Re: Online Store back open

by nglfi 13.01.14 9:26

Could it be that they need to keep selling tat to strengthen the libel case against Amaral? They need to show they are actively looking for her. If not, and the fund raiser is over, there should be no reason why the books shouldn't be able to go back on the shelves. Wven if it's decided his book did damage the search for Maddie, does this mean an automatic ban on the book in perpetuity, or just that they get awarded damages?

by Pershing36 13.01.14 9:53

tigger wrote:
Châtelaine wrote:
ultimaThule wrote: [...]
From what can be seen of the limited company non-transparent accounts, it would appear we have only the word of the McCanns and their various investigators that the sums which have been bandied about as having been dispensed to facilitate 'the search' bear any relation to those which have been genuinely and irrecoverably expended on 'leaving no stone unturned' [...]
***
From what I remember [rather early days] the amounts for remuneration mentioned by McCs and by M3 were DISTINCTLY different ...

Metodo3 iirc denied being paid £ 500.000,-- . Same initial number but one or two noughts missing they said. Fair enough, what's a zero amongst friends?
Metodo3 looked where they were asked to look by their employers but unfortunately all the places where they were told to look turned out to be wrong. Bad luck ehh? Not even half a million to show for all their efforts.

It appears SY are in the same boat as Metodo3.

It is like being told to find a new pair of shoes but not being allowed to look in the shiny new shoe box in front of your face.

by Guest 13.01.14 9:58

nglfi wrote:I haven't been to the McC website and have no plans to, but is there seriously a facility to buy holidays there??? That's just sick. It makes a mockery of what happened and it makes a mockery of Madeleine. How they can think anyone would take their recommendations on how to holiday is beyond me, and shows how unconcerned they are by what happened. It also seems to be a deliberate two fingers up to the police and justice generally. Sometimes I think to myself there is a margin of doubt in every case and perhaps, just perhaps they could be innocent, and then they do things like this, I'm reminded of 'the wider agenda', and I'm back to firmly believing they're guilty as sin!

In the interests of research, I have checked out the site and I'm glad to report that there is no mention of holidays. I'm sure someone witty like PeterMac will be able to come up with some suggestions of what a McCann Tour Group holiday would entail! Definitely adults only entertainment.

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by Liz Eagles 16.01.14 0:27

The online store is back up and running.

For anyone thinking that the online store was offline due to a possible problem with Google Checkout etc, I'd like to give my thoughts on things.

Being paid isn't difficult. If your company's internet means of payment goes down over a few days there are many companies that will be only too glad to help. The Fund maintained PayPal (it was the only means available to Germany on the website despite moving to Google Checkout for everyone else). When the Fund moved to Google Checkout from PayPal there was no disruption to the 'service'.

There is another company that would probably have helped out - the Virgin company that costs less than google checkout (if I can remember my research correctly) and hosted the Virgin London Triathlon - the one where Gerry was a hero. Richard Branson helped the McCanns - why would it have taken anything longer than a phone call/email to any of the businesses/charities/professionals the McCanns associate themselves with to just switch providers?

So for me there is no excuse re payment receipt arrangements for an interruption in trading, especially as the Fund has resorted back to PayPal.

So I'm back to 'why the disruption to the business?'

Just my opinion.

by canada12 16.01.14 2:56

aquila wrote:The online store is back up and running.

For anyone thinking that the online store was offline due to a possible problem with Google Checkout etc, I'd like to give my thoughts on things.

Being paid isn't difficult. If your company's internet means of payment goes down over a few days there are many companies that will be only too glad to help. The Fund maintained PayPal (it was the only means available to Germany on the website despite moving to Google Checkout for everyone else). When the Fund moved to Google Checkout from PayPal there was no disruption to the 'service'.

There is another company that would probably have helped out - the Virgin company that costs less than google checkout (if I can remember my research correctly) and hosted the Virgin London Triathlon - the one where Gerry was a hero. Richard Branson helped the McCanns - why would it have taken anything longer than a phone call/email to any of the businesses/charities/professionals the McCanns associate themselves with to just switch providers?

So for me there is no excuse re payment receipt arrangements for an interruption in trading, especially as the Fund has resorted back to PayPal.

So I'm back to 'why the disruption to the business?'

Just my opinion.

Perhaps something to do with where the shop was "housed"? It's back in business, but not on the main website. It has its own "shop" website, reached via links. Might there have been some sort of injunction in place, or something preventing the shop from operating on the main site. But a loophole has been found to operate it on a separate website?
Just my opinion too.

by gbwales 17.01.14 16:03

shop.findmadeleine.com is simply a subdomain of findmadeleine.com - it's not actually a different domain. It's hard to imagine why that would provide any issues, even porting the whole thing from a domain to a subdomain the overall payment gateway would remain identical as far as I know as it would be domain based.

I still can't see any reason for the huge gap in trading, the Google Checkout matter sounds pretty feeble as an excuse - and there's no reason to remove simple Donate buttons that go to Paypal.

Anyway.... Who knows with this lot! nah

by Liz Eagles 17.01.14 18:32

With many thanks to Enid O'Dowd for her latest analysis of the Fund accounts.

Here is a snip with regards to the online store[color:f142=000000] taken from the latest analysis

[color:f142=000000][color:f142=000000][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[color:f142=000000][color:f142=000000]"There have been rumours in recent weeks that the Fund was closed. They arose for two reasons; firstly because the online store page of the official website was unavailable for seven weeks, thus making it impossible to donate over the entire Christmas period, and secondly because of claims that the bank was no longer accepting donations to the Fund over the counter and others that the bank account itself was frozen.

At the time the online store was withdrawn, the company was using Google Checkout, rather than PayPal, to process payments. The changeover, which occurred on 19 April 2013, saw a range of donation buttons of pre-determined value, from £1 to £100, added to the online store page. Just a month later, on 20 May, Google announced they would be retiring their Checkout payment system, thus allowing merchants six months time to put an alternative in place. It seems clear, from what followed, that for those six months the site webmaster took no decisive action. Thus, in the week before Google Checkout was due to be retired, on 21 November, the company was left with no option but to remove the online store from the site. Google had not offered a replacement product but did recommend an alternative payment processor, Braintree Payments, who stated they could integrate their payment system in an hour. Inexplicably, it took a further seven weeks for the store and donation button to reappear.

It remains a mystery why no decision was made to simply revert to PayPal at the time Google Checkout was retired, even if only a stop-gap basis to maintain donations. The companies PayPal account must have remained active because the German version of the Find Madeleine site was still accepting payments by that method, even when the online store had been withdrawn from the three other language versions of the site.

On 9th January 2014, the online store was relaunched, both on the official site and also on a new standalone site at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. The new site rather curiously contains 'sign in' and 'register' buttons, which the site defends by stating that it 'helps us make your shopping experience easier'. A peculiar claim given there are only six products for sale, on one page! Unless there is a long term plan to introduce an extensive catalogue of Madeleine merchandise, this would seem to be little more than an exercise in collecting personal details. But for what purpose?"

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