What should I do now? I can’t attend the interview next Thursday as I’ll be in work, unless I manage to move some days around at very short notice. Even if I send a letter back to the CSA (as Cheryl said I should do) I can’t print one and send it until Monday when I’m next in the office, so they won’t get that until Wednesday, and the interview is Thursday!

Anyhow – listen to the call and see what you think.

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Just look at the delight on that father’s face as he gets to finally make the CSA listen to him, before cutting off their ears of course.

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I recorded the segment and have uploaded it as a podcast, but must apologise in advance for the poor sound quality and additional commentary because the program I used to record it also recorded ambient sound from within the room.

Very useful!

Anyhow, have a listen and do let me know what you think.

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Due to running so many websites I’ve also had numerous emails over the years from affiliate networks, potential sponsors and various companies who have wanted me to sign up or advertise their products.

Many of which are genuine affiliate networks, many of which are not.

Again, I feel I’m pretty good at telling which are the genuine ones, and which are the spam emails destined for the deleted items folder. Yesterday however I had one email that I just couldn’t bring myself to delete, so blasé was it about its ‘free’ service to me.

Have a read of this:

From: Weng Lopez
Subject: Re: CSA Hell: Re: your site, www.CSAhell.com

Hi,

I just want you to know that your site meets our criteria and we would like to sponsor it. The membership is free but only the top-notch sites are allowed.

What’s in it for you:

- Placement in an exclusive “Best of Content-Oriented Web sites” directory.
- Free content for your site, written around your topics by our in-house writers.
- Promotion of your site across our networks of 2,000+ of blogs.
- Marketing tools developed exclusively for our members to help you drive more traffic.
- Expert advice on search engine optimization (SEO), content development, monetization, conversions, etc. to make the most of what you’ve got.
- Participation in our community support forums.
- …and more.

Note that none of these benefits are available to non-members, it is an invitation-only community for webmasters. So, if any of the above appeals to you and if you’d like an invitation, please let me know. I will send you more details.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,

Weng Lopez
weng.lopez@mikino.com
www.flakelet.com

I so nearly deleted it… but instead felt a compelling urge to reply, especially after I had a quick look at their website and saw what a dodgy Facebook knockoff it was.

Here is what I wrote:

So, if I understand this correctly – you want to place content on my site, with links to your sponsors, without paying me for it and have advertised this as being a free service to me?

I can see what you get out of it – websites willing to post your content promoting your sponsors, but I don’t seem to get anything out of it all. Your website seems to be using the same design as Facebook (I’m sure that’s a coincidence) and has no PR, meaning it’s fairly new or has been penalised.

In addition, should I place your content on my website I would be penalised by Google for duplicate content AND for selling links, even though I wouldn’t actually have received any money for them.

Perhaps I’ve missed something? Do let me know if I have.

Regards
Darren

I doubt I’ll get a reply back – but seriously, if anyone gets an email from these jokers, the ‘free’ membership that allows you to promote their clients without any charge to yourself isn’t the best deal you’ll find online.

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Indeed, I like to perform my own exposes of companies, such as those that have often annoyed me like the CSA, BT and Direct Line, or companies that have the misfortune of having annoyed me just the once and lived to regret it forever, such as Home Delivery Network and Chester Council.

I’m a fan of Watchdog’s work, so much so that I even aided them with their quest to investigate Providence Properties (a company that didn’t annoy me, but I picked up the torch nonetheless).

However, this new series of Watchdog, which started last night, will have companies like Providence Properties popping the champagne corks. What was once a hard hitting consumer affairs show has been diluted into nothing more than a BBC version of Loose Women.

Did we need to see Anne Robinson and Gabby Roslin harping on about pushchairs? Did we have to watch a 10 minute video showing how many bags you can hang on the back of them before they topple over, despite even the voiceover admitting that the manufacturers tell you not to do it? And what purpose did strapping the buggies onto a bucking bronco and seeing how long it took to launch the doll from them actually serve?

None, none whatsoever.

They then complained about Virgin Media. Excellent, as a customer of Virgin Media I’ve had my share of complaints with them. However, complaining that Virgin Media make it difficult to sort out someone’s account after they’d died isn’t really anything to complain about. People would soon complain if it were made easy, then anyone could phone up and claim to be a relative, stating the account holder had died and they wanted all of the documents and account credit transferred to them.

Virgin Media acted responsibly.

I can’t believe I’m saying all of this, but it gets worse.

The report on sunbeds was completely redundant. It’s not illegal for under 18s to use them, so none of the health clubs were breaking the law. What’s the problem?

Just why has the show been merged with Rogue Traders? I’m not a fan of Rogue Traders because I believe the guy hosting it, Matt Allwright, is out of his depth, as he showed again. He’s in the perfect position to really get people’s back up yet seems to act like a petulant clown. If you want to see how to annoy people, read this website, it’s all there.

Matt Allwright followed some salesman from Craftmatic beds, claiming his technique of making three phone calls to the office was hard sell, and his claiming that the bed will make you look twenty years younger was unscrupulous. OK, if you believe that using a bed makes you look twenty years younger you deserve to be conned, and making several calls to the office to get ‘discounts’ for the client is a sales technique. It might not be pleasant, but salesman generally aren’t.

He hadn’t done anything wrong. Then when the Matt Allwright tried to crash the sales conference and was barred from entry he started acting like a child, ordering the man behind not to trap him in the door or it would be assault.

You’re not supposed to be getting worked up mate, they are!

He’s rubbish and the show has been ruined. Bring back Nicky Campbell and the decent format. If you want someone to do Rogue Traders properly, I’ll do it!

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This is of course despite my former employer telling them twice and me telling them once that I no longer work.

Ironically enough she demanded that I prove that I’m not working. I begged the question how can you prove you’re NOT working, and she had little idea except for going to the job centre.

As if.

Could I perhaps show her a payslip that I don’t have? Could she speak to an employer that doesn’t exist? Who knows, yet she ended the call by saying as the CSA were not told that I’m no longer working, by me or by my former employer, that I’m still liable for the full deductions.

How on earth does that work? I no longer work at Just Search. I am not employed by them. The CSA have been told this on THREE separate occasions.

She even apologised for the fact that they hung up on me twice before, shortly before she, yes you guessed it, hung up on me.

You can’t make this stuff up, really.

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I notified the CSA that I was leaving in April this year, via letter, which you can read here. My employer also notified the CSA that I no longer worked there. You’d think that would be enough for the child support agency, but no, despite being told twice, in writing, they still can’t take in any information and have just contacted my former employer with a payment schedule for a deduction from earnings order.

How many times do we have to tell these idiots the same thing?

The irony is that the DEO also comes with a stern warning stating that if you move house or change job you must notify the CSA within 10 days or face a £1,000 fine and a prison sentence. What’s the point in telling them? They don’t frickin’ listen anyway!

I’ve had it with the CSA. I told them I was leaving my job, almost three months ago now, and don’t have anything else to say to them. If they want to speak to me they know where I am and they know my number. They can get in touch anytime, night or day.

I’m listening…

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This website was created to allow people who are having trouble with the child support agency to voice their problems to the world and maybe get some advice on how to deal with it.

On the website you can read emails we have received from non resident parents and parents with care who have given up hope on trying to get the CSA to do their job properly. The website also features my famed YouTube videos of phone calls I have had with the CSA.

Now, how has this impacted?

Firstly, anyone looking for the ‘child support agency’ who Google’s ‘child support agency’ is able to see my legendary CSA video on the front page of Google, as you can see here.

The video has received almost 10,000 views at time of writing this, and will receive a lot more over the coming weeks and months. The ‘administrative error’ the hapless Ryan admits to on the phone is hilarious, and very damning for the CSA.

But what of people looking for ‘CSA Complaints’? Well, I have that one sewn up in spades. Not one, but TWO websites on the front page of Google, CSAhell.com and mrdaz.com.

There’s no escaping for the CSA. We’re here to stay and we’re only getting stronger.

If you’ve been screwed over by them, have your say at CSAhell.com and tell the world your story. It will be heard, by a LOT of people.

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Here’s the message The ONE Show has asked me to put up. Get in touch with them now if you believe you could contribute.

The ONE Show- Film about Disputed Parentage

We are making a film on ‘Disputed Parentage’ for The ONE Show, a primetime topical magazine show that transmits every weekday evening on BBC ONE at 7pm.

For the film we would like to speak to men and women who have been in this situation.

It will be an informal chat with a view to doing an interview at some point this week.

You can contact me on 01612443248 or 07843023251. Alternatively you can email me on joe.casey1@bbc.co.uk

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The last message I received from the idiots stated how they had sent a payment schedule to Just Search in July 2008, however they hadn’t sent one. I didn’t receive one and Just Search didn’t receive one.

The CSA lied.

I then heard that my DEO (deduction of earnings order) can’t be changed by my employer until the CSA send them an updated payment schedule, which they’re not planning on doing until July this year. This is despite my having already overpaid according to my records, and my employer’s records. Now, as the CSA lied about sending one in 2008, am I to trust they’ll send one in 2009?

Not likely. Even if they do actually send a new payment schedule this July, with the correct reduced payments, I would then have to APPEAL to get my money back!!!

Again, this isn’t going to happen.

As the CSA refuse to provide my employer with the correct payment schedule, haven’t done so for nearly 2 years and refuse to speak to me I’m left with no option but to quit. I can’t afford to work anymore.

I’m not the first to have to do this and I won’t be the last. I really don’t understand how the CSA can legally demand money direct from your employer based on a calculation that they refuse to update, and claim they did in 2008, when they blatantly didn’t. They have lied to me, they have lied to Just Search and they have been stealing money from me. No one can do anything about them, they are not governed by any policing body and they’re answerable to no one.

It’s a shame, but that’s the child support agency for you. Of course the real losers in all of this are my children, as they won’t receive any money from now on. The CSA have made sure of that. That is of course assuming they’ve received any of it in the first place?

Here is the letter I sent to the CSA informing them of this. Perhaps someone has a comment on this?

Birkenhead child support agency
Great Western House
Woodside Ferry Approach
Birkenhead
Merseyside
CH41 6DA

REF: Resignation from employment
National Insurance Number: **********

Dear Sirs

I write to notify you that due to your failure to act accordingly, and your failure to supply my employer, Just Search, with a payment schedule since July 2007 (almost TWO years ago) I have had no option but to resign from my job.

May 7th 2009 will be the last day of my employment as it just isn’t financially viable for me to continue working when the CSA are taking 40% of my salary and refuse to update my payment schedule to account for my overpayment.

Congratulations to you sirs, you have forced another hard working father who just wants to earn a living, pay his way and see his kids, to quit his job. I do hope the government rewards you accordingly for adding to the country’s unemployment figures.

I will be unemployed until further notice, but won’t be going out of my way to find a job. Nor will I be claiming benefit, as I don’t believe in sponging off other people who do work.

I complete a self assessment tax return for my affiliate earnings, but made a loss last year due to increased costs and reduced revenues. I might break even this year, so there is still nothing you can claim from me as I will not be earning.

This will be my last letter to you as I do not wish to correspond with you via letter in future. Any future correspondence must be made via phone call. You have my number, but here it is again just in case: ***** *** ***.

Regards

Darren Jamieson

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