I’m toying with the idea of splitting the rock/metal stuff on this blog off into its own little page. I have an old domain name that’s lying fallow and would suit things perfectly, allowing me to tie them in a little better with the Mosher’s Music Page facebook page. I may rename that page to fit with the domain name… I think I can do that once without having to pay facebook or give them the still-beating heart of my firtborn or whatever they demand.
Wish I’d thought of this before the holidays, not when I just have a day left. Still, how long can it take to create a new instance of WordPress, then selectively export and upload the relevant database records?
My other half just picked up some stuff from www.silverjewellerysonlineshops.co.uk as gifts. Their web site states that they’re genuine, and they’re not. All knock-offs and not at knock-off prices. The stuff we received was a) partially incorrect and b) crap. Damaged, badly made and obviously sub-standard.
There is no indication of where they are located – it turns out when the stuff arrived that it’s China. They also took more off Gillian’s debt card that they were authorised to do so.
Correspondence with them (via a Yahoo email address…) has resulted in them claiming that it’s “not worth” refunding as the postage charges would be so high to return it. They offered £10 (of a £70+ transaction). Then £13. Now £18. It’s like haggling.
Unsure if trading standards will touch it, but the web site takes GBP payments and is a .co.uk domain so I think I’ll be making a complaint to their registrar. A quick search on MoneySavingExpert.com popped up a story about “Operation Papworth” a couple of years ago where 1,219 similar Asia-based sites were taken offline.
We’re looking at talking to the bank and using something called Chargeback – further details on the Which? web site.
Please PLEASE share and repost elsewhere. If they won’t refund our relatively small amount after defrauding us, then perhaps some negative advertising will cost them more.
www.silverjewellerysonlineshops.co.uk – you are thieves, fraudsters, liars and scum. I hope you die a severely unpleasant death, that lingers for many hours until you are begging to be put out of your misery.
UPDATE
I contacted the four jewellery manufacturers for whom the frauds list themselves as authorised resellers. Tiffany & Co have already replied and were very grateful for the heads up, and the additional details I gave them about the domain registration. Apparently the domain is owned by a lady in Belfast, according to the whois data. I reckon this is a crock as well, frankly.
The domain registrar did have a look, but said there was nothing wrong with the site that they could see which is fair enough. On the front it looks genuine, it’s after the purchase has gone through that you find out they’re scammers. I’ve forwarded them the correspondence we exchanged with the thieving ******** afterwards.
Also, our bank have said they’ll issue a Chargeback against the transaction which means we get a full refund from the thieves’ bank account.
So as a result of trying to screw us over, they’ve lost not only a sale minus a small overhead but the entire sale, plus postage, plus the shoddy goods they sent out. In addition, there’s every chance their domain will be taken off them as well.
Do not mess with my other half. I will hunt you down…
FURTHER UPDATE
From their domain registrar:
Hello,
Thank you for your response. We have asked the owner of the domain to remove all the infringing content from their website within the next 24hrs, failure in doing so will result in suspension of his domain. We would also request you to file a complaint against this domain with your local cyber crime department.
This is a Good Thing, as the resolution declared that the right to be able to get online and express oneself freely was a right of every person on the planet. Wonderful, and something I wholeheartedly agree with.
However…
a) How could China, with it’s famous “Great Firewall“, sign this with a straight face? While Chinese people can access the internet, they do not get access to the same level of information as people in the West. They also certainly cannot express themselves freely as many recent news stories have demonstrated, with people being arrested for even drawing attention to certain topics let along going into detail about them.
b) France has a “three strikes and you’re cut off” policy for those accused of (note: not necessarily “found guilty of”) downloading copyrighted material. The UK has been looking at similar plans as have other countries. This resolution is going to knock that kind of legislation for six, surely? It’s worth pointing out that neither France nor the UK are current members of the United Nations Human Right Council, so did not sign the resolution.
ICANN started selling new “generic” top-level domains for silly sums recently. There are the last bit of a web address, and originally were limited to the liked of “.com” and “.org”. They expanded to include “country level” ones such as “.uk”, “.ca” and so on.
The recent move is apparently the help companies spread their branding or make web addressed easier to remember or something. They also include non-Roman characters for the first time, which could allow those using different scripts to access the web entirely in their own languages.
All very money-grabbing, but the pointlessness of it was demonstrated by the example given by the BBC. Apparently Canon are one of the handful of companies which have jumped in to buy some of these domains, which would allow them to have:
www.products.canon
instead of
www.canon.com/products
Now, colour me skeptical but surely they’d be just as well off using a subdomain along the lines of:
products.canon.com
which would cost them the grand price of utterly bugger all, with the added bonus of not confusing an already overly-befuddled system?
At midnight tonight, a WordPress plugin will kick in which “blacks out” this blog (and my travel blog). I know I only get a few hits a day (around 50-100, usually), but it’s my small way to take part in the STOP SOPA Wednesday.
For those who don’t know, SOPA (and also PIPA) are motions to be put through the US legal system in a bid to allow large copyright holders power to close down websites simply because they don’t like them. OK, it’s a little more complex than that but that’s what it boils down to. SOPA has, in fact, already been shelved as a result of public outcry but PIPA is still alive and threatening horrific levels of censorship.
Essentially what these laws will do is allow a copyright holder (read “rich media company”) to force any website to be taken offline if it claims said site infringes on its copyright. Forget about any discussion over “fair use”, similar content which isn’t actually copied, mistakes and the like – it’s “guilty until proven innocent, which you won’t be because the people putting in the complaint have more money than you”.
Notice, that I said “site”. Remember the case a couple of years back with a baby dancing to a Michael Jackson track on YouTube? Jackson’s record company attempted to sue the baby’s parents for breach of copyright as they dared to put a dodgy recording of part of a song by dead weirdo onto a publicly accessible website. Obviously, this would cost them a fortune in lost revenue. Tossers.
Under SOPA, the media company could force YouTube offline. An extreme and unlikely example, but under the wording of the legislation completely possible. The host is liable for the content uploaded by its members. Even if those members number potentially in their billions.
The methods used to remove sites from the internet is also flawed and involves messing about with the internet’s central servers – something which has had industry experts who actually know what they the hell they’re on about (therefore obviously not politicians, lawyers or record company execs) up in arms.
I’m glad SOPA has been shelved, but I fear it will return. Right now we have to ensure that PIPA is also put down. Although obviously focussed on the US, this will affect anyone using the internet if it goes through. It could also lead to similar legislation being put in place in other countries.
Many sites, far bigger than this little bunch of rants and reviews, are also blacking out for 24 hours. Reddit, WordPress.org, TwitPic and Wikipedia are amongst them. Imagine an internet without them – and many other sites who are not participating. Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. Blogger.
Frankly it beggars belief. Yet the ignorance and stupidity of the media companies trying to push this madness through does not.
