UPDATE: Legal letters sent to me demanding I take this post down.
This morning I noticed someone snooping around my website after coming to the site with the search “sky handling partners”. It has happened before. Now for some background, I have had issues with this crowd losing my baggage. See my Sky Handling Partners are… post.
Just before lunch I started getting email confirmations from dating sites, including gay ones saying my account for their site has now been created. Seems someone was creating profiles saying I was looking to meet men and had rather interesting profile descriptions. One of the emails disclosed the IP address where the person submitted the details from:
62.77.175.251
A quick reverse DNS shows that the IP allocation of this eircom customer is:
inetnum: 62.77.175.248 – 62.77.175.255
netname: CITYJETHLING
descr: City Jet Handling Dublin.
City Jet Handling is the former name of Sky Handling Partners. Dun dun dun. Now to be clear, it is not concrete yet that Sky Handling Partners rent this IP but according to the DNS details, it is them. I will check from another source if this lot do not get back to me.
I contacted them before lunch and said I wanted to report abuse coming from that IP. They took my phone number when I asked to speak to a manager. They would not put me through to a manager as requested.
I heard nothing back by 15.55 so I called them back, spoke to a girl who didn’t know anything about this and wanted to take my details. I strongly said I was not going to be called back, let me talk to a manager. After much talking in the background I got put through to another woman who was aware of my complaint and said their IT person was investigating. I asked how, since no details apart from my mobile number were ever taken. They grudingly took details. I really didn’t like the attitude.
I pointed out that signing up to dating websites using my details was fraud and I could happily call the Gardai and let them sort it out. Quoting from Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act,. 2001 to the lady seemed to make her take the matter seriously. I also pointed out I felt that posting untrue details about me on at least 3 websites was not on, especially what was written and I said I felt I was libeled. They took my phone number and said they’d get back to me and again I did not like their noticeablely angry tone. I said they had an hour.
It has now been an hour and they have not contacted me.
What do you think I should do next? (A link to this would be appreciated)
Update: Go here to DIGG this.
Further Update: Big thanks to my Irish Web hosting company – Blacknight who moved me to a new dual quad core server with lots of ram since the post hit the front page of DIGG.
[…] log on to this link and enjoy the ride. (The full story includes another link and this link too. This is far from over.) […]
My bet is that there is some jumped up little customer service lad shitting bricks at the moment. All of a sudden his joke to impress the gang and get back at a complaining customer isn’t quite so funny.
Don’t let it drop, they haven’t got a leg to stand on, screw em.
Im sure it will be down to a spotty 18 year junior sniffing the tippex thinners. ( Only Joking Legal team!!!) Is this the most interesting thing thats happened in your life?????
Jesus I have been so busy in work that I nearly missed out on this, Fucking hell of all bloggers to pick on.
Just when you thought your life was getting back to normal this shit happens.
I am sure at this stage that you have gone down the order of get lawyer then gardai then media.
Also be very careful what you say in your comments back on this website, last thing you want is it to come back on your head.
Hope you enjoy lisbon anyhow and hope the luggage all comes back with you!
look, we’re all missing the important info here. did you get a date or not?
And if you did, are you a giver or a taker?
For the love of God, Damien, take them to the cleaners in the column on Sunday, would you? 😉
You gotta love karma stories…
Linked. You’re up to second on Google for SHP.
[…] Woah! My MOTHER who is past 70 and way more with the zeitgeist than me just told me to check this out. F*cking great stuff from Damo who totally has Sky Handling Partners by the short and curlies. SOMEONE is in BIG trouble there! hee hee […]
[…] Damien Mulley vs Sky handling partners […]
I find itr surprising to say the least that everybody just jumps to the same conclusion without actually questioning the “evidence” provided.
So someone visited Damiens’ blog from a Sky Handling Partners network IP. On the same day Someone signs Damien up to a load of gay dating websites. Are Sky Handling Partners really the only people that D. has ever pissed off?
I DON’T think so!!
I am not saying that they’re innocent and that we should all give them big hugs but I would really have to see some more conclusive proof before I jump on the bandwagon.
If they’re guilty they should be nailed to the wall but until that time they should be consider innocent.
So far it has only led to a load of extra publicity for Damien.
E.
BTW, I’m using a new keyboard so apologies for all the spelling mistakes above.
😉
E.
[…] 1. No doubt you have read about the sorry tale of one company by the name of Sky Handling Partner, who have made threats against our own Damien Mulley. I guess it is much easier to send a nasty legal letter than to apologise or simply to do the decent thing, whatever that may be. This is a storm, and it has caused no amount of negative publicity (not to mention Google juice) for said company. I hope Damien kicks their sorry asses around the airport. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I? (As it happens, the Tom Raftery, Tim O’Reilly and Web 2.0 story was around this time last year. Lesson: don’t mess with Irish bloggers) […]
[…] How about apologising to Damien? Although it wont right the wrong, it would be a good start. (Not to mention that you really need to do something to offset the shit-storm that has erupted.) […]
Damien – have you considered using this as a platform for the presidency? I can even suggest a new title for your blog: ‘Aras Wipes’ 😉
Go get ’em Damien! We’re all for ya!
[…] I came across an article on Digg the other day – a guy who blogged, complaining about Sky Handling Partners losing his baggage on a trip to Copenhagen, found himself signed up for a bunch of gay dating websites. On tracing back the originating IP, discovered it was none other them Sky Handling Partners themselves! The funny thing is, Damien runs IrelandOffline with my colleague (and hosting provider!) John. Small world eh? […]
[…] The power of blogging and the scope of it’s reach is being demonstrated here in Ireland by the reaction received by Damien Mulley over his blog about the mishandling of his luggage during a trip through Cork Airport. […]
[…] This story has to be read to be believed. There are some very sick people out there, and some of them have entire companies backing them up. What an approach to customer service, eh? […]
Evert – did you miss the bit where one of the dating agency sign up confirmation emails supplied the IP address from where the sign-up was submitted?
It wasn’t a case of “someone signs up Damien” but someone from the IP address he lists above. People are reacting to that, and to Sky Handling Partners reaction to Damien’s attempts to report that abuse to a manager, and then finally to their reaction by way of a legal letter.
There’s no need to jump to conclusions, the above is enough to be incensed with – maybe when more is known there’ll be even more to be incensed with, but there can’t be less.
Don’t Piss Off Bloggers
Now that we all buy ink by the barrel there ought to be a certain rethink. There are some people you just don’t want to piss off. One more note: as someone who has actually run a company re-uniting lost
[…] En irländsk bloggare, Damien Mulley, flög med SAS frÃ¥n Köpenhamn tillbaka till Irland. Tyvärr blev han av med sitt bagage och skrev, efter att ha väntat nÃ¥gra dagar pÃ¥ bagaget, ett inte sÃ¥ glatt blogginlägg om saken. NÃ¥gon pÃ¥ det företag som sköter bagagehanteringen, Sky Handling Partner, läste inlägget och kom pÃ¥ den kreativa idén att registrera Damien Mulley pÃ¥ nÃ¥gra datingsidor. Och sedan ville, förstÃ¥s, företaget att Damien Mulley skulle ta bort blogginläggen. […]
[…] Well, once he got the bag back, all was well. Until last Wednesday, when at lunchtime, Damien started getting emails from various dating websites, some of them gay. Seems someone was creating profiles saying I was looking to meet men and had rather interesting profile descriptions. […]
[…] At least, I don’t want them to think otherwise because I would hate it if they started signing me up for gay dating sites. […]
@Liam: I seemed to have read that differently innitially and stand corrected now.
With that amount of proof I agree that yes, they should be crucified for this.
E.
[…] The barrier between a visit to your site and a conversion (a sale, an enquiry, a download, a signup) is trust. The pseudo-anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in people and web users are paranoid. Long-time users are smart enough to be wary; newbies don’t know enough and are naturally cautious. So how do you gain people’s trust? It all comes down to honesty and transparency. Here’s what I suggest: […]
here
Bah, bloody comments and enter buttons.
I meant to say “go get ’em”
At the end of the day when this all blows over…which one of us will actually have a choice about using Sky Handling Partners? It’s not as though we get to tick a box that says who we want transferring our luggage from the plane to the belts…that’s the depressing thing about all of this….
Linked from New Zealand via London, my fellow blogger.
[…] Posted: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 12:09 PM by Will Femia I thought I’d identified a trend worth describing but the more I surf, the more I’m beginning to wonder if the trend is simply “this is what we do on the Web.” You be the judge: We pay a lot of attention to efforts at viral glory or the more controlled marketing of political causes. And we pay a lot of attention to the stories of individuals who don’t ask for attention but end up being dragged into the digital spotlight. But arguably more common are cases in which someone turns to the Web to assuage the ache of injustice in some personal drama. People definitely have a sense that they can take their issue to the Internet to expose some bit of corruption or unfairness and sometimes it seems, for better or worse, the Internet actually listens. What made me think about this theme is the case of a guy who believes his former roommate stole his camcorder. He blogged about it and put up some kind of accusatory video (which was taken down before I could see it). In the end enough people became sympathetic to his cause that the subject of his accusations began to feel threatened. Now the guy faces cyber-bullying felonies. This guy took his bicycle on an airport road and the cops gave him a hard time. Without taking a side on this particular matter, I have to say, I’ll never understand people who think it’s a good idea to tell a cop they’re being rude and ask for their name or their supervisor’s name. That is a no-win gambit as far as I’ve ever seen. There is no story that goes: “I alerted the officer to his rudeness and pointed out that his salary is paid with my taxes. He thanked me for the reminder and gave me a lights and sirens escort to my destination, tipping his had with a smile as we parted ways.” In this one, the guy behind SmartFlix is threatened by a lawyer who may be a real-life Dwight Schrute and has turned their e-mail sparring into a high-traffic blog spectacle. This guy criticized a baggage handling company and now believes someone from that company is creating accounts in his name on gay dating sites. (P.S. While you’re there, remember that Fingerwrecker clip from last week? Check out these clips from The Legend of 1900. That guy in the first one is meant to be Jellyroll Morton.) Photography Banned in Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland – The focus of this story is the way authorities have tried to discourage public photography citing bogus laws and vague security reasons. There’s no denying this is taking place all over the country (lately there have been a number of stories about videotaping police) but I saw a different theme in this report. Increasingly Americans are embracing the idea of private public space – by which I mean, outdoor living space that’s actually privately owned, like gated communities or those outdoor malls that feel like downtown shopping areas. It strikes me as odd that we as Americans are so passionate about our freedoms and yet we’re also so open to subjecting ourselves to the extra layer of rules and restrictions of private space, whether it’s a ban on photography or a limit on the number of cars you can have in your driveway or the color you can paint your house. Speaking of outrages that kind of make sense to me, this blogger was barred from attending an Obama no-press event because he admitted to being a blogger. Bloggers are part of the press, so the guy was rejected. As with the above examples, he brought his complaint to the online People’s Court. I’m inclined to agree with the Obama people here. It’s not about whether you get a check for what you do, it’s about the fact that you make a habit of reporting your experiences in a medium that could be accessed by millions. Bloggers have spent too many years struggling to be recognized as journalists to go back down the “little old me” road now. This guy sought to expose a problem with cars driving through a park after closing hours. In doing so he filmed himself and a concerned citizen dragging barriers into the street. I’m thinking that’s not a matter you want to take into your own hands, but if word of this video makes it to park officials I reckon he’ll get the satisfaction he’s looking for. Feeling somehow similar are warning to the same vast unspecified Web audience: Like this warning about cheap Chinese USB drives? Or this: Beware black henna. Moving on… One thing you can expect from British Airways is that they’ll get your title correct. “A digital camera inside a parcel looks out through a small hole and captures images of its journey through the postal system.” Unfortunately it doesn’t give the full video that resulted. It reminds me of the camera mail project. This eventually made mainstream news, but in case you missed it here’s a first look at Harrison Ford back as Indiana Jones. Lookin’ good. I’ve seen a few versions of a report of a new list of most-hated Web words. For me, silly Web 2.0 names (I cringed as I posted that link to “Glubber” recently) can end any day now. Also start-up names that are missing vowels. And even though I keep writing it I agree with the inclusion of “social network” on the list. “Ceravision has just announced that they have developed a lightbulb that is 50% efficient (more than twice the efficiency of CFLs) and will last…um…forever?” Gizmodo’s copy that accompanies photos of a custom “angel sword guitar” gave me a good laugh. I hope someone told Jack Black about this item. Human pollution filter “Pork-Busters” Busted – An interesting essay that takes some of the wind out of the sails of the movement to cut back on Congressional earmarks. It’s such an accepted bit of wisdom that the government wastes money on pork that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone give the idea any critical treatment. Iran ‘unable to take Australians’ – This is actually old news because it happened before Iran captured those British sailors but the revelation is new and seems potentially significant as part of the story we’ll one day tell in the fallout shelter while we eat cold MREs. Julian Beever, the greatest sidewalk artist in the world… We see this guy’s work online all the time but it’s hard to tell what’s new and what’s old. In this case a dated, first person description of an encounter with him is helpful. The Future of PR is Participation, Not Pitching – I spoke as part of a panel with Steve Rubel (the aforelinked blogger) and this post feels like something he could have said back then as well. That said, it’s not any less correct or relevant. e-learning 2.0: All You Need To Know – This is one to stick in your bookmarks and take some time to work through. Lots of links within. “The fact that we don’t understand what value others get from social web apps is part of the paradigm of social software. The key is that each person has their own social lives, their own social circle, and thus their own social values. What is important to their social life will almost certainly be unimportant to us because we have our own to worry about.” This is the most reasonable paragraph I’ve read since I started keeping track of reasonable paragraphs, which admittedly started with this one. When you add to the equation the fact that so many tech writers are socially malformed, inept, or barren (not only am I including myself, I’m actually talking about myself, of course) and you get an even better sense of how “opaque” the value of some Web applications can be. Guided tour of the new iPhone (coming Friday). Flashy, but not quite so much as the Onion had us hoping for, and no where near the promises made by Conan. I didn’t think much of the marble binary adding machine until I watched the video. Not only is it cool but it made me think about how some people -not me- are able to visualize math. “In a recent SELF.com poll, nearly 1 in 20 respondents said their doctors had refused to treat them for moral, ethical or religious reasons.” Is there some kind of quiz or something we’re supposed to give our doctors to find out before-hand if they’re going to hang us out to try because their particular brand of mythology tells them to? Sort of related: “Newly-qualified women doctors outnumber their male counterparts by almost three to two, a survey suggests.” 12 of the Best Music Social Networks – This is worth paying attention to for two reasons. The first is that it’s just a matter of time before giant record labels are extinct and people learn about and promote music by digital word of mouth through these kinds of social networks. Second, it’s a great way to explore new music with a little bit of wisdom-of-the-crowds guidance. Speaking of social music, the Last.fm normaliser is meant to build a playlist of your favorites based on how much time you spend listening to them on Last.fm. I haven’t played with it yet but the concept sounds good. “… and ever since then my watch battery hasn’t needed replacing.” Speaking of the powers of electricity, this isn’t funny but I did chuckle a little at thought of the cop who must have had the surprise of his life: “Police are investigating the firey death of a man who burst into flames after dousing himself in petrol and then being shot with a taser gun.” Commuter Click: Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace Miracle diet pill with teeny-tiny side effect – When news of the fat blocking diet pill was going around we talked about it a little here in the cube farm but used delicate workplace words to describe the effect the pill has on your… um… personal output. This guy pulls no punches, so be forewarned, the language is a bit coarse. Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers Speaking of blogger tips, 10 Techniques I Used To Go From 0 To 12,000 RSS Subscribers In Seven Months – With No Ads Or Leverage The seven most annoying things about the future – Onward is not always upward. Yesterday I was having a discussion about whether Second Life has jumped the shark. Coincidentally the Wall Street Journal had a recent article about interviewing for jobs in Second Life — that is, the interview is virtual, the job is not. You may not be able to read the article if you don’t have a password but you can get a good picture of what it’s about from the reactions that show up in the Techmeme list: Optimistic about virtual worlds though no necessarily about Second Life. Sarcastic Pragmatic Negative “For those wondering how I manage to regulate the duration of my polyphasic naps, and manage to sleep so soundly at work – I created the most invaluable mp3 I’ve ever possessed. (For those new to my site: Polyphasic sleep = not sleeping at night, but many naps throughout 24/7)” Do note the disclaimers. I’m listening to one of the mp3s right now and it’s basically a white noise hiss. So far it’s not causing me to cluck like a chicken or anything diabolical. Looks like the first one gives you 8 minutes and then wakes you up with barnyard noises and dance music. “The Internet may be referred to as the ‘information superhighway,’ but a better analogy might be an enormous, hulking Tootsie Roll pop.” This is more about the structure of the Internet itself, not like those maps of pundit bloggers we see sometimes. I’m printing up the paper that’s linked in the entry but I have a feeling it’s going to be over my head. In the early days of trying to figure out how to convey the television experience on the Web there was a lot of discussion of “behind the scenes” features. As you can tell from this glimpse of Chris Matthews’ excited state, sometimes behind the scenes is the best show. You can also see why those behind the scenes ideas never really turned out to be the best idea. SimpleSpark is a search engine for finding that site that you thought could be useful but didn’t have an immediate use for but then you realized you did but you’d already deleted the link from your notes. Speaking of finding the tools you need, increasingly we are seeing sites dedicated to giving you the ability to build your own web tools without actually having the coding skills. So far I’ve only played with Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft’s Popfly, but I’m a big fan of this idea. […]
[…] So Mulley phoned them and complained like fuck (as you do). Did Sky Handling Partners respond to his request as a normal customer-oriented service company might? Eh, that would be a no. The next thing hat happened was, apparently, their IT department started signing him up to questionable spam dating websites. Or maybe not. Maybe he’s lying and he made all this shit up. […]
[…] Then something interesting happened. He started to get emails from gay dating websites confirming his registration. But he hadn’t registered with these sites. From one of these sites he got the IP address of the computer that was used to sign him up. And surprise, surprise, the IP address was registered to City Jet Handling Dublin. This just happens to be the name that Sky Handling Partners used to trade under. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide. […]
[…] I haven’t done any feed reading in a week so I am slow to the party on this one. The Digg title says it all really “Guy blogs about bad company, company adds him to gay dating sites“. […]
Oh yeah, I linked out a couple of times too. If that doesn’t bring them to their knees, nothing will.
Not in a sexing way, though. Ah, you know.
This is for Eircom Broadband Ireland.
I have called many times to try and get Broadband in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow, oh yes they said the first time you will have Broadband in the next seven months and that expired three months ago, second time I was told, oh yes we are working on it still and you will have it within the nest two months, this has expired too so I called them again and guess what they said, yes you are correct, oh we will have it there shortly and did not know who said I would get Broadband but I we never said you would have this service soon, we will have Broadband early in July, you would truly think we were living in the stone age here and to be honest I do not think they will even have it here this time either, their service is total crap and I am fed-up calling them and getting all their empty promises every time I have called them so far, it will be interesting to see if they are to their word this time, I think this is just to put me off for more time and I really would not trust anything they tell me as you see what they have done so far and that is nothing, some service eh
http://englishmuminireland.blogs.ie/2007/07/04/p294/
[…] So I am ready to try out the own-server installation of WordPress, and see if I can import my podcast enclosures there automatically, all 37 of them. My ISP, IEInternet, told me a couple of weeks ago that WordPress wasn’t available yet, but that it was on its way hopefully by the end of June, subject to their servers being upgraded. I was prepared to wait, even as it’s July now, but then I noticed today that Blacknight’s price for blog hosting is a fraction of what I’m paying now, and Damien Mulley was singing their praises recently, so I signed up for the package today, and hope to get log in details soon. […]
Clearly not cool. Hopefully you get a nice big payout and maybe a new post as the head of their it department =]
Holy crap, how stupid can they be?! I hope you nail them good and hard for this one.
Shine on,
Aaron
[…] Not yet in Damien Mulley/SkyHandling Partners/”the server cannae take it Captain, she’s goin’ te blow” territory one can always dream… […]
[…] This one is slightly more left-field than the others and I wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you were sure what you’re doing and also don’t mind a bit of a word-fight! The basic premise? Find a way to get sued. Working on the any PR is good PR (and equivalently, any links are good links) Andy Beal blogs about the subject in more depth here. The holy-grail for this tactic is to get sued by a company who no-one likes, that way you can get the social media crowd on your side! Other, slightly less dangerous, ways of doing this are to just be controversial or get threatened by someone who doesn’t understand the internet. Aaron Wall also mentions this tactic briefly here. Number 63 on the list. […]
[…] Just prior to my hard drive crashing, I came across a post on an Irish blog, that really caught my attention. The main reason is that I will be flying out to Amsterdam, then Britain, then a little while later, making the return journey. To save a few hundred dollars, the trip is actually over 3 legs, with the Amsterdam>Britain>Amsterdam sections with a different company to the Astana>Kaliningrad>Amsterdam>Kaliningrad>Astana section. Given that I will need to transfer the luggage myself, I was a little concerned when I read about the level of customer service that Damien Mulley received from an Irish luggage handling company called Sky Handling Partners. Anyway, check out his post on how a staff member signed him up to several gay dating sites, after he complained about his luggage being lost. If you get a moment, check the rest of the blog out as well – there were quite a few interesting posts, and worthy links there as well. (Nope, not a sponsored post, just liked his blog enough to link to it ) […]
[…] to be found out as coming in from a Monster.com IP address. Not as bizarrely funny as the whole Sky Handling Partners incident but on the same […]
[…] I pointed out that signing up to dating websites using my details was fraud and I ….. Damien Mulley complains, gets signed up to dating websites at Cus … Read Me… […]
my friends just lost bags thanks to Turkish airlines, boy what a rumble was that 😀 bags were found with some items missing/stolen. all the peepz in Ankara airport could say was ‘terrorism, terrorism’ 😀
you’re a hero, Damien, pukes like these must be punished!