Tried to buy an Alienware PC for one of our developers last week. Got this via email today,
We would like to confirm the receipt of the above order. As soon as your Credit Card is billed successfully the order will commence production. We would like to inform you that in order to bill your credit card we would need
- A copy of your credit card statement or an official letter from the bank (you can block out all transactions on the statement) where the registered address and the credit card number are visible (you can of course block out all but the last 4 digits), including your signature on this document Â
The reason we need this document is to perform an AVS check (a name and address check on the card) which is necessary to ensure that the card holder is aware of the transaction and that their card is not being used fraudulently. By checking the address this enables us to ensure the purchase is being shipped to the address the credit card is registered to.
How to say “I don’t want your business” in a very long winded way. Why bother  accepting credit cards?
Copacetic 
Yes had this too with different vendors in Ireland. Seems to be common practice though… 😦
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Alienware is owned by Dell and they manage to sell PCs in Ireland without copies of statements. They can just ask the bank if the billing address or another registered address for that card match the delivery address.
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I bought a laptop there a few years back, before they were bought by Dell and there was none of that kind of shenanigans.
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Well here’s a hoot. I slid on over to Dell and order a similar PC with no validation required whatsoever. Dumb and Dumberer….
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Just curious…Alienwares are gaming PCs and usually massively overspecced, overclocked and top dollar. What does a developer need a rig like that for?
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Peter, the Alienware machines are excellent value as developer machines. I went over to Dell and bought a similarily speced (but much less cool and lacking an Alienware skin) for an additional 100 euros in price.
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I’ve been looking at one as a development machine too. Plus they just look so damn good compared to Dells.
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