Gear 4 Music

Gear4Music may be hostile towards International purchases. Ordered an electric guitar and this is what they required through an email sent the following day:

"To proceed we require a copy of the front of the credit/debit card used to make payment. We also require a copy of an official form of ID or a utility bill.[...] Often card details do not show up very well when faxed so it is preferable to email scanned/photographed details because we will need to ask for information again if the details cannot be verified."

So they ask you to **EMAIL** Credit Card details and maybe even pictures of you IDs!

My jaw literally hit the floor when I read their requests. They are fighting credit card frauds by asking you to make your credit card details and personal IDs public.

I mean it makes perfect sense from their perspective: they'll get all the details about you so they are covered. The fact that at the same time they might put you in danger of having your identity stolen - well that doesn't seem to be their problem. I guess this is a new interpretation of "customer care" term.

Though I have not asked, I doubt that my bank would be impressed by me handing over such an amount of personal data to Gear4Music shop. And should some suspect activity occur on my account I wonder again if my bank will be willing to help ...

And what will Gear4Music do with all my data ? Where and how will it be stored afterwards ? Yes, in spite of their good intentions, do they have the means of protecting and storing it properly ? I do not trust them just because they say "Yes, we do".

I thought that living with such uncertainties was just not worth the little reduction in price I get from this shop.

Thus I've canceled my order and now plan on buying a similar thing from another shop I dealt with in the past. It may be a little more expensive but at least is total hassle free.