I am foreseeing a law suit, remember the recent QVC lawsuit against a South African Blogger. Although the blogger in question was merely raising his concerns, this case with Homemark seems more malicious in intent. I wonder if Homemark knows?

Posted by Marco Valente on 2009/02/19

Marco, they have to find this person first. They'll contact Twitter first to try get this person's details. Chances it's a throw away account. From there they might be able to convince Twitter to delete the account. I suspect they'll have a hard time finding them, twitter will probably say they don't have IP logs for this person. It's easier for Twitter to suspend or delete problem account.

After that what's stopping the person creating another accound such as homemarkza?

Posted by Richard on 2009/02/19

Oh yes thats true to, the guy's IP address on the other hand is most probably a dynamic one which would make it harder. I'm on the fence, on one hand I agree with this guy since we have all had bad experiences with companies and we really left with nothing much to do that would make an impact, but on the other hand his comments do seem pretty damaging. I do wonder what Homemark did to this guy to inspire him to start this twitter account.

Posted by Marco Valente on 2009/02/19

This is the reason why people are not happy with Homemark. Because they STEAL your money, simple.

Posted by Anonymous on 2009/02/19

Sorry, this newspaper article: http://www.sowetan.co.za/Columnists/AmandaNgudle/Article.aspx?id=931572

And no one can do anything against them.

Posted by Anonymous on 2009/02/19

To support Anonymous, nobody wants to open a criminal case against them and if somebody does, they only pay a minor fine and still continue their spamming and scamming.
I'll be cheering for the homemark twitter account, the truth revealed via sarcasm, lol

Posted by Re@PeR on 2009/02/19

Thanks for the comments guys. They currently have 74 followers, up quite a bit since yesterday. Clearly the Twitter account is getting some attention, the question is really what would be the best way for Homemark to proceed - whether they're in the wrong or not they need to pay attention to the situation.

Posted by Kat on 2009/02/19

LOL, it's growing!
I doubt they'll do anything about it, have mailed them personally somewhere last year asking them to stop spamming my phone with ads saying I've won something and never got any response.
The only place they do respond is on hellopeter, a couple of concerned employees are taking it upon themselves to sort out the mess so they don't lose their job it seems.
As soon as I address the spamming or their other scaly practices, they only reply that my number has been removed from the database (that's what they said last year as well, yet I still get spammed) and they never address my other questions or concerns about their scaly practices.

If that's how they treat customers, they deserve to burn!

Posted by Re@PeR on 2009/02/19

Homemark deserves whats coming to them, they constantly spam me with this u have won a prize crap, only to be told I must pay shipping? I am sure thats against the competition ACT in South Africa.

How can I win a prize but because I cant pay the shipping with a credit card I cant get the item? That smacks of evilness!

Will be following this story closely.
I wonder who will start a facebook group to track the news articles about this story..

Posted by simonB on 2009/02/19

Hmm. Where to start with this one.

I guess, as SimonB said.

Posted by evl on 2009/02/20

Homemark's business practices are unethical and like simonB says, they get what they deserve. I received a second unsolicited SMS in a month from them this morning telling me I'd won a "REMOTE CONTROL from HOMEMARK".

Posted by coda on 2009/02/20

It definitely seems as though Homemark doesn't care about ethical behaviour, and would rather firefight when necessary. They should rather aim for good business practice and to fix things when they go wrong, rather than doing wrong and apologising for when they are caught. Customer service is about learning from past complaints and applying them to the operations of your business.

Posted by Dianne Shelton on 2009/02/24

@Dianne I agree completely. Ideally no business would get to this stage..

@all There seems to be one testimonial after the other of people unhappy with the Homemark's service. Eish, I'm yet to see a response though.. has anyone else?

Posted by Kat on 2009/02/24

HOMEMARK IS THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH .MY WIFE WAS TOLD SHE COULD RETURN
THE SLIM AND SHAPE SHE HAD PURCHASED .THIS WAS REFUSED BY THE SAME PERSON STATING THEY DO NOT EXCHANGE CLOTHING 2 DAYS LATER
THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME
I SUGGEST NO TO PURCHASE ANY OF THERE PROD
SO THAT THEY CAN FOLD AND GET OUT OF OUR FACES AS THEY ARE STEALING FROM US

Posted by ALAN on 2009/02/27