The Brand Surgery - Branding, Graphic Design and Web Design in Worthing, West Sussex

Internet crime - don't put up with it - we want your opinion!

We want to make all you lovely people aware that your money is not safe from internet crime with Paypal! We have recently been the victims on internet fraud. The boss feels like an OAP who has been conned We have only lost £69.26, but others have lots more.

Let’s start at the beginning … We ordered a RangeMax Wireless Access Point WPN802 through Techhouseuk.com which was listed on Google’s products. Anyway, our product never arrived. We didn’t panic because we purchased the product through Paypal, so surely they would refund our money? WE WERE WRONG! You are probably safer from internet fraud if you order on your credit card because you will be insured. This is the email we received from Paypal.

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Dear Vicky Vaughan

After careful review, we have concluded our investigation of the Buyer Complaint described below.

We have decided in your favour, however, we were unable to recover any funds from the seller’s account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recovery of funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

Please know that we will make our best effort to recover the funds in question if they become available in the seller’s account in the future, and will take appropriate action against the seller. Such action may
include issuing a warning, a temporary restriction, or terminating the account. Keep in mind that PayPal uses a number of factors, including member complaints, to determine when to take action. Due to privacy laws, we cannot discuss the details of any action taken. We hope you understand our policy and that it reassures you that you are safe using PayPal.

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The last statement on Paypal’s email got the boss really angry and now we are the victims of her bad mood! So who is to blame for allowing these fraudsters to get away with it? Should we blame Google for not checking vendors thoroughly? Or should we blame Paypal for misleading us by advertising how safe their system is? Or should we blame the police for for spending all their time giving us speeding fines instead of clamping down on fraudsters? Or finally, maybe we should blame ourselves for being so trusting. We want to hear your opinion on this subject and on the email we received from Paypal.

We think this is a case for BBC Watchdog!

We are leaping for joy as we walked away with the Microbiz 2008 award (sponsored by The Best Of Worthing) on Saturday night at the Worthing Business Awards. We will add photos to our website as they become available.

Thank you to everyone that nominated us. Thank you for all your support and loyalty. I would also like to thank everyone in our team that helped to make this possible.

Our sister company, TriggerSnappy.co.uk sponsored the Tourism and Leisure Award 2008. If you haven’t already visited our photo library. Why not visit our website to see over 2,000 stunning photos of UK towns and villages. These images are great for brochures and leaflets for tourist information centres, hotels, bed and breakfast. The photos are excellent quality and superb for printing onto canvas for great wall art!

Back to the Tourism and Leisure award … It was a tough decision, but we unanimously decided that the winner for this category should be Bowls England. The first of many reasons is that the Bowls Championship is a well-established, well-organised prestigious national event which creates excellent long term PR coverage for Worthing.

Despite the British weather, visitors from all over the UK return to Worthing year after year – rather than jet off abroad – to see this Championship event . This makes the Championship event extremely planet-friendly! The other important fact is that the Bowls Championship encourages a desirable demographic of visitors of all ages to Worthing. Many of these visitors choose Worthing as their main annual holiday destination to tie in with the bowls. This brings repeat visitors – some nominators have visited seven times or more. These repeat visitors actually stay in Worthing for the two week duration of the Championship, which greatly benefits Worthing hotels, B&Bs, retailers, restaurants and other businesses.

So this well established Championship event is a priceless addition to Worthing. All the friendly staff work extremely hard to maintain the excellent greens and facilities. From the groundsmen to the organisers to the management – they work seamlessly as a team to deliver a unique experience and excellent service, at the same time as promoting a healthy sport for all ages. Maybe Bowls England should also win the Award for the Multi-Tasking category!

By the way, we wrote the wording for script in-house, so if you want copywriting and editorial that puts your business or organisation on the map – give us a call on 01903 824229.

AVS Corporate website

We’re proud to announce the launch of yet another Brand Surgery website: www.AVSfencing.co.uk/. This market leader in fencing supplies needed a corporate website added on to their existing retail website, with a new look, but in keeping with their colours and style. The corporate website contains all the handy company information their clients might need and has brought them up-to-date with legal information. This website compliments a funky brochure that we have designed for AVS, for their sales managers to leave with corporate clients.

It is so important to keep your marketing up-to-date during these tough times. It will cost you ten times as much to start marketing once you have disappeared off the radar. Call us now to find out how we can help you to get more out of your marketing budget.

Is your website meeting current legislation?

“Most of what follows is true…” Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Did you know that according to BERR (The Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform – formerly known as the DTI), 50% of business owners do not realise that there are at present six pieces of legislation which your website needs to comply with, whatever form of business you trade under. If it doesn’t comply, you are risking a £1000 fine.

Not only that, but you may be losing valuable business because potential clients might not trust your website if it doesn’t protect their legal rights when they use it. Being compliant is all about good branding and how your business is perceived. We’ve all seen the cowboys on BBC Watchdog!

We can help you to become compliant. If you contact us before the end of October, we will reduce our usual website compliance fee from £195 to £150 (ex VAT), which includes a web health-check. This means you’ll receive Word documents with all the necessary legal information that should be on your website, plus a full health-check report pinpointing other areas in which your website could improve and boost sales.

If the above has whetted your appetite, don’t hesitate to give one of us a call on 01903 824229 and we’ll be happy to help! We’re a lot closer than the Wild Wild West. You can see our portfolio of website design and development (packages from £299 ex VAT) in our portfolio. Click here for more information.

Nicky looking fab in her dress and purple booties

At long last, our chief graphic designer has had her wedding photos back! If you didn’t know this, Nicky got hitched on August 16th. We’ve been dying to put her photos on our blog. You can see more if you go to Flickr. Anyway, we all wish Nicky and Paul a long happy, wealthy and healthy life! Love from Vicky and all the team! xx

Credit Crunch Stress Buster Kit

Credit Crunch Stress Buster Kit

There’s a good reason why we’ve been nominated and shortlisted for the Worthing First Business Marketing and Promotion Award – we love coming up with quirky ideas to turn your heads.

First of all, our brand new trademark, Beat the Recession, Make and Impression, has been extremely popular. And it is so true. In times of economic crisis, businesses suddenly believe that marketing is a luxury.

NEWS FLASH … It only takes a minute to stop marketing, but it will end up costing your business twelve times as many precious pounds in the not so distant future. It is much more expensive to advertise your business once it has disappeared off the radar. We firmly believe our Brand Doctor theory, Prevention is Better than Cure!

Our funky Credit Crunch Stress-busting Kits have been flying out the door, complete with some thirst-quenching wine, relaxing eye-mask and luxurious bubble-bath. Why? Because we want to let our potential clients know that with a little help from us, they can relax in the knowledge that the word is on the street about their business. Credit crunch? What credit crunch?

If you want a credit crunch pack for your business to send to potential or existing clients, we can tailor make it in your corporate colours and design. We promise there won’t be one single PINK graphic, unless you want pink of course!

MP Tim Loughton officially opened West Sussex Credit Union (left Vicky Vaughan, Trevor Constable and MP Tim Loughton)

After two long years of hard work, West Sussex Credit Union officially opened for trading on Friday 3rd October 2008. With the credit crunch making headline press, what perfect timing! MP Tim Loughton cut the ribbon!

The Brand Surgery are the proud designers of the West Sussex Credit Union branding, including the fab new website (www.westsussexcreditunion.co.uk), where you can download an application and join. We have also worked on the PR of the credit union – our press releases made it to the front cover of the local press.

If you want your business to stand out from the crowd, and press releases that make front cover reading material, then give us a call on 01903 824229. To read more about how West Sussex Credit Union benefits the communityclick here