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News about Europa Club Search Engine
From an independent perspective.
I am receiving e-mails from customers who claim that Europa Club Search Engine is sending invoices because of reciprocal links not being up on time. I am sure this can be resolved by negotiation but the problem is that e-mails sent to the e-mail address at Europa Club Search Engine now come back "unknown". I have written to Peter Kurz at Europa Club, who I have found very friendly in the past, and yet the e-mail bounced.
I thought at first this was only a temporary technical hitch, but there are now some more worrying signs. I would advise anyone considering signing up to a Europa Club Search Engine to WAIT until the e-mail is back online and this problem is sorted out!
Also see Europafind Search Engine
If you have any news on this, please e-mail
Here's what happens if you are suspected of not putting the reciprocal link in. Now follows an example of a Europa Club invoice...
********************** INVOICE **********************
********************** INVOICE **********************
User identification: With following datas you can be identified over your Provider Your IP:00.00.00.00 at:00.00.00 00:00:00
****************************************************
Invoice (please print when needed)
[YOUR ADDRESS]
Invoice :
Invoice number: UK000000
To: [your contact]
we thank you for your order. Your Url: [site address] you submitted to our search engine http://212.184.71.243/default_en.htm respectively http://212.184.71.243/add_url_form_en.htm
With your submission dated 00.00.00 00:00:00 you agreed to our terms of use: http://212.184.71.243/agb.htm
You
have submitted:
Url: [address]
Title:
Description:
In compliance to your order we charge you for the following positions:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Euro 158.72 for publishing your url for 2 years
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Euro 158.72 TOTAL AMOUNT
================================================
Please transfer the Total Amount of EURO 158.72 within 3 days stating your Invoice-Number UK000000 to our following Bank-Account or send a check respectively cash (by registered letter):
Account
holder: P. Kurz
Account-Nr.: 7441142
Bank: NetBank
ZIP/City of Bank: D-22704 Hamburg
Bank Code: 200 905 00
Swift/BIC Code: DVBR DE H1
IBAN Code: IBAN DE14 2009 0500 0007 4411 42
Address
where to send check/cash:(registered letter)
Peter Kurz
Schlossberg 19
D-75175 Pforzheim
Germany
In case of late payment we have to charge interest (1.95% p.m) additional to a handling fee of 1 Euro/month. We also have to add all other costs like lawyer fees, court fees, collection firm fees. We also have to add the cost of investigation in case the address is false. The first urging letter costs 3.00 Euro, the second urging letter 7.00 Euro and the third urging letter 10.00 Euro. The costs for the collection firm is 50% of the last total amount.
We thank you for using our service.
With best regards
Your Search Engine Team
Wahr
...Now this is all rather worrying, because the terms and conditions are such that if you continue to fail to pay, the cost goes up and up and then they can add extra for court fees, debt-collectors, etc, and even if you think you don't really owe the money, attempts at contacting Europa Club Search Engine seem to be futile.
Here's a letter from a customer who in the end gave up...
I'm afraid I paid yesterday, just to get them off my back. I've *never* had such an unpleasant, threatening contact with any company (and Peter ignores my e-mails).
You'll be interested to know that I referred it all to the Office of Fair Trading in the UK. They were very interested, said it looked very dodgy and have referred it to the German authorities.
I think the porn link on Europa is a nice touch, too.
Do use any of this on your site.
Paul
...Now although this is a bit scary, I have never heard of anyone having been put in court over it, and though I am not a lawyer I would advise not paying unless you are sure you owe the money! I'd recommend sending a letter recorded delivery to the official address of Europa Club and stating your position.
I like to be on good terms with everyone, so whether you are a customer or a representative of Europa Club, I invite you to write to me and we'll what can be done. It's important to have good communication and to set the story straight.
If you have any news on this, please e-mail
Extra news coming in: Upon a customer sending a registered letter to Peter Kurz, he didn't sign for it and it was returned. Also, his e-mail headers now appear to be forged so customers can't reply. This isn't looking good.
Here's another comment by a customer of Europa Club...
I was "trapped" too by this europa club stuff, too, though I have never ever paid and received about 5 reminders so far. Now he has stopped reminder-spam me. do please: don't pay a penny!
To anyone: I recommend not to get into touch with this europa club search engine, as the terms and conditions are a pure trap. they are designed this way!
yours,
Ernie.
hey. there's some good posts about it on:
www.webmasterworld.com/forum18/480.htm
www.stopecg.org/other.htm