I am so pissed at thawte,I have faxed all the information they requested Feb 3rd(DBA from my state and whois print out) and yet they want me to fax even more stuff after they called me on the number listed in the whois. I have since E-mailed them back with issue the Cert. or refund my Business Credit Card. Yet the e-mail goes on ignored since Feb 6th.I just got done E-mailing them again this time to my contact and their higher up. I also have found out their president lives in South Africa yet the secretary is in North Carolina at the physical location of the business. I just got a hold of my credit card company (Capital One) and will be talking to my merchant service center on Monday for them to pursue this issue for me. Hope you all haven't had this much trouble getting a certificate issued..

From Thawte

In order for us to fulfill our verification requirements, a Customer Service Representative must contact you through a trusted third party number. Since we were unable to obtain a phone number through information in your local area, we must ask you to complete the instructions below and have the letter returned to Thawte.

Please complete the following:
1. Fill in all three (3) variable fields, descriptions are listed
2. Print letter on company letterhead
3. Have corporate contact sign letter
4. Have letter notarized and faxed to:

Is that right ??

I just got a cert from then, didn't got all that BS, maybe was lucky :(

When I got a cert from them (about a year ago) I was assigned an account representative with whom I was to deal with directly if there were any problems. Did you? If so I'd call that person and find out what's going on.

Unfortunately getting a security certificate is one of those things that takes time and exact following of protocol.

Yes sure did and that was the account rep that called me on the phone, LMAO then told me she was sending me a E-mail in about 30 mins. That's who I replied back to.

Did you send them the notarized letter you've been asked for?

I knew Thawte is a south african company.

If I were you I'd just stick with it and try and get through the red tape as best I could. I think Thawte is a pretty reputable company, I'm sure the problems can be worked out (although I sympathize with you over the frustrating delays). Your only other real option (as far as I know) is VeriSign, and they're a bunch more expensive (and Thawte is owned by VeriSign anyway).

Unfortunately this procedure is necessary to verify your identity.

I just went through the same thing but I avoided some of the problems by pointing out that the phone number was listed in the phone book under my personal name not the business name.
They were OK about this.
However, I had to produce extra documentation to verify the business name.

Rumour has it that Thawte are going to increase their prices, tucows has already launched their own $100 certificate: http://certs.tucows.com

Gordon

Newbie, you "thawte" this would be easy, huh?

Actually, Thawte signed our certs within one day of receiving the small amount of required information. In face, we've had at least 30 certs signed by Thawte, and haven't run into this problem.

They do have a telehpone number you can call and speak with the directly, especially if they're not answering your e-mail. It's not toll free, but it may be worth the few cents to call.

Their number is 919-831-8400

This is all to verify that you are you and that they can give you a cert. Privacy and encryption is a big thing.

Also, Thawte HQ is in South Africa, thier US/North American offices are in North Carolina. They have offices ALL over the world.

We never had any problems with them, we are in the UK and at the time were just trading as a partnership so we really didn't have much proof of identity as a company, all we did was print our whois info, send a voided cheque from our business account and we were set.

Now all we do if we need another cert is just fill the form out, then confirm our details with a nice lady from South Africa when she phones.

Yes Karl
I had to do the voided business cheque thing too, but it went fine.

I am an opensrs reseller so I might start using their certificates if Thawte's prices escalate.
We will just gave to wait and see.

BT are charging over £500 for 128 bit certs.
Thats the value of adding a brand to them.
If I could get away with that mark up I could retire very quickly.

Gordon

We use http://www.equifaxsecure.com they charge $80 i know there are links from some sites tjat allow you to pat $68 but I can't remember where I saw them

Maybe someone else has seen the links that allo you to pay $68

Steve

Thanx you all, I think I am going to let my Merchant service center handle this one so I can do other things. One good thing about Capital one Business Visa, they can put the presure on them more then I can and it doesn't cost me extra money for the service.

BTW The Equifax Certs went up to $99.00, I believe a week ago that's why I just decided to get one from Thawte.

We'll see how everything goes on Monday night. :)

SSL Cert are still available at $89 from http://www.equifaxsecure.com

or at $68 following the link

http://www.equifaxsecure.com/s2/

Steve

Verisign is so demanding and very slow. Anyway, they are now the same company :(