Talkin' to myself

Again.

Here's Mr. Tonello as HermesGuy. Getting all hot and bothered because someone didn't like his book. Why not just register under his own name (since he's such a big prononent of honesty on the Internet after all), instead of having his little alter egos rush to his defense?

http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.php?p=1316954&postcount=98

There, there. We're sure you can make all the nasty people disappear if you just publish enough things about them. Or call them names. So there. (Is that the stamping of a little foot I hear in the distance?)

La Rambling around

Michael Tonello's various aliases, where he seems to comment to himself online, give us a headache.

Like this one, on StyleForum.net.

Scroll down and see where HermesGuy is talking about something ... his photobucket account is registered to - surprise! LaRambla17, which is also where Michael Tonello lives in Barcelona. And his YouTube name. Look it up - it's all public. He has a dandy little video of himself cooking under the LaRambla17 nickl. So ... gots to be him, ya?

So he's at least HermesGuy, advent, and centralparkwest on StyleForum. We think all of those IDs have shilled his book. Guess it can't sell itself.

See for yourself:
http://www.styleforum.net/archive/index.php/t-34253-p-16.html

Then, if you want a cooking lesson, check out his YouTube video.

Smoking in the boys' room

Or gossiping in the girls' bathroom. Yes, that's what PFA is all about. Remember in high school when some kids would get together to slag off the others? Only in high school, it was mostly words. Now, people can use the Internet to say things, true or not, about others. And the Internet is forever.

Michael Tonello has been on many, many web sites, promoting his book under various aliases (cute but not exactly forthright now, is it, for someone who is all about "exposing the truth"?) and slagging TPF. Some of the names and things he has said have been printed in the comments here. We encourage you to have a look. We may post screen shots of some of the others.

He has been busy tracking IP addresses and printing people's places of work and home addresses in an environment where others are obviously hostile to those people. Now .... ask yourself. What do you think the point of that might be? It isn't so that they can be remembered at Christmas and anniversaries.

Perhaps Mr. Tonello's next book can be something about multiple (online) personalities. He seems to be an expert.

Fun house mirrors

Remember as a kid when you would visit the circus and see the fun house mirrors? The fun is in how they distort things.

Kind of like PFA.

There is no there there, folks. To wit ....

1. Resellers are bad, evil people.
On the face of it, this is just plain stupid. Assuming you have legal ownership of sometihng, and it isn't immoral, illegal or unethical to sell it, what's the problem? Why should a PURSE be exempt from being resold? But ok, we'll play. Um ... Michael Tonello was a reseller. He wrote all about it. Huh. Why?

2. Let's post a picture of someone's PF bag and claim it's fake.
Wait. Haven't you been harping that the authenticators on PF don't know their ass from their elbows and couldn't possibly authenticate a bag from a photo? So how can the learned minds at PFA do it? And morever, they're experts in all brands. One stop authentication.

3. Let's "expose" the "nefarious" goings on! (Can't you see the moustache twirling, like some bad vaudeville villain?) Um ... WHAT nefarious goings on? Oh, yes, the Japster thread that keeps getting talked about. We read through the entire thing. We found some unhappy people, outnumbered by happy people and people who had no buying experience but were outraged nonetheless. We didn't see any credible proof that anyone at TPF.

4. There is no Hermes wait list. To which we can only say WHO CARES? If you are a customer of Hermes, then you probably already know how to get the things you want. And if you aren't, well, see the previously mentioned WHO CARES. The only person trumpeting about this is Michael Tonello. The rest of the world has moved on.

Fun house mirrors. They really do distort things.

That's why it's important to know who is really behind PFA. And what his agenda is.

Got the picture?

You can have all the money in the world but ugly is still ugly

Behaviour, that is.

Posing as other people online.
Posting as them.
Printing their personal information.

Tsk, tsk. Not nice.

If you want to see it in action, google duchessofh .... Ms. Lehtonen is a busy bee, defending Michael Tonello against all comers! Maybe it would be more helpful if she bought a scarf booklet or two from his Bonanza booth. Help the needy, Donna. We think he'll appreciate it.

Izvestia and Pravda

In Russian, izvestia means truth. Pravda means news.

There was an old saying about these two papers during the Communist Soviet era. There's no news in the truth, and no truth in the news.

Should be PFAs slogan.

What we adore about PFA are the massive inconsistencies. Like ... PFA hates resellers. Yet its owner, Michael Tonello, was one and still is.

Like ... PFA hates fakes.

See above statement.

Just a note...

No need to use an IP blocker. We aren't interested in who you are, where you are, or publishing that info. We're not interested in making fun of anyone who posts at Purse Forum, either. You like purses, you don't like purses, you like PF or you don't - we don't care.

We just want to show what Michael Tonello has said and done, in his own words, online, to other people. We will be delighted to close this blog once his is gone.

In the meantime, please share your stories so others can know more about why PFA needs to close.

Put on your big boy panties

We thought it was interesting that we are getting so many searches coming here from Google that specify "Michael Tonello bully". Made us giggle.

And it also makes us laugh that Mr. Tonello is so obsessed with "exposing" the inner workings of the Hermes marketing system.

Honey, it's a recession. Still. Globally. Do you think most people give a rat's ass if someone has to wait six months or a year or two to buy a $10,000 bag? And more to the point, so what?

So what if Hermes does or does not have a wait list?
So what if they prefer to sell to some customers over others?
Exactly WHAT big conspiracy/scandal/scheme is this supposed to be, other than a luxury goods firm doing what it's always done: rewarding good customers with hard to get items.

So what.

And .... so what about Purse Forum?

Yes, We're members who lurk much, much more than we post. As with any online forum, there are good people and bad. Good threads and bad. Do we think there is some "nefarious" (another favorite Tonello word) scam going on there? Any rational person looking around will see there are no grandiose schemes happening there. We still buy on Ebay though we're careful. It's called common sense. Are there people looking to sell on Purse Forum, even though it's against the rules? Seem to be. We ignore them and figure the moderators will eventually deal with them. And if not, why is it our business?

Is the site for profit? Sure. Just like CNN or Ebay or Amazon or the New York Times or the Times of London or ANY site that takes ads or allows people to use the resources for free. Traffic = $. Again, so what?

Do people get banned? Seems so. From what we've seen, it's people who broke the rules. So ... buh bye.

Again, so what?? Got your knickers in a knot because you were told to leave a purse forum? Oh, boo freaking hoo. Mr. Tonello and Ms. Lehtonen must like it there because from what we've heard, they can't stop going back. Maybe that's the real problem - they can't stand it that some group doesn't want them. So the solution? Trash anyone and everyone associated with the site because their widdle feelings are hurt. And - QUEL HORREUR! - someone called Mr. Tonello an idiot over on PFA. Why, that just can't be permitted.

Mr. Tonelli, put on your big boy panties (and we're giving you the benefit of the doubt here). There are no monsters under the bed. Stop seeing conspiracies where none exist.

Not nice

Why would Mr. Tonello, posting as StyleGuru and now as reconfortante on the GQ.com forums, persistently target someone he's never met? Seem familiar? Oh, right. The same curious obsession he's displayed on PFA with Grands Fonds, gigi123 and a host of others. Grudge much over nothing?

At least Jason85 is fighting back - go Jason!
Read it here or at the forum, link at the end.

Re: WAYWT Part Deux.

Posted: May 26, 2010 1:16 AM Go to message in response to: GFalconer

Yes, I did. I don't see why I'd make up something like that. I also don't see what I would gain from it. Besides, it's not even the best prep school in NYC. It stands behind Horace Mann, The Beekman, and the most prestigious of them all, Trinity. It's a friggin high school, for God's sake. It's not like I said I went to Yale or Harvard. If I really wanted to lie, I would have said that I went to a world-renowned Ivy League university, like Yale or Princeton, not a high school no one ever heard of. How many of you have even heard of it before this Luxe guy brought it up? I went there for a year, and made that very clear. Also, it was something I said in 2007, 2 years before Luxe joined this forum. It was in a "Tell us more about you" thread or something like that. I don't remember where I said it, since it was almost 3 years ago. If you were here last year, you would have noticed how he was stalking me, and how he read every single one of my posts dating years back. You'd think he was writing a biography about me and doing extensive research, since he would bring up things I don't even remember writing. It's creepy, and many pointed that out. He's really that desperate of a person. He has made tens of threads about me, calling me anti-semetic, or this and that, based on nothing. He's trying to get back at me for revealing what he did to those women, which you sent me via pm, btw. He has gone back and searched in his "notes" to find some dirt on me, and make things personal, but I'm not buying it. If he really has something, he would have said it last year, when he was constantly hounding me, since I said that one-third of a decade ago, and not something I randomly said last week.

I swore off responding to him, and made that clear in my last post. Actions speak louder than words. Nothing can justify what he has done by scamming people. I don't know what he's trying to prove. But if he thinks that "lying" about going to a highschool is equivalent to scamming hundreds of women by selling them damaged goods for $10,000-$50,000 and threatening them, then he truly is crazy. It's not even close of being on the same par. It is the internet after all, and no one forced this Tonello guy to reveal his name, and go all Dan Brown on us.

In a "how old are you" thread from last year, he said he was 31, but then suddenly claims he wrote that Birkin book a few months later, not that I don't believe him. It's not like he's a Pulitzer prize winner. His book is ranked #259,590 in Amazon's bestsellers rank, ha! I mean how hard is it to write a book about being blacklisted and thrown out of Hermes? In the end, he has been given way too many chances. He was also "revealed" too many times, as well. First by Hermes for re-selling bags and other goods, which is illegal, then by hundreds of members at the Purse Forum whom he ripped off, and like Hermes, they also banned and blacklisted him, and then by me.

For getting back at Hermes, he wrote a book, and revealed the "secrets" of how to buy the "exclusive" bag. To get back at members of the Purse Forum whom he ripped off, he published their names, addresses, etc., as revenge, and lastly to get back at me for posting the awful things he has done, he's TRYING to do the same thing. Don't you get it??? It's the oldest trick in the book! He truly never learns... Karma is a bitch! As I stated earlier, I swore off not only responding to him, but to not even mention his name. His name is so cursed at the Purse Forum that his last name "Tonello" is forbidden to to be used, and types star symbols instead, like *******, haha! That tells you a lot, when even computers tell you what a fraud he actually is! He can go to hell for all I care.

Read More http://www.gq.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=540147#ixzz1I2mKXJKU

Who are you?

For now, we're anonymous. Why? Well, we have nothing to hide. No agenda. We aren't, however, willing to be the focus of Ms. Lehtonen's and Mr. Tonello's unique form of online obsession. We have never had the dubious pleasure of meeting either him or Ms. Lehtonen (though we will admit to being geographically much closer to Mr. Tonello - let's do lunch at El Bulli sometimes, chum! You sure talk about it ad nausum, but on a Bonanza salary, can you really afford it? Come to think of it, it's phonetically so appropriate for you!). What we got fed up with is the curious obsession Michael Tonello seems to have with strangers. We haven't been doing that to anyone online - just publishing their own words and their own internet trail.

We were informed that Mr. Tonello is now posting as reconfortante on the GQ.com forums. He has a host of other names on forums where he seems to have conversations with himself as his various alter egos. Usually, it's to talk up his book. That's a pretty unique form of word of mouth. Bet John Grisham doesn't have to haunt Amazon putting up his own reviews as Yawn Risham or the like. Yawn is right.

Look for him as advent, centralparkwest and (we think) Hermes Guy on styleforum.net. He has a very unique style of writing and he seems to lose his temper fairly quickly at the slightest sign of cricticism. He's also posted his own comments shilling himself as (we think) larambla17 and others on YouTube and elsewhere online. If you know of any more aliases please feel free to post them.

He also seems to fancy himself a veritable consumer advocate. Scams! Lies! Fraud - oh, my. To which we call BS. Come clean, Mr. Tonello. Admit you sold items that people complained about and THAT'S what this is all about. Ebay booted you, after all. They must have had reasons. Or perhaps, let it go. It's been nearly five years.

Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice?

Well, no. Actually, at the McMansion in Schaumberg, it seems to be Bob and Donna and Michael and her son. Why? Good question. Why is Michael Tonello claiming his residence as Southfork (maybe we should call it Stick a Fork in It, it's such an ugly overdecorated pile) at the Toronto Fashion Incubator? A big thank you to whomever put this info up at PFA (it was deleted but we have the screen shot). Now why would Mr. Tonello be lying about his residence when he's made it clear he lives in Barcelona? Book business must be bad, since for a while he was giving guided tours of Barcelona and now he's selling Hermes scarf booklets for $25 on Bonanza, since Ebay banned him.

Misstating the truth seems to be a popular sideline for Mr. Tonello. We guess he must have a lot of time on his hands these days for pursuits like this. He's such a Sherlock Holmes! Accusing everyone at PF of scamming! Lies! Fakes! Pot, kettle much? The big lie is that he and Donna refuse to admit being the owners of the PFA blog. The big lie is that there is no "nefarious" (another favorite word) philosophy behind PF. It's  a forum. Owned by some people. Yes - GASP - for profit. Just like Ebay or Amazon or any other web site. And like any other web site, it's buyer beware. And just like any other forum people get banned, usually because they're being assholes and breaking the rules.

The big lie is that he started PFA for one reason only and that's revenge for having been accused of selling poor quality items on Ebay in 2007. We'll repeat that - 2007. Wow. This dude can hold a grudge. Can you imagine being so curiously consumed with people for nearly five years for an Ebay transaction gone bad - and over an item that cost a couple of hundred dollars? And then posting their personal information all over the Internet and frightening them enough they sought police help?

Why do Mr. Tonello and Ms. Lehtonen sign up as other people to make positive comments about his book and bash PF on sites across the Internet? Are book sales SERIOUSLY so bad that you need to be anonymous fans to pump it up. Must be.

Why is it that the only personal information removed from his blog is that referring to Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen/DuchessofH? Ever ask yourself that?

The real fakes are these two. Pretending to be other people and posting as others, things those people wouldn't write. Publishing people's names and personal information and opening them up to more unwanted attention by more Internet strangers.

So when people over there ask, "Why should I care who's behind this? I want to read about the scams!", well, the biggest scam of all is that he's not being exactly truthful with you about who he is and why he's running the blog. And most of all, he isn't being truthful about what he's writing about PF. It's all about a grudge. About a scarf. So how can you trust anything he writes? Oh. That's right. You can't. Be a more aware reader than that. For your own sake. And use an IP blocker when visiting so your person information isn't the next to be splashed online, like PriscillaW8s.

Too bad Mr. Tonello didn't take that advice. Thanks for confirming (again!) that you're behind PFA with your IP trail.

P.E.N.I.S.

Yes, P.E.N.I.S. A tragic condition that has seen, shall we say, a surge since the rise of anonymous blogs.

I am sad to say that Michael Tonello appears to have P.E.N.I.S.

What, you ask is this, and should condolence cards be sent?

Persistent Escalation of Nebulous Internet Squabbles.

Sadly, an inability to let go. A toxic fascination with the personal lives of others. To the point of obsessively following them. Sometimes, people who have this condition are simply called dicks. Easier to say. Shorter. More compact. You get the idea.

To Tonello - verb

Tonello - to have a morbid curiousity with internet strangers

To have a fascination with the personal details of others, c.f. Michael Tonello and his keen interest in Jason85 on GQ.com

To have a significant time investment in seeing scams where none exist.

Michael Tonello - violating Blogger's terms of service?

I believe it's against the Blogger ToS to publish someone's full contact info. Particularly when they've asked for it to be taken down. Particularly when they are now receiving unwanted contact as a result. Some might call that cyberharassment.

Now why wouldn't Mr. Tonello remove this information? Oh, right. The lady called him an idiot.

I guess Mr. Tonello's ego is very small. Miniscule. Perhaps in keeping with other parts of him. Idiot is soooooo wounding, measures must be taken to make sure this woman pays with her privacy.

If you don't want your personal information spread all over the internet and if you don't want to be the subject of Mr. Tonello's peculiar attentions, don't visit his PFA blog.

Michael Tonello - why is Amazon promoting him?

Why is Amazon supporting this man, who seems to spend his free time being curiously preoccupied with the activities of total strangers online?

Something tells us that if they knew what he was up to on his blog, www.thepurseforumadvisory.blogspot.com, and as advent on styleforum.net and previously as styleguru and now apparently as reconfortante on GQ.com's forums ... well, they might rethink their marketing strategy.

Michael Tonello .... curiously consumed

He was posting as StyleGuru but lo and behold! He's changed his name on GQ.com. We wonder why?

Why the fascination with this other poster .... to the point, some might say .... of perhaps an unhealthy obsession?

Hmmm.

Curious.

http://www.gq.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=540207

WELCOME! Tired of Michael Tonello and Donna Lehtonen's childish personal vendettas?

You've come to the right place.

So are we.

Let's get one thing straight. Michael Tonello is the less than brains behind PFA. Aided and abetted by trophy wife Donna Lehtonen. Yup. It's true. And you may not care.

But you should!

Why did he start this blog? It's easy. The man carries a grudge. He sold some scarves in 2007 that buyers had issues with and you know what he did? He published their names and addresses across the internet. Signed them up at various blogs and pretended to post as them. The lovely plastic surgery rejuvenated Donna joined in. These two apparently don't have two brain cells to rub together because they spend oodles of time all day making up crap about a bunch of people they've never met. Wonderful souls, they are. He pretends to be all concerned about nefarious goings on! Scams! Fakes! (The whole world is fake according to these two geniuses.) But you know what? He makes it all up. Just to have revenge about a scarf. Really? These are adults? Obsessing about purses and publishing personal details about people they've never met in 99 per cent of the case?

So let's see how they like it when they're the focus.

Something tells me ... not much.

But ... stay tuned for news about Mr. Tonello's interesting posts on various forums (and his oh so unique version of the truth!). About how Ms. Lehtonen also decided to post as other people online. Internet bullying isn't ok when it's done by kids. And it isn't much better when it's done by adults.

Fortunately, Mr. Tonello and Ms. Lehtonen have left a huge Internet trail of their ridiculous activities.

Stay tuned!