different countries, different trading laws.
I don't think that the complaint is that proof is required. I think that the company is that this proof is required after the order has been placed. If it was requested before the order could be completed then the customer would have the choice to accept this hurdle and complete the order, or to back out and abandon the order. It's a bit sneaky to add conditions of sale after the sale has been made.
I had a similar experience with dabs, they started looking for an email verifying my details. Then wanted a bank statement. I gave em the two fingers and cancelled my order. The irony is I then placed my order with overclockers uk who didn't need any super verification and everything worked out fine. Life's too short to jump through these kind of hoops for a company. Especially when there are others who make the transaction process quick and painless. Were Dabs to ever be the only stockists of an item I wanted, I would wait for another to restock or just buy something similar elsewhere. I just won't use them now and its their loss not mine. My opinion is to cancel the order and don't deal with vendors that screw you around.
