Steve Cotton wrote:
>
> David H Wild wrote:
> > I'm with him as well. Although there is nothing on my credit card statement
> > of which I am ashamed, nobody else is **entitled** to see it. I'm not sure
> > what use they can make of it, either.
>
> Look them up on the Data Protection Register:
>
> Buying and selling information about
> the family and lifestyle of
> customers and complainants.
>
> I'm quoting out of context, but that's something they've registered for.
>
Any tips on finding this kind of information on the site? It seems to be
couched in bureaucratese, and there doesn't seem to be a link saying
'Look up a company in the Register'.

Thanks,
James

James Lothian wrote:
> Steve Cotton wrote:
>>
>> Look them up on the Data Protection Register:
>>
> Any tips on finding this kind of information on the site? It seems to be
> couched in bureaucratese, and there doesn't seem to be a link saying
> 'Look up a company in the Register'.

Quick answer:
http://forms.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/search.html


Long answer:
From the homepage there's a link on the right hand side to "Public
Register Of Data Controllers", from there there's a link to searching
the register.

I assumed that the site was only difficult to navigate because I was
using a text browser. But looking again it is a case of knowing what
the bureaucratese translation is.

Steve

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Steve Cotton wrote:
>
> James Lothian wrote:
> > Steve Cotton wrote:
> >>
> >> Look them up on the Data Protection Register:
> >>
> > Any tips on finding this kind of information on the site? It seems to be
> > couched in bureaucratese, and there doesn't seem to be a link saying
> > 'Look up a company in the Register'.
>
> Quick answer:
> http://forms.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/search.html
>
> Long answer:
> From the homepage there's a link on the right hand side to "Public
> Register Of Data Controllers", from there there's a link to searching
> the register.
>
> I assumed that the site was only difficult to navigate because I was
> using a text browser. But looking again it is a case of knowing what
> the bureaucratese translation is.
>
> Steve
>
> --
> All multipart email to my From: address is dropped.
> Remove the number from it to avoid this filter.

Ah, thank you! Very useful, not to say revealing.

James

AlanS wrote:

> If they have been subject to credit card fraud then it is understandable.
> Remember they aren't a really big business, and each theft will put up there
> costs and ultimately the price to us customers. No Psion owner would want to
> see the demise of any business that still supports a (nearly dead) format.

Yes, but any firm which insists I do anything like that is going to lose
my custom instantly - they're basically assuming that their customers
are fraudsters who have to prove their innocence before they'll do
business with them. I won't have that and I would rather see them go
bust than carry on in that despicable way. I have two 5mxs and a 3.

btw, I have a `proper' computer and 'net connection. I don't have a
scanner or fax software. Why should I be required to buy these things -
not that a scanner which meets my needs is available for my Mac - and
submit myself to the Spanish Inquisition just to buy a CF card?

Rowland.

[snip]

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"Rowland McDonnell" wrote in message
news:1g5rrn1.k217slozdmsiN%real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet...
> AlanS wrote:
>
> > If they have been subject to credit card fraud then it is
understandable.
> > Remember they aren't a really big business, and each theft will put up
there
> > costs and ultimately the price to us customers. No Psion owner would
want to
> > see the demise of any business that still supports a (nearly dead)
format.
>
> Yes, but any firm which insists I do anything like that is going to lose
> my custom instantly - they're basically assuming that their customers
> are fraudsters who have to prove their innocence before they'll do
> business with them. I won't have that and I would rather see them go
> bust than carry on in that despicable way. I have two 5mxs and a 3.
>
> btw, I have a `proper' computer and 'net connection. I don't have a
> scanner or fax software. Why should I be required to buy these things -
> not that a scanner which meets my needs is available for my Mac - and
> submit myself to the Spanish Inquisition just to buy a CF card?
>
> Rowland.
>
> [snip]
>
>

5 days to think of that... not worth the effort- nobody says you *have* to,
do they?

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 21:03:10 +0000 (UTC),
real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

>Yes, but any firm which insists I do anything like that is going to lose
>my custom instantly - they're basically assuming that their customers
>are fraudsters who have to prove their innocence before they'll do
>business with them. I won't have that and I would rather see them go
>bust than carry on in that despicable way. I have two 5mxs and a 3.

Sometimes the company can't persuade the credit card organisation
or their bank to _allow_ them to accept credit cards except by
getting the equivalent of a signed contract with the customer.

I suspect this is something that bites small businesses a lot
more than very large businesses. My partner sells ebooks over
the internet, and wanted to provide credit card access. At the
time she started, no Australian bank would even contemplate
allowing her (as a small business) to accept cerdit cards over
the net. She had to take them physically (which was utterly
useless), or get an order in writing (which was not much better).

She found a very remote company (Norway?) that for a substantial
percentage (over 10%) would handle credit cards for small
businesses. Then this year Visa and Mastercard changed their
rules, and although many European credit cards stuill worked, the
company in Denmark couldn't accept USA or Australian issued
credit cards (which were most of her customer base).

My point is that sometimes a smaller (10 million a year) company
or even a mid sized company (100 million a year) just can't get
the service they want from any convenient credit card provider.
Or if they can, the charges make it uneconomic to use they credit
handler that will work with them. I doubt Expansys could accept
a 10% cost on credit cards, for example, as they wouldn't be
competitive.

This seems something much more likely to bite the smaller
companies that still handle Psion than a larger company that
dumps everything that isn't a major part of its turnover.

--
Eric Lindsay http://www.ericlindsay.com/guff
Airlie Beach Qld Australia - Great Barrier Reef entry
Psion & Epoc site http://www.ericlindsay.com/epoc
Bait for spammers: root@localhost postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost abuse@localhost postmaster@127.0.0.1

AlanS wrote:

[snip]

> 5 days to think of that

Erm, no. More like 5 minutes. Usenet is not a real time medium.

>... not worth the effort- nobody says you *have* to,
> do they?

Nobody said you had to make a pointless reply either. Your
point being?

Rowland.

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Eric Lindsay's spam trap wrote:

> real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:
>
> >Yes, but any firm which insists I do anything like that is going to lose
> >my custom instantly - they're basically assuming that their customers
> >are fraudsters who have to prove their innocence before they'll do
> >business with them. I won't have that and I would rather see them go
> >bust than carry on in that despicable way. I have two 5mxs and a 3.
>
> Sometimes the company can't persuade the credit card organisation
> or their bank to _allow_ them to accept credit cards except by
> getting the equivalent of a signed contract with the customer.

If a firm explained that, then they might get a different sort of
response from prospective customers.

> I suspect this is something that bites small businesses a lot
> more than very large businesses. My partner sells ebooks over
> the internet, and wanted to provide credit card access. At the
> time she started, no Australian bank would even contemplate
> allowing her (as a small business) to accept cerdit cards over
> the net. She had to take them physically (which was utterly
> useless), or get an order in writing (which was not much better).

How odd.

> She found a very remote company (Norway?) that for a substantial
> percentage (over 10%) would handle credit cards for small
> businesses. Then this year Visa and Mastercard changed their
> rules, and although many European credit cards stuill worked, the
> company in Denmark couldn't accept USA or Australian issued
> credit cards (which were most of her customer base).

Blimey.

> My point is that sometimes a smaller (10 million a year) company
> or even a mid sized company (100 million a year) just can't get
> the service they want from any convenient credit card provider.

So you claim. However, I regularly buy using a credit card over the
telephone from small firms. I know that they're small firms because
they're motorcycle breakers.

Clearly, it's not hard for small firms in the UK to get something like
the service required.

> Or if they can, the charges make it uneconomic to use they credit
> handler that will work with them.

10% does sound a bit steep, but a breakers' would just pass that extra
charge on so the customers pay - bleating in pain, it must be said, but
they do that anyway.

(You'd bleat in pain if you regularly bought motorcycle spares, I
promise you. I was once told by a car parts shop that bike shops tend
to use 100% markup on parts as a sort of standard fitting - but that he
couldn't undercut 'em with the 30% markup he used because the bike
wholesalers wouldn't sell to him at all any more. He'd tried it once,
and then found out that the local bike shops had threatened to take all
their custom away from the wholesalers if they sold to him again and
that was that.)

> I doubt Expansys could accept
> a 10% cost on credit cards, for example, as they wouldn't be
> competitive.

Fair enough. However, Expansys has sold things to me paid for by a
credit card (just checked) and ordered over the Web without asking me
for a fax of anything - so your idea clearly does not apply in this
case.

> This seems something much more likely to bite the smaller
> companies that still handle Psion than a larger company that
> dumps everything that isn't a major part of its turnover.

It's a bugger, by the sound of it.

Rowland.

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"Rowland McDonnell" wrote in message
news:1g5tn9d.9d23br1lwhx5fN%real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet...
> AlanS wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > 5 days to think of that
>
> Erm, no. More like 5 minutes. Usenet is not a real time medium.
>
> >... not worth the effort- nobody says you *have* to,
> > do they?
>
> Nobody said you had to make a pointless reply either. Your
> point being?
>
> Rowland.
>
> --

sorry you can't follow things.

nobody says you *have* to (buy from expansys).

AlanS wrote:

[snip]

> nobody says you *have* to (buy from expansys).

Your point being?

Rowland.

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"Rowland McDonnell" wrote in message
news:1g66uou.1j4ae7v15c234vN%real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet...
> AlanS wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > nobody says you *have* to (buy from expansys).
>
> Your point being?
>
> Rowland.
>
That took a week?

Sorry you don't understand English.
It means 'you' don't have to buy from expansys.

Alan... I finally agree with you. However, you have to give Rowland a
break... you see he has a PHD in nerd.

Richard

"AlanS" wrote in message
news:brur9u$4n0$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "Rowland McDonnell" wrote in message
> news:1g66uou.1j4ae7v15c234vN%real-address-in-sig@flur.bltigibbet...
> > AlanS wrote:
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > > nobody says you *have* to (buy from expansys).
> >
> > Your point being?
> >
> > Rowland.
> >
> That took a week?
>
> Sorry you don't understand English.
> It means 'you' don't have to buy from expansys.
>
>
>

AlanS wrote:

> "Rowland McDonnell" wrote:

> > AlanS wrote:
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > > nobody says you *have* to (buy from expansys).
> >
> > Your point being?
> >
> > Rowland.
> >
> That took a week?

No, about 30 seconds.

> Sorry you don't understand English.

It seems that you still haven't got the idea that Usenet is not a
real-time medium.

> It means 'you' don't have to buy from expansys.

That much I understood before I made any posts to this newsgroup. What
I don't understand is why you feel the need to say it.

What is your point in mentioning this blindingly obvious fact?

You do seem to have great difficulty understanding a simple question
posed in very simple English.

Rowland.


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