Hi,

My name is Rahul Singh. Over the past few weeks we have been trying to get in touch with David Eldar of Lavahost.

Two months ago, David purchased a dedicated server through a sales channel of ours.

He signed a 12 Month contract for a dedicated server. After the first month, we provided professional services to get his sites up when he wasn't able to fix some problems on his Cpanel server.

We wouldn't have minded him cancelling the contract per our terms and conditions. However, after we billed him after the second month, he has not responded to any calls or emails.

If any one knows where David is, tell us. We need to talk to him about balancing his account.

As far as this affordable host buyout is concerned. We'll be investigating the terms of the sale. As companies are acquired, their debts and accounts acquired as well.


Rahul Singh
Anant Systems, Inc.

Rahul,

Have you considered contacting a collection agency about this?

www.lavahost.com
www.lavahost.net
neither work?...

We have done this infact, however, if a company has "legally" acquired the assets of LavaHost, they are then obligated to pay off his company debts.

What'll actually happen is the collection agency will then contact his parents who he lives with.

Originally posted by redhead
www.lavahost.com
www.lavahost.net
neither work?...

lavahost.net was his hosting domain.

lavafirm.com was his personal "company" domain.

The sites don't work because the server has been unplugged.
We tried to contact him unsuccessfully for 2 weeks before taking such actions.

collection agency will then contact his parents who he lives with

another teenager running hosting? :rolleyes:

Talking about lavahost, I'm a former curtomer.
Now I get the following messages (once a day) from david.eldar@verizon.net address:

Your recurring order for lavahost is failing to bill to the credit card on file.

Notification # : 3
Order Number : XXXXX-RXXXXXX
Card Number : XXXX...XXXX
Amount : $25.50
Company : lavahost
URL : www.lavahost.net
Email : david.eldar@verizon.net

In order to prevent interruption of your service please click here to update your credit card information.

If the payment link above does not work properly with your email program, copy the url below directly into your browser.

https://www.2checkout.com/cgi-bin/urec.2c?order_number=XXXXXX&email=my@email.com

Please make sure that the entire url makes it into the browser or you will have problems.
Thank You,

service@2checkout.com
david.eldar@verizon.net

Why the system is trying to bill my cc?
I filled out a support ticket on 2checkout but did not get any reply.
Will my cc be billed? What should I do?

Originally posted by VNPIXEL
another teenager running hosting? :rolleyes:


Yes. yet another..

I don't have anything against them doing it if they're parents are aware of what their kids are getting into.

Atleast if the kids credibility and accountability are zero, their parents can get them out of trouble.

Its a matter of professionalism.

Originally posted by mmhelp
Why the system is trying to bill my cc?
I filled out a support ticket on 2checkout but did not get any reply.
Will my cc be billed? What should I do?

Call your credit card company as soon as possible and issue a chargeback or hold.

How old is he?

If hes 17 or 18+ I think that its fine.

Age is an unimportant factor.

17+, 18+ doesn't qualify someone to do business. Infact,

I know 40 year olds who are less reliable than some interns we have.

Originally posted by anantatman
We have done this infact, however, if a company has "legally" acquired the assets of LavaHost, they are then obligated to pay off his company debts.


Not true at all. It depends on the terms of the acquisitions. You can just acquire the assets and not the liabilities. But it's meaningless to speculate. Just pointing it out.

Really doesnt matter, AH didn't buy LH.

The problem persists however that the Eldar character is nowhere to be found.

sorry to hear that

Another kiddie host trying to make a quick buck. :rolleyes:

First, as to lavahost. If you want to come here and ask if anyone knows how to contact David, that is one thing. But, to open your records and issue your threats to a public forum just isn't professional.

Second, however, and far more serious. You posted As far as this affordable host buyout is concerned. We'll be investigating the terms of the sale. As companies are acquired, their debts and accounts acquired as well. Then in a later post, you recognized that they didn't make the acquisition. So, (1) you accused falsely, and (2) you misstated the facts related to obligations if they had acquired. Acquisitions can be of either a Company or of just certain assets of a Company. 90% of the hosting acquistions (almost all except the large companies) are of assets only, such as customer lists and/or servers.

Now, why do I point these things out. Two reasons: First, the damage you can cause to an innocent party such as affordable by misstatement. Second, as to general propriety, privacy statements and overall professionalism. You don't make your company look better to anyone in this situation. And, you very well may turn off some potential customers.

I agree with what Sprintserve and Incognito have stated. Just the statement made in the title of this thread is pretty harsh. For all you know the guy was involved in a fatal accident. Disclosing his personal living arrangements is hardly an act of professionalism.

"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks"

I don't understand what the big issue is here? He did not pay his bill, you gave him a fair amount of time PULL IT! and don't worry about it anymore.

Regarding the age thing it does not matter if he signed anything if he is under 18 as anything signed by a minor (18 or under) is not considered a vaild contract which is something that was most likely known to you at the time. If you did happen to get his parents to sign the contract it's probably best to go after them..

<snip I need some sleep>

Originally posted by Incognito

Now, why do I point these things out. Two reasons: First, the damage you can cause to an innocent party such as affordable by misstatement. Second, as to general propriety, privacy statements and overall professionalism. You don't make your company look better to anyone in this situation. And, you very well may turn off some potential customers.

Affordable wasn't openly caused any damage by these accusations. We contacted them around the same time that the posts were made. We were clarified and it was recorded.

Of course this is a public forum where people discuss web hosts, and web hosts warn others of fraudulent customers. However it so happens that
there have been many instances of such dissapearance acts that effect a number of people. Not sounding off on such issues would be detrimental to this community.

The statements were signed by a number of parties, of which all will be sought.

There are customers and there are bad customers. We treat all our customers with the best service through their good and bad times. We have helped some with delayed payments, lowered payments, you name it.

Our relations with our customers is that of respect. We tried to contact him every day to see what was going on. We didn't want his customers to be affected. He has taken our trust and flushed it down the toilet.

A customer stole a lot of money from us, I think I did a big favor to other companies here who should do a double take before doing business with them.

:-/ this isn't any good. How can a teen get a dedi server.. parents CC?
-Max

If you treat all your customers with respect, is that contingent on them being current with their bill? In other words if a customer falls behind for reasons you don't even know then will you come and post personal information about them on public forums?

I think your business tactics need serious improvement.

Everyone has customers that fall behind, some make good and some don't. As a responsible host you try and collect what's owed to you and prevent a customer that has a habit of being less then honest from taking advantage of others.

From what I have seen here I draw the following conclusions;

1) You have a customer that fell behind on payment.
2) You cannot contact them and have no idea where he is or why he cannot be contacted.
3) You mention "Professional Services" you provided for him but fail to say whether or not the charges for those services are being disputed and why his account is in default.
4) You post on a public forum that his account is in default thus bordering on unethical financial disclosure of a customer's account.
5) You threaten anyone who may be involved with a buyout of this client's business, that you will be seeking payments for services which have yet to be confirmed they were even provided.


In closing I'll say that I think what you have done here was completely wrong and unethical. While I don't know this guy from Adam you have no idea what his circumstances are and you have disclosed personal and financial aspects of one of your customers.

Just my .02 worth...

I agree. This is certainly not the right forum. You should hire a collector.

I hope that this is not the same LavaHost that ravio has a site designed for that is 98% complete :(

http://www.ravio.com

Bottom you can see the status. If it is you may want to contact the people at Ravio, they may have contact information for this client, but I do not know their policy about releasing private information. Maybe they can contact them on your behalf, and mediate, but I don't know, never been in this spot *knock on wood*

Good luck!

Originally posted by Watcher_TVI
If you treat all your customers with respect, is that contingent on them being current with their bill? In other words if a customer falls behind for reasons you don't even know then will you come and post personal information about them on public forums?

I think your business tactics need serious improvement.

Everyone has customers that fall behind, some make good and some don't. As a responsible host you try and collect what's owed to you and prevent a customer that has a habit of being less then honest from taking advantage of others.

From what I have seen here I draw the following conclusions;

1) You have a customer that fell behind on payment.
2) You cannot contact them and have no idea where he is or why he cannot be contacted.
3) You mention "Professional Services" you provided for him but fail to say whether or not the charges for those services are being disputed and why his account is in default.
4) You post on a public forum that his account is in default thus bordering on unethical financial disclosure of a customer's account.
5) You threaten anyone who may be involved with a buyout of this client's business, that you will be seeking payments for services which have yet to be confirmed they were even provided.


In closing I'll say that I think what you have done here was completely wrong and unethical. While I don't know this guy from Adam you have no idea what his circumstances are and you have disclosed personal and financial aspects of one of your customers.

Just my .02 worth...


When we have customers fall behind, they know that we will understand if there was financial trouble on their end. Infact I tell this to every customer. "If ever you feel that you cannot pay the bill, please talk to us, so we can sort it out."

Secondly, Respect is mutual. We offered the customer free help many times. Infact this particular situation, not only did we cut him slack for emergency services, we charged him for something that was only a fraction of what actual work was put in. The conversation until the time he dissapeared was similar to this:

"Thanks for all the great work, I really appreciate you being a truly 24/7 company. Please send the invoice or payment link, and I'll send you the payment."

Fraud is fraud. If the alleged fraudulent customer had even slightly noted that he was in trouble, we would have found any means necessary to help him.

If a person is avoiding pending paymenst and straight out ignoring any contact, that is due cause to let other businesses know of his practices.

Let me put you on the spot.
A customer of yours has a critical system with X number of customers that is down. It takes X number of hours to fix the problem. This not only takes your efforts, but the efforts of others to bring up.

All that know this person will be grateful for the work put in.
After a couple of days he avoids payment by saying "i'll pay it, i'm busy right now" . After a couple of weeks he is gone without a trace.

If it had happened to you, I would want to know about it. Why ?
Because I'm a sane person. I like to learn from the experiences of others.

Originally posted by ffa
I hope that this is not the same LavaHost that ravio has a site designed for that is 98% complete :(

http://www.ravio.com

Bottom you can see the status. If it is you may want to contact the people at Ravio, they may have contact information for this client, but I do not know their policy about releasing private information. Maybe they can contact them on your behalf, and mediate, but I don't know, never been in this spot *knock on wood*

Good luck!

I have been in contact with intermediaries who _HAD_ contact with this person.

Atleast the ones I have talked/conversed with have told me that they were "left in the rain" and would like to see this person found and made to face the consequences.

I'd like to thank Affordable host for taking up the hosting for a lot of his customers. Because of this, their customers had options to keep their sites up..

If Affordable has suffered any damages, I'd be glad to defend their credibility.

When we have customers fall behind, they know that we will understand if there was financial trouble on their end. Infact I tell this to every customer. "If ever you feel that you cannot pay the bill, please talk to us, so we can sort it out."

Secondly, Respect is mutual. We offered the customer free help many times. Infact this particular situation, not only did we cut him slack for emergency services, we charged him for something that was only a fraction of what actual work was put in. The conversation until the time he dissapeared was similar to this:

"Thanks for all the great work, I really appreciate you being a truly 24/7 company. Please send the invoice or payment link, and I'll send you the payment."

Fraud is fraud. If the alleged fraudulent customer had even slightly noted that he was in trouble, we would have found any means necessary to help him.

If a person is avoiding pending paymenst and straight out ignoring any contact, that is due cause to let other businesses know of his practices.

Let me put you on the spot.
A customer of yours has a critical system with X number of customers that is down. It takes X number of hours to fix the problem. This not only takes your efforts, but the efforts of others to bring up.

All that know this person will be grateful for the work put in.
After a couple of days he avoids payment by saying "i'll pay it, i'm busy right now" . After a couple of weeks he is gone without a trace.

If it had happened to you, I would want to know about it. Why ?
Because I'm a sane person. I like to learn from the experiences of others.

Since you want to "put me on the spot" I'll tell you how I would have handled this.

First I will address your assumptions;
Secondly, Respect is mutual. We offered the customer free help many times. Infact this particular situation, not only did we cut him slack for emergency services, we charged him for something that was only a fraction of what actual work was put in. The conversation until the time he dissapeared was similar to this:

"Thanks for all the great work, I really appreciate you being a truly 24/7 company. Please send the invoice or payment link, and I'll send you the payment."

Fraud is fraud. If the alleged fraudulent customer had even slightly noted that he was in trouble, we would have found any means necessary to help him. Sounds to me like he was greatful for the help and willing to pay. You have made all these assumptions and are screaming fraud with absolutely no proof of claim. I don't think I have to tell you what a judge would say about this, but I bet he wouldn't stop laughing for hours. You provide nothing that proves he has a habit of not paying except for this instance. So in short you are accusing someone of fraud with absolutely no validation other then you can't contact him. That is absurd and totally unprofessional. For all anyone here knows the guy is disputing what you are claiming you did for him, or is lying injured in a hospital someplace. We have no way to even determine if what you are saying is true!

As for how I would have handled this, well I certainly would not be posting about this here. I would never disclose anyone's personal living arrangements, financial details, or payment deliquencies with the possible exception of someone who uses a stolen or fraudulent credit card.

I would give the guy the benefit of the doubt that something tragic has possibly happened to him. I would not assume he doesn't have the ability to pay based solely on the inability to contact him.

I would continue to try and contact him. I would not discontinue his services for all his clients, they are innocent in this. If I were not able to contact him and his monthly hosting bill was due, I would contact his clients and inform them that I have not been able to contact this guy but that if they wished to stay put they could. They would just have to set up their billing with me until such time as he returns, if he returns.

I would leave the guys account the way it was and take over any of his clients that wished to stay. If the guy ever did get back to me I would certainly turn his account back over to him and work out some reasonable compensation for keeping his business alive. If he never returns then I have new customers that appreciate the fact they didn't lose their sites.

Now that you see how I would have handled that let me put you on the spot.

What if your credit card company came here and posted that you were two weeks late paying your bill? They would claim they can't contact you, that you owe them money, and that you committed credit card fraud. I bet I would see a trail of dust behind you as you ran to your Attorney.....

Extremely well put Watcher_TVI.

Posting a business matter in a public forum is totally unprofessional and extremely bad business practice.

He scammed me lots of money and my reputation, ruined my company

Actually there are others who have been scammed as well. As far as his record goes, its not really as clean as you are making it to be.

Its one thing to accuse wrongly without proof. Its another to see others who've been left in the dust.

Its not late payment, hes outright refused to pay to others as well.

i don't see why its unprofessional to warn people of who to watch out for. We're all doing each other a service by this. Its simple protection.

He scammed me lots of money and my reputation, ruined my company Oh really? Where is the validation of that claim?
Actually there are others who have been scammed as well. As far as his record goes, its not really as clean as you are making it to be. I find it highly dubious that you make this statement so late in this thread. If this was the case I would think it would have been included in your first post.
Its one thing to accuse wrongly without proof. Its another to see others who've been left in the dust. That is exactly what you are doing in my opinion, accusing this guy of fraud without any validation whatsoever.

This guy may not be on the up and up, and then again you may be wrongfully accusing him. He's not saying and you haven't proven a thing.

I really don't see the purpose in debating the ethics on this. As I said before, I would never post in a public forum the personal information of any of my clients with the possible exception of a stolen or fraudulent credit card. I have a responsibility to my clients to keep their personal information confidential regardless if I like them or they default on their payment. I take that responsibility seriously. If you don't agree then feel free to continue the practise you demonstrated here....

Hey I sold Lava Host a vb license. Hopefully that was his money through paypal?

I would have to strongly agree with Watcher_TVI. It is incredibly unprofessional to disclose personal or financial information or details about your clients on a public forum.

I would definitely not do business with any company that did that to clients whether they are in good standing or not. I would be surprised if he couldn't sue you over something like this.

Besides the point any careful person is not going to do business with a minor as was mentioned before they cannot be legally bound to a contract. If you are going to business with them then have their parents or legal guardians sign the contract.

Two things:

1. Our contracts have to be signed by those who are 18 or older, so we did make sure someone "responsible" was signing it.

2. None of you know whether or not David is a minor or not, because I didn't disclose his age.

The only "financial" information (if you could call it that) disclosed was that LavaHost didn't abide by contracts.

The only "personal" information (if you could call it that) disclosed was that the name of the person incharge of LavaHost.

There is a conflict of interest when looking out for the community and protecting criminals.

If it takes this to let people know that someone isn't the type of person to do business with, then be it.

I will take that risk of sacrificing customers to make sure that others in the community are warned.

The only "personal" information (if you could call it that) disclosed was that the name of the person incharge of LavaHost Not true, you also stated he lived with his parents amidst a few other comments. The only "financial" information (if you could call it that) disclosed was that LavaHost didn't abide by contracts. Not true again, you stated he stole money from you and many others, he deliberately perpetrated fraud against your company and yet you provided no validation of any of your claims. You further claimed that anyone buying his business would be responsible for your unsubstantiated claims. You went on further to discuss the disposition of his clients.

The fact he hasn't posted here doesn't make him guilty. If you call this "warning the Community" that's your business. What I have seen you do in this thread is violate the confidentiality of a client and make negative statements without a shred of proof of any of your claims.

Like I said there is no need to debate the ethics and I won't respond any further. If this is how you conduct your business then that is certainly your perogitive. My policy is much different then yours on matters such as these....

Originally posted by Watcher_TVI
Not true, you also stated he lived with his parents amidst a few other comments. Not true again, you stated he stole money from you and many others, he deliberately perpetrated fraud against your company and yet you provided no validation of any of your claims. You further claimed that anyone buying his business would be responsible for your unsubstantiated claims. You went on further to discuss the disposition of his clients.

The fact he hasn't posted here doesn't make him guilty. If you call this "warning the Community" that's your business. What I have seen you do in this thread is violate the confidentiality of a client and make negative statements without a shred of proof of any of your claims.

Like I said there is no need to debate the ethics and I won't respond any further. If this is how you conduct your business then that is certainly your perogitive. My policy is much different then yours on matters such as these....

Exactly. These kind of matters are NOT for public forums. If you actually had any evidence to substantiate your accusations then this would be (a bit) better.

What evidence would you like exactl? Quotes from people who've been scammed? Along with email addresses?

Or would you like recorded conversations.

In this board alone, you can find 2-3 posts regarding LavaHost's dissapearance.

You also need to realize that you might be liable for a lawsuit for this claim of fraud. Besides being unprofessional. Maybe you should take what people are telling you as advise instead of insisting on defending yourself. I would not have handled this situation the way that you did.

Think about it.

That's my two cents.

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