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OWC Bad Experience

Y

Yousef81

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 6, 2008
13
0
Hi,

I am a new Mac user from United Arab Emirates (Dubai), recently I have ordered Mac Pro 2.8 8800GT and it should arrive in few weeks.
As a heavy graphics designer I need more memory, I've read here so many good review about OWC so I ordered 12GB of RAM with my UAE credit card with UAE billing address and US shipping address ( i have a US address forwarded to my home town) and as soon as i hit submit i received sms saying that the amount were approved by the bank.
Next day I received an email from OWC saying that they need a scanned copy of my visa credit card!!!they did not mention that on their website!!! do they realize that sending a scanned copy of a credit card is extremely high risk no bank recommend.

anyway, now i have a blocked 526$ for minimum 60 days. :(

Is there any alternatives do not do the above? :confused:
 
This is a common practice for US retailers selling internationally as they cannot confirm your billing address from your non-US card issuer. Just fax a copy to them, risk is minimal and it's at the bank's liability in any case, not yours.

(As an aside, I cannot believe bank's in the US provide a card holder's billing address to a merchant, there are serious privacy issues there.)
 
I did that once and the copy was stolen and used!! u see there is a risk
 
Maybe they are trying to cut down on overseas credit card scams. When the ship to and bill to are different, it always raises a flag. I've been hit so many times with bad credit cards that it seems everyone outside the US is a crook. (No offense, I wasn't born in the US either, so don't worry.) Anyway, a few sales that I've had from overseas turned out to be stolen credit card numbers. They are probably just making sure the card is yours because the ship to and bill to are suspect.
 
I understand that.
why dont they mention that before submiting the order?? I wouldnt processed with the order if I knew that.. many website have a line saying that they require a scanned copy for international credit cards..

i regulary order from amazon and some websites smoothly..
 
Yousef81 said:
Next day I received an email from OWC saying that they need a scanned copy of my visa credit card!!!they did not mention that on their website!!! do they realize that sending a scanned copy of a credit card is extremely high risk no bank recommend.
Click to expand...

That's indeed a common security practice. Many e-shops are asking for that nowadays. With the scale of cc fraud, they have to protect themselves.

No offence, but I believe it's stated on their site (I mean this security procedure).

sash
 
Yousef81 said:
I did that once and the copy was stolen and used!! u see there is a risk
Click to expand...

bank is liable if you didn't authorise the purchase. though it may take them a month to accept this.


Yousef81 said:
anyway, now i have a blocked 526$ for minimum 60 days.
Click to expand...

likely to be a pre-auth, not the actual purchase transaction, like when you rent a car or check-in to a hotel, so should drop off your account in a few days, a week at most.
 
what really bothers me that the amount will be blocked for OWC for min 60 days unless they fax the bank, i've emailed OWC and asked them to fax the bank, we'll c!!

anyway, i,ve emailed many companies regarding my issue
got a reply from
memoryamerica.com
12GB (2x6) for 527.7

so, what do you think? are they good?
 
Yousef81 said:
I did that once and the copy was stolen and used!! u see there is a risk
Click to expand...

You can fax it, or encrypt the scan image, and use a pice of information they have for password.

It's only a risk if you did not send it encrypted.

Never heard of memoryamerica
 
For what its worth, I've had many fine purchases from OWC, though I live in the US so international issues don't affect me.
 
xraydoc said:
For what its worth, I've had many fine purchases from OWC, though I live in the US so international issues don't affect me.
Click to expand...

I've also ordered many times from OWC. I live in Australia and have never had an issue. This CC scan thing is really quite common. If you're super paranoid like I used to be, you just black out the CCV number on the back. Without it, it's fairly useless to fraudsters.
 
Yousef81 said:
got a reply from
memoryamerica.com
12GB (2x6) for 527.7
so, what do you think? are they good?
Click to expand...

Hi Yousef,

OWC has such a great reputation in Mac world, that you shouldn't be bothered at all. It's almost an e-shop of choice on this forum (at least concerning the upgrade parts). Any mistake on their side -- and especially with such a delicate issue as CC -- would be reported here immediately.

memoryamerica may be good, but it looks like nobody knows them here.

I would stick with a well-known, reputable store.

sash
 
thank you guyes :)

I think i'll go for Ramjet..a little bit expensive but has good reviews
 
Yousef81 said:
I understand that.
why dont they mention that before submiting the order?? I wouldnt processed with the order if I knew that.. many website have a line saying that they require a scanned copy for international credit cards..

i regulary order from amazon and some websites smoothly..
Click to expand...

So if you knew about the processes did you not think to ask them BEFORE you placed on order?
 
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