Public response to recent site review

This post is in response to a recent comment posted publicly on our site regarding our procedures for verifying order details. In summary, the complaint was that a landline number is compulsory, and that we don't accept Hotmail, Yahoo or other such non-geographic email addresses, both of which allegations are incorrect.

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Hi Gary,

Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinions on our website. I have responded to the comment on the reviews page:

http://www.camera-warehouse.com.au/site-reviews.asp

Despite it's negative content, it has given us an opportunity to clarify our procedure. We do not require a land-line number, but do provide the option to provide both land-line and mobile number. Nor do we insist on any particular 'kind' of email address. However, Internet fraud is increasing prevailent in our business, and we have to protect ourselves as, ultimately, it is us that bears the cost of cameras that are shipped under fraudulent orders. The card holder is refunded the money and our suppliers still want paying for the goods, so we end up out of pocket. This is because buying on the Internet is what is known as a 'card not present' transaction, and these are obviously significantly more risky than normal retail transactions that are verified with a signature.

We can't ask for a signature online, so we have to be sure that the person that placed the order is the person who owns the card. If the only information we have to go on is a mobile phone number and Hotmail/Yahoo email address, then we have very little to go on should we need to trace the person that ordered the goods. Yes, we have a delivery address, but we can't visit every address personally and ask for a signature, and to see the credit card, so we need to make as sure as possible that the order is not fraudulent BEFORE the goods ship.

Sometimes this causes inconvenience, and I apologise if this was the case in your instance, although I can't find and order with your email address on, so I can only presume that you made these assumptions before placing an order. If you had placed an order, it may not have been necessary to take any additional details. This is done on an order-by-order basis.

Finally, it should be said that these measures are ultimately implemented to reduce credit card and Internet crime generally, and to protect law-abiding credit cardholders from the inconvenience of having fraud committed against them. Any merhcant, Internet or otherwise, that doesn't employ such measures is risking being the target of fraud and is likely to be endangering the integrity of your credit card details in other ways, so I would strongly advise against ever purchasing from an online store that doesn't have similar measures in place.

I hope this explains our reasoning behind our policies. If you have any questions, please let me know.