A week ago, we quietly started taking on line bookings - for example, you'll find a BOOK IT link from the MySQL course description page.

What a shame that one of the very first bookings came from a country in Africa, with credit card details for a USA address and in the name of a person who wasn't on the course and had a very non-african sounding name. The booking was followed up by an email asking for us to issue a letter of invitation to the course as a matter of some urgency, and the email addresses being used are generic ones that anyone can sign up for, for free, rather than linked back to the booker's company. All in all, a very suspicious booking. I can't be certain (and when you report these things to your credit card company, they don't enlighten you of the detail), but I rather suspect a stolen card or identity, and an attempt to obtain paperwork from us to help with a UK visa application. As a matter of course, our systems 'profile' transactions and anything that is unusual is investigated.

In order to protect ourselves, our customers, and third parties who might not have authorised charges such as these, we restrict credit card bookings for courses; if you're using the online form, we insist that:
a) The name on the credit card must match one of the people coming on the course
b) The full street address that the card is registered to much be given and that will be used as the address to which we send the course confirmation
c) The address must be within the same legal juristiction in which Well House Consultants operates.

These rules are a bit of a nuisance, but they're good news for the majority of our customers as they afford them extra protection. Users of the system will also note that we're using a registered secure server (and https rather than http) through which they enter their personal details.

If you're looking to book a course at our Melksham training centre on your credit card, but you're based in a different part of the world ... we can still help. Simply make a provisional booking through the online system to reserve your place, and call in to give us your details. We can often complete the security checks on the phone during your call, and if not we can usually get back to you very soon and look forward to welcoming you.
(written 2005-11-06, updated 2006-06-05)

 G502 - Well House Consultants - Business Practice
  [15] 90 to 10 or 80 to 20 rule - (2004-08-15)
  [27] Sales technique - (2004-08-25)
  [68] Get the strategy worked out and the tactics just fall into place. - (2004-09-30)
  [77] Telephone systems - (2004-10-07)
  [88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
  [95] Five red flags - (2004-10-21)
  [108] A typical morning - (2004-11-03)
  [121] Fair and Simple - (2004-11-17)
  [125] Staff theft - (2004-11-21)
  [129] Trawling our site to prevent student copying - (2004-11-24)
  [137] Certification schemes - (2004-12-02)
  [157] Automatic service upgrades - (2004-12-19)
  [180] Skunk works - (2005-01-17)
  [188] Pink elephant and appreciation - (2005-01-24)
  [200] Tips for the top - (2005-02-03)
  [211] Look after your staff and they'll look after you. AOL. - (2005-02-12)
  [217] Use of time - (2005-02-16)
  [226] Growing our systems - (2005-02-24)
  [297] A reminder that the customer is King - (2005-05-01)
  [321] Sales - the alternative close - (2005-05-23)
  [399] simplicity hides real size - (2005-07-31)
  [438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
  [457] Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid - (2005-10-06)
  [467] Tell them three times - (2005-10-17)
  [491] Being atypical is typical - (2005-11-10)
  [536] Cancellations and penalties - (2005-12-21)
  [626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
  [652] Morning Post - (2006-03-20)
  [664] Ruby course - oops - it's not happening - (2006-04-01)
  [766] Discounts and approved supplier lists - (2006-06-17)
  [808] Sales call - (2006-07-19)
  [849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
  [869] UNABLE TO ATTEND - (2006-09-16)
  [883] Age discrimination law - (2006-10-01)
  [906] A commitment we won't be making - (2006-10-27)
  [1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
  [1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
  [1133] B-2-B Networking, 20th April. Useful for YOUR business? - (2007-04-03)
  [1157] Speed Networking - a great evening and how we arranged it - (2007-04-21)
  [1165] Extended Credit request - train in June and be paid in September - (2007-04-27)
  [1243] Heavy duty hole punch - (2007-06-24)
  [1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
  [1263] 0800 043 8225 - a new phone number for Well House - (2007-07-10)
  [1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
  [1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
  [1373] New Month, New Quarter, New Laws - (2007-10-01)
  [1394] Business to Business Networking - North and West Wilts / Melksham - (2007-10-17)
  [1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1626] Early May - a short chance to regroup and improve - (2008-05-01)
  [1713] Ways to accept credit cards - or not! - (2008-07-19)
  [1855] Volunteer v Employee - a skewed balance? (FSB) - (2008-10-25)
  [1913] Alastair Darling helps make paperwork and confusion - (2008-11-30)
  [2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
  [2122] Commission Creep - (2009-04-08)
  [2126] Weeding out old phone numbers - (2009-04-11)
  [2161] Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out! - (2009-05-08)
  [2187] Are we IITT (Institute of IT Training) members? - (2009-05-17)
  [2190] How you are (re)presented at an exhibition - (2009-05-19)
  [2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
  [2331] Certification Revisted - Lua - (2009-08-09)
  [2465] Melksham Town - asleep or awake? - (2009-10-21)
  [2598] An excuse for making a sales call - (2010-01-26)
  [2788] Cost of Sales - (2010-06-01)
  [2821] Chancellor George Osborne inspires Perl Program - (2010-06-22)
  [2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
  [2966] Cheap Country Hotel in Melksham, Wiltshire? - (2010-09-21)
  [3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
  [3157] A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland - (2011-02-04)
  [3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
  [3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
  [3613] Keeping Business Local. But is that realistic? - (2012-02-13)
  [3665] Will will smile? - (2012-03-22)
  [3750] Matching opening hours to when customers can come in and buy - (2012-06-04)
  [3755] Cruising on the Mersey Ferry? - (2012-06-07)
  [4107] Snog, Marry, Avoid - (2013-05-31)
  [4293] Certification - (2014-09-15)
  [4415] Buffet review - taking the price into account - (2015-02-05)
  [4520] No cold sales calls please - but delighted to hear from others! - (2015-09-29)

G301 - Well House Consultants - Booking a Public Courses
  [1193] Dangerous Dogs and Hotel Marketing - (2007-05-19)
  [1555] Advanced Python, Perl, PHP and Tcl training courses / classes - (2008-02-25)
  [1634] Kiss and Book - (2008-05-07)
  [1693] July to December 2008 - Open Source training schedule - (2008-07-01)
  [1932] Training Passports - booking a training program - (2008-12-09)
  [2278] First courses for 2010 - (2009-07-10)
  [2352] Printed Directories - the start of the updating season - (2009-08-12)
  [2743] Public Open Source Training Courses running this summer and autumn in Melksham - (2010-04-27)
  [3180] Age limits for Well House Consultants Open Source courses? - (2011-02-22)
  [3600] Visa, MasterCard and American Express - changing payment profiles - (2012-02-01)
  [4122] Well House - booking through agents - (2013-06-23)
  [4602] Training course and hotel room prices - 2016 - (2015-12-31)

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Forward to Looking for railway groups and users - Swindon, Salisbury, Southampton

A new way to get lost
Which MySQL server am I using?
Looking for railway groups and users - Swindon, Salisbury, Southampton
On line course booking - credit card protection
Rail services under threat - Swindon, Melksham ... and Newquay and Bicester too
North, Norther and Northest - PHP 5 Objects
Setting the file name for a downloaded document
Double Dollars in PHP
Different ways of selling