Registered to vote ? Then you can buy from Johnny Appleseed.

[iamapom]

It appears than when you spend more than $100 on the Johnny Appleseed web site, they call you and you have to give them either your current or previous details of your Australian voting registration so then can verify who you are. And if you are not a citizen then apparently they ask for a copy of your driving license, or some other form of documentation !? What the ?

I feel a bit violated to be honest. I'm am guessing they are using the AEC web site for this ?? I'm pretty sure that the "check my enrolement" fucntionality of AEC.gov.au website isn't designed to be used for this.

I run an online shop selling consumer products, which often has orders over $100, and in 100's of orders I've never had "chargeback" problem yet. Why are they making it so difficult to do business with them ? The idea of e-commerce is that it makes it easy and convenient for everyone.

Rant over.

[Richary]

I wouldn't be using them in that case. And how does them knowing your electoral roll details prevent chargebacks in any case?

As for the privacy issues, I would be checking with the aec if this is allowed or if they are breaking the law.

If you have any privacy concerns, please contact the AEC National Office in Canberra on telephone 02 6271 4411 or email info@aec.gov.au.

[gmj3191]

Do we allow aliens to use GCA facilities?

[Richary]

Identity theft anyone? They know your credit card details and electoral enrolment, or drivers licence. I'm not that happy with giving a private company all that.

[GhostGums]

Are you sure it was a geniune call from JA?

[Renroc]

I have bought stuff from Johnny Appleseed and have not had to do anything like this. But it was a while ago now. Maybe info requests have changed. Ring them and find out.

[maccamob]

... I'm am guessing they are using the AEC web site for this ?? I'm pretty sure that the "check my enrolement" fucntionality of AEC.gov.au website isn't designed to be used for this.

The "Check my electoral enrolment" feature of the aec web site requires your name and address as input, which means you can't use it to find out where someone lives. You CAN do that if you go to an AEC office to view the complete roll, but you may need to search the name separately in each State (which is how the roll is organised). We have done that to locate friends with whom we've lost touch for purposes of a Course Reunion. Even then, it is much easier if you know full surname and given names if the surname is a reasonably common one, and you can still end up with several identical names.

[iamapom]

It was JA.com.au I phoned them back on their public number.

I think what happens is that they are using some facility (perhaps the AEC site - which can do this - try it out) to verify names and addresses of new e-commerce customers. They only need the details they have on the order to do that. But they also need your middle name.

Lets face it, when I think that this happens in the background, so you don't see it happening normally.
They weren't using any kind of reverse look-up on the whitepages etc as they found me, and I have a silent number.
I presume that they only call if the electoral roll lookup fails - when they don't have your middle name...? That happened to me, as I've just moved house also.

It still feels a bit "wrong".

I will check with the AEC.

[iamapom]

... I'm am guessing they are using the AEC web site for this ?? I'm pretty sure that the "check my enrolement" fucntionality of AEC.gov.au website isn't designed to be used for this.

The "Check my electoral enrolment" feature of the aec web site requires your name and address as input, which means you can't use it to find out where someone lives. You CAN do that if you go to an AEC office to view the complete roll, but you may need to search the name separately in each State (which is how the roll is organised). We have done that to locate friends with whom we've lost touch for purposes of a Course Reunion. Even then, it is much easier if you know full surname and given names if the surname is a reasonably common one, and you can still end up with several identical names.

When you order online - they have both your name and address...
So they can't find out anything new.
Apart from:
a. Your middle name, but they will have to ask you that.
b. If you are an Australian Citizen or not, which is non of their business.

One would expect that they have had many fraudulent sales, and subsequent chargebacks, and they are attempting to ensure that the person they are selling to is who they say they are and they live at that address. I have no problem with them calling to verify, that's sensible. But the whole electoral lookup or even more annoying "you must send us some other id" that's over the top.

[Damo.]

[iamapom]

Yes, quite.

[Toriaz]

When you order online - they have both your name and address...
So they can't find out anything new.
Apart from:
a. Your middle name, but they will have to ask you that.
b. If you are an Australian Citizen or not, which is non of their business.

They can get more than this - I have access to the AEC database for work purposes, & from memory I can also get your date of birth from it. There are other fields as well, I just don't need to use those & can't remember what they are.

[gmj3191]

I bought an Oregon 550 from JA in Brisbane over the phone (everyone else was out of stock) late last year, and there were no hassles.
As I recall I just paid for it using a Bpay transfer to their account, no hassles.

[GhostGums]

I bought State of Origin tickets the other day and have to wait 3 weeks to get the tickets because they do a security check.

Just making sure you ain't a scalper or NSW supporter I suppose!

[gmj3191]

I bought State of Origin tickets the other day and have to wait 3 weeks to get the tickets because they do a security check.

Just making sure you ain't a scalper or NSW supporter I suppose!

Well I guess if you come from Victoria you're pretty much approved straight away