WikiLeaks Shuttered but NOT gone

A federal judge has shut down the entire site "WikiLeaks" over one single post of over 10,000 and their ISP has complied. This is wrong on several levels. In an effort to help them out, I have two alternate links via IP address and a mirror site that still allow access to the site.

I rather think this is an idiot judge who has his head shoved too far up his ass. But, in the spirit of the Internet, I thought it would be appropriate to help spread the word until the regular site comes on-line. I am certain you will see some anonymous hero hijack the DNS entry and redirect it soon. Until then use the links above.

If you want to read more, here's a short excerpt from the AP article:

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has set off a free speech tempest after shutting down a U.S. Web site for posting internal documents accusing a Cayman Islands' bank branch of money laundering and tax evasion schemes. The Bank Julius Baer & Co. said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that a disgruntled executive fired for "misconduct" stole the documents and illegally posted them on http://wikileaks.org. The bank also said a number of the documents have been altered, but it didn't provide details. The bank, based in Zurich, sued Wikileaks and its San Mateo hosting company Dynadot on Feb. 6, alleging the Web site had posted stolen and confidential financial data.

On Thursday, Dynadot agreed to shut down the site and bar Wikileaks from transferring the domain name to another host. "This is akin to seizing all the copies of the New York Times, locking the doors and ordering the landlords not to let anyone back in the building," said Julie Turner, a Palo Alto Internet attorney.

Wikileaks said in a statement that shutting down the entire Web site - instead of narrowly ordering the removal of the disputed materials - amounts to unconstitutional "prior restraint" by the government of an entire publishing organization. "The order is clearly unconstitutional and exceeds its jurisdiction," Wikileaks spokesman Julian Assange said in the e-mail statement issued from Paris on Monday. "Wikileaks will keep on publishing."

David Ardia, an Internet speech expert at Harvard Law School, said a court has never before ordered an entire Web site shut down over a document dispute. He said it struck a nerve. "This is a prior restraint in the most extreme fashion," Ardia said. "This is a judge who doesn't have a good understanding of the Internet."

NHL sued by NY Rangers (MSG)

For an interesting discussion, I give you this story and this related story. Madison Square Garden (owner of the NHL's NY Rangers) has sued the parent league, the NHL. This is interesting as hell to me, and his a great deal of significance to hockey fans everywhere.

The NHL, this year, took over every team's website. That is if you go to www.floridapanthers.com you're actually going to the main NHL website and you'll see your URL changed to http://panthers.nhl.com/. The site is designed, run, and maintained entirely by the NHL for the sake of league conformity. It might not seem like a big deal to you as a fan, but it's a big deal to at least one team. The NY Rangers feel they want to retain complete control over their site. I have to support them. The league may want conformity, but ultimately it's the Rangers' team that should decide how they present themselves to the outside world. Yes, I am down on record as supporting the NY Rangers in this matter*. I do not know what all the Rangers' beefs are with the NHL sites -- though I find them cluttered, boring, and lacking in any depth. If it's going to be fluff (and it's the blandest type of fluff, I might add), one might as well let the teams control it.

However, cynic that I am, must assume it's money. Let me quote an excerpt from the article:

MSG said it filed the suit in U.S. District Court because the NHL would begin fining the organization US$100,000 per day starting Friday (9-29-07) if the company did not give the league complete control over the Rangers' Web site and other promotions. The league is seeking to control the licensing of teams for all commercial purposes and to stop teams from marketing apparel, merchandise and memorabilia, the suit said. MSG asked that a judge order the league to stop limiting team promotions, and it also wants the court to clarify the boundaries of the league's rights.

As I said at the beginning, there are significant ramifications as a result of this. On the plus side, if you're a Panthers fan you'll be happy. Why? As you well know many very cool NHL items are only available in select teams. The NHL's intent is to make sure most items are available in all teams' logos and colours, though some regional items are expected to be exempt. As a Panthers fan, most items I've wanted to buy are not available for our team -- you all know that. On the minus side, when the team decides it wants to do something "special" for its own use, it can't. It's all controlled by the league -- including team promotions. So that cool giveaway you get at some games would also, in theory, be affected.

Although I understand the league's position. I think they've gone overboard. But it won't come down to what we, as fans, think. It'll come down to the rules that govern what the league can or can't do with respect to the teams. I suspect merchandising with a logo comes down to a league decision. Ultimately, I imagine it'll end up being like the NFL/NBA/MLB arrangement -- whatever that is. For me, I am most interested in the sentence in red above.

This case will give us all an interesting insight into how the league is run as well as to how much money is involved with merchandising, though I suspect this will be an unusually big year because of the jersey redesign. Lots of people are buying new, $390 authentic jerseys: at least that's our in-arena price -- less at NHL.com


* It's quite possible that the fact I agree with the NY Rangers is a sign of Armageddon.

Dell Hell Redux: Consumers Fight Back

One of the most popular posts I've made on this blog in terms of readership has been Why Dell Sucks and Blows! Don't Buy A Dell! (aka Dell Hell). Although it's only got 23 comments, I've received tons of e-mails -- probably close to 1,000 from all over the world. Amazingly, they've all shared experiences as bad as, or worse than, mine.

I met a few really decent people including an IT professional from Singapore with whom I still occasionally email. All as a result of this post. By reading my IP reports, I can see people from Dell have read my original post. Naturally none of them are polite enough to actually get a reply to my original inquiry -- well over two years now. But one wouldn't expect Dell to behave in a professional manner, so I ought not be surprised.

A little over a week ago, I received an e-mail from France with this request: "Here's a thought: would you consider posting a 'research help wanted' on your blog? The substance would be essentially what I wrote to you (there is a potential class action suit, but we need invoices to document which subsidiary sold what and when), and you could post my e-mail for folks to contact, so you wouldn't be bothered."

[Please note that on the morning of 30 August this post was partially redacted from this point at the request of the parties involved. No hard feelings, but for technical reasons they thought it best I pulled the information they asked me to share. The offer still stands, but you'd have to send it to me for forward for the time being.]

You may contact me with your information and I will forward it along. What they need is a copy of invoices and/or packing slips. You may, at this stage, remove your personal details if you'd like but leave your city, state, and zip code. (Please remove any credit card information that may appear). You may send PDF files or contact him for other methods that may work.

I'd love to tell you how I participated and sent in all of our documentation, but sadly as the machines have been fully depreciated and the warranty's expired, we don't have the receipts any longer. I'm continuing the search, but I at least want to help them with this project because I support anyone who is building a case against Dell.

Why Dell Sucks and Blows! Don't Buy A Dell! (aka Dell Hell)

[This document was sent on our company letterhead via UPS Red. This version has certain phone numbers and order numbers removed for privacy reasons. They are, of course, in the original. It is unedited otherwise.]

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Dell Inc.
Michael Dell and Michael George
Business Systems Division
One Dell Way
Round Rock, TX 78768


Dear Sirs:

I want to tell you quite clearly why this Dell machine is our last. I have never been treated so poorly and so indifferently by a group of people. Your “customer care” department doesn’t care about anything much less their customers. The courtesy of a written reply is requested.

My company distributes construction supplies and hurricane related supplies – check our website to see how hurricane oriented we are. Before and after a storm we are at our very busiest because the products we sell enable people to protect their homes and businesses from the storms and to repair their homes and business after the storm. Without computers our business is brought almost to a halt, as everything needs to be done manually. Plus orders that are e-mailed don’t arrive at all. We’re based in Florida where we get more than our fair share of hurricanes.

Thursday evening the 25th of August, Hurricane Katrina pounded us rather badly, with the eye wall of the storm passing directly over us. We tried to open Friday the 26th but due to lack of water, electricity, and passable roads we unable to and gave up. Saturday morning we came in and emergency power was in place. Our Dell Dimension 4600 came up and running just fine but within five minutes there was a loud “pop” and it died. The timing could not have been worse. I am not unreasonable I do not fault Dell for an act of Mother Nature.

I immediately called tech support. The man I spoke to (an Indian) was very helpful and after 15 minutes was relatively confident the power supply was the problem. I explained how critical this machine was along with the data on it. I said I didn’t care what it cost, but I needed someone to fix it immediately. He said he couldn’t help with that but that the parts department could. I need to point out I deal with foreign call centers all the time, and unlike most Americans they don’t bother me if they’re well run.

Around 8:50am I was connected to the parts department. The parts department (another Indian) said they could send me the special, proprietary power supply. I said that with no other alternative, that would have to do, but I repeated five times that it must be sent UPS RED EARLY AM delivery: that means by 830am. I specifically asked him if he understood what I needed. I explained how important it was. He took my credit card information and said it would be done. The order number was XXXXX.

I spent all day Saturday calling every single computer store in town that was open, asking if they had a power supply for this unit. They all said “No because Dell uses non-standard parts so you have to deal with them.” Why is such a common part proprietary?

Monday morning, at 9:04am I called parts and asked where my supply was. The nice lady (another Indian) informed me it was in Ohio and that it didn’t ship until Sunday. She suggested that perhaps I call DHL and see what they could do. She didn’t quite seem to get why I was upset and she had this idea it was going to be delivered “later in the day” even though it was still in Ohio. She said I could speak to Technical Support who could help me. After 1 hour and 18 minutes on hold, I got someone who said he couldn’t do anything. I repeated again that it wasn’t the cost, and that I wasn’t asking for anything free, just for someone to come in and fix the computer. He said only Parts could authorize that. After more time on hold, I was finally connected with Parts who said only Tech Support could authorize that.

I asked for the phone number to your corporate office and was refused that information. I called my stockbroker and asked him to look it up. You’re a public company after all. I called your corporate offices and asked to speak to an officer of the company. I was transferred to “Escalation” where I got a “this mailbox is full – please try later” message and got disconnected. I called back immediately and again asked for a human to speak to and was transferred before I even finish my sentence to another voice mailbox which, guess what, was also full.

By noon, I was pretty furious as you can imagine. I called again, and this time got a Customer Care agent in Ireland. She was very friendly but not much more helpful, though she at least pretended to be sympathetic. She transferred me back to Parts and promised to stay on the line, but she didn’t. As always, I was asked for a phone number ‘in case we get disconnected’ but (of course) when I was, nobody called back. It’s nice to have a perfect record but not in this case.

I called your corporate office again and got your “Dell Switchboard” again, which I finally figured out is bogus because you can’t get anybody with authority or anyone who even cares. Finally, I get some lady who tries valiantly to help and stay on the line with me, but said “the hold time is too long” and she’d have to leave me to my own devices. She gives me a third case number (XXXXX, XXXXX, and XXXXX are my three case numbers for the same issue.)

I want to point out that every single person I spoke to was clearly explained to that this was your error and that I didn’t even care about the money, but I just wanted it fixed. Nobody wanted to authorize a technician to come out to our place of business and fix our machine.

I was, sometime around 1pm, after being on the phone with Dell for four hours, transferred to a Tech Support line in Panama. I got a technician named Enrique. You should put him in charge of your company. He listened to me, read the case information, and agreed I had been screwed over. He sat with me on the line for nearly 40 minutes waiting for somebody to come to the line – and they blew him off too. He then took the initiative and scheduled a repair order for an on-site person in an effort to help me (062000311) and I wish to report that I was never called in order to make the appointment. Finally around 3pm, I called the 800 number and they said they’d call me in a day or two to see what they could do. Nobody at your company has any sense of urgency. Do you not understand the severity of this situation?

Tuesday I spent more time on the phone as my system was still down. Your dispatch department couldn’t dispatch anyone because they claimed I didn’t have the part. I told them it was in my hands having finally arrived just before lunchtime, but they argued that their computer reflected otherwise. I asked for a supervisor and spoke to Allison. She took my credit card number and promised someone would be here by 2pm. She never called back and no technician showed up. I left messages for her that were not returned. I called late that evening to cancel the service call as I had made other arrangements. I was told they couldn’t cancel it and I had to call tech support. There is not a chance in hell of me doing that. At least I was nice enough to try to cancel it. If you charge my card I will protest it.

Today is Wednesday and the damned thing is fixed via another vendor who has been promised all future hardware business for helping me with Dell hardware when Dell wouldn’t. Even your competitors can understand a critically important situation. They came to my aid and that speaks volumes about both them and you.

I had sent a draft of this via email before I added the latest travesties and received a call from someone in your Executive Support department. He was very nice and apologetic but I wish to point out that really doesn’t help.

For the record, every single customer who called us and asked why we didn’t answer their emails and why their order wasn’t shipped was told about our Dell saga. I am making this entire letter available to any of our over 15,000 clients who ask, and when we write a letter of apology to all the affected customers they will be told exactly what we think of Dell. Further, a copy is being posted on our website. If Dell cares to write a letter of apology to my customers, I will gladly send it out along with my apology and a copy this letter. (Please make sure you clearly indicate I have permission to do so)

I care that you caused my customers extreme difficulties when they could least afford it. We care about out customers and you clearly don’t. Forget your words, actions speak loudly. We’ve been in business almost fifty years and I can assure you this type of behavior guarantees you won’t be. You should be ashamed. Your activities, while legal, are immoral. You shouldn’t hide from your customers and you do as evidenced by my inability to get anyone in authority on the telephone.

In the meantime, I expect a full refund of shipping charges on the spare part. You probably should do better than that, but I won’t be holding my breath. I can tell you that you have earned the bad press your customer service has been receiving.



Sincerely,

Eric A. Seiden

[9-7-05 Commentary Update: I have yet to hear from Dell. I appreciate the many e-mails and phone calls of support I've received on this matter. I am sad to report, my experience is obviously not unique. Apparently even people with special on-site guaranteed response-time warranties are treated no better.]

[10-11-05 Commentary Update: I have yet to hear from Dell. I have never heard back from anyone at Dell. Not one single person. This URL was provided by Ernie's Blog and is quite apropos: Dell Comic Panel]

[8-29-07 Commentary Update: It's been two years, and I have yet to hear from Dell. But now, there is a chance for you to FIGHT BACK if Dell has wronged you. Read my new blog post entitled Dell Hell Redux: Consumers Fight Back about it.]