CSA force me to quit my job

Sadly it’s finally come down to my having to resign from my job as a direct result of the CSA. It’s not something I wanted to do, but as they’re taking 40% of my salary, refuse to speak to me over the phone and haven’t sent my employer an updated payment schedule in almost 2 years, I can’t continue.

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

SEO company uses spam websites to sell links under Google’s nose

The process of selling links to people on your website for the purposes of SEO and passing PageRank has long been frowned upon by Google. It’s against their TOS and they even have a way in Google Webmaster Tools for you to report websites selling links.

However, it still goes on. Websites sell links direct to other websites and SEO companies buy links for their clients from link suppliers. I have even been penalised by Google for it. Some companies own hundreds, sometimes thousands, of websites just for the purpose of selling links.

One such SEO company owns the websites below. They make a point of creating hundreds of websites just to sell links on, and even buy up domains that have just expired so that they can offer links on domains with PageRank and IBLs (inbound links) for their clients.

This process, as I’ve already stated, is frowned upon by Google, yet Google seems to turn a blind eye to it. These websites, many of which are listed below, use the same template and consist of a small bit of text, followed by dozens of irrelevant links to client sites. One of these sites, agold.co.uk, features links to websites offering piano lessons, football tournaments, mouse mats… you name it. Whatever they can sell links for. All of the other sites, listed below, are the same. They’re devoid of unique, relevant content and exist purely to act as links to other websites. Just what Google wants to avoid.

How did I find this list of websites? Simple, whoever created them did so in a very amateurish way as they included the same intro line on every site. Simply Googling that line as an exact match showed up all of the other websites. However, I made the mistake of clicking on one of the results, which obviously then showed up on their stats, and they subsequently removed the line that was identical on all of the sites. Not before I copied the list though!

You’ll also notice that they’re all on the same IP address, on a server owned by Fasthosts… no surprise they’re involved somewhere.

Despite these websites being obvious spam links, they still carry PageRank and still rank within Google for competitive phrases. The question is, why does Google allow this when it’s so clearly against its TOS?

Have a look at the list of URLs and see what you think. Do these look like spam websites to you?

www.biojewelry.co.uk
www.butlerreview.org.uk
www.ctshow.co.uk
www.francealacarte.org.uk
www.agold.co.uk
www.amkdesign.co.uk
www.timerecords.co.uk
www.netstitch.co.uk
www.radio-active.co.uk
www.data-sphere.co.uk
www.lmal.org.uk
www.2cvchassis.co.uk
www.coasterkingdom.co.uk
www.craftybrides.co.uk
www.studentwatchout.co.uk
www.petitpoint.co.uk
www.big-print.co.uk
www.sewkits.co.uk
www.momag.co.uk
www.failsafe.org.uk
www.equinox-ebusiness.co.uk
www.bbsolutions.co.uk
www.hammondgallery.co.uk
www.400times.co.uk
www.en-gaged.co.uk
www.trafalgarweekend.co.uk
www.lpclassics.co.uk
www.toy-soldier.co.uk
www.alterkicks.co.uk
www.visonic.org.uk
www.livingincambridge.co.uk
www.revisingscbcd.co.uk
www.payableondeath.co.uk
www.movingmusic.co.uk
www.lifes4living.com
www.platinumart.co.uk
www.adverse-credit-remortgages.co.uk
www.bigrealestate.co.uk
www.bmx-race.co.uk
www.gazzettaonline.co.uk
www.mudbugz.org.uk
www.digital-arts.co.uk
www.efmag.co.uk
www.slimfit.co.uk
www.thepaternitycompany.co.uk
www.educationextra.org.uk
www.carimportsolutions.co.uk
www.kiltsandbagpipes.co.uk
www.swansfc.co.uk
www.visionsecurity.co.nz/Products++Solutions/CCTV+Systems.html
www.aviatorshades.co.uk
www.mcs-direct.co.uk
www.mousetrap-online.co.uk
www.strawberry-blondes.co.uk
www.smurfitinterlok.co.uk
www.photo-sense.co.uk
www.lsagency.org.uk
www.cellularrepairs.co.uk
www.vacuumcleaners4u.co.uk
www.fudoshin.co.uk
www.busbook.co.uk
www.madpaintball.co.uk
www.invincashield.co.uk
www.paulfrancispiano.co.uk
www.shrewsburyguide.co.uk
www.discountimports.co.uk
www.xlibris.co.uk
www.myvirtualreality.co.uk
www.breast-implant.co.uk
www.forbo.co.uk
www.freebies4u.co.uk
www.bluejuice.org.uk
www.herbalbody.co.uk
www.golf-properties-spain.co.uk
www.apis.org.uk
www.bodyorganic.co.uk
www.breast-reductions.co.uk
www.ilovegames.co.uk
www.website-banners.co.uk
www.cctv-city.co.uk
www.nwpr.org.uk
www.palmsource.co.uk
www.rugbysupporters.co.uk
www.malematters.co.uk
www.sweets-direct.co.uk
www.no-regrets.co.uk
www.shoesz.co.uk
www.sampleshack.co.uk
www.butterflyeffectthemovie.co.uk
www.auto-insurance-online.co.uk
www.topmoneymakers.co.uk
www.shopsafely.co.uk
www.dentistry.org.uk
www.divorcez.co.uk
www.romania.org.uk
ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/bitstream/1957/9434/1/1988.pdf
www.medweb.co.uk
www.vivendi-universal-interactive.co.uk
www.find-uk.co.uk
www.smoke-house.co.uk
www.dancevinylfinder.co.uk
www.airport-secure-parking.co.uk
www.cam-orl.co.uk
www.elms-sc.co.uk
www.realholiday.co.uk
www.gemsnthings.co.uk
www.vampiremovies.co.uk
www.horse-traders.co.uk
www.sexysox.co.uk
www.ultimateseduction.co.uk
www.kostar.co.uk

Why Google PageRank is meaningless

I posted previously how Google had penalised this site for selling links by hitting me with a PageRank penalty. Now Google has completely stripped this site of PR (as you can see if you have the PR toolbar) for what I can only speculate is link selling.

This is a bit of an annoyance to be honest because this site hasn’t sold any links except for the TextLinkAds widget on the right, which has been there for a few years now and only has one link.

What’s worse is that many other sites continue to sell links, right under Google’s nose, without any kind of penalty, though I’ll be blogging more on these in due time, and about how I’ve reported these sites to Google and Google has done nothing about it.

Still, as the title of this post suggests, PR is meaningless. It doesn’t affect your traffic or your rankings within the SERPs. The only advantage to PageRank is that advertisers can see how popular site is more easily. Anyone who looked at this site without paying too much attention could assume it didn’t get any traffic… which would be something of a mistake.