Mr Daz

The website CSAhell.com featured a story on its Facebook page today about a New Fathers For Justice protest outside the CSA offices in Dudley. The protest saw fathers dressed up as various superheroes, including the Pope. There was also a mother there as Wonder Woman – just in case anyone thought NF4J was an exclusively male domain.

What is interesting however is the comments this post attracted on the Facebook page, where many people offered their support for the fathers in their protest. One person though, Jamie Smith, wrote the following scathing insult about the New Fathers 4 Justice:

“what a joke – a load of blokes who cudnt keep their pants on and expect to get away without paying. Id pay some of them to jump off some ver tall buildings with their batman suits on – then we’ll see how man they are lol”

Jamie Smith's comments

Jamie Smith is insinuating that all of the fathers mentioned in the story refuse to pay any maintenance to their children, and he’s suggesting that they all commit suicide by throwing themselves off the roof of a building, with his blessing.

This seems very uncalled for, but Jamie Smith has made similar comments on the Facebook page before about fathers and their dealings with the CSA. So what does Jamie do for a living? He works for the Child Support Agency of course – it says so on his profile page.

This CSA worker has posted on a public page, where people go to get advice about the CSA, his views on how the fathers in question should kill themselves, and that he’d even pay them to do it. Jamie is typical of the sort of person working for the CSA which, in itself, should tell you all you need to know about the values of the organisation.

Hopefully the CSA will take action against Jamie Smith and other members of its staff who choose to insult already emotionally traumatised people via the Internet.

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I received a letter this morning from the CSA asking me to attend an interview next week at the local job centre. This could be a problem, because I work and can’t attend at such short notice. I called the number on the letter and spoke to a woman, in Chester. When I gave my name she immediately knew who I was and told me she couldn’t speak to me, as I was to be contacted by letter only, and then she hung up on me.

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 the woman 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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Tags: CSA, Podcasts by MrDaz
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I saw this movie poster over at CSAhell.com and thought I just had to put it up here. I hope one day that this film gets made because, let’s face it; there’s a ready-made audience for this. I’d be first in line for a start!

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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Last week I appeared on local radio here in the North West talking about the website CSAhell.com, and how it has helped people dealing with the Child Support Agency. I was approached for the radio talk show because the researchers found the website in Google when they searched for phrases such as ‘CSA Advice’, ‘CSA Mistakes’ and even ‘Child Support Agency’ – proving how SEO can not only benefit your website’s rankings and traffic, but how it can also lead to offsite promotion such as local radio.

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.

Darren Jamieson on Radio City - CSAhell.com [ 12:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1997)

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Tags: CSA, Internet, Podcasts, SEO by MrDaz
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I’ve been running various websites online now for, well, forever really. I think it goes back to 1998 somewhere, my memory fails me. The point is that I’m fairly web savvy and I know when a website looks suspect.

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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Those who know me will know that I love a good complaint. I’m renowned for it. Because of this, I’m a fan of BBC Watchdog. I often watch the show and get irate at the companies they’re exposing for their unethical practices and poor customer service.

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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Tags: British Telecom, Complaints, CSA, Home Delivery Network, Rants by MrDaz
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You’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but where the CSA are concerned you have to prove your innocence. I just had a call from a very rude woman who wanted to know why the CSA hadn’t been paid.

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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It’s been over two months since I left my job, in part due to the unreasonable behaviour of the child support agency and the fact that they refused to speak to me, and they’re still chasing my former employer to deduct money from my wages.

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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