From time to time we receive some rather unusual emails (and requests) some of which we publish and some of which are quite frankly unprintable.
Recently we were mailed by a chap called Peter who works (as we later confirmed) for an outfit called Tasty Placement which as you will see deals with all things web based (search engine optimisation, web design blah di blah di blah …). It would seem that Tasty Placement has as a client another outfit named Origins Recovery Centers (based in the US) which is part of the multi-billion dollar (yes that's right... multi BILLION dollar) rehab industry.
According to Origins blurb:
“Origins Recovery Centers provides integrated inpatient treatment for substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. At Origins, clients receive expert medical, clinical and spiritual care individually designed for their needs. Our Clients leave Origins with the foundation upon which they will build the rest of their lives. Origins – Delivering Real Solutions for Real Families. Call Now to speak with an Admissions Specialist”
We love that bit about “Real Solutions for Real Families”. But what about all those people who come presumably from 'unreal' families. Sounds like a clear case of discrimination to us! But what the hell! If it's sounds snappy does it really matter if it's meaningless!
Origins Recovery Centre presents a fairly slick (and comprehensive) sales pitch as you would expect from an enterprise which “provides the most preeminent aftercare and relapse prevention program available in the United States” (incidentally “pre-eminent means 'most outstanding”. They must be really good. They're most MOST outstanding!).
Strangely they seem remarkably coy about what they charge for all this stuff. But fortunately 'most' (there's that word again!) health insurance cover is accepted. Phew! What a relief!
However knocked out as we are by all the razzmatazz what is of rather more interest from our point of view at least are a couple of names which pop up under their Staff List, viz. Chris Raymer and Myers Raymer.
Now for those of you who aren't in the know (Where've you been? Mars!) we suggest you check the following out (See here). You will note that apart from working for the “ most preeminent aftercare and relapse prevention program available in the United States” they also have a nice little gig going with the Dallas Primary Purpose gang as well as running a rather expensive (Big) book bindery service. This is a busy pair indeed … which brings us back to Peter's email to us!
Firstly:
“Hello,
It has come to our attention that a number of links exist on your domain that lead to our website http://www.originsrecovery.com/. We recently received a notification that Google has detected a pattern of unnatural links on our site, so we are currently trying to remove or “no follow” links pointing to us in order to resolve this issue.
We ask that you please remove or “no follow” all existing links to http://www.originsrecovery.com/ from your domain, including, but not limited to:
Once all the links have been removed, please notify us
as soon as possible.
We understand it is an inconvenience, but if we are unable to remove these links, we are instructed to use Google’s disavow tool to devalue them. This in turn could result in Google deindexing your domain. We have no intention of hurting your domain, so it would be very much appreciated if we could work together to resolve this.
Thank you for your cooperation and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the process.
Best,
Peter”
This communication was shortly followed by a second email:
“Hello,
It has come to our attention that a number of links exist on your domain that lead to our website http://www.originsrecovery.com/. We recently received a notification that Google has detected a pattern of unnatural links on our site, so we are currently trying to remove or “no follow” links pointing to us in order to resolve this issue.
We ask that you please remove or “no follow” all existing links to http://www.originsrecovery.com/ from your domain, including, but not limited to:
Once all the links have been removed, please notify us
as soon as possible.
We understand it is an inconvenience, but if we are unable to remove these links, we are instructed to use Google’s disavow tool to devalue them. This in turn could result in Google deindexing your domain. We have no intention of hurting your domain, so it would be very much appreciated if we could work together to resolve this.
Thank you for your cooperation and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the process.
Best,
Peter”
Now what this all boils down to is what search engines are showing up when people plug in search terms like “Origins Recovery Centers” or “Myers Raymer” or “Chris Raymer” or “Joe and Charlie” or “Primary Purpose” (in various combinations). What they also frequently get is a listing for a website named “aacultwatch”. Now people being people, and naturally curious, they're going to find it almost irresistible to take a gander at what this strange outfit is all about. And of course they'll discover stuff about Chris Raymer and Myers Raymer that they wouldn't otherwise know, and moreover (quite understandably) what Origins Recovery Centers would rather not have advertised! Of course there's nothing “unnatural” or indeed accidental about these links. They are placed on our site quite deliberately. But we thought we'd check it out anyway. So taking up Peter's polite invitation to contact him if we had any questions we did precisely that:
“Dear [Peter],
Thank you for your mail. If you would kind enough to forward the notification you received from Google we will look into the question and get some clarification from them. We will then contact you”
We received – no reply! Suspecting that Peter was perhaps not quite as sincere as he would have us believe (and allowing sufficient time for a response) we then sent the following email:
"Dear [Peter],
We refer you to our previous reply. If you are unable or unwilling to supply this information then we will be obliged to decline your request(s). Moreover we note that the links you indicate below include a "search" function which point to material completely unrelated to your stated client's site. Accordingly we are rapidly coming to the view that your objections are not so much based upon a (as yet unsubstantiated) notification from Google in relation to "unnatural links" but rather an attempt on you and your client(s) part to suppress information associated with their activities.
Finally we do not respond particularly well to threats (implied or otherwise). Our usual response is to publicise such attempts prominently on our site”
Et voilà!
Cheers
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS Our domain seems to remain somewhat unhurt – and the universe still turns about its axis! Phew! That's OK then!
Now what this all boils down to is what search engines are showing up when people plug in search terms like “Origins Recovery Centers” or “Myers Raymer” or “Chris Raymer” or “Joe and Charlie” or “Primary Purpose” (in various combinations). What they also frequently get is a listing for a website named “aacultwatch”. Now people being people, and naturally curious, they're going to find it almost irresistible to take a gander at what this strange outfit is all about. And of course they'll discover stuff about Chris Raymer and Myers Raymer that they wouldn't otherwise know, and moreover (quite understandably) what Origins Recovery Centers would rather not have advertised! Of course there's nothing “unnatural” or indeed accidental about these links. They are placed on our site quite deliberately. But we thought we'd check it out anyway. So taking up Peter's polite invitation to contact him if we had any questions we did precisely that:
“Dear [Peter],
Thank you for your mail. If you would kind enough to forward the notification you received from Google we will look into the question and get some clarification from them. We will then contact you”
We received – no reply! Suspecting that Peter was perhaps not quite as sincere as he would have us believe (and allowing sufficient time for a response) we then sent the following email:
"Dear [Peter],
We refer you to our previous reply. If you are unable or unwilling to supply this information then we will be obliged to decline your request(s). Moreover we note that the links you indicate below include a "search" function which point to material completely unrelated to your stated client's site. Accordingly we are rapidly coming to the view that your objections are not so much based upon a (as yet unsubstantiated) notification from Google in relation to "unnatural links" but rather an attempt on you and your client(s) part to suppress information associated with their activities.
Finally we do not respond particularly well to threats (implied or otherwise). Our usual response is to publicise such attempts prominently on our site”
Et voilà!
Cheers
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS Our domain seems to remain somewhat unhurt – and the universe still turns about its axis! Phew! That's OK then!
superb!!!
ReplyDeleteExcellent model for direct communication with a double speak recovery entity.
ReplyDelete