Switch media are a hosting company with a reputation, a fairly poor one if you do a quick Google search for “Switch Media”.
They trade in the UK and approximately 18 months or so ago they entered the Irish Hosting market in a blaze of glory!
They threatened legal action against Boards.ie after a member questioned the pricing of their hosting and domain packages. They accused Michele Neylon, the director of Blacknight Hosting, of conducting a smear campaign against them. They accused Tom Raftery of editing and deleting their comments on his blog (amongst other things). And finally, they were accused of mining the database of the Companies of Registration Office in order to attract potential Irish clients to their hosting/domain packages.
Mmm, not a very good start eh?
I recently received an email from Switchmedia myself. I have to admit it was quite out of the blue as I have never had any dealings with them before. I did however recently register a business name via CRO.ie. I wonder if that has anything to do with the letter I received?
The first sentence from the Switch Media mail is quite interesting…
We are pleased to inform you that your registration number as issued by the Companies Registration Office is B****83
So…..Yeah, I think they might be doing some mining on the CRO database.
Whois Ireland pretty much confirms that they are in fact using this sneaky marketing tactic.
What can I do about this? Is this not a breech of my privacy? Are there not laws about unsolicited mail in Ireland?
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Tom Raftery // Sep 1, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Afaik Cormac there’s nothing you can do (except tell as many people as you can what a shower of cowboys they are!).
2 Michele // Sep 1, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Cormac
Was it an email or a snail mail?
If it’s an email you can request that they stop contacting you. If it’s direct mail you can also do it, as direct marketing is covered by legislation. I’d recommend you look into it on the data privacy commissioner’s site, though I can’t remember the exact details on opting out.
The funny thing is that their system is entirely automated, so they send US the same letters as they send everyone else
Of course the choice of domain names they’re forced to offer us is usually more than a little cutdown, as I’m more likely to have registered the domains in advance of the business name than most !
I better shut up now, or we’ll both be getting more takedown notices next week!
Michele
PS: Was that a typo or are you referring to my screwup in the email I sent to clients a while back??
3 Cormac Moylan // Sep 2, 2007 at 12:53 am
Michele,
It was a snail mail.
I’m going to send them back their letter and request that they recycle the 3 sheets of A4 paper they used and not to bother me again.
4 Cormac Moylan // Sep 2, 2007 at 12:55 am
Tom,
They’re certainly not one of the hosting companies I would recommend to a friend.
5 Michele // Sep 2, 2007 at 1:14 am
Cormac
If it’s snail mail I wouldn’t bother with the postage.
Their system is entirely automated
Michele
6 Neil // Sep 2, 2007 at 8:12 pm
I’ve registered over a dozen business names and I get the junk letter every time. Needless to say they all ended up in the bin since they charge something ridiculous for a .ie domain. They must get a decent ROI though for it to be worth their while.
7 paul // Sep 3, 2007 at 8:54 am
I’ve gotten that too earlier this year. It looks all official, and I’m sure confuses many people who have newly registered business names.
8 Cormac // Sep 3, 2007 at 9:05 am
Paul, it’s nice to feel wanted
Neil, I’d say their returns are pretty good alright. Even a 1 in 10 return is more than worth their while I would imagine.
9 Mathew Browne // Sep 4, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Unfortunately they must be making some pretty decent money out of it or they wouldn’t continue their efforts. It’s a bit crooked if you ask me…
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