To be angry and astonished at Joules.com?

[HappyAsASandboy]

Please tell me whether I am being unreasonable. I am struggling to calm down and I need to come to terms with the fact I shouldn't buy the sweatshirt I want from Joules.

I placed an order on Joules.com today, because I want to buy a new sweatshirt or two. I ordered several styles of sweatshirt, some in two sizes as I am not sure, and a few things from their Outlet section because they looked like a good deal. In all, I think there were ten items, coming to £400 ish (please don't make this thread about the very high prices on Joules.com).

The order went through. I asked for next day delivery, and my delivery address was different to the billing address. The website coped with this just fine, an issues me am order number, promising delivery tomorrow. So far so good.

I then got an email from Joules.com. The email explained that I had been randomly selected for security checks. They asked me to email them a scanned copy of my passport, after which they would release my order.

I was convinced that I had received a scam email and promptly rang Joules Customer Care team to report the email and make sure they'd received my order. Instead, the Customer Care lady assured me the email was from Joules, and that I'd need to send the image of my passport before they would send me my order!

I nearly fell over with shock to be honest. Is this not the type of scam ID fraudsters use to get personal information? The Customer Care team said they didn't see anything wrong with me sending an image of my passport via email, and that I wouldn't be able to order using either my billing or delivery addresses until I had cleared the flag on my account by sending in the picture of my passport.

AIBU? Is this a normal request? Would you have sent a copy if your passport via email?

And more to the point, how am I going to get my nice sweatshirts now that I am barred from Joules.com and don't want to give them my custom

They would would lose my custom. I would just cancel the order, and never bother buying from them again. (Seasalt and Fatface are nicer anyway, IMO.)

Not everybody has a passport, or the ability to scan and email. I have no clue how to use my scanner, let alone email the image

I was really pissed off in a shop when I bought £££ worth of stuff in the shop on my credit card, and they thought they might have put it through twice...they said if it had gone through twice when the bill arrived, I could try to sort it out. Yeah, cheers. (Luckily it hadn't)

Honestly though the amount of fraud that goes on in online orders and shopping is scary.

I am still angry, but I am so glad you mostly think this is unreasonable too. I am more than happy to explain to them why my addresses are different, and I am registered for Verified by Visa with passwords etc. I guess Joules.com dont want to use Verified by Visa mate they'd have to pay Visa for the service.

I am really fed up. This purchase was a treat for me, and I was excited. Now I feel angry and ranty and I still don't have a sweatshirt or any prospect of one.

Stealth boast much?

I had this a couple of weeks ago from Paypal! I ignored email because I thought the security was solid and any attempts to get further personal detail via email was sure to be a scam. Turns out that they do this if you don't put in a landline rather than writing to you or using a mobile! I was pretty shocked and angry as they froze my account and I had to scan in my passport just to pay for ebay items (ebay seem to have completely switched to paypal now as I couldn't pay any other way). I am actually pretty freaked out about how many places need a DOB, and other security info even when you pay via paypal tbh.

Lioninthesun I did put a mobile number down as the contact number because the website says to provide mobile if possible! Presumably because they have more luck reaching people on their mobiles than their landlines.

I am really surprised that large companies are doing this. If online shopping is going to remain feasible, surely the banks/IT companies/shops will have to come up with a way to verify that doesn't involve customers emailing personal documents to customer service teams?!

BTW, no, not a stealth boast. A genuine question as to whether other people would find this a reasonable thing for an online shop to ask a customer to do.

I have to say I resent using Paypal now and feel my identity is now out there to steal next time they get hacked. I think the fact you called them and explained should have been enough. Paypal never even tried my mobile, which is why I assumed it was a scam! It really is shocking that they expect us to bare all without any real proof of who THEY are. How are we meant to tell scammers from the real thing?