Cymru Marketing Journal - (CMJUK) - Online Business Journal & Digital Marketing Agency. Business News, Directory, SEO, Social Media Management, Advertising, Reviews, Forum, Market Research, Content Writing & Website Design. Thinking Local, Acting Global.
If you are thinking of starting a side hustle I will go through something I do and then go into selling directly on Amazon.
I am an Amazon Assoicate, what this means is I get a commission for every product that is bought through my links within 24 hours of a click. Amazon Associates have a 24 hour cookie that they place on a visitors computer so that when the visitor clicks and returns within 24 hours no matter what they buy you will get a commission.
The Amazon Associates Affilate Program is one of the largest affiliate networks in the world that helps content creators, publishers, and website owners monetize their traffic. I prefer to use my blogs and websites and share my posts to my large following on LinkedIn. To monetize your website or blog takes time and you will not be an overningt success.
To be honest you need a lot of traffic to begin with, as the click through ratio is only 1-3 percent, so out of a hundred clicks you will have 1 – 3 visitors that will convert into a commission, so if a click is worth £10 for example you will get £10 to £30.
The beauty about Amazon affiliate marketing is you do not need a website or blog as you can share you links directly via email or social media platforms like Facebook which is less effort.
One also has to take into account the commission rates on a product, not all product commissions are equal.
Why waste your efforts promoting something that is low in commissions when you can devote your time doing the same thing with higher commission rates.
On the other hand instead of being an affiliate you could directly sell on Amazon, you do not neccessarily have to have any inventory, website or blog you can dropship or use Amazon FBA program. However what do you sell that is popular on Amazon? Here is a link to a list that changes every hour of products that are popular on Amazon and any given time:
You do need to consider your marketing strategies and some people as well as selling on Amazon sell their products via online stores that they have created themselves or had designed for them. Remember you need to do a lot of SEO to get your website blog on the first page of a search engines and you need exact match searchable keywords and phrases domain names.
As it so happens I am an Amazon Assoiciate Affiliate.
What a company should not do is upset the wrong people in fact they should upset anyone at all, but unfortunately they do.
When a company shows that they are willing to say sorry the customer is more likely to tell people what the company has done to make amends.
Promising a goodwill gesture, then retracting it, and also ignoring the customer’s emails does not say much about the company.
With businesses closing their doors for good because of the current economic crisis, you would think that smaller companies to Amazon would go above and beyond their call of duty.
Being honorable, transparent, and courteous gives people a reason to trust and in turn, the customer will recommend your products and your services. Doing one or more of the things listed above does not show you as a company in good light.
“Respect each and every customer as if they were your only customer”.
“Not only am I an Amazon Associate I am also an Amazon Customer and have opted to use Amazon Prime which cost £7.99 per month, this gets you free deliveries and Amazon Video two services for the price of one”.
My next big purchase is going to be a tabletop dishwasher. I find standing and washing dishes by hand not only tedious but it affects my back and I end up in agony.
What Appliance Retailers Do Not Tell You (Part 4 Ongoing Saga).
The Effects Of Mental Health When You Have to Raise a Complaint With a Company.
As many of you may or may not know I am an Entrepreneur a owns several sites, blogs, or social media pages, my default virtual business card is www.renataentrepreneur.com
Primarily I advise Businesses on how to generate more leads and consult them to make their business more successful. I also offer other services, such as website design and marketing.
Now I would also like to say I suffer from Mental Health and have a blog dedicated to Mental Health and Disabilities among Entrepreneurs. That is why I am keeping my chat widget on from 11 am to 11 pm London GMT over the Holidays, just in case anyone wishes to talk over the Christmas Period. If I can help just one person I know I will have done something good. Depression can affect people from all walks of life. Christmas can be extremely challenging and can test our resilience. By trying to help others I am essentially helping myself.
Do watch the full interview with Tyson Fury on Mental Health.
“Christmas is not about receiving it is about giving”.
They offered me a £75 e-voucher and my refund of £100 for installation to be escalated on the 21st of December 2020. My cooker was delivered on the 17th of December 2020 and I was told I had to wait three to five working days to get my refund.
Moving forward to yesterday which would have been the 5th working day I still had not received my refund. I questioned it with customer services and I was told the reason I did not get my refund was due to a system error and guess what I now have to wait for another three to five working days. This did not sit well with me at all. Although the customer service person said today it can take up to seven working days. The last time I transferred money from one account to another took two hours by BACS transfer.
By coincidence, I got an email from head office yesterday saying I will be getting my refund.
“What happened to we are sorry and we will escalate it for you”? No mention of that in the email or anything about the e-voucher either.
So like a dog to a bone, I will not let go until I get answers, and if it means me using my blog to get attention so be it.
You do not give people the run around no matter what business you are in. It does not say anything good about you or your company. Just because you are a blue chip company this does not bother me in the slightest, you should care about your customers. A CEO had to start off somewhere and may have been a startup once. CEOs are humans no different from you and I and they should show empathy and respect.
“No company should be too big for their bootsand everyone is accountable for their actions”.
So my final attempt today I tried phoning them yet again and their answering bot is designed to mentally break you down, It does not recognize order numbers and when it asks what you are ringing up for, it does not understand your reply.
I had visions of me hurling my phone through the air and smashing it against the wall by this stage.
Furthermore when you finally get through it says all calls are recorded. Now the person I spoke to today misunderstood something I said whereby I would continue recording with my blog in a quest to finally get this resolved. Yet he thought I said I was recording the call. Do people not understand English? My English is perfect I have had 57 years to practice it.
“I want a transcript of all the calls I have made and received as that is my legal right.“
Obviously, they can record you without your consent but you cannot record them, not that I had any attention to doing so anyway, one rule for one and another rule for another.
If this was someone with Multiple Sclerosis phoning today, they would be having a relapse due to the run around of this company. I have knowledge of Multiple Sclerosis as my daughter suffers from the disability.
Consider people’s mental health before you start playing mind games. The customer service person today told me someone will phone me back about the e-voucher, which can not be located by coincidence.
“I do not want to be phoned”.
My telephone lines are turned off for a reason because of this little incident and I can only be reached by my chat widget on my websites or via email or social media platforms.
What is the problem have I offended Argos in some way by speaking the truth, they should have mentioned like and hot zones on their site, and perhaps all this could’ve been avoided.
Do not offer a token of apology and then retract it.
To be messed around like this is totally atrocious.
“Show Respect and You Will Earn Respect!”
FINAL THOUGHTS!
“I will give this company one more chance to make amends and perhaps finally will say that after everything they will come out smelling of roses”
Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year.
UPDATE 27/01/20
I received my refund of £100 on the 24th of December 2020 I assume just after my phone call to Argos.
Christmas was canceled for me as I could not cook anyone a Christmas Dinner and did not think it was appropriate to offer frozen ready meals heated up in a microwave so no one came to visit me and I was left home alone with the cat. Worst Christmas ever and Worst Year.
As for the offering of the £75 e-voucher that did not materialize either. I should not have to beg to get it.
In all this whole scenario has tested my strength and my mental health ability.
I would have been content with a formal apology from the CEO but obviously, he forgets that once he started out where I am today. You never know one day he maybe brushes shoulders with me, considering the small world we live in and the people I am connected with. With nearly 10,000 followers such as Billionaires, Millionaires, Law Makers, and Royalty on LinkedIn it pays to remember “it’s not what you know but who you know”.
Argos Appliance Disclaimer For Buyers and Hot Zone Instructions For the Consumer to know everything they need to know prior to purchase.
RECAP&UPDATEON ONGOING APPLIANCE RETAILER SAGA.
I have added the links below to the posts I made previously.
Previous Posts:
RECAP OF ONGOING APPLIANCE PURCHASE SAGA!
In October I bought a electric cooker with installation and recycling and found out after my purchase because I had not bought like for like the installation could not happen because I had a gas cooker. I then cancelled my order and bought a like for like Gas for Gas with installation and recycling.
Two months later my cooker arrives (last Thursday to be precise) and I was told they could not install the cooker because my splash back was not high enough and my sockets where inside the hot zone.
So you can imagine my distain when I am told a few days before Christmas and on the Eve of the Lockdown in Wales that my cooker cannot be installed.
Finding someone before Christmas and on Lockdown is proving to be impossible.
So my Christmas is ruined!
On top of this all my food has perished what could not be frozen and I have been subjected to takeouts for my family.
Obviously I am angry and I need to teach people about ‘Hot Zones’ as Argos have not.
Had I have known in the beginning about ‘Hot Zones’ precisely two months ago, I had ample time to sort any issues out before delivery but I was none the wiser because Argosdid not have anything on their website to forewarn me.
UPDATE TODAY!
Now fast forward to today after I had emailed Mr S.Roberts CEO of Sainsbury which Argos own I get a phone call form Argos offering an olive branch and an apology.
Should I have accepted their token of goodwil?, well it was either that or nothing I suppose.
The token was an e-voucher for £75.00
Granted they did give £50 goodwill voucher back in October so the total I have received will be £125 in goodwill gestures but this is just a band aid on a gaping wound.
How much is compensation for a ruined Chirstmas worth, including persished food and takeouts, let alone the non cookedChristmas Dinner on Christmas Day, I wonder?
This farce should have never happened!
I am sure I am not the only one this has happed to….
However the spokespersonfor Argos I spoke to today said she understood my dilemma and that Argos will be putting something on their website about ‘Hot Zones’ but my argument was that the people delivering my cooker (DHL) could have installed the cooker.
The spokeperson for Argos said that one cannot make someone install a cooker and do something illegal if it does not meet safety regulations (I do not disagree but the retailer should have a disclaimer).
After the call had ended it came to mind that the delivery drivers aka engineers should have an Indemnity Disclaimer that the consumer signs taking away the onus of any liabiltiy from the retailer:
DISCLAIMER INDEMNITY
Buyer shall assume all financial and other obligations for Buyer Products, and Seller shall not incur any liability or responsibility to Buyer or to third parties arising out of or connected in any manner with Buyer Products. In no event shall Seller be liable for lost profits, special damages, consequential damages or contingent liabilities arising out of or connected in any manner with this Agreement or Buyer Products. Buyer shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless Seller and its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents, from and against all claims, liabilities, demands, damages, expenses and losses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses) arising out of or connected with (i) any manufacture, use, sale or other disposition of Buyer Products, or any other products of Buyer, by Buyer or any other party and (ii) any breach by Buyer of any of its obligations under this Agreement.
This disclaimer should be for all appliances including, cookers, washing machines dishwashers and the like. A simple piece of paper making sure nothing comes back on the retailer, in which this scenario could have been avoided.
Looks like I am going to be toasting marshmallows by candlelighton Christmas Day whilst everyone else will be tucking into a Christmas Dinner
🤬🎄🎅🦃
Merry Christmas Mr Roberts!
Perhaps Argos should hire me for my business consulting services considering I am having to get their house in order.
For Your Last Minute Christmas Shopping Delivered Before ChristmasVisit Amazon.
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British Banker Bets $5 Million Dollars on Donald Trump winning the election.
I hope he looses the lot.
To think there are people starving in the world and some not having enough money to put food on the table for their kids to eat and drowning in debt because of banks that over charge and set ridiculous fees and yet “this person” and I am being kind here has the audacity to bet $5 Million Dollars what does that say about him?
Obviously he can afford to loose this sort of money and it most probably is pocket change to him. Hence imagine the the lifestyle he leads and never having to worry about paying bills.
How did he make his millions if not feeding off the less fortunate? He may in deed by a Bitcoin Millionaire, from what I have heard he used to be a Banker.
I hope he gets jinxed.
I am so angry words fail me and I have absolutely no respect for this individual. In my opinion he is the lowest of the low.
Businesses in the UK are closing because of the pandemic and may need bailouts whilst he squanders money as if it grows on trees.
The lesson I have learnt today is regardless if you are doing business for $1, £1 or $1,000,000.00, £1,000,000.00 alway and I mean ALWAYS perform Due Diligence with a person you have never met and is not local to you, whereby you cannot check them out through Companies House if you are in the UK or physically pay them a visit. Each country has their own Company House Database.
What I mean by this regardless if they pass Companies House Verification they still may be scammers, as I have just got off the phone from a person claiming to be a New York Attorney that said his client wanted to sue me for selling artwork that belonged to him.
However upon trying to do my detective work this person is not on LinkedIn and his telephones do not match nor does his website work (times out).
Even with passports and other forms of ID one cannot know for certain if the person one is dealing with on the other end is a fraudster or not. Even if their Company is Verified does not stop them being unscrupulous. I had one person that had his passport cloned and was visible online. So there is no way for certain to know you are dealing with the actual person unless you phone the head office and perform detective work online.
I thought by checking with companies house that the said individual was kosha and it seemed that he was until all the inventory he was selling at the beginning part of the year mysteriously disappeared off his site where by he failed to update me. This in turn has put egg on my face as I told the Attorney that the artwork could be found on my client’s site and it is no longer there. The emails I have which I never deleted will prove he was selling the artwork….
So on the safe side I have taken the website down and will not be doing anything in future with this site other than selling the domain.
With this in mind I had to pulled the whole website down and all the inventory that belonged to the two muppets that I have been dealing with, with one of them still in my LinkedIn connections.
But then again if something does not sit right you should leave it out, as my gut feeling was like many months ago when I worked tirelessly to get leads for one of the muppets only to be told the leads I had given him were not good enough and did I get a penny for my trouble?, of course I did not. I even had his organ grinder telling me I was over thinking. If something does not sit well with me I will air my grieviences. This is also another lesson when someone asks you to find leads which are bon-a-fide leads and you find them, invoice the person for your time finding the leads as they could say the leads were no good even though they were, just to get out of paying you. Get the money upfront for finding marketing leads.
I have to say I must be soft in the head as I let someone else this month take advantage of me, by me designing a logo with about 20 changes, I also built him a website but made the mistake of giving him a cooling off period where after he had agreed on the amount of pages he then decided to move the goal posts and increase the pages for the same price. So when I mentioned there would be a price increase he decided to use the get out clause. So from now on I am never going to do that again. Do not use a get out clause for web design. Take a set up fee upfront instead and then invoice once the client is happy with the site.
I have since looked at the muppet’s site and it has been changed only to show bitcoin and cryotocurrency by coincidence, yet I have all the emails that he sent that I can forward to the owner of the artwork to prove the muppet was selling the artwork and not me per se. I was merely marketing what he told me to market. These pieces of art one could not ask for proof of receipt if you get my meaning if you know what pieces of art I was marketing.
This now shows me in bad light even though I did not know that the inventory was not legit, like why would I know or how would I know as these were high ticket assets and I trusted both muppets.
My reputation is on the line because two idiots whom seem to think it is ok to take advantage of people. “You have had your fun if you are reading this now so it’s now my turn and I will no longer be associated with you”…
I am a mere web designer and internet marketer but at least it shows my marketing skills reached the people that needed to be reached even though the inventory was debatable. So what has this taught me other than avoid all idiots at all costs? and that is I am good at my job even though I could do better by doing more to protect myself in future from people who can cause no end of problems.
Trust no one !
My lesson today is perform Due Dilligence with people regardless if the are selling £1 or £1M especially if you do not know them and if it means you loose the lead in the process, you would have saved yourself trouble in the future. Also do due dilengence on the inventory (especiall high ticket assets) as it could have legal implications.
I am sick and tired of the scammers out there and I will name these people if push comes to shove.
“I am fuming and wordsfail me today regarding this”.
Good job I never performed SEO on this particular website, imagine the digital footprint I would have had to delete and merely used it as an online business card/tool which I have now taken down and all associated links.
To the person whom contacted me today you will see the website is now taken down and to the muppets that got me into hot water, karma has a way of paying you back !!
Regardless who was trying to scam whom, I have knocked the nail on the head and severed all ties with everyone assoicated with this inventory.
People in all walks of life have someone they know who thinks they are better than everyone else.
The may claim to be experts even though they blag their way through life to gain the attention and respect they so crave.
Whether it is business or at home there is always an elimant of self worth where we try to prove we are sometimes something we are not.
Just because we may have a title, a badge are a celebrity, royalty or a tycoon, does not give anyone the right to treat others the way you would not like to be treated. Just because you have money, are a director of a company does not give you the right to be unkind, use and abuse and be cruel. Money does not bring you happiness, enriching other people brings you happiness and respect.
You do not gain respect for how much money you have in your bank, you gain respect by teaching others how you made that money and how you can empower that individual to also be as successful as you.
The “Do Unto Others” Bible Verse
Matthew 7:12 – “So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Its can be borderline narcissistic to look down ones nose at another being for what ever reason we so choose.
We should not judgeor make innuendos and sit on our thrown casting stones, we should also not use or abuse people and treat people badly especially the vulnerable.
However people with money and power think they can buy what ever they want and treat people without any respect. We in society are segregated into classes and the people on the top of the food chain are usually the ones that do not care what happens to the ordinary folk, that is why the world is the way it is. Unfortunately I cannot change the world single handily.
Did you know there is a chemical our brains produce when we do something kind or witness another person being kind?, it is called ‘Oxytocin’ The chemical is responsible for feeling love and connection and the more kinder you are the more people are enriched and also do kind things in return.
People want to be respected yet not everyone does get that privilege and there are many especially in business the higher up the ladder they sit, the more mightier some people seem to think they are.
As an example I know of a certain individual without mentioning any names that has sat on his high chair claiming to be an expert in more than one field. This person was once a startup and he too yearnes the respect yet he shows none to others.
I put it down to the fact he is feeling insecure about himself so he spouts out atrocities to feel better about himself without actually realising what he has done to the other person that he may in fact not know very well.
Before casting stones think what it will do to the other person. Some people cannot handle critisism and this may actually tip them over the edge.
Do you want to be that peron that has pushed another too far?
Would you be able to sleep at night if you knew someone had harmed themselves because of you.
Just because you feel intimidated do not intimidate someone else to make yourself feel better.
Some of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time have struggled with fear and self doubt. Just because they hide behind their clean and crisp shiny suites does not make them “super ceo’s”. You cannot know for certain what is going through someones mind when you make detrimental comments about another person. You do not know what the other person has gone through when you make your own opinions about that person.
Here are some tips about gaining respect and teaching it to others.
1. Respect yourself.
I learnt the hard way and this is why I can hold my head up high, someone elses opinion is insignificant to me.
You are your own boss and you control your own destiny.
Without sounding cliche, no one will respect you unless you respect yourself. Love yourself and people will love you.
By showing respect to other people and being kind you in turn will be rewarded for your honorable and courteous behavior.
Remember only you know your self worth and no one can make assumptions without knowing your full story. Do not claim to be someone your are not.
2. To get respect, give respect.
Do not throw stones in glass houses. You do not want to be spoken about badly behind your back so do not speak ill of people when they are not around. People around you want just as much respect as you do. Think of this way karma has a way of pay you back, do not tempt fate as you may end up holding the other side of the coin. Afterall you should still be courteaus and respectful to the person who may be disrespectul to you as this will make you the bigger person. To gain their respect show interest in them and try and contribute by being helpful.
3. Finding a mentor.
By growing a network of like minded people you have the opportunity to be respected because of what you have to say, humans are very complex labyrinthine beings, with only a handful of people whose names are immediately recognizable and well respected. If you are able to learn from someone who is well known in their field of expertise you will find people will follow you like lambs and will be eager to learn from you. By having a great following of people especially on social media you will naturally gain the respect you so rightfully deserve. By having a large network of people interested in your niche you will not only learn from others but you will also be able to teach what you have learnt.
4. Mentoring Others.
By mentoring others and helping them climb the ladder of success not only will this help others it will also help you. If you can invest your time teaching others this will in turn cause a ripple effect and the ones you teach will then be able to teach others and will avoid costly mistakes, yet will always refer to the mentor that originally taught them and you will then gain notoriety and respect.
By enriching the lives of others you will be remembered and referred to and in time you would have built your own legacy.
5. Honesty is the best policy
Do not pretend to be something you are not. The best way to gain respect is to communicate face to face. If something is bothering you or you are not sure about, talk it over, do not hide behind your superior ego.
I had someone most recently without any explanation terminate an agreement. Rather than talk things over to see what they felt was not working for them they chose to cut their losses only to realise that they had infact lost more than they had bargained for.
Through their ill representation of someone who claimed to be an expert in more than one field they had in fact lost several thousands ££££ of advertising and looking at their analytics report a lot of business too and they will not hold global positioning on a local search directory because of the their mistake.
Yet had they have stayed they would have been dominated in their industry and would have held exact match searchable keyword domain names all because of misguidance by someone sitting on their high throne. As an example I have written many contracts in my time but that does not make me a solicitor, so the same could be said for the individual who also claims to be a SEO expert.
All it would have taken was communication from the other Director and his assocociates to resolve the matter.
Not only that they will now how to start from scratch and it will cost them an arm and a leg to get back what they had and more.
There is a saying you reap what you sow. They would have had more repsect from me had they talked things over.
As my daughter now says its their loss.
People value authenticity and honesty more than they value respect and by not being honest and transparent they have now bitten off more than they can chew.
6. Self Representation & Appearance
I will reflect back to a time when I was in a toxic relationship and everything I owned was destroyed and everytime I replaced things these things would get destroyed also, so I stopped replacing them until I could free myself from the toxicity in my life.
This obviously showed in my appearance as I started to play down my appearance and my personality and kept myself to myself. The fear of being humiliated for looking nice was my ultimate sacrifice until I could rebuild my life. But there were certain individuals that chose to be judgemental without knowing the full story and not only did I have to put up with toxicity in my personal life I was faced with snide comments in my work environment.
So I chose to take a stand and remove myself from the people that were weighing me down. This was like the world had lifted off my shoulders. I did not have to prove myself to no one. Either these people accepted me for whom I was or not at all.
I did learn something though looks matter, people are judgemental and I started to love myself again and have started to respect myself although deep down I always respected myself, but found that other people did not.
I started blooming again after so many years of being a closed flower bud. Whenever I went out which was very rarely pre covid -19, I chose to look smart, I wanted to show the world I had picked myself up again and that I was ready to face anyone, holding my head up tall.
You don’t need to earn a lot of money to look smart or professional, you just got to look the part.
By looking great you not only look nice, you also feel better about yourself and are more confident. Your behaviour will reflect your personality and people will take notice and will show you more respect. Looking great, walking tall with your head up high makes you look successful and you feel in your mind you can conquer the world, however looking slouched and you posture not straight gives people a different impression.
I also know my self worth, I also have published 3 books and am writing 2 more. I am well respected in my industry. If you think badly of me then it is your loss not mine.
7. Surround yourself with positive people.
Surrounding yourself with like minded positive people that understand how you think, you will benefit from your friendship with them, from their teachings, makes you a more assertive individual. If on the other hand you constantly associated with negative, depressing, artificial, or critical people, this will boil over to your own personality and you too will act and think like these people.
The most certain way to gain respect is to be associated with people that show respect to others and do not talk about others behind their backs in a negative way.
Respect grows in a self-reciprocal way. When others respect you, you feel confident and you then respect them back.
8. Stay Knowlegableand Teach Well.
When someone is eager to learn and is thankful for your teaching you will gain respect.
If you are associated with a person who is defensive, arrogant, condescending, and totally unteachable, not only are you wasting your valuable time with them, you are also weighing yourself down with a person that refuses to learn and refuses to show respect. These people who do not want to help themselves have pretty much given up on themselves, they think they can do as they please without consequences.
There are always consequences with our actions.
If the person that wants to learn everything, will listen, they will be the ones that will show you respect for the knowlege you have passed on to them.
Conclusion
Respect should be appreciated in your home, your work and private life and in all walks of life.
There are so many people in the news nowadays that do not show respect, from the Police in the USA that killed “George Floyd” because they thought they were better than him and hid behind their shield to gain authority, to “Jefferey Epstein” and the dirty old men that thought using and abusing young females, was completely fine and had little regard for these girls as they had no esteems themselves. No matter who you are and where you come from and what title you hold, you should always show respect to other people.
If you stripped your titles and you were left in the room with your arched enemy and there was only the two of you left to save the world would you kill each other or would you help one another? The same goes if you needed a blood transfusion in order to live would you die or would you take the blood from your enemy who was willing to save your life? These are all hypothetical scenarios but you get the drift.
Respect is not a commodity that can be bought, traded, sold, or exchanged, respect can only be earned or lost. Yet in the case of “Jefferey Epstien” he tried buying respect with money. Eventually everything comes out and in the case of “Jefferey’s” partner who has gone into hiding “Ghislaine Maxwell” the daughter of “Robert Maxwell” will she ever gain the respect from all the girls that were abused or the rest of the world for that matter?, only the artificial people in her life will continue to look up to her. Did I forget to mention there is bounty on her by “The Sun Newspaper” of £10,000 reward for her wherabouts.
No matter who you are, showing respect to others you will gain admiration, appreciation, and respect naturally without having to use unnecessary means or paying for it as in the case of the Police in the George Floyd & Jeffery Epstein cases. Preying on vulnerable young girls and taking advantage of them them does not make you a Prince or a President, it makes you not a worthy person.
People are not garbage, people have feelings and we are all on this planet together all trying to do the same thing and that is to survive and build a bigger brighter future for generations to come.
Consider the consequences of your actions next time you say or do something bad to another individual.
I am sure I am not the only one saying this but working from home on Lockdown is starting to really get to me.
People who know me well, know that I do normally work from home anyway so there should be no difference, yet there is…
Firstly you have the neighbours doing DIY, banging and drilling, to standing outside your property chatting away with passers by for hours on end, interrupting your thought process and your work.
Or there is your household where normally my teenage daughter is in college but because of this lockdown she is at home, staying up until the early hours with her boyfriend playing xbox games and watching ‘Gordon Ramsey’. So your saying well what is wrong with that, well let me tell you.
The volume of the TV is usually very loud so every day I say “can you turn the volume down”, which in turn is me being unreasonable and being a pain in the posterior.
At least I have my mornings in peace to do my work, which is not so bad is it? So here I go on my rant……………, firstly I will say what my day consists of i) I I have to check my messages and respond. ii) Then I have to open my chat widgets for my business and my clients businesses, iii) then I do website development and marketing which my blog is part of my advertising structure and then finally iiii) I need to make phone calls. You can see the scenario unfolding when I start making calls and I have my daughter and her precious Prince of a boyfriend who have stayed up all night long to only come into my room and complain about me talking loud on the phone……Excuse me if I am missing something am I not trying to run a business here? Am I the only one keeping a roof over my head and who pays the bills? Secondly if I did not do what I do no one would be able to eat but I still feed my daughters boyfriend and not once has he offered to give me any money for food……….OK he has recently been laid off and is struggling to pay the bills and he has my daughter bailing him out, would I take any money from him?, most probably not but it would be nice to offer as a way to show you are a decent human being. So in theory the money that I earn that I give to my daughter goes to her boyfriend who would rather play games all day and all night long rather than go and stack shelves in Tesco’s.
Then there is my blog which I think it helps my readers and businesses whom can learn a thing or two from me, but because the car dealer company yesterday in my previous post asked whom I was referring to, which I really did not want to say but thought seeing as I was put on the spot said my daughter boyfriend name, this in turn caused unrest in the household as the company then rang my daughter’s boyfriend and asked if he had complained. This in turn then opened a can of worms and I had to then ‘Explain Myself’ to him why I had mentioned him in the first place. He seemed not bothered and said he understood and then behind my back he then went on a rant to say how dare I use his name (how two faced) I was not going to use his name I just wanted to find out why this company was not being PCI compliant and hopefully save someone from having their card cloned. (Why do I have to explain myself to anyone on this planet as a matter of fact?) So now I am not allowed to write what I want on my blogs (which in theory is interfering with my business) just in case it offends anyone (like my daughter’s precious boyfriend). To think I was looking out for him as you should not give out your CVV number out to anyone, this is the thanks I get.
So working from home is extremely difficult and I have had first hand experience with Godaddy the other day when there was a screaming baby in the room of the call handler, it is not only embarrassing but unprofessional but what can you do in these troubled times. The woman I spoke too seemed very flustered as she was not concentrating on me but trying to find a way to quieten the infant down. I was obviously very patient and tried to reassure her that I understood what it is like juggling work in an home/office environment.
What I cannot understand that these Corporate Giants that have so much money they do not know what to do with themselves cannot integrate Chat Online Widgets. It is not hard to do and anyone can login and chat but for some reason like I found out today Google are not taking calls for Adwords or Online Chat. So if you have an urgent matter you have to schedule a call back which can be anything up to five days away, very infuriating. If I have chat widget intergrated and all the businesses I manage have chat what is their excuse?
My dilemma today is online security. After personally being asked for my CVV number when I started a contract with O2 over the phone the other day I am now going to voice my concerns on virtual paper.
If I look at how I collect online payments I use a secure gateway called www.stripe.com and www.gocardless.com both these payment collection services do not allow me to see the customers credit card details let alone their CVV number.
To collect payments I always send an email link where the customer clicks and goes to checkout, this is a more secure way of getting payments and is 100% encrypted.
However to collect payments over the phone in the situation we are in now whilst working from home I think this should not happen and if it does one should not give the CVV number. According to O2 they needed my card to do a credit check, they did not need my CVV number as I was not making a transaction, they just simply wanted to verify who I was yet they asked for it anyway and when I complained they said it was their policy and for me to take it or leave it.
At first I used my main card which has a bit of money on it and quickly thinking I remembered I had a second card with less money on so I used that one instead, but I had a horrible feeling what if my details where cloned/screenshot and used later on perhaps in a few weeks time, how would I expalin to the bank that says never give your pin or your CVV number to anyone. Would I get my money back if my bank account was wiped out overnight because I gave my CVV number out?, I do not think so. In fact an estimated £10 million is mishandled and sensitive client information is leaked across the internet each and every year. The PCI compliant solution ensures that this figure is decreased year on year.
If you are to collect telephone payments you should do it through an encrypted phone line.
So today another company ended on my radar when they phoned a friend of mine for a late payment and wanted to collect payment over the phone and again this company asked for the CVV number( which may I add he did not complain and I took it upon myself to invesitigate further without his knowledge). I thought it was wrong and contacted the company and their response was that it is common practice to ask for the CVV numbers over the phone…… What also was astonishing was that this very same company charged a late payment charge which I would have thought they would waiver considering the situation people are in right now especially as some people like my friend has recently lost his job.
I too have on my terms and conditions and on all my invoices a late payment disclaimer but I only use it as a deterrent and very rarely execute this unless the client is persistently avoiding payment.
So with the present climate am I going to enforce it on my clients who are late paying?, of course I am not, it would be like kicking someone in the teeth when they are down.
I understand if we were working in a normal economy and things were normal, but we are not and we need to be compassionate and think would that charge have gone on food rather than milk the customer dry.
In my opinion I hope the company reimburse my friend any late payments charges as that would be the decent thing to do.Furthermore they should offer my friend smaller re-payments and this goes for every car dealer in the country and insurance company until people start going back towork.
Also what is this £25 insurance refund about, thats insulting to say the least considering cars are not on the roads as much, so the chances of accidents are really slim and most cars are parked outside the residents home so the chances of theft are also remote, hence giving each car owner £25 is laughable but thats another post waiting to be written…….https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/21/admiral-car-insurance-refunds-coronavirus-lockdown-claims
Do not take advantage of people when they are at their lowest, think that this could happen to you and how would you feel. Just because you are a CEO or Director of a business does not make you invinsible or any different to a consumer.
Treat your customers right and the customers will look after you. Remember it takes years to build a good reputation and minute to ruin one.
My T&C’s has £100 late payment charge but I will not enforce it as I do not believe in taking advantage of people and I would rather help them make smaller payments to bring the account up to date. Besides the government is helping businesses stay afloat so showing empathy and compassion makes you a better person and a better company.
So I have started a ripple effect seeing as I am not associated with this particular company they have now raised a few flags with security data non PCI Compliancy and how they are taking advantage of people with late payments and in this day and age they need businesses like myself to market them to bring them more business.
It is common practice to encrypt calls and if they are not you can report a company to https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ if setting a payment over the phone and one is made to hand over a security number to a total stranger, this is deemed a secuity breach. Simply handing over your CVV number to another human is very risky to the consumer and goes with heavy fines for the company if they are caught taking payments over the phone without being PCI compliant.
If you need to collect a card payment send an email with a link that gets encrypted if you do not want to take payments over the phone. Otherwise ensure you are PCI compliant in order not to risk being fined.
I am not saying everyone is dishonest in this world but it only takes one person to clear out your bank account and they may not neccessarily do it on the same day you spoke with them it could be they hand it over to an accomplice or wait a week or two to cover their tracks.
Businesses should evaluate how they collect payments. If a payment has defaulted try getting the payment again, try at least two times and if after that the payment has not been paid then write an email and a letter saying that the account needs to be brought up to date and offer to help and give options especially if the person has run into a problems paying.
Do not slam late payment charges as the person may be in a vulnerable state and you do not know their circumstances. No one likes being in debt and all it takes a bit of communication and your problems get solved as well as theirs. You get the payment albeit it maybe a smaller amount over a longer period but at least you are helping the individual aswell as yourself. Afterall I would not want it on my conscience if someone did something to themselves just because I was hounding them for money.
Communicate by letter, not everyone likes to talk over the phone.
Give payment options
Consider lowering the payments and collecting them over a longer period.
Do not enforce late payment charges it does not say much about you if you do, especially now with the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic and people who have lost their jobs, their self esteem is not very high right now and they should not be worried about paying bills.
When collecting payments over the phone have a secure encrypted line, did you know that business can be fined if they collect payments over the phone if they are not “PCI Compliant” No business handling payments is exempt from this fine, currently standing at 4% of annual turnover. Ensuring that your business is PCI compliant will stop the 4% fine and any future fines. To read further please go here: https://www.telecomsworldplc.co.uk/pci-compliancy
***I am calling on all businesses regardless of the industry you are in, that if you want to take payments over the phone that unless you are PCI Compliant you are risking getting fined.
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