Further to my post Friday about the breach of privacy by Gordon and Gotch with their publishing of email addresses of many newsagents they claim to be delinquent in paying accounts, The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner offers newsagents an entry point for complaining about the breach and requesting it be investigated. In the states where there is an active Small Business Commissioner you could also complain there.
Before complaining to the OAIC, you will need to complain to Gordon and Gotch. I’d suggest you put your complaint in writing to:
David Hogan
General Manager
Gordon & Gotch
26 Rodborough Road
Frenchs Forest NSW 2086
FAX: 02 9451 6157
I suggest a letter to Gotch documenting the breach of your privacy and asking what Gotch intends to do about the serious matter. Make note of the Privacy Act and that you consider Gotch has breached this.
If newsagents whose email addresses have been published tin the communications about delinquent accounts do not complain to Gotch about the breach the company has the opportunity to consider that it has done nothing wrong.
If you’re on the list and you think its too hard to do anything, think about how a supplier might react if they have access to this list of newsagents how have now been publicly tagged as being late at settling their Gotch account.
In my view, Gotch needs to right this wrong.
Mark, in my best Peter Finch impression standing at the window and shouting. I AM MADE AS HELL AND I WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE. I fell better now, but we paid on time yet still appeared on the email, G&G even confirmed we paid on time. Another agent who appeared on the list contacted my wife and he also paid on time, so as far as we are concerned after not receiving any mags from G&G today every mag on the shelves of G&G will be returned today. BTW no point in ringing G&G as apparently Customer service is on leave till Thursday.
Yes I will send a letter to Mr Hogan and may also cc it to the GM of PMP their parent company.
OFF TOPIC BUT why did take 5 come today but no thats life ,are there deliverys on thursday ? confused
So I presume if you didn’t get an email like us then we are not on that list? Mark, any way of checking??
We got the email Fri 20th to say payment was overdue, when I phoned GG about this and to say we paid that day I was given an apology and told the wrong email went out by mistake and that no it wasn’t overdue until they checked their banking Mon 23rd, is this the one you are writing about or is there another one and who did this go to?
Also off topic why would NDC returns submitted on 23rd Dec (reg and sup) not be showing as credited to December statement?
Jenny ,because of extra expenses this time of year with xmas parties and public holidays the money has to come from somewhere
Jenny, the email was dated Friday Dec 27th sent at 1.27pm in contained around 60 email addresses but apparently several versions of this email where sent.
I have seen two emails from 27/12/13 where they published for all to see the email addresses of all they emailed. Anyone who has had their email address published to others in this way with the statement that they are delinquent should be concerned.
FYI. PMP CEO: Peter George. PMP Chairman: Matthew Bickford-Smith.
I would hope NANA pursues Gordon & Gotch on this issue with as much vigour as they did you Mark back in November. I am quite sure members would be happy for NANA to spend their money, legally pursuing Gotch over this.
This is what associations are for. This is what legal funds are for.
DM what galls me about NANA and their pursuit of me is that they backed off without apologising or admitting that they were wrong. They wasted my money and member money. Chiang Lim ought to be held to account for this.
This will see if NANA are fair dinkum about representing their members or if they have there own agenda.
This, in my opinion, is when associations need to show their worth.
We need them to stand up to the distributors once and for all.
Chiang Lim needs to show us that NANA is taken seriously by the industry and begin action against Gotch.
So apparently this is all our fault that we did not receive mags from G&G as we had overpaid our account, yet G&G knew this if they knew how to reconcile an account. We have now been told that it is all fixed now, this after they tried to deny the telephone conversation of the 24th and payment on the 19th, well sorry G&G it is not all fixed and to say someone is in trouble for sending out the email does not wash. But has anyone from G&G even tried to apologise NO. The only reason we got any form of response was we sent a response to every person that G&G sent the email to and included G&G.
No noise from the ANF, the QNF or NANA – looks like we are on our own people!
Mark was this is issue with NANA please.
As to Chiang Lim the jury is still out as far as I am concerned though the Board of NANA should be and is responsible for him. If he has offended then it is the Board’s responsibility.
What I will say is he is not what I expected as a CEO of an Organisation like NANA however previous CEOs. However from what I can see in recent years previous CEOs of NANA have not achieved at all. I found him an interesting choice and as such I stated the jury is still out in mind.
Even now though with ANF and NANA and other state bodies supposedly getting to together I see no economies of Scale in NSW or even cooperation and joining of the Organisations is to one effective body. In NSW we still have NANA and ANF acting separately and going different ways to each other for example Hubbard. Further why cant NANA move in with ANF and save other on the cost of a second office with Staff in Sydney. This savings could then go to better uses even dare I say a fighting for lotteries.
Are you surprised Brett?
Peter here’s my post from 19/11 about how NANA used funds to commence and then abandon a case against me without conducting reasonable due diligence: http://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2013/11/19/how-nana-uses-newsagent-funds/
On NANA and the ANF (and VANA) by understanding is that the ANF love affair with Hubbed has resulted in a distancing between the associations.
On Chiang Lim, he’s been all hot air in my view on issues that matter like the broken magazine supply model. Two years ago he was part of an association two day conference on the topic and he made it clear he would make this his priority.
Thank you Mark.
This now brings the Jury in on Chiang, a Political Spin Doctor. Perhaps another new years resolution is to try and achieve meaningful change at ANF and the State associations.
From the NANA site
Although NANA has not yet received any examples of such breaches of privacy, NANA is asking affected NANA Members to forward such e-mails to nana@nana.com.au so that appropriate assessment and recourse can be sought. Confidentiality is assured by NANA.
If there is prima facie evidence that there is/are breach(es) of privacy or need for dispute resolution, affected NANA Member(s) have the right to be represented by NANA to seek appropriate resolution from Gordon & Gotch, and/or have the matter investigated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) or alternative course(s) of action. And should additional recourse be required, including legal options, NANA will first consult with the affected NANA Member(s) (if any).
Mark if I was forward to NANA the offending email including all the email addresses would this be a breach?
Gregg I would not forward the email to NANA as this of itself could be a breach. Interesting to see their advice on this. They could have linked to what I have written.
Given how NANA conducts itself on legal matters I would not want them representing me.
As for their comment about information commissioner engagement, this can only be commenced 30 days after complaining to Gotch. Newsagents need to act for themselves and complain in writing to Gotch. This should be done now and directly by the affected newsagents.
Alan,
Not at all.