Tom Doyle :: TALK

Another update on this whole saga that is really getting on my nerves. I can’t believe how these guys operate. The IIA should remove this cowboys from their organisation.

The latest saga surround the comments I left on eBay. Needless to say, I left negative comments. Here’s what I wrote:

Absolute scammers - delivered broken, refused repair, no postage refund

In response to this, the scumbags (sorry I can’t call them anything else) responded with a complete fabrication:

Reply by luzerntech (01-Jul-08 12:43):
Customer given a returns number for a replacement wanted a refund

For those of you that haven’t been keeping up with events, I basically returned the item looking for a replacement. Without anyone contacting me or asking what was wrong with the unit, I was told I would receive a refund. When I questioned it, they told me (and here’s the exert from the email):

“apologies ,we do not have repair service and we have received the item from the supplier as ready to send.
Anfortunately because of insufficient stock we do not have the item for the replacement”

 So yet again, this crowd have shown themselves to be completely untrustworthy. I’ve so far reported them to eBay, if I don’t get my complete refun, out of principle I will take this further.

LuzernTech sent me a mail today, saying they would refund my delivery. The only problem is, it’s only delivery for me returning it. I dropped it back myself, so unless they’ll take a bill for the petrol…

Anyway, I insisted again I wanted my money back from the original delivery charge, they replied saying that they won’t do this. So again I have insisted they pay me before I take this further.

Will let you know how I get on.

OH!! And I noticed today that this shower of chancers are IIA members - http://www.iia.ie/membership/member/2826/luzern-technology-solutions-ltd

As per my last post, I’ve been trying to get a full refund from LuzernTech for the damaged product they sent me.

I got an email back today:

Hi,
apologies ,we do not have repair service and we have received the item
from the supplier as ready to send.
Anfortunately because of insufficient stock we do not have the item for
the replacement ,
regarding to this circumstancess we have issued the refund .
Please accept our apology ,our terms & conditions stated as we do not
refund the postage cost and original freight cost.

Let’s ignore for a second the terrible response in terms of grammar and spelling from a supposedly “one of Europe’s leading eSolution providers in the area of consumer electronic asset recovery and disposition” - straight from the homepage of their website www.luzernsolutions.com.

I’m going to go straight to the “we have received the item from the supplier as ready to send”. On their eBay store however, they say:

“Important point to note
The items have been tested and are 100% functional. However, they may have minor cosmetic blemishes e.g. small marks or scratches normally associated with brief usage.”

So who exactly tests these items then?? If they are taking them and just sending them on, how can they say that the products are 100% functional??

The next point to note is this:

“we do not have repair service”

Funny they should say that when on their website they have the following statement:

“If a defect does occur during the period of the warranty, you should immediately notify the parties listed below. At the sellers option, the product will be repaired or replaced.”

So that’s a lie too then yeah?

Anyway, I just hope their potential customers and clients recognise what a shoddy operation they run.

A few weeks I decided to purchase a DVD recorder, you know, one of the cool ones that allow you to pause live TV, allows you to record to an internal HDD aswell DVDRs etc.

After much searching of the shops I decided I’d go with a Philips DVDR3597H (scroll to bottom), which seemed to have everything I required. In the shops they were ranging from €250 to €290 a pop. When I went into one well known electronics store, they were displaying a 20% off sign, when I asked them could I buy one, they only had the display model left. I don’t know why, but they wouldn’t give me anymore off the ragged looking display model, so I didn’t buy it then and there.

A friend of mine who frequently uses eBay recommend an eBay store by a crowd who call themselves Luzern Tech. I went onto eBay to have a look at them and the product I wanted was on auction for only £10 GBP.

I thought “great! this is my lucky day”. Well how wrong was I…
I won the auction for £71 GBP. Delighted, I paid the £71 + £8.50 delivery charge. In total it worked out at around €102. Happy days!!

When I received the product about 10 days later, I set it up and had it all functioning perfectly. Now, the box that arrives with the product has a lovely page stating that all products are fully tested before leaving the warehouse - worringly they had a longer explaination on how to return your product.

Anyway, when I tried to use the most basic and fundemental part of a DVD player, my world collapsed around me. I inserted my favourite Pearl Harbour DVD (;)) and bang, the disc tray kept opening and closing. It simply wouldn’t play any DVD.

More disappointed at the fact that I’d have to untangle all the wires again to put it back in the box, I decided to email Luzern Tech to find out the process from the horses mouth. 2 days later I still hadn’t heard back from Luzern Tech. Looking at their negative comments on eBay, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

One of the negative feedbacks that stuck out to me most was one where a guy won an auction for a few pounds and when he didn’t receive the product questioned Luzern Tech as to why. They said they were out of stock, which is against eBay’s rules as far as I know!

Anyway, I kept faith and just thought I’d been a little unlucky since they did have a fairly high rating of 97% on eBay.

When I finally got a reply from Luzern Tech, I realised something was wrong. They sent me a RMA number and asked me to deliver it back to them. At no stage did anyone ask me what was wrong with the player.

So I went off packaged it up and delivered it back to Luzern Tech’s warehouse in Blanchardstown, Dublin. When I got there, I found an office block with a logo the very same to Luzern Tech’s except it was called Luzern Solutions.

When I rang the bell, another shocker came to me… The guy at the end of the intercom said “You have a delivery? Is it a return? You are in the wrong place if it is”. The first thing that struck me was “Is it a return”, obviously well used to people coming to the wrong door to drop off a broken product. The second thing was, “you are in the wrong place”. Granted the main entrance was only at the other side of the building, it just seemed very shady to me.

Anyway, I dropped it off and didn’t hear a word from them until I went chasing them again. A few days later, I got what looked like an automated response from them stating that I would be getting a refund.

Again, no-one asked me at all what was wrong with the player. It was as if they already knew it would be returned anyway and were just happy to give me my money back.

So today I got my refund, except I was only refunded for the price of the player and not for delivery. I guess the motto of this story, be very careful when dealing with this crowd. If you buy something, make sure it’s at a decent price or you’re likely to get a dud.

My belief is that I bought something for well below what it should have sold for, so in order to fulfil the order, the just sent me out a broken player knowing I would send it back and they could give me my refund.

Oh and this is all from a company that say they are reputable - take a look at their website - www.luzernsolutions.com

They even have the nerve to state:

“PROOF! …..

We know we’re good!!  We have the highest feedback rating on eBay of any high-volume refurbished product reseller. We also maintain customer feedback ratings with the very same systems, staff, and procedures. “

That’s a blatant lie as many users of eBay will be aware of.

I’m now just fighting to get all my monies refunded, but do you think I’ve heard from them? You got it… no

ConsoleSource.com, the games console accessory online store have published all their affiliate members profiles online.

Today I was notified by email from a source calling themselves GamerGenesis.com, that all my information, including my home address(!) has been published on the ConsoleSource.com website.

In an obvious security breach, you can access their affiliate list at the following address : http://www.consolesource.com/affiliates/admin/print.affiliates_all.php

Adding to the breach, GamerGenesis.com questioned whether any affiliate had actually received payments from ConsoleSource.com.

So if you plan to buy anything from or sign up with ConsoleSource.com be very careful as to what information you provide.

EDIT: Apparently this has now been “remedied”.

I promise that this will be my last post on the Lisbon Treaty before we take to the polls. I just need to get this out of my system!

Last night, whilst enjoying my dinner, my door bell rang and I said “that better not be some campaigner looking for my vote in the referendum”. Reluctantly I answered the door with the intention of taking their flyer and saying “thanks”.

However when I opened the door it wasn’t just a normal campaigner, it was our local Fianna Fail councillor Pat Vance. This was my golden opportunity to ask someone that should know what the treaty is all about some questions that might answer my lingering doubts.

In fairness to Pat, he seemed to have his story very straight. Although, he did do the usual politician tact of avoiding answering the tough questions. He seemed like a nice guy and he had his own reasons why he was voting yes, which I respected.

But I’m sad to say, that after nearly 20 minutes of conversation, I was still non-the-wiser why I should vote yes in the upcoming treaty referendum.

So I’ve decided to vote no and I guess it would be fair to say my reasons are solely based on principle. Here’s why:

1. Democracy
   When a treaty which is more than 90% unchanged from an original treaty that was categorically turned down by countries with a combined population of over 80 million, there is something undemocratic about the way this treaty is being forced through.If it’s fair to use polls as a guide to what people are thinking, why when over 70% would have liked to have voted on the new Lisbon Treaty there was not a Europe wide vote? Is that not what democracy is?
2. Reading the Small Print
   Our own EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy (who I have a lot of respect for by the way) reckons it would be insane for someone to read the Lisbon Treaty in it’s entirity. Well I’m sorry, I just don’t agree with this. We elect these people to handle our affairs, they should be looking at the “small print”. Would you buy a house before employing a solicitor to read the “fine print” and ensure that you are protected? I know I certainly wouldn’t. I know I wouldn’t even sign up for Broadband without reading the small print. So the pure arrogance of this statement is one that annoys me a lot.So what happens in the future when something pops up that the government overlooked because we would be insane to read the treaty in its entirity???
3. Positives
   I have yet to see any positives from any side of the arguments on the treaty. Let’s face it, I do want Ireland to be part of the EU. I do believe it has been really good for our country and I do believe it would be bad not to be part of it.All I hear from the Yes voters is that it will “send out the wrong signal”, “make us look bad” etc etc. But no-one is telling me why I should vote yes. All I get is “It will streamline how the European Commission works”.So what??? Why should I vote Yes when two countries much larger than Ireland have already voted it down!!?
4. Neutrality
   Ok a lot of people just think this is an idealistic dream. A country that says it’s neutral - ah bliss. But I’m sorry I am actually proud that we don’t get involved in other peoples fights. That’s the way I have been brought up and that’s the way I’d like it to stay.If someone wants to pick a fight with a small country like us, shame on them, but at least we would still have our pride. If someone wants to help us, we will be grateful. What do countries fight for at the end of the day? Greed, that’s all, pure greed!Pat Vance and I had a good conversation over this, but his attitude was “What’s neutrality, if someone wants to nuke the UK, we are effected”. Yes we are, but then we have to protect ourselves, that’s called “defending”, it doesn’t mean that we have to become allies.
5. Ireland is a small country
   Another point Pat Vance had was that Ireland is a small country, we think we are bigger and more powerful than we actually are. Yes, maybe we do, but that doesn’t mean we should be the poor small Irish paddy’s sitting in the corner with no voice. If we are to be part of something, we need a voice not matter how small we are in the overall picture. Our voice in my opinion is being quitened with this new treaty.

The way the government are pushing this on us as a dooms day situation if we say no, in principle, is wrong. They should focus on what we are gaining. If they can also give us a balanced view of what we would be losing that would also help everyone understand what indications this will have for us. But if our own government can’t read the treaty - how can we trust them.

Libertas seem to be the only party that actually know anything about this treaty - but they are doom and gloom at the opposite side of the scale.

I don’t know enough to vote Yes to this treaty, I do want to be part of the EU. Government - if you fail on this one, you need to take a serious look at the reasons why!

EDIT: I just needed to add this to the debate as it’s quite ridiculous.
The recent results posted by the Irish Times/MRBI polls show that 36% of the people who have decided to vote yes, have so for the following reason and I quote from todays Irish Times (page 9) - “To keep Ireland fully involved in the EU/not to embarrass Ireland”.

What a ridiculous reason - “not to embarrass Ireland”…. OMG!

Another year without the Eurovision for the Irish. Our great hope, Dustin the Turkey didn’t make the last 10 in the semi-final of the Eurovision song contest. This means we will have no-one representing Ireland in the Eurovision this year.

To be honest, I’m quite happy that he didn’t make it. What a joke putting him through in the first place. The arrogance of this country shows through yet again when we thought we could send a Turkey to the Eurovision and win it…

Maybe I’m taking this a little too seriously!

TorrentSpy has been ordered to pay $110m the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) for failing to hand over logs on the activity of users of their website.

The landmark ruling will send shockwaves to the thousands of small torrent search websites and maybe even some of the larger ones that offer a similar service to the one TorrentSpy offered before it shutdown in March of this year.

TorrentSpy in effect, was nothing more than a torrent search engine. It never held or stored any copyrighted material on it’s server. However, it did allow users easily find copyrighted material.

So in effect, TorrentSpy has been sued because it “linked” to copyrighted material, something that Google, Yahoo! and MSN do all the time with their search engine.

A simple search on Google will give you “links” to millions of copyrighted material. Here’s a very simple example of this http://www.google.ie/search?q=intitle%3a%22index+of%22+eminem

Why don’t the MPAA doing anything about this? Is the muscle behind the larger corporates a bridge to far for them to fight in their war against copyright infringement??

A friend of mine just recently completed his driving test. Luckily for him, he passed, but just about. One of the bad marks he received that had him close to failing was for “misleading”. He received the bad mark for thanking someone for letting him out of a junction. It was misleading of him to do this according to the driving test.

I was aware of not being allowed to do this when I did the test myself, but just hearing that he was close to failing the test for this, really got me thinking about it.

The test for me has always been about making us drive like robots. In reality, the only time people drive like this is in the driving test. If everyone went around not thanking people with gestures for common road courtesy, what would road rage be like then?

Just something that annoyed me this morning while cycling to work listening to NewsTalk 106 and I have to get it out!

Fiona Neary, executive director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland was being interviewed in relation to the statutory rape case where a Donegal teenager (15 year old) is being charged with raping a 14 year old girl. The Donegal lad is claiming discrimination because of his gender, in that it was consensual sex and he wonders why the girl is not also being charged.

Granted, it wasn’t fair to be asked about an individual case in her interview, when put to her if she thought it was fair for the law to discriminate by gender in the case of statutory rape, she simply sat on the fence and avoided answering the question.

Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting her to agree or disagree with it, but to blatantly ignore the question just annoys me. Surely we should expect someone in this role to have some sort of opinion on the law. Surely she either disagrees or agrees that there is something not right with the current law.

Just my two cents anyway!