EU-based Members and Williams-Sonoma

[Mjx]

I'm currently situated in the EU, and cannot access Williams-Sonoma's website, but get this message when I try:

Sorry, due to website restrictions we are unable to display the requested page.

This has been going on for several months, and I have no idea of what these website restrictions might be (their 'newsletter' still shows up in my inbox, so it doesn't seem as though they're blackballing me personally).

Is anyone else in the EU (or any other area outside North America/the US) having this same problem, or have any idea of the reason for this?

[rarerollingobject]

Hmm, I can access it (from Australia). Also tried it from an Edinburgh IP address and it works fine. Perhaps you have cosmically pissed off Williams AND Sonoma!

[pep.]

I've got no problem displaying the site. From the error message you report, it seems more likely that you are using a proxy of some kind that (probably erroneously) prohibits access to the site.

Greetings,

Peter

[pep.]

After some googling, I have to retract my statement. Apparently, W-S and related companies are blocking some countries' access to their website. No one seems to have a real clue as to why, but the official statement indicates that it has got something to do with credit card fraud. Why some countries seem to be on their block list is beyond me, as they do not ship to non-US addresses anyway.

[rarerollingobject]

It's very strange, you'd think anyone devious enough to be engaging in credit card fraud would be sufficiently sneaky to use a proxy service anyway..so what's the point of country blocking?

(not that I'd know..I only use proxies to do cunning things like watch BBC TV online..criminal mastermind, me..)

[Mjx]

It's very strange, you'd think anyone devious enough to be engaging in credit card fraud would be sufficiently sneaky to use a proxy service anyway..so what's the point of country blocking?

(not that I'd know..I only use proxies to do cunning things like watch BBC TV online..criminal mastermind, me..)

Yes, or, you know, drive for a couple of hours to the nearest country that wasn't blocking the site.

[Karri]

Something is fishy here, just because there has been some credit card fraud done in some countries, it shouldn't prompt a country to block the whole country off? I'm pretty sure that isn't even legal?

[pep.]

Something is fishy here, just because there has been some credit card fraud done in some countries, it shouldn't prompt a country to block the whole country off? I'm pretty sure that isn't even legal?

Na, it's W-S blocking of visitors from that country. I don't see why it should be illegal, but it sure is dumb. And even if there was a lot of credit card fraud in some country, it wouldn't hurt W-S because they don't deliver outside of the US anyway.