CPW - Carphone Warehouse - Strong Arm Tactics. Dial/Yes Loans

The telecoms company Talk Talk (part of the CPW group run by Charles Dunstone) are not to happy with a consumer site that exposes the inner workings of the CPW world.

It appears that people talking on a non CPW related site about problems related to their goods and services is not to their liking. And Charles company are doing their best to threaten, push around and otherwise remove the site.

The bit below was taken from the Talk Talk Hell site, this site does a fine job on exposing the shady dealings of Mr Dunstones empire. It would be a shame on all of us as consumers should they be allowed to pressure this site off the net.

As most of you know, I’ve been going back and forth with the Carphone Warehouse legal ‘team’ for the last 2 months. They’ve accused me of just about everything they could possibly come up with, outside of being a homicidal baby eating vampire, and I’ve been more than cooperative.

I’m starting to feel a bit less so. There gets to be a point where there are legitimate corporate ‘concerns’ and then there’s ‘jumping the metaphorical inch you’ve been given.’ This is now bordering on the latter.

Due to their persistent e-mails and figments of malice; I’ve edited, re-edited and fixed the site. I changed the design, I removed comments (some even praising the Carphone Warehouse) and valuable information that was helping people.

Now they want my domain. Which many of you may not even be aware exists.

In May, when I started the Talk Talk Hell blog, I registered talktalkhell.org with Go Daddy. The intention was to run the site for a few months, see how it went and what people wanted, then develop it into something bigger with FAQs, forums… all sorts. Around August people started realizing that the Talk Talk offer was a pile of crap and this site became more and more popular. It was about then I started considering developing the domain properly.

Instead, around September, I received my first correspondence with someone affiliated with CPW, but not even registered by the bar council. After that I was upgraded to a practising lawyer in another country, yet still not registered by the English bar council. And what does that mean for Talk Talk Hell? It means that Talk Talk Hell can never hold either of these people accountable for any ‘advice’ they give her. Yet they do it anyway. Good for Talk Talk Hell, isn’t it? They get to threaten me with whatever they like and I can’t hold them responsible.

So far they’ve tried to bring me up on:

1. Defamation. Not once specified.

2. Data Protection Act. Again, not once specified or proven.

3. Infringement of trademark. I voluntarily removed the banner. I didn’t like it anyway. But it still could have been considered fair use.

And now they’ve put a hold on my domain so it can’t be developed. (Even though J infers they were aware I plan to.)

Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED

When my registrar updates a site with those codes, it means it’s already gone to WIPO. So, essentially they started the complaint and then e-mailed me. Class. Act.I’m going to take action to defend my domain in the dispute (which CPW has apparently already guessed) and won’t just be handing it over because they asked with only veiled hostility. There’s no real set precedent as to whether I’ll succeed, but in no way was its registration a test of ‘bad faith.’ I think they know that as well. It’s worth fighting either way, if anything just to show that I’m not a cybersquatter or a pirate.

Overall, I’m getting pretty fed up with the whole situation and think that I’ve done and said more for them than many other people in my position would have. Yet they’re still taking serious liberties with my time and are perhaps intentionally testing my patience.
If this ever ends you can damned well bet that I will never be purchasing or using anything that Dunstone has touched ever, ever again. My failure to choose NTL, back in April, haunts me even in my sleep. What a mistake.

I worked for Talk Talk for a while, or rather I worked as an outsourced employee via a dubious callcentre called Dial that is run by a convicted fraudster who go's by the name of Keith Chorlton. Mr Chorlton has also run a company called Crossit Target Marketing, making millions from selling the personal information of consumers, many of whom were in financial difficulty. Makes you wonder, dosn't it, how can a disquallified director make so much money from the misery of others? See my bits on Mr Chorlton below:

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ddir/

http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/574/companyname/Yes-Loans.html

http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2006/10/someone-i-used-to-work-for-keith.html

http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2006/09/talk-talk-dire-telecoms-company.html

http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2006/10/keith-chorlton-post-2.html

Finally I would like to advise people that if they want to have "free" broadband to read the reviews of the Talk Talk products, to see how they compare to other telecoms providers, what the delays are and think long and hard about getting involved with Charles Dunstone and co.

The ever wonderfull Talk Talk Hell site can be found here: http://talktalkhell.wordpress.com/
or contact Charles Dunstone on DunstoC@cpwplc.com

Technorati Tags: Carphone Warehouse, ADSL, DSL, AOL, broadband, free broadband
tags:Dial
Yes Loans
Gordon Bon
Mel Roberts
Gaby Cocchiria
Talk Talk
Alan Spedding

Keith "Don't call me" Wilmot Chorlton can be found at: Primrose Cottage, Henllys Cwmbran, NP44 7AZ

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