An Apple Mac is a wonderful piece of hardware. See, its got this little application called a Dictionary. When I first heard that Donn Edwards is being sued for R461, 500 because he believes he was scammed by QVC (a.k.a. Quality Vacation Club) I did what I’d normally do and consulted my trusty Apple Mac Dictionary.
The Dictionary app not only gives you the Dictionary definition of the word, but it also has a Thesaurus section giving you related words. Here is what it returned for SCAM:
the scam involved a series of bogus investment deals fraud, swindle, fraudulent scheme, racket, trick; informal con, hustle, flimflam, bunco, grift, gyp, shakedown.
Aha! Trick! Lets see what the Dictionary app has to say about Trick:
a cunning or skillful act or scheme intended to deceive or outwit someone : he’s a double-dealer capable of any mean trick.
Hmmmmmmmmm…. Isn’t this exactly what happened? I mean, didn’t they “trick” Mr. Edwards in coming to their presentation by telling him he’s won a car, just to find out later that he’s been tricked and in fact didn’t win anything, but in fact lost precious time?
Bloggers being sued is not new. Hell, bloggers have been jailed for the things they’ve said! Still, they just won’t shut up. Viva La Revolucion!
Suing Donn Edwards might not have the most clever move. I mean, if one single blog post lost them about R300 000 of income, what is all this talk not going to do?! They should be losing millions by now. Here is some links to other sources:
Quality Vacation Club on Afrigator
Here is some posts and articles not on Afrigator:
Timeshares, annoying phone calls & lawsuits by Roxilla
Holiday Club is a SCAM by Make a good house a GREAT home
Is calling people and telling them they have won a prize a scam? by Guy McLaren
Timeshare ’sales scam’ on IOL
Why I think the Quality Vacation Club is a Dubious Organisation by Dominic White
Quality Vacation Club Bullies Blogger also by Dominic White
…and I didn’t even spend a lot of time digging!
So here is my advice to Quality Vacation Club:
Instead of spending a bunch of money suing bloggers, rather invest in buying some Macbooks for you and your staff. Then next time you get accused of something, consult with the wonderful Dictionary application and see if maybe, just maybe, there isn’t validity in the claims. Could save you millions…