Shopping Problems

I have been trying to buy running equipment for winter conditions over the Internet from companies based inn the U.S. It has been an exercise in frustration and futility.

The first company I tried was Champs Sports. They do accept and ship orders overseas but not to several countries including Malaysia if payment is made using a local credit card . They could only accept payment by Western Union QUICK PAY or International Money Order. QUICK PAY is a service used to send money to a a company or individual which has an account at Western Union.

I duly went to Bank Bumiputra Commerce listed in Western Union's website as their agent providing QUICK PAY transaction. To my consternation, I was told their IT system was not yet ready for QUICK PAY service. They were unable to tell me when the system would be ready. A visit to RHB Bank was not useful as they only had the most basic Western Union sevice; transaction between individuals. I got the same answer when I called Pos Malaysia. Scratch the Western Union option.

The second option is paying by International Money Order. I was dissappointed to learn that Post Malaysia provides this service to 21 countries but not including the USA. Scratch that option (last) too.

Last night, I finally had to inform Champ Sports that I could not find a way to pay.

Next I went to another company in the US, National Running Centre and asked them if they accepted payment using a Malaysian credit card. Their answer was "No".

Today I am waiting for a reply from REI.

All of these problems are caused by serious credit card fraud in this region. It seems that many Indonesian fraudsters are using fake credit cards using writing their country as Malaysia.

On a positive note, I am making good progress in my training. On Tuesday, I ran 6 km with Jimmy from the Klang Pacer club. Yesterday I ran about 8.6 km at KLCC with Jamie, Yong and Newton. But after yesterday's run, my right knee is sore. I may have to skip running for 3 days before this Sunday's 30 km long run.