|
England & Europe
Tulip Enterprises/ Nokia- These
guys were responsible for graciously providing me with a new multimedia
phone before coming back to Zambia that did a great job of stealing
my Mp3s and digital pics, that had the same loser clowns jumping all
over the tracks on there and using it like a playground. That wasn't
the worst of it, more than that they managed to convince people that
this was a viable way to control and manipulate people and now we've
been having problems with bad phones in Zambia ever since. You can't
even have a conversation on the phone anymore without some idiot from
nowhere jumping in with a comment or two. I wonder who the phone was
for? "THEM". I'm sure it was not without the help of our very own mobile
service provider Celtel Zambia.
The Home Office (Britain)- Responsible for immigration
in the British Isles, this government organisation was responsible for
turning my quite legitimate residency application in England into a
complete farce. Having been studying in England for 14 years (10 years
is the requirement for residency) and never having been out the country
for more than 6 months (another requirement). These guys rejected my
application on the basis it was made after my student visa expired,
though the registered post suggests it should have got there atleast
the day before. Secondly they went on to claim that I hadn't been in
the country more than five years since 1999, I guess I didn't exist
for the last 9 years, what a waste of 100,000 pounds in school fees
that was. They then held onto my passport and paper work for another
year in London telling me they didn't know what happened to my application
when they had stolen all my school certificates and were deliberately
keeping me in London with no means of employment (yes, starving to death)
dispite several visits to their offices all around the town. They then
said they would only let me go and give me my passport at the airport
if I had a ticket booked for Zambia, again a procedure nobody I know,
including lawyers, had ever heard of. Obviously I took it. My guess
is you'll never be able to find the people who signed that official
government documentation because they probably don't exist. Not what
you'd expect from England, hey (hay). Date- 27/07/08: The Home Office still continue to ignore me claiming they know not of
any such case and recommend I get legal representation.
Royal Bank Of Scotland (Richmond, London)- This bank
screwed me around and inconvenienced me for all the four years I banked
with them in London. Read the 'Catch 22' chapter of The Game article
for further details. I am still seeking legal retrobution for this organisation
so I won't comment much further for now.
The Prince's Trust (East London)- Another one of these
dodgey (Dodge- E) Charity organisations, it claims to help individuals
and organisations from an under- priviledged background start or maintain
businesses through Loans, Grants, Mentors and Advisers. Going to see
these guys was one of the biggest mistakes I made in London before getting
kicked out as they managed to run my business into the ground and keep
it there before I even started it. Read 'Catch 22' chapter of the Game
article. I'm still talking to them about too incase they were hoping
I forgot.
Continental Research (East London)- Employed with
this tele- marketing company for the last 3 years of my time in London,
They did everything within their rhelm to ensure my life at work was
uncomfortable and that I didn't work when 'THEY' didn't want me to have
money. That explains the no dates then. read 'Catch 22' the Game article
again for more info. mind you it was very common at all the places I
worked in London.
NFO World Group (East London)- Even worse than Continetal
Research, though based in Old Street London too, I could only stomach
this place (quite literally; they poisoned me and gave me a major tummy
bug, probably the milk) for 3 months before leaving very sore. 'Catch
22' again.
Reliance Security (London)- Another of those London
employers that seemed to get a bit fed up of me policing Goldman Sachs
Investment Bank after they finished building their new offices and decided
to try and find ways to make my life more uncomfortable or bin (B-in)
me from the site. I left after an argument with one of their South African
managers and when I went back to their head office a year later (he
had left by then) they told me I was no longer eligible for a job there.
They used to harrass me about my Passport and Visa, if you could see
some of the illegal Nigerians and Asians they had there. As jokes go,
pretty funny.
Azad Ayub Ltd (North London)- This small Asian owned
estate agency runs house for 'THEM', in other words it's 'Free Time'
and your house mates are likely to be individuals who like to tow the
line. They on most occasions got there kicks out of messing with and
contaminating my food containers, give me pubic lice by rubbing my towel
in their ..., and various other bad room mate acts including helping
themselves to my bedroom when ever I was out and they wished. not the
kind of people most would be comfortable living with.
Life's Good (LG) 07- This rather new technology company
has some how managed to get a monopoly on importing inferior and rather
impersonating IT and electrical equipment into Zambia (Yes, the kind
that keeps talking to you and attempting to manipulate your actions
and work).. This includes radios, TVs, fridges and IT hardware. You
should hear what the vocals sound like when you burn a CD with the LG
cd roms we have in town these days. Yes, this truly the best way I've
found to scare of your customers.
SoundClick.com- Yes, this is one of those dubious
community sites (for music) that takes your details, strategies and
personal music and images and uses them to promote there own causes
and related organisations. Indeed i was stupid enough to think I could
upload and sell mp3s on this site only to discover that while surfing
I couldn't even find them myself and yes they did have ajolly good time
with them I hear. (How greedy are these cats.) I have no idea where
about in Europe they're based (they use the Euro currency) probably
Germany, but they give very few contact details to their users and I'm
pretty sure it's because they don't want to be contacted.
Cadiz Music (Cadiz.com)- Thses guys are one of the
companies tha sat on my mailing list claiming to be awaiting a copy
of one of my CDs so they could distribute it for the whole 2 years people
in Zambia were stealing and duplicating my tracks. It turns out that
when I finally sent them a copy in November 07 of Styles MC's- The Demo,
they had no intention of putting it out. In fact they then used this
moment to perpetuate this 'off the ball' culture they started on my
head by having burglars break into our yard and steal all my brother's
car tires leaving the car on bricks, (Yes, very f*&king funny.)
and various other stupid things like the neighbour's cat bearing four
ugly, violent kittens in our yard. All things that had idiots in our
house (keeped cousins, etc from broken homes; wonder what they're doing
here) acting like twats who didn't want to put out a BSE CD. Now, how
does that work out, I wonder. |
USA & The Americas
X9 Hosting Services- based in Wisconsin, I did a search
for hosting sites that could host my web site at a reasonable price
and be paid through Western Union. These guys were one of the only few,
who then proceeded to invoice me for 3 months payments and have me send
the money (at a charge of course) before telling me to have it sent
back (more charges) and replenished with a one year contract payment.
Since then, I have been unable to upload documents particularly pics
and Mp3s to the site in the chosen format I was looking for, the online
databases wouldn't work and the pics and mp3s that are up there keep
lossing there links. Given that there was supposed to be an Ecommerce
store to go with this site I think it's fairly safe to say these guys
are the main reason why I won't afford to make it to film school this
September 2007. I have reliably informed them I will be sueing should
my Demo album and follow ups sell somewhere else until then I am on
the look out for new hosting space; same domain name though.
Hewlett Packard (IT Hardware)- The kind of hardware
that makes your files disappear or reappear in some else's house, in
this case I was using an hps 1215 all in one printer scanner. I'm sure
they enjoyed those pics and documents. Date- 28/07/08: The HP printer still can't find a buyer in town and remarkably keeps
ending up in my home again but now the drivers won' t even load on my
PC so I guess they just wanted me to bin it and lose my money; such
plans, eh!
Dell (IT Hardware)- Same kind of hardware, this Dell
was one of our house's latest PC purchases, rest assured nobody even
used the machine, talk about exspensive pieces of crap.
Compaq- Same kind of hardware, this last PC we bought
had my stills looking like Osama Bin Ladin. No doubt he is a Lad In.
What use is such a PC to a professional.
CIW Certificate Bibles- Have bought these learning
aids in London before I was kicked out on my dubious immigration charge,
I have found them to be quite flawed in a number of cases. Firstly,
the only one that contaians enough detail to train you effeciently to
the standard required is the foundation Bible, the rest are to vague.
Secondly, the accompanying software was the kind of software were used
to in Zambia now, full of holes and unable to serve effeciently. It
makes one feel like such an incapable loser when straight forwards programs
and scripts from a book don't work as they are supposed to, nevermind
the fact you would be suicidal to put up a site with such aids. Oh,
yes did we mention that this trip to Zambia may have been planned as
suicidal.
AEE Scholarship Foundation (Canada)- One of these
organisations that get you to send them money (in my case $45) under
the guise that they'll find you a scholarship to colleges in North America.
In the end all they sent me was a booklet of contacts which didn't even
arrive in the post dispite waiting for 3 months and when they did email
the contact list non of the schools or fields I highlighted was present.
Bollocks to that then.
Microsoft (Various Softwares)- Just picked up the
latest MS Office 2007 and do you know what? It doesn't work, in fact
I swiched back to my older version and all the files I created with
Office 2007 were non existent. I'm sure this is not the only one. Microsoft
XP Professional; this was the last operating system software to jack
all my files and then look me out of them. That's anothe 160 produced
beats, 11 albums, four books, this web site, several admin documents,
several T-shirt designs and logos. I don't know but it sounds expensive
to me, I think some one could get sued here.
Adobe (Various Softwares)-
Macromedia (Various Softwares)-
Norton Anti- Virus 2002 (Software)- How about anti
viruses that let people into your PC, it's like living with a burglar.
Symantec Anti- Virus (Software)- Same problem, the
only guys with anti virus polices arerival bootleggers it seems like
Bizland.com (web hosting); Sept 07- I didn't even
last a week with this Massachusetts organisation, no sooner had I payed
them my 100 dollars before they were blocking my website uploads and
refusing my stylesmc.com domain name transfer. Mind you, at this point
we do have a genuine album (The Demo) to release and a music video but
you would think that a company planning on ripping me off at this stage
would have the good sense to avoid you rather than have you pay for
a service and then block it. Look out for this law suit because these
are some of the dumest people I've dealt with so far. You know those
idiots who just keep pretending they never heard what you said or that
they never received your emails; and then watch them try to get out
of paying me my money back as per the 30 day money back gaurantee. I'll
be living in court with clowns like this. Anything to spoil another
month
Omni Hotels (Ottawa, Canada), Canadian Immigration, Oct 07- Part of yet another dastardly sceme to superficiously move us to a rather
chilly side of 'CaNeDia'. They came to Mel with false hopes of ajob
in a rather big Hotel in Canada with accomodation and costs all covered.
They then had me running around town photo copying and send confidential
forms and details of mine across the internet when all they wanted to
do was waste another month of my life and get meto do stupid things
like sell my studio equipment (because I was going to Canada; very funny.)
and rather agressively deal with women, even those in the neighbourhood
under consenting age. Thank you Canada for keeping up 'The Lie', you
made a lot of sick, sad losers very , well, sssad no doubt.
You Tube.com- Based in America this internet video
company made famous by Britney Spear's recent 'Gimme me, Gimme me' video
(all part of her 'come back') and numerous mentions and name drops on
'E! TV' and network shows like 'CSI- the original' is just another fraud.
Indeed when it came time to Styles MC's video upload the site jammed
and refused the upload on numerous occasions. don't ask who else or
what other vcideos they show up there but does the phrase 'No, Money!'
mean anything to you. It must be a clown base; and who said Jack Ass
TV was going out of fashion.
MySpace.com- Also based in America I've seen quite
a number of music artists host a fan based site through this company
including Ja Rule, Amerie, and a whole bunch more. It may have been
good enough for them but obviously it wasn't for Styles MC as one attempterd
upload of a music video was quickly dashed on several occasions. I'm
pretty sure they've made there mind up on that front. 'They don't wanna
hear it!'. Anyway we keep looking and I'm sure we'll discover a number
of these dubious sites exploiting people for there personal information,
details and conversation.
CD Baby.com- Thses guys along with Cadiz Music of
the UK also sat on my mailing list claiming to be awaiting a copy of
one of my CDs so they could distribute it for the whole 2 years people
in Zambia were stealing and duplicating my tracks. It turns out that
when I finally sent them a copy in November 07 of Styles MC's- The Demo,
they had no intention of putting it out, atleast not in it's original
context; they were the cause of attempted vocal duplications and then
when they got the album they tried to have me put it out without some
of the tracks. During this time, they too used there moment to perpetuate
this 'off the ball' culturestarted on my head by having burglars break
into our yard and steal all my brother's car tires leaving the car on
bricks, (Yes, very f*&king funny.) and various other stupid things
like the neighbour's cat bearing four ugly, violent kittens in our yard.
All things that had idiots in our house (keeped cousins, etc from broken
homes; wonder what they're doing here) acting like twats who didn't
want to put out a BSE CD. Now, how does that work out, I wonder. To
there disappointment several other distributers have turned up since,
so if they were hoping they would be the only ones and everyone else
would follow suit, look out for them on the sue list for America. I
hear it's the culture there, ha ha. Drink on that. Date- 27/07/08: CDbaby have since apologised for putting out a fake album claiming it
wasn' t there deliberate intention, but who believes that. I declined
the opportunity to work with them again if that's what they wanted.
Perfspot.com- I think thats supposed to be 'Perth,
spot'. Another new friends finder thats come up, to my disappointment,
these guys invited me to their site just so they can start corrupting
and spoiling uploaded pictures of mine. Are we over this yet, I mean
America, it's friging embarrassing already. No wonder I haven't been
to film school yet.
Iweb.com (March 2009)- So in the frantic months, perhaps
years, that have lead to the build up of Bomb Shelter Entertainment'
s website, i have been through a number of Web hosting companies. many,
you may have read about on this very page. I have contacted Iweb.com
before (they' re Canadian by the way) asking them if they could host
an Ecommerce store of this capacity and they did respond but not positively.
2009 starts and I ask them again, this time they say they can do it
and with very flexible payment terms. So I pay for the 1st 3 months
(obviously the Western Union payment got lost for 2 weeks) and now we
see similar dispondence to the upload of the BSE website and Ecommerce
store to that we' ve seen from some other hosting companies here, with
images and track samples having a nasty habit of cutting the FTP (File
Transfer Protocol) connection. Which is quite annoying cause I plan
to start the store with Mp3 and Ringtone and Poster downloads. Lets
hope the problem doesn' t get worse, heh. |
Zambia & Africa
Warning! A lot of the companies here are very Zam- bian.
The Passport Office (Zambia)- These guys keep giving
me illegitimate passports and/ or they keep losing my old passport everytime
there is a change. Those that travel a lot will understand the importance
of keeping your original passports, plus i would have needed it for
my England residency application (there it is!). God knows which idiots
are travelling on my former passports right now, they probably got residency
in England too. Is it me or is crime paying here.
Zamtech- Buying a PC from here got me locked up in
jail. It was 5 million kwacha ( $1300) brand new, a rip off in itself.
It wasn't brand new and didn't exist at HP and ofcourse it's been stealing
my files as 'THEY' do. The main part of their effort is to spoil my
music so it can't sell. Anyway, I tried to return it as it has a year
gaurantee and they (my uncle Ambrose included; he has his family in
London) got me thrown in jail saying I was crazy and they had no idea
who I was. Same PC I'm using, obviously I'm having to do my recordings
somewhere (Sam- wear; that means Sambo (Sam- Bo, Black people) uses
it too) else.
Zambian Driving School- Mike the manager of this place
got me to design a 6 page website for them at a rip- off price of K300,000
($ 60),given that I had already paid them for a driving licence crash
course (a lot more than that). He then pursued to run me around town
wasting my money for over a month before I was smart enough to save
my money and leave him alone without paying.
Zamnet- A former parastatal funded by the World Bank,
it is a leading telecommunications, ISP and training centre. Except
when Mel gets there. Whilest attempting to write an exam there that
I had payed in full for, they kept putting the date off until we had
bailiffs kicking us out of our house to have the exam scheduled on a
date I couldn't change and then refused to give me back my change atleast
K120,000 ($32). Atleast a good night, I hope you enjoyed it Albert Zulu.
God known how I'll take any more exams there but I've been advised to
pay independently. 07/12/07- Anyway, the exam was officially
taken and the certificate is now awaiting collection; God knows why
it took over a year and a half to bring that to my attention.
Times Cafe (Arcades)- Just weeks after I had started
The Bomb Shelter Studio, this charming Bar's bouncers found it good
form to break my arm. An incident I found hard to remember due to drugging
(yes that's common, here in Zambia these days) but a good way to delay
the release of an album or slow down any videos don't you think. By
the way, Arcades is a brand (B- Rand) new shopping and entertainment
complex run and frequented by foreign British and South African nationals
Zesco Electricity- Being the only power company in
Zambia, they have an obvious monopoly of electricity in Zambia. The
guys have spent the last two years at our old house in Chamba Valley
bring us rediculously high electricity bills (no less than 7- 9 million
kwacha) and cutting the power, obviously taking their time some time
days to restore it. Once it was decided we would be moving out, I never
saw a bill higher than 1 million. Strange don't you think.
Eris Progeny/ Trendsetters Magazine- Run by the same
group of fine (Fi- N) ladies this people raised money from South Africa
to shoot a short film (obviously around my life) and after giving me
like the only male part (feminist Dykes or Di- Ks) they proceeded to
pay everyone else except me (I'm pretty sure they did anyway) and then
replace me with a look alike whilest keeping my name on the credits
not to mention the fact I was promoting their movie on my web site.
Talk about criminal, last I heard they were showing the movie (that's
exactly what it is) in South Africa. I wonder who payed for all that
then, last I checked they weren't all that well off money wise. I would
probably sue otherwise.
C-Tech, Computer Solutions, Comp Disc, ... various IT companies- They sell IT equipment and accessories (including blank CDs & DVDs
from reputable companies like Sony) that makes it pretty easy for certain
people to hack, view, alter and perhaps pirate your private files. A
lot to do with that piracy and bootlegging problem I had at BSE in 2006.
'We lost a lot of good files there, people.'
Mark Mwanamwalye of Full Blown Productions- This
guy was one of the people from that short film production with Eris
Progeny that ended up going south (no pun intended). I spoke to this
guy about doing two videos paying in instalments (K300,000 or $80) for
the shooting. He agreed telling me to just by the blank tapes. Shortly
after filming the first one I call him to pick up the footage and he
becomes unavailable. After 3 weeks of this I go down to his office and
he sends me an email telling me he wants all the money immediately and
I can have my tapes back, full stop. Of course he didn't put them on
DVD like he was supposed to (which was all part of the plan for Zambia's
next trip up) and he didn't film a second video. The real reason he
was upset of course is because he happens to be gay and I would most
certainly not accompany him to his house for what ever exchange he had
in mind (trust me, he was quite pushey about meeting everywhere else
without the tape but insisting I pick it up from his house everytime).
Golden Pictures- This was now the follow up to Zambia's
Styles MC video debackle. Having been thrown my mini DV tapes with a
need to put them in digital editable format. Some one suggested I take
them to Golden Pictures, Everyone else was conveniently engaged or over
priced. Firstly, it took me over a week to pick up a DVD that they said
they could do in a day. After picking it up the 1st time I discover
it's in the wrong format. Haviing returned to the office, I find out
the DVD was created on one of thse PCs and lo and behold they want to
show me how well it works and where all the missing file formats are
on that PC (you can't find them on any other PC, mate). They then promised
to relay the info noto my PC if I took it in (uh, what about my private
files) or they could come over with a fire wire and mini DV cam (Uh,
what about my files). Eventually they agreed to re redord it and into
the seventh week and several attempted miss videos later (weak attempts
at convinveing the public they're doin a SSSMel job) I';m still waiting
for the twats to return the footage. I threatened to take them to court
but they have PAs leaving and all te usual problems, they probably won't
be around in a few months like most of these companies who've screwed
me.
Standard Chartered Bank PLC- These guys are
not your ordinary bad bank, I didn't even last 6 months with these guys...
But you know what they say, 'A broke nigger is a gay nigger.' So they
hope anyway.
Adnosom Studios/ Reprographics- I met this guy Musonda
a few months ago working in a major printers in Zambia and he said he
could help me out with some software. (Yes, the printer was owned by
a white/ coloured man and yes, he had grimy teenage kids who dressed
like English kevins with Union jacks plastered all over there cloths
but I wasn't dealing with them or was I). Anyway I had been to his house
a few times and in exchange for some software I recorded a track with
him; 'Mic Check (The Demo)', obviously his version wasn't as good on
the production and he ended up spoiling it anyway with his lame vocal
specialists. He didn't stop there though, whilest running round Zambia
attempting to find some one who could burn genuine copies of 'The Demo'
for distributers abroad I asked him and he obliged. A day later I was
in reprographics picking up my hard drive with an absolutely rediculous
version of my album on it instead (actually the same guys who bootlegged
my studio stuff the two years before); luckily most of my data was on
a password protected space. Lets just say we don't talk anymore unless
we were planning to meet in court.
Dream Cosmetics at Down Town Shopping Complex-These
guys got me to make a web site for them and then sat on the measly amount
of money for over 6 weeks. When I then demanded they pay something,
they called a fake cop threating to take me to jail and then just suggested
I take down the site. Not bad people, just crazy perhaps. |
Asia
Sony- Ours houses and homes, in England
and in Zambia, have forever been stocked with electrical goods from
this company that are dualy communicative (yes, they can here you whilest
being able to talk to you too. And these days they usually do.). Of
late these TV buddies have rather rude and irritant (not by accident
I'm sure) and I'm sure the source or much drama and anti-social behaviour
takingplace in our Zambia home, in Zambia as a whole and a lot of the
world I'm sure. Who the hell invited these nob jobs anyway. WATCH HOW
YOU TALK IN FRONT OF YOUR TV OR RADIO OR COMPUTER.
- I got another one from Sony. So I'm in the middle of this web designing
job and one of the complaints of the client is that I keep leaving parts
out so he won't give me my payment. Then my flash breaks down and the
client gives me his Sny flash and low and behold, I' m going to the
internet and finding fills corrupted or missing from the Sony flash.
What are we doing at Sony, mate. 10/10/2008 |
Back to The Game |