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Self-proclaimed hero of the people takes on Dixons

'I'm not a cybersquatter,' he says

Self-proclaimed hero of the people Abu Abdullaah has vowed to continue his battle against Dixons' customer service, despite losing his protest Web site.

Dixons-online.co.uk was set up to let Dixons customers vent their spleen over the retailer.

In addition to readers' letters, the site advised shoppers on their rights, including detailed instructions on what to do in a retail dispute. It also offered general links to sites such as the Office of Fair Trading and Watchdog.

Nothing wrong with that, you may think. Dixons is big enough and ugly enough to take it on the chin.

Not so, says Abu, who uses the unlikely email address prefix of "Iamahero". Dixons took the site to Nominet (the body for domain name disputes in the UK). It suspended the URL in May.

Drunk on victory, Dixons has decided to go after another two of Abdullaah's domains - dixons-online.org and dixons-online.net.

Meanwhile, all traffic is being directed towards yet another site, dixonscustomers.com - so far unwanted by Dixons.

Most people who have visited the sites (jointly responsible for around 70,000 hits) know they are not associated with Dixons, Abdullaah told us. This can partly be attributed to the disclaimer plastered on the front page.

The project is also non-profit making - started as a hobby after visits to Dixons made Abdullaah's blood boil. "I was fed up with going into Dixons and getting very poor information," he said.

The sites aim to get Dixons to make its warranty policies more transparent, and to get changes such as the abolition of commission for salespeople selling warranties.

"I'm not a cybersquatter," Abdullaah said. "I'm not here to slag off Dixons."

"They should be large enough to welcome criticism."

A Dixons representative said the company was "all for freedom of expression," but that it "needed to protect the brand and the best interests of shareholders and staff". ®

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