here's another fidpac / Steve gunnels story:

I (yes, I'm stupid) signed up for 2 years in January 2003 with him. So in June 2004 I get an email that my account needs to be renewed. 6 months BEFORE it's due date. Now, it's that fun ?? I've yet to hear what he'll say back.

I have to admit, their throughput is pretty good, support has been OK, but it's a big scammer company, that's for sure !

that is a bad billing team

shows advanced warning :)

Originally posted by Tris-SA
shows advanced warning :)

Could very well be advanced warning. Did they state the "expiration date"? Or are they just letting you know?

Glenn

no expiration date. He said their records indicated it was time to renew. My original receipt says I renewed in jan 2003 for 2 years...

Originally posted by Charles Deenen
no expiration date. He said their records indicated it was time to renew. My original receipt says I renewed in jan 2003 for 2 years...

Could just be a simple mix-up. Send them your payment details and ask them to look in to it.

Glenn

yeh, I wouldnt say anything bad yet. Humans make mistake... well at least I do

I was with besthost1.com, a Fidpac/Gunnels operation, for over 3 years. I had billing issues but those were the least of my problems with them.

man thats too bad! :eek:

Just do a search her for FIDPAC, Gunnels, or super.nu her at WHT for more background information.

Somebody who is a member of this forum spammed me and everyone else he could find that had a site hosted this group with the following message:

*********************

Your website is hosted at one of the companies managed by FIDELITY-PACIFIC, owned by STEVE GUNNELS.

Steve Gunnels is a well-known SCAMMER, just do a Google search with "Gunnel scam" for example, or look at this thread :

***********web address to a FIDPAC search in this forum************

There has been HUNDREDS of people SCAMMED by this bastard.

Some complaints have been filled at *****another web address*****, do a search for FIDPAC for example.

Tiday, the Revenge: We have hacked some of his servers (We found your websites by this way, hacking the mySQL section... You have a mySQL base there, right ?!).
We will shutdown the servers of this bastard STEVE GUNNELS, for good, in 2 weeks. That will let the time to YOU, Client, to move to another company.

To find a serious and HONNEST webhosting company, you may read at the boards at *****And another web address*****
There you will also read HUNDREDS of messages from victims of GUNNELS, BESTHOST1, SUPER.NU, FIDELITY PACIFIC, INTELLIHOSTING, ETC ETC ETC.

We lost a LOT of money with these crooks, and believe me, THEY WILL LOSE A LOT NOW !

Remember: 2 weeks.

Regards,

Steve Gunnels (!)
"I am a well-known crook"

******************************

My guess is that if the sender had the ability to do such, they would have already done it.

I am the owner of a number of domains on FIDPAC and have used them for 5 (five) years. Are they perfect? Nope. Are they good? Yup. Are they cheap? Yup. If some adolescent yahoo phuques with my site am I going do anything about it? You bet your sweet ***.

I hope that his hacking abilities are on par with his spelling abilities, in which case there is not much to worry about. However, if he does manage to stumble in and cause me any harm he will be dealt with.

Sincerely,

Russ Williams
World Wide Retro dot com

I suggest you make sure you have a current and valid backup in either case. Never hurts. :)
Glenn

Just wanted to add my own horror story about Steve Gunnels and FIDPAC to this list. A bit more detail can be found on my own website, but this forum won't allow me to post the URL.

Anyway, after being hosted successfully with FIDPAC for some two or three years, I decided to upgrade my hosting to one of their 'lifetime' accounts - one lifetime payment, hosting forever. To sweeten the deal and ensure he got my money, Steve Gunnels even offered to upgrade my upgrade to what he termed an 'SDS6' account, which allows me to fully host six separate domains (no domain stacking).

After transferring my three domains to the new server, they copied them straight over as stacked domains because that's what they were on the old server. Trouble is, my sites use a lot of subdomains. These subdomains worked perfectly on the old server (using .htaccess files, so I could add and delete at my leisure). The new server doesn't allow sub-domains under stacked domains, so instantly, all those websites fell over.

So I told him this and asked him to fix it. FOUR MONTHS LATER I AM STILL WAITING FOR IT TO BE FIXED!!!!

I have emailed him on average three or four times a week over those four months. He either tells me it can't be done, or tells me he will asked his tech if it can be done, or asks me what it is I want done, or completely ignores me!!! Each email I send is CC'd to four or five of his email addresses, as well as to my own (and from now on, to my lawyer). For the last three weeks I haven't even received a read receipt from him, let alone a response.

As far as I'm concerned, this guy is a SCAMMER AND A CON ARTIST. I warn everyone to avoid him like the plague!!!

I hope ya'll don't feel so bad having bought two or three years of hosting from Steve Gunnels, I paid for four. Each year I received a dunn notice that my site would be shut down if I didn't remit payment in very short order. I don't mind billing problems IF they do something to resolve them. The last year he never answered several emails I sent him showing payment being current through the next year. Email is the ONLY way to contact him and if he doesn't answer you are SOL. So I lost about $80 paid for that last year, but more importantly, I lost my email connection and customers thought I had gone out of business. THAT Stinks!!!

Great pricing, good transfers, lousy service, abusive billing, and a big ZERO on response to critical problems.

George

I've got quite a few horror stories to tell about Steve Gunnels and Fidpac too. But here's the latest - it's a doozie. And this all happened to ME. You can read about more of my hassles with him at my website.

This time, they stole money from me. No other way to put it. They stole money from me, and cannot bring themselves to pay it back.

In October, Fidpac withdrew $99 USD from my credit card. They had no right to do so. They did not have the authority to do so. It was illegal. It was theft.

When I complained to them, they told me that it was the standard annual fee for the Shared Dedicated Service (SDS) that I was receiving from them. There are two problems with that. First, my account was only 7 months old at that time, so there was no way any annual payment for anything could have been due. And secondly, the SDS package that I was using was offered to me by them FREE FOR LIFE. Yes, that's right - they had offered me this web hosting deal with a once-only-lifetime payment, and the SDS was part of the package. So I had already paid for it, for life. I would never have to pay them anything ever again.

But still they illegally withdrew $99 USD from my credit card account. And they will not pay it back.

Oh they've offered to, twice, and then failed to do it. Steve Gunnels himself said that he would deposit it back, and didn't. I suggested he send me a cheque, or a $100 bill by mail, and for reasons known only to himself he was unable to do that. He suggested he could wire it directly to my bank if I gave him my bank details. Get real Steve - you just stole $99 USD from my credit card, do you honestly think I'm going to give you my bank account details????

So here it is, three months later, and now Steve Gunnels is refusing to answer my emails again. I get no replies. No response. I complain to the FBI again, and it seems to make no difference to him. The guy is a crook, and a thief.

At all costs - DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH STEVE GUNNELS, FIDPAC, SUPER.NU OR ANY COMPANY ASSOCIATED WITH HIM/THEM.

I've already submitted two complaints to the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Centre. I remain hopeful that the FBI will actually do something about these crooks, as they have promised to do.

According to the domain registration details listed for hostingservicesllc, his contact details are:

Hosting Services, L.L.C.
103 Centre Road
Wilmington, DE 19805
US

And for Fidpac.com, the contact details are:

FIDPAC
15814 Champion Forest Drive
Suite 310
Spring, Texas 77379
US

Gunnels, Steve fidelity@fidpac.com
15814 Champion Forest Drive
Suite 310
Spring, Texas 77379
US
281-315-8850 Fax: 281-754-4750

Odd, isn't it? One of his companies is in Texas, another is in Delaware, and BestHost1 is in Canada!!!! This guy really doesn't want to be found!

STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE CROOKS!

It's funny that this thread came back to life at this time. I --- just today --- got a phone call from Steve Gunnels himself left on my answering machine. He wants to know if I'm going to renew my package. I guess he's talking about the one I took away from him 14 months ago (I had a shared account with 'besthost1.com' - a Gunnel company for several years). I didn't call him back but if anyone wants a toll-free number that might go to 'ole Steve himself let me know and I'll post it here tomorrow when I get to work.

Yes!! Absolutely!! Post the number here, and maybe some of us might be able to get in contact with the ******* that refuses to answer our emails!!

(Probably won't be much good to me, being outside the USA.)

Sorry for the delay, but here it is.

877-231-9303

Note that I didn't return his call so I can't guarantee what or who will answer that number. Good luck!

Originally posted by bodypainter
Sorry for the delay, but here it is.

877-231-9303

Note that I didn't return his call so I can't guarantee what or who will answer that number. Good luck!

The phone number works, but the vmail box is full.

I am probably the most gullible target of Steve Gunnel's scams. Despite the fact that I paid $$$$$ to have "Lifetime Hosting" he still manages to find some method to ding me every 6 to 8 months for $99 to $139.

Even still, Hosting Services LLC seems to have vanished on 07.17.05, along with my database, email accounts, and web site.

Numerous email go unanswered and phone numbers don't work.
How is it this guy can exist, yet no one can contact him?

So do you think he's done a runner? Yes, I note that the HostingServicesLLC.com domains are no longer responding, but they are still registered to him at

Services LLC, Hosting info@corporate.com
103 Centre Road
Wilmington, DE 19805
US
800-877-4334

It expires in September of this year.

I strongly urge you to lodge a complaint at the FBI's Internet Fraud Compaint Centre (I'd give you the URL but this system won't let me post it - ifccfbi with a dot gov on the end!). I've lodged three complaints against him, but I haven't heard of any action as yet.

I note that an old Gunnels company, besthost1, is now registered to a Daniel Levesque. This could be the 'Dan' that was the only person to help me out with a technical problem I was having with Gunnel's hosting package. But I've also heard that Gunnels' son's name is Dan, so I can't be sure.

There is a photo of Gunnels available at gunnels dot org.

I've got one, but I'll make it quick because there seem to be so many. My site was running "smoothly" on Fidpac for several years, when suddenly Steve decides to "upgrade" his servers. Well low and behold my site is completely crippled by his upgrade (which I warned him might have an effect on my site, to no avail). I am left trying to recover the site, while Gunnels is too busy to help out.. I would suspect he caused many problems and I was the least of his worries. Since I moved servers there have been plenty of upgrades and these have done nothing to this site. I truely hope Gunnels and Fidpac go down hard as a result of the horrible reputation he has earned himself.

I'm in a big mess here. As a web developer, I have set up hosting with fidpac.com aka super.nu (and others) - aka Steve Gunnels, for approx 38 individual web sites / clients. These hosting agreements are all long term, most being 4 and 6 years, with 4 lifetime agreements, all paid in advance. I've done business with Steve since 2002 and although he is slow to respond regarding support, sooner or later my assorted problems were solved, and we would continue forward as I continuously brought in new clients. Now I have 2 sites down, several more are 'acting up' and Steve hasn't responded to any of his contact phone numbers or email accounts. In a google search, I find I am not the only one. I did file a report with ifccfbi dot gov, but I doubt anything can be done.

Hi. Figured I'd post here after being screwed out of 2 years for my site by good old Steve.
I linked up with Besthost1 a while ago (back in 2002) and did a package for 6 years. After my site went down I tried going to Besthost1 to see what was up and was provided with a message from Dan Levesque concerning the whole thing.
It says besthost1 was just refering data to the Steve's network and evidently some **** happened.

Needless to say I'm kind of pissed (as I lost some data due to this).

Well, I went ahead and emailed Dan asking politely what happened (Dan was the only person who ever helped me out on issues with my site in the past) and actualy got a reply back from him.

He then gave me a call and we talked on the phone for a good while (Mostly I listened as he talked about how much of an as steve was.)

Dan has evidently set up a new site himself as well, serverconnectix. Given his helpfull track record I'm considering signing up with him... however I'm a little hesitant for the following reasons:

1. serverconnectix looks a bit much like the old site. Dan mentioned this himself and said he used a templete from the old site.
2. I had talked with Steve on the phone in the past (when he tried to sell me an upgrade to my domain and refused to send me it in writting) and while I don't completely recall how he sounded, I had a kind of reconization between the two voices..they also both are fast talkers. This might however just be me being overly suspicous at anyone who calls me up. and the whole situation itself. (Dan does have a canidan accent, and when I asked him if he was located in Arizonia he said no, he was located in Canada.. which is where I'd expect him to be.)
3. Dan's new site's whois info is registered through a proxy. I'm hesitant about that kind of thing.

I'd like to give him a shot, because he really has helped me out in the past, and I think he'd do a good job, but it's still a little fishy.

Either way, I'm not going to make any descision right away. I'll definitatly do some more research and look into the whole thing.. but I did want to let others know about it.

WOW This guy sounds worse than good ol Scott Buyers of Cybrex/CT Global back in 99:(

Sorry to all I know it really makes it hard...

Hi dtmx and thanks for the additional info.

Yeah, it was probably this Dan Levesque that helped me out too, though I never learned his last name. I heard on another forum that Steve Gunnels' son's name was also Dan, so that made me suspicious. But this Dan was very helpful and managed to get my SDS account up and running - which was more than Steve Gunnels managed to do for about three months.

I note that the registrar Levesque is using for serverconnectix is the same one used for besthost1. Which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I know besthost1 as a former Gunnels company, even though it appears Levesque was running it most recently for some time.

The sad thing for me is - although Gunnels couldn't offer me tech support if it saved his life, and although he illegally withdrew money from my credit card and refused to pay it back, and although he keeps spamming me with irrelevent emails and offers to 'upgrade' my account - my websites have actually been running smoothly and with little interruption for quite a while now. These tales of sites on hostingservicesllc servers closing down, however, is really making me nervous!!

Originally posted by delahoc
... although he illegally withdrew money from my credit card and refused to pay it back...

Delahoc - Contact your credit card provider and initiate a chargeback against them. The credit provider will almost certainly charge the merchant back for the $99 and issue you a refund - they operate on a "beleive the customer first" basis, unless the merchant can prove the charge.

If enough people issue charge backs, merchants can get their merchant status revoked. The credit card companies will only realize there's a problem if people complain!

I am right along with all of you who were scammed by Steve. Both myself and my son bought into the lifetime hosting accounts. We we recently moved to the new Xeon servers. I have found Steve to be plain stupid in case of moves and other tech things. Dan was always the one to pull our account out of problems. He was the one who answered questions and all, Dan is a scape goat in all of this. He was only a affiliate of Steves along with a close personal friend of mine who was a Affliate also. They have both lost tons of money too through all of this mess along with 1000's of us. I am sure my son and I have lost a couple thousand of dollars. I had a 13 gig acct and my son had a 6 gig. Both lifetime and my sons latest upgrade was less than 2 months ago when he was moved to the newest servers. Dan was no more than another one of us being used by Steve, Steve has no tech experience so he USED Dan to do that work for him. Dan and my friend have received no commisions from Steve in ages.

Dan was most likely the biggest affialite site referring hundreds of folks through the years and Gunnels only paid a commission most of which were never reported and that Dan never billed people because thats not what an affiliate does. ONly provide front line support and act as a go a between Dan never even did billings! only got commissions (When they were paid) and his other skills were abused and Steve mounted his own campaign to solicit clients on his own.
My affialite that I dealt with fought on my behalf as Gunnels always circumvented going through the proper affiliate to solicit funds... Dan is in the same position as my friend and affialite who I have known for years and are good friends
ALL affialies have been gouged and abused by Gunnels.
Dan has been there to help people at all costs but he cant go broke doing it. He has responsibilities to his family , like we all do, which is why he started another hosting business but where he leases the boxes and control whats going on.. NO Steve Gunnels in the picture. Yes, I am moving my account to be with Dan as is my friend who was a affialite with Steve. My son is moving there also. This is indeed a very sad situation for all of us. I had been with Steve for over 6 yrs now. My son not quite as long. I have no qualms about moving our accounts with Dan, he was there for use the whole time we were with Steve and did all the tech work I ever needed. I know he will be that same upright person now and in the future.
I feel for all of us, including Dan and my friend. We have all been taken in by the devil himself. We trusted him, as most of us would do. We got the old screw while Steve is out on a cruise. Nice huh? I just wish and hope there is something we can all do to get this man back. I don't know yet but I am sure going to contact my attorney.
Originally posted by dtmx
Hi. Figured I'd post here after being screwed out of 2 years for my site by good old Steve.
I linked up with Besthost1 a while ago (back in 2002) and did a package for 6 years. After my site went down I tried going to Besthost1 to see what was up and was provided with a message from Dan Levesque concerning the whole thing.
It says besthost1 was just refering data to the Steve's network and evidently some **** happened.

Needless to say I'm kind of pissed (as I lost some data due to this).

Well, I went ahead and emailed Dan asking politely what happened (Dan was the only person who ever helped me out on issues with my site in the past) and actualy got a reply back from him.

He then gave me a call and we talked on the phone for a good while (Mostly I listened as he talked about how much of an as steve was.)

Dan has evidently set up a new site himself as well, serverconnectix. Given his helpfull track record I'm considering signing up with him... however I'm a little hesitant for the following reasons:

1. serverconnectix looks a bit much like the old site. Dan mentioned this himself and said he used a templete from the old site.
2. I had talked with Steve on the phone in the past (when he tried to sell me an upgrade to my domain and refused to send me it in writting) and while I don't completely recall how he sounded, I had a kind of reconization between the two voices..they also both are fast talkers. This might however just be me being overly suspicous at anyone who calls me up. and the whole situation itself. (Dan does have a canidan accent, and when I asked him if he was located in Arizonia he said no, he was located in Canada.. which is where I'd expect him to be.)
3. Dan's new site's whois info is registered through a proxy. I'm hesitant about that kind of thing.

I'd like to give him a shot, because he really has helped me out in the past, and I think he'd do a good job, but it's still a little fishy.

Either way, I'm not going to make any descision right away. I'll definitatly do some more research and look into the whole thing.. but I did want to let others know about it.

Alright, well obviously like the rest of you i got screwed out of a few years of hosting with besthost1/gunnels.. here is my main concern now ... getting back my domain name (acgfa.com). It came with my account a few years ago when i signed up with besthost1.com. How can i get control of my domain name so i can redirect it to my new server? Is it all lost? Help!! acgfa.com
- Mike

If your domain is registered with you as the registrant, you should have no problems transferring it or getting the password back.

If you want to check that, go to www.dnsstuff.com and put your domain name into the "whois" field and submit. In the case of acgfa.com it looks like your email appears as the registrant, so you're the owner, congratulations!

I have just talked with Dan and I asked him and he said ::
" I advise this * to people. "I'm not taking time to post because it would take valuable time that I am taking to help my clients that are asking my assistance and besides I've always avoided forums as most the time they turn out to be havens for mouthing matches and are non productive. It only takes one person to start a fight and its out of control and posted for life it seems. I've suffered enough damage through the years!" (This was stated to me by Dan) I hope the following will help all that need it. Steve had been "taking care" of one of my names also and I need to have that one. I am in the process of getting that taken care of now...Good Luck - All!!




* Get an account at godaddy and initiate a transfer if the email listed his his for the registrant and admin

then await the email from tocows which is usually tagged from the fipapac domain which is steve's address its automated there will be a url to go to at tucows to authorize the release enter the code and wait 5 days then administrate the name from godaddy change dns till your hearts content

transfer the domain records out to a new registry like godaddy IF you have access to the email address and you are the administrative contact for the domain. Check the whois.


* Another way is to find another tucows reseller and get an account with them and be sure they provide 100% access to manage the domain right away like 123cheapdomains.com Then you can transfer the domain from one iopenSRS reseller to another and technically its NOT a transfer and doesn't need authorization because its NOT leaving the openSRS registry you can then manage the name! Its simply flying from one openSRS reseller to another... I know that 123cheapdomains.com is another openSRS reseller and they do allow 100% user control of domains because they have and use the openSRS API plugins







Originally posted by thepunkerguy
Alright, well obviously like the rest of you i got screwed out of a few years of hosting with besthost1/gunnels.. here is my main concern now ... getting back my domain name (acgfa.com). It came with my account a few years ago when i signed up with besthost1.com. How can i get control of my domain name so i can redirect it to my new server? Is it all lost? Help!! acgfa.com
- Mike

I have contacted Dan about the domain name issue and this is what Dan said to me...

Quote from my e-mail:

"You can share this text in any forum you visit. Perhaps it will help some folks.
I'm sorry for not traversing the web in response to forum posts, but the nature of forums seem to breed hostility and I certainly don't want to engage in any debate and having to defend myself.
I'm also a victim be it at different level than most. It's harder for me because I believe I may have been the most powerful
affiliate he had left and perhaps considered me a threat when I refused to work and be an affiliate anymore. Especially after him finding out I had another company started and was no longer referring people to him, thus he ran when I blew the scene I believe! I myself am picking up the pieces of what has happened to me. I'm also trying to assist as many
clients as possible by offering my advise and expertise in any way I can.
What's important to me is to rebuild my only means and source of employment which was working on the web to try and make an honest living before I lose everything including my only source
of income.

I too have a family and obligations to look after..

I am advising to those that have domains registered through Steve's reseller account at tucows to avoid the complaint process as that can take way too much time. If you must, then you should contact compliance@opensrs.org and indicate your domain and that the domain service provider is not responding to requests to manage the name.

Try these two options.

1. If you have a domain at another registry, try initiating a transfer of domain to that registry after which you can modify your host dns to match another hosts domain name
servers.
I suggest godaddy for this. They will send you an email to confirm that you initiated the transfer
then you will verify that with them, then they send the release request to
the openSRS
after which it seems Steve's automated Fidpac email input into his registry
records
will kick you an email to the administrative email address which you can
then
proceed to a url and enter the release code and allow it to be released.
Then it takes up to 5
days for the name records to be released to the accepting registry.

2. Another way is which the way I did to rescue MY name at one time from him
was to find another tucows reseller like 123cheapdomains.com and get a
domain with them.
Once there initiate a transfer of your domain you want away from Steve. It
simply goes from one reseller
of the openSRS to another. Thus its not really a release to another registry
and does NOT require
a confirmation. Then you can edit the info once its at the other tucows
reseller. 123cheapdomains.com
allows immediate access to manage your domains as they use an API script
which is miles ahead of Steve.


I wish everyone good luck and if they need a dedicated and honest person to host them contact me!

Lets bring hosting back to a respectable level."

I posted earlier that - while the hostingservicesllc sites all appeared to be down - my sites, hosted through super.nu all still appeared to be up and running.

Well, not any more. This morning I woke to find none of them responding. Even the super.nu homepage is now dead. My three domains (and all my precious email, sql databases, cgi scripts, etc!!) are dead. That also means many of my clients, relying on cgi scripts hosted on my site, are also suffering.

If anyone can find Gunnels, please let me know so I can help string him up by his balls. Perhaps a hacker or two might want to check out gunnels dot org, too ....

You may also note that Dan Levesque has now put up a rather lengthy (and not terribly well-written) diatribe about his own problems with Gunnels on the old besthost1 site. I apologise to him if the information I posted in this forum in the past was incorrect. I hope he turns out to be better than Gunnels, and if he is indeed no longer associated with him, that he is able to overcome the problems that he has had.

I am so sorry for what happened to you and your sites. We were lucky enough to go with Dan and got our sites all up and running before the plug was pulled on all of our 13 gigs of space. Sure, we are sick over the money we have paid to Steve. My son just paid him almost 300 in the past 45 days on top of what he had paid for lifetime hosting. He is filing papers with his credit card for fraud. They are in the mail now. We have been taken for over 2500 between my hubby,myself and my son. We had everything all backed up on the computers, thank goodness and we had things up and running with Dan in one day.

Seems like another one of these threads pops up every week....

This is why when I buy my hosting I only get it from Reputable companies that have established themselves.

I always feel bad for the people who have to go through this...at least this time you have someone like Dan to help you through it.

Research is essential!

And THANK GOODNESS Dan is there!!! I had always trusted his word. When he said something would be done IT WAS! Steve knew nada on tech support and was always turning to Dan, who was his affliate, NOT PARTNER! I had been with Steve for about 6 yrs. I had been wrong in thinking Dan was a partner as I believe that is what Steve wanted all to think. It was made very clear to me Dan WAS an affliate only but did help with tech support as he cares about people and wanted to make sure their problems were taken care of in the right way. Because Dan is a caring person his name was dragged up along with Steve, Wrongfully. I have taken my business to Dan's company as I was always happy with the way Dan handled problems. I was kinda "stuck" with Steve, as was my son with buying into the lifetime hosting SDS programs. When you lay out that much and you "think" you are all set you might take a bit more crap, sorry to say. Steve and I had many go-arounds. believe me. I think this guy is only able to unstand one sentence at a time, at least that is what seemed to happen when e-mailing him. Maybe he was trying to buy time with his stupid statements. I am so sorry for those of you that have lost sites and images and all off your sites with Steve.

I have to also step in here and state that I have known Dan for over 6 years now. He is a stand up guy and a man of his word. I have no hesitation in vouching for Dan, as a man of integrity and honesty. Any time I had a problem it was always Dan to the rescue, day or night! He has helped me tremendously in building my business and more or less guiding me all along the way.

Everyone is under the impression (due to Steve) that Dan and Steve were partners, they we NOT partners.

Dan is another victim of Steve's, probably facing worse consequences from Steve then any of us losing our sites. Dan did nothing more then be an affiliate.

I have already taken my business of to Dan's new company and have no worries at all that I will continue to receive the personal and wonderful customer support that Dan has given me all along.

I just hope everyone can understand that Dan can't really post what he knows about Steve and his business practices due to privacy laws. I'm sure he is working with authorities where required. I am sure other affliates will be doing the same.

Jeez, this is depressing. I've been with Steve for probably 6 or 7 years. He finally convinces me to get the lifetime deal, and now he's disappeared? And I'm pretty much out $400...i feel sick.

If there is ever a class action suit against this guy, count me in.

(I should have came here before I signed the last deal...where's my gun?)

I feel bad about your loss, but imagine being out over 2500.00 between my son and I. If you had upgraded in the past couple months you should be able to file a dispute against him with your credit card. My son just paid out 300.00 to upgrade and move to the newest box in June and he called his credit card and they sent him the papers to sign with the reasons why. We had both been on lifetime SDS for quite a while then we get this e-mail that we "had" to upgrade to the new Xeon boxes as the older ones would be retired soon. Boy, he was calling here and e-mailing daily till he reached my son. I am sure when he was doing his email floods he knew he was in trouble and going under therefore what he did to a lot is fraud. I hope there is a class action suit too and I will be there along with me son because people like him shouldn't be allowed to take in folks who trust them and then chit all over them by "stealing". All of you out there who have had dealings with Mr Gunnels should check all of your credit card statements for "duplicate" charges and charges you didn't allow. I have heard that Steve "thinks " people don't check their statements and they never know there are duplicate and unknown of charges on their accounts. I tried to email Steve just to see if the mail was bounced back and it WAS NOT but his sites are down now. I do have one thing here I want to say about Dan. The other night I had a site problem,( I thought, ),,,, I called roadrunner and got no where with them, they go "call Microsoft" I can tell you right here that Dan and another ex-affliate of Steves helped me for hours here. Back and forth on Yahoo messenger. Yes, I have moved my sites over with Dan because he is a great upstanding man and he was the one that always was fixing up Steves messes. How many will take that kind of time that Dan and ****** took.? Dan ran check after check for me and everything was running perfect. It turned out the next morning the site was up and running fine. I know a lot of the so called tech support with the ISP's are no more savey than some of us are. I could go on and on over the ire I feel for this crook, shiester and you name it!!!! I bet he will move out of the state of Texas and try to hide out. Oh, well. he will get his in the end somehow - some time.






[Originally posted by loadedcarp [/i]
Jeez, this is depressing. I've been with Steve for probably 6 or 7 years. He finally convinces me to get the lifetime deal, and now he's disappeared? And I'm pretty much out $400...i feel sick.

If there is ever a class action suit against this guy, count me in.

(I should have came here before I signed the last deal...where's my gun?) [/QUOTE]

Originally posted by Kacee
I feel bad about your loss, but imagine being out over 2500.00 between my son and I. If you had upgraded in the past couple months you should be able to file a dispute against him with your credit card.

Yeah, I was hit by the "Upgrade NOW or lose your site" email flood. I initially ignored it because I had just renewed last summer for 2 years, and he turned my site off. I was basically held hostage and then he suckered me into the lifetime deal by offering more space, bandwidth, and alot of other stuff. I thought, "heck, let's just get this out of the way and I won't have to pay anymore."

Bad move.

I'm going to try and get the CC company to help out, but this was back in January. Is there a time limit or anything for getting a chargeback?

Thanks

[editted] nevermind. I'm not going to be one of 'those' people...

I'm out a whopping $11,700. As a web developer, I used Gunnels for all of my hosting needs for all of my web clients, selling them 4 year plans for $300 per client. When my sites started going down, I emailed and left messages on Gunnels phone boxes and it's been 3 weeks now and no responses. I scrambled and found new hosting (yes I did all the background research on the new hosting company) something I should have done with Gunnels, but didn't. I have moved all of my clients off super-hosts and on to the new servers. I have filed formal complaints with the iffcfbi, the FTC, and the FBI office in Houston, TX and at Albany, NY. I have also retained a lawyer who lives within 20 minutes driving time of Mr. Gunnels residence. I am also working with Dan, Steve's former tech, and building one hell of a case against Gunnels. When all is said and done, Gunnels won't see the light of day for a long time. Texas has the homestead act so the courts won't take his property in the event he files for bankruptcy (which at the time of this writing he has not) and he incorporated in Delaware, which is very lenient on corps, especially internet related, but I won't quit until Gunnels is behind bars, regardless of what else this may cost me. This time Gunnels picked the wrong guy to screw.

Originally posted by loadedcarp
Yeah, I was hit by the "Upgrade NOW or lose your site" email flood. I initially ignored it because I had just renewed last summer for 2 years, and he turned my site off.

Yeah, I got those emails too. But as soon as I did, I sent him a very nasty email telling him that I had paid for LIFE, that he would not turn my site off, and that I would NOT pay any more. He emailed back saying I had received the email in error!!!

Of course, I subsequently received another few dozen identical emails. I told him to stop SPAMMING me, and eventually they dried up. I thought that was the end of it. Now I know better!

I'm not as out of pocket as everyone else, but if there is a class action, let me know - I'll gladly throw my hat in that ring!

Originally posted by tjbailey

I have filed formal complaints with the iffcfbi, the FTC, and the FBI office in Houston, TX and at Albany, NY. I have also retained a lawyer who lives within 20 minutes driving time of Mr. Gunnels residence. I am also working with Dan, Steve's former tech, and building one hell of a case against Gunnels. When all is said and done, Gunnels won't see the light of day for a long time. Texas has the homestead act so the courts won't take his property in the event he files for bankruptcy (which at the time of this writing he has not) and he incorporated in Delaware, which is very lenient on corps, especially internet related, but I won't quit until Gunnels is behind bars, regardless of what else this may cost me. This time Gunnels picked the wrong guy to screw.

Good luck with it all. I filed three complaints with the FBI, but have heard nothing back, and their latest report lists no action on this matter. So I'm not holding out much hope there.

I'm not all that fussed if he doesn't lose his house - I'm not so keen on the idea of punishing the kids for the sins of the father - but I do hope Steve himself spends many long and lonely years locked away in a dark cell somewhere, perhaps with another lonely male prisoner eyeing him lustily!! :-)

Good luck with it all. Please keep us all posted, and if you need any extra ammunition for your case, I'd be happy to help out with my details.

How funny!!!!! He was sending me emails about upgreading to lifetime, when I had already my own IP and SDS for lifetime. Then he started this junk of a 99.00 per year fee for all lifetime customers. haha.... and again I was told it was in error too. I asked him if he needed someone to keep records for him as he was always going..,.....hmmm,. Kathy, what box are you on? What is your domain name? Now, come on shouldn't he have all those records. I am an accountant by trade sohe didn't pull that over my head. I hope Mr Gunnels is reading all of these posts and seeing how we all feel and will be standing in a line to sue his pants off of that money he has "hid" away somewhere. (just a guess here but I am guessing a pretty strong one here)




Originally posted by delahoc
Yeah, I got those emails too. But as soon as I did, I sent him a very nasty email telling him that I had paid for LIFE, that he would not turn my site off, and that I would NOT pay any more. He emailed back saying I had received the email in error!!!

Of course, I subsequently received another few dozen identical emails. I told him to stop SPAMMING me, and eventually they dried up. I thought that was the end of it. Now I know better!

I'm not as out of pocket as everyone else, but if there is a class action, let me know - I'll gladly throw my hat in that ring!

my site is still active on a server hosted by this guy steve gunnels what can i do?? i am talking to an irish company about transferring all my sites to them but will this be possible seeing that bas***d is gone on the missing list, please please please get back to me asap!

very worried irish lad!

Sure hun, you can move to any place your heart desires. I would do it ASAP too. My one site is still active on his server also - this is the one he paid for the domain name registration so I am leaving it there on purpose to see when that server does go down and off line totally. I hope you have everything you have up on his servers backed up. I would get another host as soon as you can and get the thing up and running. Don't sit there and be like some of the people he has takin in and be totally lost and in a huge mess.

Originally posted by gaywaterford
my site is still active on a server hosted by this guy steve gunnels what can i do?? i am talking to an irish company about transferring all my sites to them but will this be possible seeing that bas***d is gone on the missing list, please please please get back to me asap!

very worried irish lad!

ya talkin with a company now, only problem is the domain name is registered with an old e-mail address of mine that i no longer have access to any suggestions??

Contact the company the name is registered with and explain it to them. As long as you remember the e mail that you did use and note to them that you have had a change in e mails I am sure you can get the name moved over and the DNS pointed. I would bet they have this happen a lot, if you change ISP and all a lot of times you lose that old email and go with a new one. Let me know how it goes for you...

will do! thanks

Apparently Steve Gunnels got me to. I had a website on his servers that just went down yesterday. Fortunately I had just "upgraded" to the "better server" 90 days ago and my bank reversed the $200 charge last night.

If for some reason he claims he is legit, he can arrange to send me back a copy of my database.

I was hosted at besthost1 but apparently they were affected as well. I'm still not convinced that this Daniel character is innocent.

Does anyone by any chance have Steve's home phone number? I did find out where his wife Claire B works in Houston. I'm going to be calling her boss tomorrow to investigate further. I would have done it today but I had to find a new hosting service. I'm going with Site5. I'll let you know how that works out. Their online support forum seems to be pretty responsive and active. That's a good thing.

Originally posted by rhaasch
I was hosted at besthost1 but apparently they were affected as well. I'm still not convinced that this Daniel character is innocent.

Does anyone by any chance have Steve's home phone number? I did find out where his wife Claire B works in Houston. I'm going to be calling her boss tomorrow to investigate further. I would have done it today but I had to find a new hosting service. I'm going with Site5. I'll let you know how that works out. Their online support forum seems to be pretty responsive and active. That's a good thing.

I'm prepared to give Dan the benefit of the doubt at the moment. So far my transfer has gone well, though my sites were off air for a day recently, and Dan can't adequately explain why. Still, at least I've got them back up.

Let us know how the pursuit of Gunnels goes. It's very difficult for those of us on the other side of the world.

Its probably going to take a while. But then I have plenty of time.

As for Dan, there is no excuse as to why he didn't let me know about this sooner. I've been hosted there without incident since 1997 or 98. In other words a very long time. Sure their site was cheesy and it always has been but for someone like me who doesn't always need my hand held, its been pretty good. He's lucky he is in Canada.

The possibility of legal action or some sort of collections agency involvement isn't out of the question since the primary site was run by our corporation.

I just need to find out what the options are.

Me site with Steve is still up. I am shocked to say the least it is on
Name Server:NS50.SUPER-HOSTS.COM
Name Server:NS51.SUPER-HOSTS.COM
Is anyone else on that box?
I am leaving it there for legal reasons as I want to have a correct date as to when the plug is pulled. Then I call the attorney. I have screen shots of his site that we took on the 23rd of July, when he was still offering "his daily specials" haha we all know he wasn't selling anything on that date.

My father is on that box (shaasch . com) and he is still running. I called him this morning and told him he better get a backup soon.

Steve's personal site (gunnels . org), super . nu, and fidpac . com are all down as of now so I doubt it will be much longer.

besthost1 do seem to be involved with steve! from what i have read on the net.. i'm still tryin to sort out my situation! is steve being investigated by any governing body? he seems to have just vanished this time which would suggest somebody is after hiim

Originally posted by Kacee
Me site with Steve is still up. I am shocked to say the least it is on
Name Server:NS50.SUPER-HOSTS.COM
Name Server:NS51.SUPER-HOSTS.COM
Is anyone else on that box?
I am leaving it there for legal reasons as I want to have a correct date as to when the plug is pulled. Then I call the attorney. I have screen shots of his site that we took on the 23rd of July, when he was still offering "his daily specials" haha we all know he wasn't selling anything on that date.

i'm on that box, can u send me those screen shots? killian@gaywaterford.com i would really appreciate it

As soon as my husband gets home from work as they are on his computer and not sure where he saved them or the name he gave them... He gets home about 3:15 PM est. We sure will share them. Is your site still up and running? I moved alll my other sites off that box and over to Dan's. And I must say was very smooth and up and running way faster than any service I had with Steve.

I was told that Dan is not honoring the previous hosting agreement and was charging a lot more to host on his server. For that reason alone I wouldn't trust him.

Well, well. We had been hosting indirectly with Steve Gunnels since 1997 via Century-Host until it broke down. Then through a series of emails we managed to get our sites all moved to Super.nu. We have a very large number of websites (until yesterday), and finally got an SDS5 server package from Steve. We had invested enormous sums building and refining our professional website line, but as of yesterday they all disappeared.

Well, actually we had our sites "mirrored" to the new server, but when we changed the DNS servers to ns52.super-hosts.com & ns53.super-hosts.com, lo and behold it was not our website that we had received, but instead another user's, and I could go in and look through all his private files via FTP in search of our own... but ours were all gone... totally gone. Databases and all.

Since Yesterday we can no longer connect to our Control panel nor any other website related to Steve.

Now I think Mr. Gunnels has really screwed with the wrong folks this time, and I would like to join together with others to ensure that he lands in jail for this.

Normally I would advise against trusting Steve Gunnels with anything whatever... but that would be superfluous now, as he no longer has any websites left still in operation.

Anyhow, anyone who wants to join forces to shaft Steve Gunnels right up the butt, please make yourself known here and we'll try to find a way to connect.

Christoff

Wow. I was blown away when I did a web search on fidpac and came up with this forum. I had been growing concerned when I got no response from Steve after repeated emails, and when I tried going to any of the fidpac sites they were down. I had a bandwidth issue last month and wanted to increase it. I've been hosted with fidpac since 2000 and while I've had some heartburn with unexpected payouts necessary for this or that, more or less my sites have run without interruption. Now I wonder if that wasn't due entirely to this Dan person.

As of this morning my sites are still running. I'm on ns50 and 51. Thank God I retained full control of my domain names so I can move them wherever and whenever.

I've looked at serverconnectix or whatever it is, but the fees are beyond me. :( I also looked at thehostrack.com. Their fees look incredibly good. But now I am "once bitten, twice shy". Who has anyone gone with (other than Dan)?

I run a hobby site with several hosted sites (all in the same hobby) and generate little income, so I can't afford much. That's why I popped for the $800 lifetime in the beginning.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

greetings & salutations-
count me amongst those hoodwinked and bamboozled by Steve Gunnels and Family. Two days ago discovered myself unable to FTP to server hosted by HostingServices LLC aka super.nu AKA innumerable aliases; similiar results re repeated requests for information from S.G., as in NO REPLY WHATSOEVER. Concern had me seeking out sites super.nu, fidpac, etc, and discovered them all MIA. so after googling for others in similiar spot, I find myself here. Repeated calls to 281-315-8850 are usually unanswered, but twice this morning a woman answered, and there was a mighty long hesitation when I asked to speak to Steve Gunnels, then another when I asked for Claire. She informed me that I had reached a residential address and when I asked if she would tell me her name, the name of the resident there she simply hung up. Minutes later I received similiarly short shrift. I would like nothing better than opportunity to speak with someone and receive some explanation why this is happening, but then again, wish in one hand and **** in another and you can imagine which one will get filled faster, eh Binky?
okay, so I am currently in texass (NOT a mispelling) and seriously considering a trip to houston to locate this ******* firsthand. I have had several moments of frustration with Gunnels and his company, but until recently was able to count on getting an answer via email and having the problem I was experiencing taken care of, but whether it was actually managed by him or by some other person allied with Gunnels, et al, well, that is difficult to ascertain. At any rate, I am also going to utilize the usual (and, admittedly, sort of half-assed options) to lodge/file some notice of complaint against the criminal known as Steve Gunnels.
You might want to visit the Texas Att'y General's webpage:

there are already a number of complaints on file at the Houston Texas Better Business Bureau, lodged against Fidpac and (1 only) Fidpac.com (perhaps the powers that be at H.T.BBB should simply consolidate those two categories) and their site is here:

it will be no surprise to those visiting that site that Gunnels & Companies were NOT members of the better business bureau.
Anyone out there who is genuinely interested in following thru with some seeking out of recompense (or at the very least, some sort of reparation, even if it comes cloaked as revenge), feel free to drop me a line and share your tale of woe.

PS- am informed after attempting to post this that one is not allowed to post urls until after FIVE posts. Oh, please, let's eliminate that silly rule, okay? google dumbmonkey (as one word please) and you can locate those urls unless you got the gumption to go out and find them yourowndarnself...

Originally posted by Christoff555
Well, well. We had been hosting indirectly with Steve Gunnels since 1997 via Century-Host until it broke down. Then through a series of emails we managed to get our sites all moved to Super.nu. We have a very large number of websites (until yesterday), and finally got an SDS5 server package from Steve. We had invested enormous sums building and refining our professional website line, but as of yesterday they all disappeared.

Well, actually we had our sites "mirrored" to the new server, but when we changed the DNS servers to ns52.super-hosts.com & ns53.super-hosts.com, lo and behold it was not our website that we had received, but instead another user's, and I could go in and look through all his private files via FTP in search of our own... but ours were all gone... totally gone. Databases and all.

Since Yesterday we can no longer connect to our Control panel nor any other website related to Steve.

Now I think Mr. Gunnels has really screwed with the wrong folks this time, and I would like to join together with others to ensure that he lands in jail for this.

Normally I would advise against trusting Steve Gunnels with anything whatever... but that would be superfluous now, as he no longer has any websites left still in operation.

Anyhow, anyone who wants to join forces to shaft Steve Gunnels right up the butt, please make yourself known here and we'll try to find a way to connect.

Christoff


i'm interested!

Originally posted by Kacee
As soon as my husband gets home from work as they are on his computer and not sure where he saved them or the name he gave them... He gets home about 3:15 PM est. We sure will share them. Is your site still up and running? I moved alll my other sites off that box and over to Dan's. And I must say was very smooth and up and running way faster than any service I had with Steve.

thanks

tell me guys any suggestions for good web hosts that offer a great package, and are legitimate!?!?!

I'm looking at hosting-comparison dot com which has reviews of top hosting sites. I'm considering midphase or site5 and leaning heavily toward site5

Originally posted by gaywaterford
tell me guys any suggestions for good web hosts that offer a great package, and are legitimate!?!?!

I just signed up at Site5.

I'm not going to speak for their service until I've been there a while but so far so good. Seems to be working so far. I signed up for the Multihost site that is 12GB, unlimited domains, and $19.95 a month. Their reseller accounts cost a little more than that. I'm going to pay quarterly for a while even though its a couple bucks a month extra. Quarterly is short enough to get my bank to get my money back if necessary.

will look at them!

Why would you think Dan should honor Steve's committments? Dan and Stever WERE NEVER partners. Dan was only an affilate of Steve's and did help out on tech support. Dan has been taken like the rest of us only in a lot larger fashion than any of us have. Dan and Steve were seperate eninties....... I have gone with Dan and do not reqret the decision at all.





Originally posted by rhaasch
I was told that Dan is not honoring the previous hosting agreement and was charging a lot more to host on his server. For that reason alone I wouldn't trust him.

You can count me and my son both in . Steve deserves what ever he gets... my son was forced in the past 60 days to upgrade or his site would be gone, files and everything gone.. so he had no choice. He is filing papers with his credit union as he used his debit card to pay Steve. I hope he can get that last 300.00 he paid back. lets get alist going and see what can be done.



Originally posted by gaywaterford
i'm interested!

Originally posted by Kacee
Why would you think Dan should honor Steve's committments? Dan and Stever WERE NEVER partners. Dan was only an affilate of Steve's and did help out on tech support. Dan has been taken like the rest of us only in a lot larger fashion than any of us have.

I've never spoken with Steve or Dan, but purely as an outside observer I must comment that the story around "Dan" smells fishy, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not taking him at his word. The concept is guilt by association. If Dan knew this Steve character wasn't on the level, why did he represent himself as 'tech support'? That isn't meant as an accusation, I'm just saying you can't blame people for not having the blind faith in Dan being exhibited here by some.

Also, innocent until proven guilty applies here too.

Burned once, shame on you. Burned twice, shame on me.

Dan technically still owes me about two years of free hosting, reseller or not. If he can't provide it for free then that makes him the one that legally broke the contract. He's not getting any more of my money regardless of how innocent he may be. He's going to be lucky if he doesn't get included in all this as well.

I'm done caring. The least he could have done was notify me ahead of time. Its not like I am hard to find considering I had half a dozen sites on his server and have been with besthost1 for a long time now.

BTW, the phone number for the Houston Police Dept is 713-884-3131. I highly recommend you file a criminal fraud complaint with them.

Originally posted by Kacee
Also, innocent until proven guilty applies here too.

Not with my hard earned cash

can i file a claim against steve seeing i live outside the usa? i'm in ireland

Ok, does this address ring a bell?

Super-hosts.com
13815 Barons Bridge
Houston, TX 77069

I checked google maps and it looks residential.

I'm doing free public records searches at SearchSystems.Net

This came from the Harris County Assumed Names search where the owner name was Gunnels.

Yep...got him. He owns that property. It even has a homestead exemption.

http://www.tax.co.harris.tx.us/propertytax/current/2004Statement.asp?Account=1086580000004

edit: And I just found their Voter Registration's attached to that address.

His full name is Stephen Hughs Gunnels.

wow... 6 month before?

Count me In please

I have hosted with super.nu since 2001, I liked the hands off freedom I had, never really needed tech support I solved all my own problems.

On 8/1 at 6pm EST my server disapeared. All phone numbers I had for super.nu were no good all mail to super.nu, fidpac.com, superhosts.com all bounced back they are all gone.

I count myself lucky. I paid about 1500 over 4 years for the hosting and upgrades and domain registration.

i found made2own as a good host so far. many of the same features of super.nu and much more. (same control panel and all). It took them 3 min to get my server up.

my only problem now is getting the domain moved over. Tucows is takeing their sweet time giving me a username and password to move it over (24-48 hours to get a response :angry: )

I would recommend putting in the complaint with the FBI internet fraud as well. This man screwed 100's if not 1000's of people.

I also recommend calling your credit card company. They may offer partial credit to you seeing their was a "contract". Also if the credit card companies get enough credit requests against 1 company they bring out the lawyers and go after them to recover money.

Any plans anyone has to go after this bastard please let me know.

Jay
Former webmaster of thelunatick.com and hopefully future as well.

Originally posted by Kacee
You can count me and my son both in . Steve deserves what ever he gets... my son was forced in the past 60 days to upgrade or his site would be gone, files and everything gone.. so he had no choice. He is filing papers with his credit union as he used his debit card to pay Steve. I hope he can get that last 300.00 he paid back. lets get alist going and see what can be done.

That seemed to be steves last grab at cash. I did the same in feb. I should have realized something was up when I wasn't getting the "upgrade now" Important notice crap from him anymore

:angry: Class Action?? - Count me in.

I had just set up a site for my brother on one of Steve's alleged "new" servers. Everything was going good until 8/1. HTTP, FTP, mail, and database all gone with zero notice.

I want a piece of this guy

Looks like Steve is winning friends and influencing people by the minute...

Originally posted by Christoff555
Now I think Mr. Gunnels has really screwed with the wrong folks this time, and I would like to join together with others to ensure that he lands in jail for this.

Anyhow, anyone who wants to join forces to shaft Steve Gunnels right up the butt, please make yourself known here and we'll try to find a way to connect.


As I've said before, I'm very happy to be a party to any class action, and will happily add my info to the case, but as I live in Australia and am an Australian citizen, I am not sure what legal status I might have in any US action.

Originally posted by berkeleyJP

okay, so I am currently in texass (NOT a mispelling) and seriously considering a trip to houston to locate this ******* firsthand.

Anyone out there who is genuinely interested in following thru with some seeking out of recompense (or at the very least, some sort of reparation, even if it comes cloaked as revenge), feel free to drop me a line and share your tale of woe.



Again - I am happy to lend my name to any action, though note that, being from Australia, any assistance from me will probably have to be electronic only, and my legal status in any such action is unknown.

A lot of talk, action and news on this forum regarding Gunnels. Starting to get a bit voluminous now. I thought it might be worth putting together a website that gathers together all of the latest news and information together in one place, and also allows us to gather more stories of woe and more names to add to a class action.

Does anyone else see any value in this? If so, happy to put one together on one of my domains.

What I've found so far in public records online. This should be more than sufficient to find them:

BTW, I hope this isn't assuming too much but please don't forget to be careful about what you say that could be construed as a threat. Please use this information to contact the proper authorities but not to go knocking on his door. The point here is not to get yourself into trouble.


Steve Gunnels

aka Stephen Hughs Gunnels
home address: 13815 Barons Ridge Dr; Houston, TX 77069
phone: 281-315-8850 (Bammel, Texas; Southwestern Bell)
fax: 281-315-8851
Previously taught at Kingwood College, a branch of North Harris Montgomery Community College in Houston, TX, (wwwkc.nhmccd.edu)
Age: 56


Claire Gunnels (wife)

aka Rebecca Claire Gunnels?, Claire B Gunnels
Employer: Cy-Fair College - http://www.cy-faircollege.com/
Supervisor: Director Linda Lupo - 281-290-3210
Email: claire.b.gunnels@nhmccd.edu or claire.gunnels@nhmccd.edu
Age: 55


<< removed >>


Fidelity Pacific, Inc (FidPac)

4606 FM 1960 Road West
Houston, TX 77069-4600
State tax#: 17603112883
State file#: 0115568800

Originally posted by delahoc
A lot of talk, action and news on this forum regarding Gunnels. Starting to get a bit voluminous now. I thought it might be worth putting together a website that gathers together all of the latest news and information together in one place, and also allows us to gather more stories of woe and more names to add to a class action.

Does anyone else see any value in this? If so, happy to put one together on one of my domains.

sounds like a great idea, i'll help!

Update on Claire Gunnels work phone number (straight from someone who works there):

<CL Edit - Phone number removed>

I give it 3 days till his home number gets changed if not sooner

I will bet people called already

Her work number is good. I just called it. And if I don't magically hear back from them by noon tomorrow, I will be emailing and calling the college to inform them of what is happening. I'm going to bet she has used the college network for illegal activities and that potentially makes them liable as well.

You don't think you are opening yourself up to litigation?

Think before you act.

Dave, what do you think he did to all of us..... as long as only truth is on a site there is no problem. I see nothing wrong with trying to contact him in any way, shape or form. He skipped out on us, not one thought of what he did to 1000s of customers who put their trust and money with him.

Originally posted by Kacee
Dave, what do you think he did to all of us..... as long as only truth is on a site there is no problem.

Actually, while I'm no lawyer, in most countries (including Australia) truth is NOT a valid defense in defemation, libel and slander cases.

Then wouldn't this forum be the same thing. There have been even some pretty bad things said in here about him.

Too be perfectly honest I would like to speak with him personally before I totally make up my mind about what to do. I'm willing to give them a short but fair amount of time.

However, it really appears that he is skipping out. If it was just a server down due to technical problems, I imagine he would be doing everything possible to fix it and to let people know what is happening.

That scenario isn't totally out of the impossible, however when combined with the information posted at www.besthost1.com along with what is clearly all over the internet, I would have to say this looks highly suspicious.

Libel? Well, posting publically available contact information is not against the law seeing as how most of his telephone numbers are "mysteriously" gone as well. The State of Texas also has posted on the tax assessors website that Fidelity Pacific, Inc is not currently in good standing. That means they also did not pay their taxes.

Why is information about his "daughter" or anyone else being posted at all?

Steve's daughter Barbara worked for him. She did the thinks like set up e mails and all for people who didn't have a control panel. I am not totally sure what all her duties were/are but she was employed by her father. I am not sure on Claire. But, I did hear at one time she was on the payroll too.

Kacee,

Thanks! Was just curious as to why she was being brought into it.
That makes sense then.

These are some of Steves domains he uses to rip off people.

It seems when he gets in trouble, he stops using the domain and moves on to another.

superhostess dot com
super-host dot net
besthost1 dot com
syonic dot com
interware dot org
fidpac.com/current dot htm
hostingservicesllc dot com
coins.amerifindit dot com
apache-hosting dot com
best1hosting dot com
best-deal dot net
best-host dot net
besthost1 dot com
betterhosting dot net
bluefinhosting dot net
century-host dot net
discountworldwebhost dot com
earth-host dot com
europa-relay dot net
favoritehost dot com
fidpac dot com
host-america dot net
host-s dot com
hostitplus dot com
huntwick dot com
intellihosting dot com
lionhost dot com
mlpro dot com
stellweb dot com
supe dot .nu
superbhost dot net
superhostess dot com
superhosts dot net
syonic dot com
ultra-host dot net
unihosting dot com
web1host dot com
webrite dot com
webspacesupplier dot com

Interesting. This is the first time I've seen Kogent Enterprises mentioned. Note the home phone and address being used again.


Registrant:
Kogent Enterprises
13815 Barons Bridge
Houston, TX 77069
US

Domain Name: INTELLIHOSTING.COM

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Gunnels, Stephen H super@super.nu
Super.Nu
4606 FM 1960 RD W STE 400
HOUSTON, TX 77069-4615
US
281-315-8850 fax: 281-315-8851

Record expires on 06-Jun-2006.
Record created on 06-Jun-1999.
Database last updated on 4-Aug-2005 00:18:43 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS54.SUPER-HOSTS.COM 70.85.190.226
NS55.SUPER-HOSTS.COM 70.85.190.227

Hi all. A lot of the domains mentioned in that previous posting were used by many of Gunnels' affiliates. For example, besthost1.com was Dan's, and Syonic.com belonged to Ethan, a student. I beg everyone not to tar all of these people with the Gunnels brush. They are suffering just as much (if not more) than the rest of us.

I'm gathering a lot of information at the moment about what being an affiliate means. It's not so much a reseller as just a referrer. They referred customers, Gunnels would bill the customers, and then pay the referrers a commission. Well, some of the time he paid them - many of them were consistently ripped off, and had the same problem we had with a complete lack of replies to emails.

I have a long email from Gunnels to his affiliates about how to fob off people who complain about technical issues!

I am sure lots more will come to light.

Originally posted by rhaasch
Interesting. This is the first time I've seen Kogent Enterprises mentioned. Note the home phone and address being used again.


Registrant:
Kogent Enterprises
13815 Barons Bridge
Houston, TX 77069
US

Domain Name: INTELLIHOSTING.COM



It seems Intellihosting was operated by Steve's son Patrick - who it appears may have been just as dodgy as his dad. I've heard of another story regarding Patrick that leads me to that assumption.

What I've seen here confirms that Steve Gunnels has gone offline in every respect. Given the number of host sites and affiliates involved I assume thousands of people are adversely affected by his disappearance. Understandibly we are enraged; yet I think we need more information before we can make a rational decision. Perhaps Steve is very ill, dying or deceased? Maybe he had a mental breakdown and cannot function? Or maybe he's a cynical defrauder and needs to be arrested? (I'll admit I suspect the latter)

Thisfar we're all speculating, but what we really need is accurate information so we'll know how to proceed. I agree we should have a website where we can post and collect data in an orderly way, so we can all see the full extent of the damage, which I suspect is massive. We need to get better organized.

Next I propose, that as many as possible contact the Houston Police department (email?) to notify them of the problem and refer them to this web-blog, so they can see for themselves. They may not (yet) have grounds to arrest him, but they can cruise by his home to see what's up. Given the extensive damage done to so many; they owe us that much.

Finally, we should consider contacting the news media. Networks like CNN and Fox might find this story interesting. (I am not a FOX fan, but if Gunnels really has ripped us off, I would not want to be him if Fox went berzerk). Additionally, all of us sending emails to the Houston Police could wake them up. Hope these ideas are helpful.

p.s. There is, oddly enough a District Attorney in Houston named Steven Gunnels. God help us if they are one in the same person, or in family.

Christoff

Gunnels is neither sick, dead or lying in a coma somewhere. He has done a runner. People were dealing with him as recently as a week or two ago. If he'd been hit by a bus the boxes would still be running. He made a deliberate effort to squeeze as much money as possible out of his clientele in his last few weeks, well and truly aware that he would not be providing the service they were going to pay for. He has done a runner. And he deserves to go to jail.

He has a long history of scamming and non-payment.

BTW - does anyone on this forum have a copy of the family photo Gunnels had up on his gunnels dot org site? I thought I had a copy of it but I can't find it. If anyone can upload it to this forum I'd be grateful.

The branch doesn't fall far from the tree... how very very true!!!!!!



Originally posted by delahoc
It seems Intellihosting was operated by Steve's son Patrick - who it appears may have been just as dodgy as his dad. I've heard of another story regarding Patrick that leads me to that assumption.

I was speaking of his wifes employer, nobody has a right to call "to inform them" like rhaasch says he plans to do. Also nobody has the right top harrass former employees.

Dave

the plot tickens by the minute on this thread... kinda scary really when u think about the amount of people he has affected!

I agree with delahoc... I figure Gunnels had made a very calculated plan to shaft the lot of us... that's why we must act fast to make sure he doesn't pull it off as he planned... He must be made to repay all of us for what we've lost. I think we should be contacting the media about this... I have already written an email to Alan Colmes at:
colmes @ foxnews.com . I recommend a few hundred more emails being sent to Alan pronto.

Sofar we have been complaing a lot, but what we need is a way to channel our rage where it will do something constructive. We are perhaps a few among thousands who have been ripped off... the lost time and resources is worth many millions... we need to nail this guy now!

What about setting up the proposed website for this and then writing to ask Google to push it to the top of their search list? This way all those with the same trouble can reach the same site.

Christoff

It would be very good to know something more precise about the number of people who have been affected by Gunnel's criminal activity. I wonder if any of you posting here since 8/1 might be resident in Tx. I am intending to visit local office of Tx. Att'y Gen'l to see if I can garner any information firsthand about what options are immediately available. Big thanks to rhaasch for seeking out the data that I had been trying to locate to confirm his phone, address, etc; awfully good to see the additional information re Claire & Barbara.
Initially, I too wanted to extend the benefit of the doubt to S.G., illness, auto accident, family tragedy, whatever. I am quite certain now that ol' S.G. has "done a runner" (well said Delahoc).
I realize that filing a complaint with the Houston Tx Better Business Bureau is a LOT like coitus interruptus but the more documented compaint information on file regarding S.G.'s criminal (it is precisely that, besides being inconsiderate and disrespectful of the many people who have paid hard earned cash and placed their trust in his endeavour) behavior, the greater to our advantage.
I have email records of correspondence with Steve and Barbara since the beginning of my business relationship with him, he is no doubt the head cheese of a family guilty of unscrupulous, shabby and criminal behavior. I am also certain, that with familiarity with the cyber-world and computers, they very likely are checking out information online. The phone numbers listed by rhaasch allow me to confirm that I was making contact with one of the Gunnels during my attempts to reach S.G. If any one of these people had the merest spark of integrity and honesty, they would be reaching out to us in some manner.
will advise here further after my visit to the Tx Att'y Gen'ls office.
Another option to investigate are local television stations in the Houston area, perhaps one of them has a Consumer Affairs dept., you know the like, who upon being informed of some miscreant's mischief, attempt to seek them out and "get to the bottom of the story/accusation"; if nothing else, at least put a very public face on S.G.

I think that is a great idea. I am sure there are a lot out there that have no idea this site here exists. Steve was like in panic mode trying to reach my son to upgrade to the newer xeon box. He would call and I told him over and over call back after 4:30 est then the next day he would call at noon .. over and over this went on and we just thought he was in a hurry to switch boxes.. now looking back, if we had SDS and our own IP's and lifetime hosting shouldn't that have been his baby to bit the bullet if he wanted new servers? or at least not make threats of taking your site down totally if you didn't move it. We had spent a lot for our 2 SDS's and all. I guess that was his way of getting you hooked into his service....and boy did we, once you have that much money invested you hate to just move.. but heck look at what happened anyway.. oh well, I think that site idea is good. as for calling where Claire works. No sense in spilling the beans to her employeer but I would sure call and ask to speak to here and act concerned over what "might" be going on with her hubby. It might be a big lie that you hear back but at least you would know if they are still in the area or not.

Don't call his wife's employer! That's evil! Are you sure she's guilty and participated in the facts described in this thread? She could be a decent person! I don't know!

I'm not a customer. I have a very bad impression about this Gunnels. If he's a scammer, I hope he gets legal punishment. But I was reading this thread and the idea of angry people calling his wife's employer because of this man's wrong doing just seems horrible!

Maybe she's not a good person! Maybe she knew what Gunnels was doing and maybe she didn't mind and even helped him. But I've seen many situations where the wife in just another victim...

I sympathize with all your losses. But please learn something from this bad experience!!! Don't buy lifetime hosting! I don't need to research a web host that offers lifetime hosting or unlimited space! I just keep away!

And do keep backups! Most control panels allow hosting clients to backup their data with 1 click!

I represent a web host. And we sell domains and hosting. Our business is local, so I'm not advertising our services. And I truly know it's ok for any client to register a domain with us and also host it on our servers.

But if I had a website or several websites and if those websites were important assets, I would register the domain with godaddy.com or networksolutions.com or domaindirect.com and I would host it somewhere else.

Every business has it's wrotten apples. And they just give the business a bad image. I sincerely think that any hosting client that suffered the emotions and loss of confidence and trust that you all suffered should hire hosting from a big company, well established and with an excellent reputation.

Use your friendly search tool here at WHT.

im new here, what is fidpac/gunnels?

Originally posted by blututh1
im new here, what is fidpac/gunnels?

Try reading the thread.

After some thought, I totally agree with the comments not to call the employer at this point in time and I have not done that yet. We need to keep our heads and gather as much information as possible. There is a lot of conjecture at this point and the facts need to be sorted out.

Again, I'll repeat what I said earlier. Do not make any threats and do not personally visit them. It will only cause problems for yourself.

As for a separate site, some google adwords will help push the search results higher. I think overture.com has something similar and can help out. I used to work with a woman who used them successfully to increase her personal website's exposure.

I am sorry and don't want to sound like a bitch but if you have no idea on what fidpac is or who Steve Gunnels is why on earth are you in this thread and why do you even care? But, like they said. "read the thread"!



Originally posted by blututh1
im new here, what is fidpac/gunnels?

Perhaps I was not clear about what I meant regarding Google?

We cannot afford to wait for its spiders and standard protocol.. that could take weeks or months... We just need a solid web address, then we can email google management to request it "immediately" be put on top so the name "Gunnels" or any site he had under his dominion refers there. We need to act fast... Gunnels could be sipping martinis as we speak. He MUST NOT be allowed to get away with this!

I KNOW the management at Google can do this... they have done it before for others. I think once they know what's going on they will be happy to help!

Christoff

Hopefully that would work. If not, buying google adwords will definitely help. His name is fairly uncommon so it shouldn't be that expensive.

I don't think they are in Mexico. I called an operator at Cy-Fair College and was forwarded to one of her co-workers who was able to look up her phone number. I didn't mention anything about what is going on...just acted like I couldn't find her number. Its amazing what information people will give you when you are nice to them.

Speaking of....I found the server farm where super-hosts.com is (your nameservers). It is Everyone's Internet, Inc (http://www.ev1.net/english/contact/index.asp) of Houston, TX. I found that through a dns lookup. If you want your data, I would call their customer support line immediately. I called tech support last night but they asked me to call customer service today.

http://www.whois.sc/super-hosts.com

http://www.whois.sc/216.12.211.218

Originally posted by Christoff555

Anyhow, anyone who wants to join forces to shaft Steve Gunnels right up the butt, please make yourself known here and we'll try to find a way to connect.

Christoff

:angry:

Count me in! I'm not out nearly as much money, effort, and time as some of these other folks, but I sure as hell do not want to see that prick get away with what he's done. Start a fund and I'll contribute.

Well I've been reading this thread for the past couple of days, and decided I would join in. I too am a Gunnels rip-off victim. I've been hosting there for 4 years and on 8/1/2005, the plug was pulled.

Luckily I did an amazing 2 day turn around and got my sites back up with a new host. Some stuff is lost due to old backups but anyway. I am with you people all the way, I am all for the website idea and if there is a class action, count me in as well.

I also did the lifetime hosting, got the $99 charge stolen from my check account, asked him serveral times for a refund and he said he would, but I never got the money. I also got hit up for the upgrade to the new servers which just stopped. Sounds like the standard service from him.

Regarding EV1 servers, I emailed their support and asked if I could get my files at least and they said they could not help me and I had to go through Steve (yeah right). They also would not give me any information about his account (standard privacy stuff, no suprise).

Is anyone having any luck with calling EV1 servers, I really would like to get some of my files back.

Hello.

New here. My latest web research led me to this forum, as I have had a disturbing experience with Mr. Steve Gunnels, as well.

I have been hosting with Mr. Gunnels for about five years now. First with Intellihosting, then Fidpac, LLC, then Hosting Services, LLC. I, too, am one of the ones who upgraded to "Lifetime Hosting" and a new server, only to have Mr. Gunnels inform me six months later that I needed to upgrade again or my site would go down. He was very eager to offer me a new "Dual Xeon" server and would not take "no" for an answer, it seemed.

Now, less than two months after upgrading again to this new server, I find that I have no access to my domain or subdomains, no operating email accounts, no cpanel access, no ftp access...nothing! And I am unable to get in touch with Mr. Gunnels, the same as the others here. He has not replied to any of my emails.

One thing I discovered this morning, which I find both interesting and confusing, is that my whois search shows that my DNS server settings have been changed. The name servers are different from the ones I entered when I updated my settings last.

When I moved to a new server less than two months ago, the name servers given to me by Mr. Gunnels were:

ns52.super-hosts.com
ns53.super-hosts.com

I updated these and everything transitioned smoothly within a day or so. I have had no problems until four days ago when everything stopped working.

Today I discovered the name servers are now listed as follows:

NS95.WORLDNIC.COM
NS96.WORLDNIC.COM

My domain is registered by Network Solutions, so I emailed them to find out who changed my settings? I am waiting to hear back from them. I also discovered that my IP address is located on a server called "Theplanet.com Internet Hosting Services", located in Dallas, TX. I found their site on the web and it is obvious that Mr. Gunnels was probably leasing the "box" I was on from them. I emailed them, as well, to see if they could shed some light on what is going on.

Maybe Mr. Gunnels is in the process of moving some of our domains yet again. This would explain the name servers being changed on my DNS. It would appear that the man is in trouble, no matter how you look at it. Maybe he's scrambling to try to hold onto as many client sites as he can. From what I've read on this thread, his own sites are down, as well. I just don't know and am as baffled as the next person...

Anyway, just wanted to share along with the rest. At this point, I'm not sure exactly what to do.

Cybergigi

Well, I just figured out why the new name servers are Worldnic.com....duh, that's Network Solutions. I guess it reverted to those when super-hosts died.

I am in the same boat as many others. Hosted with Steve since about 1999/2000. God only knows how much money I've spent between hosting packages, upgrades, "lifetime" packages, bandwidth upgrades, and finally an upgrade to a dedicated server which never appeared. I must say that while working with Steve could be aggravating at the least and downright infuriating (he wasn't above shutting off one of my sites at any given time so he could wrangle more bandwidth or webspace form me), for the most part I liked the fact that I could basically do whatever I wanted with my sites themselves and his prices were affordable compared to almos every other web host I looked at.

With that said, I have 4 websites down (my ONLY source of income), very angry customers, and even my credit cardprocessor is threatening to suspend my account...all because Steve has acted an a*****e.

Just os this doesn't turn into a total gripe session on my part, here are some things that may or may not be helpful:

1. I filed a complaint and refund application through PayPal for $399.00 that I had paid Steve for a dedicated server upgrade that he never delivered on.

2. I filed for a refund and a complaint through my bank for a SECOND $399 charge that was put through on my card for the same service. When I originally talked to Steve about the double charge, he said on several occassions that he would refund my money for the second charge (which never came through). Interestingly enough, he practically begged me to NOT go through PayPal too resolve the dispute because there were "problems" withPayPal and he couldn't afford to have his PayPal account suspended since PAYPAL IS HOW HE RECEIVES MOST OF HIS PAYMENTS.

MY SUGGESTION: If you made payments to Steve through PayPal, dispute it with PayPal IMMEDIATELY.

3. I have another phone number for Steve! I was looking at my bank statement in prepapartion to file the dispute and the number that Steve had last called me from was listed as his contact number: 281 - 893 - 5990.

I did call this number, but the voice mail is full (automated operator asked for a pin code). However, it's still useful to have.

FINALLY, has anyone....

• Have any recommendations for low to reasonably cost replacement web hosting providers? I have contacted Dan and the services he is offering are great, but the prices are WAY beyond my reach at present.

• Has anyone had any luck contacting Claire Gunnels, Steve's daughter, or Steve through any of the information provided in this thread?

• In terms of legal action, is there an attorney in Texas that has been contacted about the possibility of a civil case? If so, could someone provide the name and contact so that we can contact him or her with details about joining a civilsuit against Steve?

Just wanted to add my voice to this forum. My sites vanished on June 30 and no help over the long July 4th weekend. Sent panicked emails and phone messages daily.

Steve returned my call on July 5 with his apologies. I needed to add more domains so (ahem) upgraded to the Zeon servers: ns54.super-hosts.com & ns55.super-hosts.com. I had to get stuff restored fast as already had lost three clients. I was relieved to be restored within a couple hours (minus databases, sigh).

Days later, I'm looking at my bankcard and Steve also took out an additional $200 that was not authorized. Maybe that got him to Mexico?

Anyway, I'm in the process of moving everything now as everyone else is. The two servers ns54 and ns55 are still working and hoping I can make it to the weekend on this server so more time to move client sites without disruption of service.

I guess the money,grief , and lost DB's are one of life's cruel lessons? Money-wise, I'm probably out $1k between paid hosting and lost clients. Wouldn't be so upset if still had the DB's.

Keith M
moving on in Washington State

Hell he always lost the databases, probably above his level of comprehension. I will tell you my only success story out of this. It must have been intuition, but for some reason I backed-up all of my databases on 7/30, the plug was pulled on 8/1. Me and my partner who are working on a drum instruction website would have lost everything as I created a makeshift content management system with all of the textual content going into the DB. Talk about a close call.

Pehaps you'll think it a bit forward of me, or that I have lost my mind; but I have written an email to Google Management in an effort to reach to top-end of management there. I briefly told them of the our problem and referred them to this blog. I did this as a preliminary effort to set things up in case we can get a website to draw in others on the net who share our dilemna. I feel confident that Google can help us if they understand the situation. Meanwhile I am trying to set up an IRC chat channel so we can communicate in real time. Anyone who can do this first; please let us all know.

Christoff

ok less talk people, lets get this site about gunnels up and running!...

I have had one bit of good news so far today tucows have been able to change some 12 of my domain name registration details, so i have total control of them, now i am just waiting on the main one.. once that is done i can move onto new servers...

Holy moly... This guy's caused some real problems. I really hate reading stories like this -- it makes the rest of us hosting providers look real bad.

I've got a few suggestions for you guys, though, based on some of my prior experiences. I'm no lawyer, but I've spent enough time in a courtroom (usually on the plaintiff's side of the aisle) to know a few things.

First, if you fail to mitigate your damages, Steve Gunnels can use that as an affirmative defense and your case against him will be dismissed on those grounds. Stop everything right now and *ATTEMPT* to get your sites moved to another provider. Even if you have to use a backup from six months ago, you need to show the courts that you at least did SOMETHING to try to get back up and running.

Second, stop all this class action nonsense. Class action attorneys are very expensive, and if this guy doesn't have money, you probably won't get an attorney to give you the time of day. If your damages are $25,000 or less, you can sue this guy yourself in municipal court. Go search Amazon.com for a book by Nolo Press called "How to Sue in Municipal Court" (I think)... This doesn't mean you can't help each other out -- if all of you are having the same problem, you should be able to enter each other's story in as evidence of a pattern of unlawful behavior.

Finally, for the love of God, don't call any of these people! If you absolutely must contact this guy, do it in a certified letter. Don't call any of these phone numbers. If you're harassing this guy's wife at work, that gives him another out (do a Google search on "doctrine of unclean hands" to see why).

Good luck on getting back in business. Whavever you do, focus your attention on your business and your customers first before dealing with this goon. Your chances of surviving this fiasco will improve dramatically if you do.

Wow I can't believe I had this happen to me too. I have been hosting with besthost1 (Dan) since 1999 and then in Feb 2005 Steve Gunnels told me my server was being delete and I need to move it to another and sold me a "life time" server for $399. Normally I wouldn't believe in a "life time" server but since I had hosted with them for 5 years I thought they were trust worthy. My site went dark on Sunday evening. I got Tucows to switch my Admin email address and now I am getting things transferred but the whole process might be a week before I ma back up and business wise it is hurting me. I may have missed this discussion but is their any concern about his database of our credit cards from past transactions?

BTW: Many thanks to Dan from Besthost1.com for the info at his site and for trying to give us some heads up on things. Dan was always good at taking care of our stuff.

I agree with LX805 in every respect and thank him/her for the good advice. We must be careful not to give Gunnels any defence for what he has done. He has wrought great damage to many people and must be brought to account. Do not call or visit him or anyone connected with him.

Nevertheless, I still insist that there must be some way to give Gunnels some payback and ensure that he never again get's opportunity to pull off such a trick on honest folks. Gunnels is not a poor man by my estimation: he has the money of pehaps thousands of people. We may never see our money again; but I, for one, would glady give my portion to any lawyer who could give him the jailcell he so richly deserves.

I rather think the scope of this fraud is much greater than most of us yet realize. We need that website up and running a.s.a.p. so we can draw all affected parties together. This will have an effect.

Christoff

JUST FOUND THIS CROWD ARE THEY ANY GOOD http://asmallorange.com/services/hosting/features.php

I just moved my sites over to bluehost dot com. So far so good.
As soon as I hit submit on my registration, I could login to my control panel. No give us a couple of days crap like Steve. Everything is accessible from their main website (only have one not a myriad like Steve). They also have an 800 number on the page, and also called to confirm my registration and welcome me the next day (did not have to wait for this to login to my cpanel and get rolling).

I hate to make recommendations given my last choice (Steve), but so far things are looking brighter. It really feels good to be out of his tyranny.

I still would like to see justice be served though.

I too went with bluehost.com and also am affraid to suggest anyone but I am please so far. Got to talk to a "real" person and was setup in a matter of minutes. Now it is just getting the domain transfered from tucows, but that is in process and bluehost helped with that too once I got my Admin chnaged fomr tucows. That only took a day.

Should I also go with bluehost dot com? :cartman:

You're not spamming, right?

The idea crossed my mind: they are both spamming! But no! It's not true! I apologize for even thinking such a nasty thing :blush:.

Search

best web host
best shared hosting

Get a list of 5 or more web hosts. Then search each web host here at WHT and check their reviews and reputation.

You're all in a hurry to get your websites back up. But be calm! Don't do anything you'll regret. Spend a few hours researching a shared hosting provider!

Not to throw cold water on other's folks plans, but if it's accepted that Steve Gunnels had preplanned this caper; then he will also have a plan B to fall back on. This might be a hasty retreat to Mexico, or it might be that he already has numerous websites setup under a friend's name where he will absorb his prior "shaftees" and continue his rampage.

I advise everyone to research these webhosts carefully and do your homework before you pay!

Either way, move your site to other hosts as quickly as you can and don't allow this mishap to cripple your businesses or cloud your thought-life. Meanwhile we can certainly continue to devote some time to giving Steve the onceover, and I'm sure we'll succeed.

Christoff

I guess I am one of the odd balls but my site on Steve's 50-51 boxes is still up, as I said before I am leaving that one domain name there until it folds. I want to have the date to turn over to the lawyer. We have moved everything else off the boxes but we always have done back up in three places. So, we have been safe on all and the move was very smooth.

Just to respond to Eu1net that I am not spamming. I had besthost1.com (Dan) since 1999 and then the fist time I had to deal with Steve was in Feb when he claimed my server was being shut down due to its age. Now I had to get back up and running and I needed to find a source fast. From my speaking with bluehost.com tech staff it sounds like other of us have gone their too as they were some familiar with the problem with people had with Steve as others had been calling with the same troubles with domain registration. Tucows became my trouble getting access to my domain registration which I am still doing. Everything is in process now but this has been a pain. I need to be back up ASAP

Recommendations and discussions of other hosts aren't spamming, but they are off-topic!

:topic:

This thread is about the current situation with Mr. Gunnels' companies. If you need recommendations for hosts, start a thread. If you need information about blue or orange or any other particular host, that is what the rest of this forum is for, including the 'search' feature.

:)

I was not spamming either. I just added my testimony as I too was screwed by Steve. I thought this thread was becoming sort of a support group for us, so I thought I'd share. I was not trying to go off topic or anything.

So I was searching for a nameserver lookup utility and found this website:

http://forum.ev1servers.net/

It appears to be the support forum for ev1.net where super-hosts.com was hosted.

On an unrelated thread I found this info:

http://forum.ev1servers.net/showthread.php?t=57041

Here's my contact at the FBI:

Allyn Lynd
Special Agent
J.Gordon Shanklin Bldg.
One Justice Way
Dallas, TX 75220
972 559-5500
alynd@fbi.gov

Allyn specializes in internet crime. He can help you to see if you have any matters that need to be addressed and help you sort it all out.

Originally posted by jerryp
I was not spamming either. I just added my testimony as I too was screwed by Steve. I thought this thread was becoming sort of a support group for us, so I thought I'd share. I was not trying to go off topic or anything.

Feel free to use the entire forum as your support group. Plenty of folks here have been screwed over by a host or two. Besides, wouldn't it be better to read feedback on other hosts from long term customers, instead of those who signed up yesterday?

Starting a thread (or bumping an existing one, if it isn't too old) asking for feedback about 'host X' will get more feedback from customers of 'host X', than asking about 'host X' in a thread about 'host Y', which 'host X' customers aren't likely to notice.

Welcome to WHT, new members!

Good point, no problem.

Generally I would agree with you that advice from someone who is "new" to a service isn't as strong as those who have been with "a service awhile" but as you can see many of us have used Steve Gunnels hosting options for years (5 in my case) and until recently thought we had an ok hosting service. Many many of us aren't new to this and I think we are in such shock that after years of using someone's services you find out you got "taken". Please understand we're all just trying to help each other a little.

I do understand that. In fact, I would have dismissed this thread if it hadn't been for the fact that the horror stories are coming from long-term customers. The fact that many of you had been with this guy for years is what makes his disappearing act even more baffling.

If you'd like, start a 'Fidpac Refugees' thread to discuss your options for new hosting, and nobody will bother you. For anyone trying to follow this issue, or even help you with it, would you rather point them to a thread about the situation, or one about everything else under the sun? I'm trying to help you help yourselves, here.

Ideally, each thread in any forum should be limited to one topic. The process of finding a new host is quite separate from the process of seeking justice against your old host. I'm trying to be as polite and friendly about this as possible, sorry if I'm ruffling feathers.

Has anyone reported this to the FBI?

I've hosted with Super.nu for 5 years. Two years ago converted to SDS3LT. I should have seen this coming- because almost anytime I had communication with Steve I'd end up commenting, "How can someone like this stay in business." Yet I continued because "lifetime" status seemed worth it.

The threats to move my sites to an older sever made by Steve earlier this year prompted my upgrade in April to the new server and control panel. I even added dedicated IP and SSL functions. When my three sites all went down early this week (Aug 1), and when I saw the host was also gone, I thought that there must have a huricane or something in Texas.

Thanks to everyone who are sharing their stories. It has helped us all to start move forward with better understanding, and be encouraged that something might be done to protect others from men like Steve Gunnels.

Scott Carlson

My Steve Gunnels box (ns52.super-hosts.com or 70.85.1.130) was actually hosted by theplanet . com. I called them and they confirmed that the box was taken offline due to non payment. The tech person also told me the box is not purged right away and could be brought back before the end of this month.

I wouldn't mind paying the $139 to get some recent data that wasn't backed up. I bet a bunch of people who used that box all wouldn't mind chipping in to bring the box up for a month. I asked The Planet if I could pay, but, they need me to have Steve's customer ID number. Does anyone know what his The Planet customer ID number is?

My brother is on NS50.SUPER-HOSTS.COM and that is also hosted by theplanet . com. Steve's credit card worked for this site and I think (from the planet's indirect hinting) it will be up for August 2005.

I am switching to hostgator . com. They have great reviews and good deals. They also have cpanel which I found very easy to use. I haven't found any negative information about hostgator and the setup was automated and easy. They happen to use The Planet as well.

While having financial difficulties is human, it was completely irresponsible for Steve to not warn people the sites were coming down. He obviously has a lot of experience emailing the heck out of everyone. He should have warned people so everyone could prepare.

Just further to the previous voice of moderation that asked us to allow for the possibility that Steve was sick, or dead.

It has now come to light that we are all offline for the sake of a bill of less than $1,000!!

You will all recall those wonderful Xeon processors that everyone was harassed (perhaps even blackmailed) into upgrading to, whether they needed to or not? It seems they actually existed. They were run by a comapny called servermatrix.com. Steve subbed the boxes through them.

Turns out Gunnels owed them less than $1,000 but didn't pay. servermatrix.com gave him many options, including transferring all of the accounts directly to them so they could deal with the clients, and even just passing on the client information so they could contact the clients and sort the sites out with them. At least these guys were giving Gunnels the chance to ensure that his clients didn't suffer.

Instead, Gunnels told them to just shut down the boxes!!

No, Gunnels isn't sick, dying or dead. But he should certainly be strung up by his balls.

BTW servermatrix.com is a "satellite" of theplanet.com. They have the same phone number.

Hi everyone.

It seems many people are keen to get this website up and running and quickly. As I said earlier, I am prepared to host it on a subdomain on one of my sites (which is NOT on a Gunnels box!). I've set up the subdomain and am setting up a forum within it.

What I'd like now is what everyone wants to see on that site. I have been gathering lots of info, and most of it can be made public. I understand we want to get names and contact details of affect people (perhaps as the basis for some class action, or for forwarding to the FBI).

What else?

Oh, and for that person who raised it - by my estimation, Gunnels has walked off with several million US dollars. I understand that a number of his affiliates (upward of thirty) are owed tens of thousands of dollars (some even six figures) in unpaid commissions. There's at least a couple of million there that Gunnels has just pocketed.

If those commissions are based on 40%, then he has pocketed more than twice that amount. Just add up all the hundreds and thousands of dollars people on this forum have mentioned so far that they have paid in the last few weeks or months alone!

Oh yeah, it's worth chasing this guy.

I agree
let me know about the website.
I finally got control of my domain and shifted it to another server.
BTW steve's lock was removed for all domains that are under tucows.com. They finally got up to speed with him. Just contact Tucows via e-mail and they should be able to help you if you need a username and password for your Domain.

for people looking for a new server i found made2own . com good. the prices were decent. The bonous for me was that it was the same version of Cpanel that steve used, but there are a lot more features. That and all the programs in fantastico were updated to the latest versions.

These guys are old school internet if you remember the General Mayhem forums. These are the guys.

I should be up and running by tomorrow Hopefully.

did all the xeon processors come off theplanet.com? If so is someone talking to them to see if we can get our D/Bs ?

If they are gonna charge a flat rate for any data retrived I say we all work together and get all our data together.

ok are we going to start this website, i am willing to put a few euro/dollars towards starting a site cataloging all the information about steve and his "companies"...

hi guys i know this is off topic but it is connected i have started a new thread asking for people to suggest/recommend web hosts.. keep an eye to it

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=431279

I am new to this thread and saw your post and thought I would reply.

I use the same Name Servers, but the actual box lives at this address: 67.18.16.194.

I can't say for certain where your sites are hosted, but when I do a traceroute my domains all trace to this address, and when I look at the WHOIS info for that address it is actually theplanet.com. If you visit their site this looks to be a very proffesional site with some very serious hosting options. I cannot say for certain, but Steve Gunnels may have purchased one or more of these servers and was selling reseller accounts on it/them.

I have been hosting super.nu for a lot of years, at least 6 years, probably more like seven. I continually upgraded from one server to another, first with a personal account, then to the more advanced servers, then to a reseller account, an SDS machine and finally taking the plunge and moving to the new Xeon machine and buying slots for 18 more domains.

Throughout the years if I had a problem I would send an e-mail and I would usually get a reply back the same day with a fix either having been done or at least the start of one. Dan was the one that was working the magic behind the scenes with Steve being nothing more than the hood ornament to the engine that ran below.

At this point I know that I am out of a lot of money, and my biggest concern is having to move to a new host and the initial/recurring cost that comes with it.

I am currently waiting to hear back from theplanet.com to see if they can give me some insight as to how long these sites will remain active so I can determine how long I have, but I gotta tell you, every time I check my mail, or launch my browser I wonder if this is gonna be the time that it is finally kaput.

If you hear anything before I do...plz let me know.

Originally posted by Kacee
Me site with Steve is still up. I am shocked to say the least it is on
Name Server:NS50.SUPER-HOSTS.COM
Name Server:NS51.SUPER-HOSTS.COM
Is anyone else on that box?
I am leaving it there for legal reasons as I want to have a correct date as to when the plug is pulled. Then I call the attorney. I have screen shots of his site that we took on the 23rd of July, when he was still offering "his daily specials" haha we all know he wasn't selling anything on that date.

I have set up an IRC chat on:

Amsterdam.NL.EU.Undernet.org

the channel name is #gunnels

Anyone with mirc or IRC access can join now

Christoff

Originally posted by gaywaterford
ok are we going to start this website

Hi Gay, as I said, I'm ready to go. I have a subdomain set aside on one of my domains, I have a forum set up, and all I'm after is an indication from people on what they see on there so that I can set up some navigation.

Oh, and again - does anyone have that gif from Gunnels personal website? I'd like to use it in the design of the site.

Link to a discussion on servermatrix's support forums website. Please sign up and chime in:

http://forums.servermatrix.com/viewtopic.php?p=133576#133576

delahoc:

Thanks for all that you're doing!

I suggest:

1. There should be a thread for collecting data from various people in which only one post is required, and where each of us ouline our losses. Not necessary to post personal info, just by screen name only. This thread is not for discussion. Users should each have only one single post... and it should be made editible on a permanant basis, so changes and additions can be added anytime.

2. A thread that is only open to a few moderators who would collect and condense basic things that are known down so newcomers can get oriented. This thread is also not for general discussion. Everyone can read it, but only a few can post to it.

3. A thread for general discussion and freestyle chatter. Important data from this can also be added to thread #2 above.

4. A thread to discuss hosting options and suggestions. This could be an open thread.. but data here is not added to thread #2.

5. A thread for technical help moving servers and setting up.

There could be more ideas later.

Christoff

That's interesting about Mr. Gunnels unpaid bill w/ The Planet and the other server. I figured something like that when discovered my IP address was hosted by them.

I had to take a break from all this earlier today, as I was overwhelmed. I wanted to give Steve the benefit of the doubt, but there is simply no excuse for what he's done! As many of us are business people, we know that in order to be successful, the customer comes first- period! I agree that he should have emailed all of us at the very least. I didn't want to believe it, but I agree that he's run. So, I contracted with another hosting company today and am busy getting my sites back up and running.

Count me in on considering any action that might help us get some of our money back or, at least, force Steve Gunnels to answer for what he's done! You think after five years or more this sort of thing wouldn't happen.......in hindsight, I should have seen the writing on the wall. But then, hindsight is always keener than foresight.

AJ

I have set up an IRC chat on:

Amsterdam.NL.EU.Undernet.org

the channel name is #gunnels

Anyone with mirc or IRC access can join now

Christoff

So does anyone have any idea how to go about getting a subpoena for the datacenter and the server?

I'm thinking that's probably the only way to get it without Steve's involvement.

I contacted theplanet.com well it wasn't good news.

I'm sorry to hear of it, and yes we do understand and empathize with
your
situation, however we as a hosting provider enter into a customer
confidentiality agreement with each and every customer that we host. We
could not share any information even if we were hosting his
information.

so kiss your data goodbye

i'm gonna try again.

I concurr.

Please have a good look at:

http://forums.servermatrix.com/viewtopic.php?p=133576#133576

This is the server all of us were on... Steve was renting space from them, and though it's our data, Steve is the only one who can get at it. As far as I can see, They claim Steve cancelled his contract with them even though he had a 4-5 day grace period. This proves that it was a deliberate act on his part, thus the more angry it makes me. He could have warned us.. he was very adept at sending threats to extort more money from us. Servermatrix claim the data may well have been deleted because he cancelled his contract... otherwise it might still be there till the end of the month.... but this seems unlikely. Additionally there are no tapes or backups as this would have been Steve's responsibility to make.

That is why we have to move on Gunnels fast, we might yet be able to get the data back... But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

This is why we need a court order. I think the same server was hosting super.nu and gunnels.org which would have been holding his POP email accounts which more than likely contain incriminating evidence or wrong doing that could be admissable in court.

Has anyone called the FBI guy in Dallas that I listed above? We're gonna need his help to sieze that box.

My guess is servermatrix has pushed the server back into their pool and you are all pooched. Just tough luck you got sucked into a scam but not a whole lot you can do about that. I'll never understand why people let their companies collapse without warning. Most mainstream billing applications let you send a mass mail message to all active clients.

Info about search warrents related to computer crime:

http://www.cybercrime.gov/s&smanual2002.htm

http://www.cybercrime.gov/

Most mainstream billing applications let you send a mass mail message to all active clients.

Why would he do that if he was planning on running..

Your data is gone, and so is Gunnels. Doesn't anybody live close to him, perhaps a visit to his "offices" is in order?

Originally posted by rhaasch
This is why we need a court order. I think the same server was hosting super.nu and gunnels.org which would have been holding his POP email accounts which more than likely contain incriminating evidence or wrong doing that could be admissable in court.

Has anyone called the FBI guy in Dallas that I listed above? We're gonna need his help to sieze that box.

Have you spoken with an attorney about this yet? It seems to me you're taking a random, kind of backwards approach to this. You don't start by directly contacting an FBI agent who's never heard of you or this case and demanding he start a seizure process against one of The Planet's servers.

You are not in a position to get a court order pertaining to the servers in question. A District Attorney has the power to seize the computer, and only a judge may grant an injunction against its reformatting/use for a new customer. You are in a position to go through the proper channels of filling out a complaint, or you could sue. If you sue, and convince the judge that the server contains evidence, perhaps an injunction is possible.

Only once you've taken the proper steps to report this crime, will anyone in law enforcement pay attention to you. The manual for computer crime search warrants is a matter for law enforcement or your attorney, I really don't see what good it does for Mr. Gunnels' victims to read it? If the D.A. thinks there's a case, it's the D.A. who worries about the rules pertaining to search warrants. Again, if you're serious about proceeding, it's time to talk to a real attorney instead of guessing your way around the law with online searches.

Unless someone personally knows the FBI agent whose information is listed, I would recommend contacting the FBI through regular channels instead of contacting an agent directly, out of the blue. Maybe that agent is in computer crimes, but maybe he just handles bank fraud, not consumer fraud complaints. Use the receptionist! Also, leave decisions about a course of action to the authorities. You won't get very far by stating, "I need your help to seize a computer" right off the bat.

From what I have learned he operated out of his home more than from any office. I have seen his home address posted here and I am in OHIO so pretty far from Texas or believe me I would be there making a visit. I guess from what I have read the box I am on. well the one domain I left there is going to be running through the end of Aug unless he would tell them to shut it down too. Box 50-51. It made me sick when I read how little he owed to keep us all up and running. What a sick and vindictive man he is. Heck, I would have kicked in a bit more to keep the site up and then cut my losses and moved. It is not a disgrace to be caught short on money but it is to screw over 100's. From the value on his property tax it doesn't look like they live in the slums for sure. I think this man and his family got to living over their means and this was his way of bailing them out of personal trouble but making tons more that he wasn't counting on. Lots of trips by the whole family and tons of other things. Living beyond their means and it caught up with them at our expense.

Originally posted by Kacee
It made me sick when I read how little he owed to keep us all up and running. What a sick and vindictive man he is. Heck, I would have kicked in a bit more to keep the site up and then cut my losses and moved. It is not a disgrace to be caught short on money but it is to screw over 100's.
From the value on his property tax it doesn't look like they live in the slums for sure. I think this man and his family got to living over their means and this was his way of bailing them out of personal trouble but making tons more that he wasn't counting on. Lots of trips by the whole family and tons of other things. Living beyond their means and it caught up with them at our expense.

Hi Kacee.

With respect, I somehow don't think this was a matter of 'living beyond his means'. I think he walked away with a huge amount of cash (by my calculations, adding up all the fees he charged and all the bills and commissions he didn't pay) he has walked away with several million dollars.

I figrue he planned this all out, had a date by which he would be running, and then - naturally - chose not to pay his box rentals when they became due, as that was when he was planning to skip. So they lapsed, were closed down, and here we all are.

By the way, my "Gunnels Collective" website is nearly ready. Thanks to those few who provided a few suggestions for content. Currently I've allowed for:

1. History (I'll look forward to all your input on that)
2. Documents (I'd like to think people will want to donate any docs they have, including emails)
3. Registration (to allow for private, discrete exchange of information for those that need it)
4. Forums (the basics are set up, but I will add those topic threads that were suggested)
5. Links (for things like the tax pages, etc that people have found, and links to other forums)
6. Contact (a form for repsonding with any further info)

Again, all suggestions welcome at this point. I will make the URL available in a day or so when I have a little more content up there.

And please - send me that Gunnels family GIF from gunnels dot org!!!

I found some of the e-mails, like your server is about to be shut down form feb and some other junk.

I will be glad to donate

You can contact me at thelunatick.com
Now officially back up and running (only took 3 damn days to straighten out steve's (#&$(#@ up )

Hey delahoc:

For those interested in getting back webpages and images from the now-defunct sites, try going here:

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

This is the Wayback Machine!

Here you might for example, try entering super.nu and see what comes up. Be patient though... not everything works but you can definately get a lot of stuff. Also you might try your (former) website name. It's a great invention! Image feedback is slow, but it does work.

If you get a return saying "no search results", be sure to click one of the links for that what you were searching for.. then you'll get someplace.

Christoff

Anyone with interes to see the celebrity Barbara Gunnels... daughter of Steve can go here:

http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?navtyp=CLB&str=12427&styp=clbi&nm=Barbara%20Gunnels&nbc1=1

Don't know if it is so interesting... poor girl probably hasn't got a clue... anyhow it can give cause to search further.

I have alot of old e-mails saved....


Originally posted by delahoc
By the way, my "Gunnels Collective" website is nearly ready. Thanks to those few who provided a few suggestions for content. Currently I've allowed for:

1. History (I'll look forward to all your input on that)
2. Documents (I'd like to think people will want to donate any docs they have, including emails)
3. Registration (to allow for private, discrete exchange of information for those that need it)
4. Forums (the basics are set up, but I will add those topic threads that were suggested)
5. Links (for things like the tax pages, etc that people have found, and links to other forums)
6. Contact (a form for repsonding with any further info)

Again, all suggestions welcome at this point. I will make the URL available in a day or so when I have a little more content up there.

And please - send me that Gunnels family GIF from gunnels dot org!!!

You know in looking back I guess we were fools to buy into the lifetime hosting,. what is lifetime anyway.. whos lifetime haha.. guess it ended up being the lifetime Steve wanted it to be as he was the one in total control and could pull us all down when ever he felt like doing so. You, can bet I will never go for that again. I did love the fact I didn't have to contact Barbara anymore to get new email addresses set as it took her days when I could do one in seconds. I wish I would have grabbed that family pix of the Gunnells off his page before it went down. I hope someone did think to do that. I am all for this new website that is in the making. I think that is a wonderful idea and I hope there is an IP tracer on it to see if Mr Gunnels himself takes a peep!

i am lucky i never bought into that lifetime thing! but! i was close to it several times.. but i was a fool i kept buyin more domains and servers...

what did get me thinkin about 3/4 months ago was when he e-mailed saying the servers 2/3 of my sites were on were going to be shut down and i needed to pay more to transfer onto new servers.. and i argued with steve saying i bought the specific domain names and servers and was told and had e-mails from about 3 months earlier from him saying that these new sites were being hosted on his newest servers!...

BTW the planet was willing to offer me a "hosting solution"

In other words rent the same type of server and plan steve had.

It was a steal at $139 a month :angry:

Yeah like I need that much space, I have no desire to become the next steve.

Except I would support my customers.

Originally posted by BigBison

This thread is about the current situation with Mr. Gunnels' companies. If you need recommendations for hosts, start a thread. If you need information about blue or orange or any other particular host, that is what the rest of this forum is for, including the 'search' feature.

:)

I have to disagree with your observation. Many people are here for the first time due to already searching for some answers to their current problem, which appear to be quite extensive for a large number of them. Why should they have to go off on more searches after having landed here and have found some comfort in numbers. IMHO the sharing of what some have done to alleviate their pain, in this thread, is definitely on topic.

I'll have to say I've learned quite a bit the last few days. If there is a silver lining, that would be it. $139 a month is pretty cheap if you already know how to setup and operate a server. Except for the fact that you will never take another vacation until you hire someone to help you, it could be a pretty sweet deal.

i am getting madder as the days go on!

I think of this thread as a sort of support group for the "Used by Gunnells Group". Too bad we didn't find each other before all the world came crashing down on us. Maybe we could have found a way to stop it, maybe not. But, there is come small comfort in numbers and being able to vent. It's like a shrink but free lol.... could be $150.00 a hr and we get it free here. We will all surrive but right now it looks bleak to a lot of us. If you didn't have extra money around to get started over after paying Steve and losing our pants, then you have a even bigger mess to deal with. I am paying by the month now and very happy to do it that way. I have a online radio station and there is no way I wanted that to go down. It is in operation with no down time thanks to getting things moved fast. And, yes, gaywaterford , I am right there with you madder as each day passes. ~ How much space are they talking for $139.00 a month, how large of a server? Considering all that - it might be a very good deal indeed.

Originally posted by thelunatick
BTW the planet was willing to offer me a "hosting solution"

In other words rent the same type of server and plan steve had.

It was a steal at $139 a month :angry:

Yeah like I need that much space, I have no desire to become the next steve.

Except I would support my customers.

It's their business. They lease dedicated servers.

ThePlanet is not at fault here. You are not their client.

I have opened an IRC chat channel if anyone wants to get together for a live chat about all this:

server: amsterdam.NL.EU.undernet.org

channel name: #gunnels

Christoff

btw... in case some of you missed my earlier message... you could try using the Wayback machine to see you old website (or parts of it)... just go to: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

the type in the (now defunct) website you want to see... you might get some kind of not found or error, but just click the link for what you searched for... be patient, play around with it... it does work.

Christoff

u thining of starting ur own web hosting thing kacee??

WOW, I really don't think so. Would be a hard thing to do right now in the shadow of the Steven man's con job. Being a new hosting company now would be very hard to do. IN the future, sure I might really consider it.

is it just me or did a few pages of this discussion go MIA?

Originally posted by Eu1net
It's their business. They lease dedicated servers.

ThePlanet is not at fault here. You are not their client.

I know they are not at fault, but I find it unmittigated gaull knowing I ran a small site to offer me a "solution" that expensive.

I know nothing of running a web hosting company and here they are basically telling me to go and start one.

I find it irresponsble on their part, good for makeing money, poor business practice in the long run.

Basically they are a whoseller and they asked a consumer to become a reseller. They told me it would be better to eliminate the middleman.

well let me quote them:

Hello,

I'm sorry to hear of it, and yes we do understand and empathize with
your
situation, however we as a hosting provider enter into a customer
confidentiality agreement with each and every customer that we host. We
could not share any information even if we were hosting his
information. We
can however offer you a solution directly with us. I would highly
recommend
this. This will cut out the "middleman" and help with situations like
this.

Does that interest you?


Regards,

Ted Persky
Accounts Manager
The Planet, Inc.
Advanced Webhosting Solutions

I will post the e-mail kacee


Hello,

We offer several different server options. We lease dedicated servers
for
your hosting needs. Right now we have a special on the following
server..

IF You use the WHT promotional code you can receive the server at the
special pricing shown below. I put RedHat Enterprise Linux 3.0 as the
operating system on the server quote, but you can choose from several
different Operating systems, including Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows
2003
Standard edition, FreeBSD, Debian, etc.

These are listed on our site at www.servermatrix.com

You will have root access to the server. You and only you will have
control
of your hosting.

Server Configuration

Server: Super Server 2.4 GHz - Monthly Fee: $119.00
Primary HDD: 80GB Hard Drive
Secondary HDD: 80 GB Hard Drive
Drive Controller: IDE
RAM: 1024 MB RAM
Number of ips: 5 IP Addresses
Bandwidth: 1200 GB Bandwidth
Uplink Port Speed: 10 Mbps Uplink
Web Analytics: Urchin 100 profiles
Database: None
Backup Service: None
Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Version 3 (recommended)
Server Management Plan: Silver
Control Panel: CPanel/WHM with Fantastico - Monthly Fee: $20.00
Firewall: None
VPS Software: None
Hostname:
Promotional Code: WHT
Salesperson:
Special Requests or Comments:

Number of servers: 1

Monthly Charge: $139
Monthly Charge Sales Tax will be added for Texas residents
* For existing customers the first month's charge for this order will
be
pro-rated to your billing date after your order is approved.

Setup Fee: $0
Setup Fee Sales Tax will be added for Texas residents

Total Initial Charge: $139.00



Regards,

Ted Persky
Accounts Manager
The Planet, Inc.



yeah if you think about it you are getting 160 gig of space.
you charge $10 a month for 3 gigs (far less than the going price I think) and that's a potential income of $500 + a month from 1 server

I would actually consider getting a few friends together and renting a server for ourselves. It would cost far less with 10 friends each getting 16 gigs plus a ton of bandwidth.

Sorry, but you have a wrong picture of this business. They have hundreds of clients that aren't web hosts. Many companies lease dedicated servers to host their sites!

There are companies out there willing to pay a leased server and server management and that don't want shared hosting.

Ted Persky is a seller. That's his job. That's what he does. He tried to sell his company's services! Is that unethical or illegal? Sorry, but it isn't!

well-well-well.... Go to this website and see who the Inkeepers are... none other that Steve and Clair! http://www.theinnkeeper.com/bnb/104239

One of the planet's largest customers is hostgator . com. They have good deals and seem reputable. Their servers use cpanel as well. It is a much better deal then I had with the Steve and the setup was extremely fast. I paid with paypal and had access in 5 minutes. You pay monthly.

Originally posted by Christoff555
well-well-well.... Go to this website and see who the Inkeepers are... none other that Steve and Clair! http://www.theinnkeeper.com/bnb/104239
Its a spam listing for a course they are/were teaching at the local community college (Tomball College). Claire currently works at Cy-Fair college as a librarian and Steve has done classes for Kingwood College in Houston. All three are subsidiaries of North Harris Montgomery Community College (http://www.nhmccd.edu).

ahh... here's another of Steve's site... still active...

http://www.infocache.com/faq.htm

search "Gunnels" in this page... after that remove the /faq.htm ... hit enter and you'll go to the main page... there are no link.. but what he says is interestig...

Originally posted by Christoff555
well-well-well.... Go to this website and see who the Inkeepers are... none other that Steve and Clair! http://www.theinnkeeper.com/bnb/104239


Well, well, well is so right. Could this be the one in the same place as the work number that was given out here before? I notice there is no address or phone number here for this bed and breakfast place. Anyone in Texas area know what this is? Not too much info on it at all

There isn't a bed and breakfast. Its a listing for a college course.

The work number was for Claire at Cy-Fair College. Call their operator if you want it.

Why would you list a college course on a bed and breakfast site?
Steve isn't computer savey enough to teach a course in dog training haha...... if it weren't for Dan - Steve would have gone under long ago. Tech support hahaa.. Steve knew nada.


Originally posted by rhaasch
There isn't a bed and breakfast. Its a listing for a college course.

The work number was for Claire at Cy-Fair College. Call their operator if you want it.

Well, its kind of obvious when you look at it. Plus, anybody with a book can teach a college course. Not anyone can run a business.

Plus I know they both taught because of a cached google link to an old super.nu page that listed them as teaching a different class. :)

He listed it there to attract interest for his little class.

The Inkeepers listed on the left side of this page are :Claire and Steve Gunnels. This very near where the were teaching:
http://www.theinnkeeper.com/bnb/104239

I am not interested in Claire, but am trying to research just how many other sites he had that still function. I am certain he has many more site of which we are not yet aware: like this one

www.ibuyweb

I am sure if he deliberately did what he did..he has a Plan B.. Be careful where you host now... you might end up under Steve again..

Originally posted by Christoff555
Additionally there are no tapes or backups as this would have been Steve's responsibility to make.

That is why we have to move on Gunnels fast, we might yet be able to get the data back... But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Untrue, it is your responsibility to backup your own data.

of course you're right, Adam. It is each website owner who is responsible for their own data. What I meant was that many good webhosts do make backups of their clients data in case of server failure... at least that's what I have heard. But, then we're not dealing a good webhost here, now are we?

Yes. totally you are responsible to back up your own things but if you read over things from Steve, backup of your sites was included. Did he do that? I have no idea but I always did my own on a external hard drive.





Originally posted by Christoff555
of course you're right, Adam. It is each website owner who is responsible for their own data. What I meant was that many good webhosts do make backups of their clients data in case of server failure... at least that's what I have heard. But, then we're not dealing a good webhost here, now are we?

Originally posted by woojo01
I have to disagree with your observation. Many people are here for the first time due to already searching for some answers to their current problem, which appear to be quite extensive for a large number of them. Why should they have to go off on more searches after having landed here and have found some comfort in numbers. IMHO the sharing of what some have done to alleviate their pain, in this thread, is definitely on topic.

:rolleyes: You come here, make up your own rules instead of following the forum's established rules, a thread degrades into a bunch of off-topic noise, a veteran member tries to help out, but everyone who's new here with two posts knows better than that member (me). OK. You're right. You don't need to start different threads for different discussions. Talk about everything under the sun in one thread, that way if a law enforcement agent does read this thread, they won't have any problems separating out the issues from the unrelated discussions. Totally out of line, for me to have suggested opening a 'refugees' thread for that. Horrible idea. Sorry. :rolleyes:

This thread has gone so far off-topic that I'll leave it to you folks who obviously know what you're doing and don't want any help or advice from the WHT community, particularly when it comes to getting the most out of WHT. Sorry for trying to help you folks state your case clearly, so that others may follow it more easily. Good luck and good day.

Originally posted by Christoff555
The Inkeepers listed on the left side of this page are :Claire and Steve Gunnels. This very near where the were teaching:
http://www.theinnkeeper.com/bnb/104239

I am not interested in Claire, but am trying to research just how many other sites he had that still function. I am certain he has many more site of which we are not yet aware: like this one

www.ibuyweb

I am sure if he deliberately did what he did..he has a Plan B.. Be careful where you host now... you might end up under Steve again..

ibuyweb is owned by Lawrence Stubbs according to a whois search on tucows

Also I got this e-mail from The Planet!

Killian,

As far as we know the servers will not be coming back online. We hate to be
difficult but we cannot discuss the issue as he is our direct customer and
you are his customer, we cannot share any information regarding his account.

We do understand the situation that you have been placed in and we would
like to offer our web hosting services as an alternative to host your
websites? We have a fully owned and operated hosting company, our own
datacenters(not leasing from someone else) and we do offer direct sales and
account access to the public.

Please visit our sites and see what server offerings might best fit your
server needs?

http://www.theplanet.com

http://www.servermatrix.com

http://www.insomnia365.com

Thanks,

Eric W. Clark

Senior Accounts Manager
The Planet, Inc.
Advanced Webhosting Solutions
serversales@theplanet.com
http://www.theplanet.com/
Office: 1-800-377-6103, ext. 4026
Fax: 214-782-7754 (Country Code 011)

Gee, how tactful. "It would be unethical for us to discuss our client, seeing as how you're his client, but we will try to take your business away from him nonetheless." :rolleyes:

Point out how little sense that makes, point out that Gunnels is now their ex-customer, and tell them that if they won't help you recover your data they can take their hosting offer and shove it.

IMHO.

BTW, if you use that horribly inconvenient 'search' function you'll find a couple of similar situations in WHT threads, where the DC (even ThePlanet, IIRC) has caved, and allowed a reseller's customer to pay up the bill for a server so that they and others may recover their data and leave. There is precedent for this, they are just being jerks asking for Gunnels' customer number.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=304677

thanks....

Gaywaterdord You gonna work this angle with the planet?
It probably would be best if we don't bombard them but let 1 of us represent the others.

The only real data I lost was my forum postings (which were new so only about 50 posts) and my gallery pictures which were submitted by fans.

everything else was resident on my home HD and backed up.

Thanks BigBison

Hello everyone,

I too am a victim of Steve Gunnels.....he clipped my credit card twice and I had been with him for over 4 years. I have done the following:

The bank has been notified and I closed that card since he conceivably still has the number, but this man is seasoned. He only hits you twice, as 3 sends up red flags through the system. From his age he is no newbie either and the internet may be only one way he and his family have of bilking money.

I moved my site the Network Solutions for my hosting and their rates are quite reasonable. Furthermore since they keep track of all the URLs and the gov. watches them closely, if they mess up I can contact my Congressman. So in a couple of days the world can find me again.

Secondly, this whole scene reiterates the "must" of backing up copies of your files so you can just load them elsewhere if ( heaven forbid) this happens again.

All of the info and contacts you have posted here are very helpful and I have already filed reports in the right places.

This type of fraud is unacceptable...........period. If I find any other gems I will post them!

Just got another e-mail from theplanet

We sympathize with your situation but unfortunately we cannot divulge or
confirm any information regarding our clients.

Regards,

Daniel Kracht

Total Control / Server Matrix / Insomnia 365 Account Executive

The Planet

800-377-6103

Main 214-782-7800

Fax 214-782-7754

Offering fully managed hosting and colocation services since 1994. State of
the art 60,000 sq. ft. n+1 data center, 24x7x365 live NOC~ 100% uptime
guarantee--------www.theplanet.com

Where do I sign up to hang/prosecute this SOB?? He screwed me royally after four years of feeding him money and buying his "sincerely" stories.

jim:angry:

join the line the mate... there will be a site up soon detailing all his activities ur voice will be more than welcome on it, read back over the thread to find out more

Hey!!! There is a long line, just get behind the one that has that "I could murder Steve H Gunnells" Look on their face. ( I think you will find a very very long line) It has been more like 6 yrs for us and I don't even want to think of how much money we have paid out to his cause. My son has been charged on his debit card for the good ole $99 yearly fee that we all thought was not to be as we paid for lifetime. He is going to get at least 300 of what he has paid in. I do think the hang/prosecute thing is being nice tho!!!!!!



Originally posted by polack
Where do I sign up to hang/prosecute this SOB?? He screwed me royally after four years of feeding him money and buying his "sincerely" stories.

jim:angry:

Isn't there a lawyer in the group that will persue the "gentleman" pro bono?????????? I'm sure there's plenty of proof and testimojny. I saved all my email from 4 years ago.

jim

polack yes we need legal advise on this one

I wonder do you need a lawyer in Texas or would it matter? I am thinking Texas as that is where all this has taken place but I might be wrong there. I am just a lowly accountant... no nada on legal.....

Gay et al,

Honestly, if you want action from The Planet I'd actually call them, and ask to speak to someone senior. You should work out beforehand how you'll verify that you're acting for a group of people.

If you just email into their trouble ticket system, you'll get fobbed off every time.

When you call, make sure you speak to someone senior, don't settle for a tech or help desk indian.

If I was you, if they refuse to turn on the server (which is actually quite reasonable from the confidentiality point of view), an alternative is to suggest to them that you'd like to buy the latest cpanel backup of all your domains, and that this could avoid a legal dispute. I don't think that's an unreasonable request. An alternative might be to turn the machine on so it was accessible from your specified IP only. Then you could backup your own domains with the current passwords you have - thus guaranteeing that you are only accessing your stuff. From The Planet's point of view, giving you access to the entire machine could cause problems. I also can't see that they'll be willing to leave these machines as they are for very long as they must be costing them substantially, just sitting there unused.

Originally posted by Kacee
I wonder do you need a lawyer in Texas or would it matter? I am thinking Texas as that is where all this has taken place but I might be wrong there. I am just a lowly accountant... no nada on legal.....

Hi Kacee (and others)

I've just suggested privately to someone else that a Texas lawyer might be the best bet. I know that the crimes crossed a lot of borders (state and national), and much of what Gunnels is guilty of are US federal offences, but there might also be subtleties in the Texan law that only a local guy would be aware of.

My hope is that one of you other people in Texas might be able to locate a top gun lawyer who'd be willing to take on the case on the basis of no-money-up-front but then be entitled to a split of any damages awarded after Gunnels is found guilty and put in jail and his millions in profits are taken off him.

BTW - I got that photo and will have it up on that site I keep talking about.

Originally posted by gaywaterford
ibuyweb is owned by Lawrence Stubbs according to a whois search on tucows

Gaywaterford:

Please don't be offended... but your observation is superficial... we need to dig down deeper to uncover the real dirt on this guy.

I was well aware that ibuyweb.com is registered to a "so-called" Lawrence Stubbs. I sat here for 12 hours yesterday scouring the web for Steve Gunnels, and I know much more than I care to say here. He could well be reading this...even posting here himself to win customers for his "other" sites ... remember this guy is an eel... he surely has a Plan B.

But my partner and I had been on Steve's servers for 6 years and we recognized his faq pages... and these sites are still online! Just, click the Altavista links below and see for yourself. I think this is very useful knowing, because I am on a "mission" to stop this guy.. yet I am certain he had his tentacles out much further than we yet know.

Paid FAQ
... Claire and Steve Gunnels, the principals of infocache.com, also teach classes at Kingwood College in the Greater ... Send an email to: classes@infocache.com to receive more details. ...
www.infocache.com/faq.htm

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?sc=off&q=%2Bkingwood+college+steve+gunnels+domain%3Ainfocache.com

--------------------
:: Value Web Hosting :: We offer FAST, reliable, affordable web hosting services
ibuyweb.Com provides cheap web hosting and reseller hosting services. We can also register domain names for the most affordable prices over internet industry. ... Claire and Steve Gunnels, the principals of ibuyweb.com, also teach classes at Kingwood College in the Greater ... Send an email to: classes@ibuyweb.com to receive more details. ...
www.ibuyweb.com/faq.html

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?sc=off&q=%2Bkingwood+college+steve+gunnels+domain%3Aibuyweb.com

--------------------

P.S I agree with BigBison: I think this thread is getting offtrack. I think we should use it to locate this guy. Those who want to get hosting advice should start a new thread and not waste space here on it.

I hope not to offend any of you. But I only post facts when I am sure they're correct... I don't post speculation. Finally, if I was looking for a new host, I certainly wouldn't come here to find one. Instead do your own research and make sure who you're dealing with... any one of them could be Steve..again... like ibuyweb.com with Lawrence Stubbs!

Christoff555/delahoc/Kacee etc...

Can we maybe set up a live chat Christoff555 u keep mentioning a irc chat, but can we actually use a chat room somewhere or msn or something like that? and remembe we have time differences here as i am in ireland most of u are in america so we will have to work this one out properly..

Every day I am more amazed at what is being found on this guy. I am not awake enough yet to make much sense haha..... I just know this intense feeling I have against him is NOT good. When the IRC thing was mentioned, I have no idea on how to use that, get to it or anything about it. I do know about msn or yahoo chat using one of their messenger services. I don't get into the chat thing that much so if anyone has directions on how to do that I am willing.

http://dumbmonkey.pitas.com/

enjoy!

what the url of this site ur doing about steve gunnels

Hi all.

I've got the skeleton of the website done. It has some pages (currently little or no content), several forums (as previously suggested here) and a contact form. More can be added (and will be) as things develop.

The URL is http://www.gunnels.october.com.au

All advice is welcome. I'm putting this together to help us all (without any of us getting into any legal problems ourselves), so please keep all that in mind when you make your suggestions.

:confused:

Hello,

Anyone knows if this is the same Steve?

Gunnels, Steve, PE - Paragon Engineering
Banducci Rd
Tehachapi, CA 93561
(661) 822-3358


Thanks!!!

No.. I'm pretty sure you're referring to a man named Steve M. Gunnels. This guy is an optical engineer who develops telescopes. You can see a photo of him on this page: http://www.ociw.edu/instrumentation/imacs/devel/enclosures/

"Our" Steve is names Steve Hughs Gunnels. Or more rightly Stephen Hughs Gunnels.

Hello all...
I've been hosting with Fidelity Pacific for several years and had gotten the "Lifetime" deal after a couple years of the regular plan. Steve spammed like crazy with all his "hot deals" - they sure were a "steal," huh? Well, he first attempted to get me to renew when I'd already gotten the lifetime plan which made me think he was a sleaze - but I still had cheap hosting and who wants the hassle of moving hosts? Then he charged me for the control panel ($99) that he claimed was an added feature and I asked for a refund which he never gave, having made up all sorts of excuses and delays, so he got me to pay another $50 when he came up with the "old servers going offline - must upgrade to Xeon scam," as I told him I'd take the best upgrade deal at $149 with the diffference of the $99 he owed me. First, service with the upgrade was lousy, and now it seems he's cut and run. I guess Steve Gunnels has been a fan of Steve Miller - Take the $ and Run. Too bad for everyone who has been scammed by this sociopath - I should have left as soon as I smelled his sleaze and sent him a pack of cards of most wanted American criminals with his photo on the Joker - I would guess that he used that war on terror cards gimmick thinking that people ignorant enough to fall for the con-artistry of Bush & the Neo-Cons in government would be most easily suckered by his own cons & schemes. At least Gunnels isn't orchestrating murder and destruction like the gangsters in government and the military-industrial-chemical complex - and aside from websites eventually disappearing some of Steve's clients had actually been getting a decent hosting deal.

By the way, I do have a good host for small businesses to recommend - mail me about it if you're interested.

- Jed Shlackman
jshlackman@adelphia.net

well add me to the list...
:angry:
i also got the scam handed to me! i've been w/fidpac [super.nu] for about 6 years & never had too many complaints, until recently! i currently only have/had 6 sds domains w/them. what really stands out are the times where steve tried to scam me, but i shut him up by threatening to pull the sites & demand full refunds! one time after many emails requesting this & that [tech support], getting nowhere, we upgraded to the reseller cp [$99] to add/change things ourselves, then 1 yr later we got the email saying we owed $99 per year! stating that was an annual cost not included in the package. well i dropped that upgrade & went back emailing for domain/subdomain sds add-ons & changes.
then later on after being tired of waiting for things to be done we got two $399 lifetime sds w/full cp functions. sometime later he emails about these servers being removed from his farm & we should move to the newest servers. another $99 each upgrade, shortly after i noticed one of the sites just disappeared! after weeks of slow replies, he tells me it was a server glitch & the site must have been deleted! really? hth does that happen! of course i didn't have a current backup of the db [luckily i only lost about a month of forum posts & news]. so we get moved to the ns52/53,super-hosts,com server & i get the site back up, dns pointed & now this crap comes around & the site is gone again! to say the least i just lost a longtime customer! as it stands now i lost 4 of my 6 sites hosted on fidpac servers, 2 are still live & on the ns50/51,super-hosts,com server. from what i've gathered here, they will be gone end of the month & i've already backedup/downloaded them in preparation to move.
i've been looking for a new host since the others i'm with don't offer all the goodies we need & have found a few that could possibly do the job [gatorhost?]. has anyone here had any dealings with ******,com? they have a cheap 5 year deal...lol!

i'll be keeping tabs here & at the new gunnels collective site. i'll go thru my files & send/post what i can to help find this slime in hopes of giving him his due!

I propose that we all go rabid all over the network. Post everywhere on every Board and Blog. Briefly state, that Steven Gunnels has shafted you and that if any other readers have experienced the same, they should go to...

http://www.gunnels.october.com.au/

...and join the rest of us who fully intend to do something about it. Fact is, most folks are lost... they don't know where to go. Meanwhile the vultures are out in full swing ready to win us losers as new hosting clients. This is revolting! The website above is being created freely and purley for the purpose of stopping this madman from continuing his international crime syndicate rampage. Make that point very clear to everyone you tell.

I'm not sure if I've stepped on any toes here, but if so, I apolgize.

Meanwhile the vultures are out in full swing ready to win us losers as new hosting clients. This is revolting!
Don't trash others just because you're feeling bad. Go out and take a long walk. You'll feel better.

Pardon me! I apologize for mentioning web vultures who want to cash in on the tragedy that we here have, and are, enduring. I made no claim that you were among them, Eu1net. Yet, I think your response is rather callous and insensitive - if you don't mind my saying so. The fact is, however, that they are there. Any user who chooses to search google:

keywords: +"Steve Gunnels" +extortion

...will see that they exist!

I can see by your profile, along with other cursory perusal determine, that you are yourself, a webhost, and I apologize profoundly if you thought I was implying that you were here for that purpose! That thought never crossed my mind. In fact, before your rude respose, I never knew you existed.... but now we know.

But for those who are: the purpose of this thread is to seek retribution against Steve Gunnels. Those who would wish to recommend alternate hosting companies, should instead start a new thread elsewhere for that purpose.

I am personally offended by your respone, and suspect others are as well; but we will let them decide what they think... that is something neither you, nor I can control. You have no idea how pi**ed off some of are about what Steve has done. I am also surprised that of all I said; that is the key point that you chose to extoll.

I would further like you to apologize for your rudeness... I have already done so.

It will be interesting to see what portion of this message will be ripped from its context this time.

Cheers all! :)

Christoff555, I encourage you to fight for what you believe is right. If you do so, others will benefit from your actions.

I'm not a judge. But like everyone else, I judge people everyday, based on first impressions and their actions and testimony from others. By reading this thread, I've made a personal judgement about Gunnels: I would never do business with him..

I know that many people suffered damages and a very bad experience and its reasonable to say that he's responsible and should receive punishment.

This is a web hosting forum. And many of the members are web hosts. Most of us are honest and hard working individuals.

I read this thread with interest. And sympathy for all Mr. Gunnels's clients. I'm a web host, but my local market is not the USA. I don't even use WHT to advertise our hosting services.

I don't believe that any host that wants your business is a vulture. I just hope that all the hosts that get your business are better hosts than your previous host.

Did I misunderstood what you wrote? It's possible. If I did, I apologize. I'm not arrogant. And I make mistakes.

But I will repeat myself: most web hosts are honest and hard working individuals.

Hi all. Just to remind you all that the "Gunnels Collective" website is up and running. There are forums there for providing and reading information about Gunnels. I strongly encourage everyone here with an interest in seeing Mr Gunnels get his just desserts to log on there.

http://www.gunnels.october.com.au

i read this forum with great interest. I dont care about steve gunnels and if he gets whats coming to him what i care about is my data.

I have 5 years of blog and 4 years of photos on my old server only to find them gone.


I contacted the planet via phone and got the same response.

"we cannot divulge any information as Steve Gunnels is our customer not you"

I asked can I pay or can we just plug the servers back in for 1 week to let us get our data

the planet said " we cannot plug he servers back in as this would go against the customers wishes and we could be held liable and sued by doing so"

Thats the gist of it not the exact wording.

So it seems that the only person who can save the day now is a Steve who needs to tell the Planet to put the servers back up or let people have access to their data.

I said what if steve is dead! and they said "we will need to se a death certificate"

they also said something about court orders and stuff like that

In hosting world the middle man is god. We as third party customers have no rights. the top daddy host is too scared to be sued to do anything.

i just want access to my server for a week to get my data off it. even via an IP and FTP I just need my data! haha it seems like a bad dream

I understand the planets "privacy" angle but as it seems obvious that Steve has screwed over so many people in blatant fraud then this should be an exception.

Also under what grounds could Steve sue the Planet for plugging the servers back in. this makes no sense.

I would like everyone on ns52 and ns53 to email

abuse@theplanet.com and request their data and to also call their tech support on

800 377 6103

and call their lawyers

Service Provider(s) : ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc. and all subsidiaries

Name of Agent Designated to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement : George Poletes
Legal Counsel

Full Address of Designated Agent to Which Notification Should be Sent : 1333 Stemmons Freeway
Suite 110
Dallas, TX 75207

Telephone Number of Designated Agent : 214.782.7800

Facsimile Number of Designated Agent : 214.782.7756

E-Mail Address of Designated Agent : copyright@theplanet.com


to make this a big issue for them.

the worst thing that could happen would be to have all our data deleted in the next few days due to $$$$

I have been following these posts for a couple of days as a victim of the scam......one of you just a couple of posts ago asked if Steve Gunnels of Tehachpi CA was him......I have not had the time to scroll through all the posts but the TOWN popped out at me. I have checked emails from various sites in the food chain and researched their companies etc but can't find the connection. This is such an unusual name that I remebered it. Does anyone know if one of the hosting guys has that address.......keep digging. BTW, the FBI is actively pursuing leads too <G>

Originally posted by ratterrier
BTW, the FBI is actively pursuing leads too <G>

Very doubtful, when things are reported to the fbi (ifcc) they are generally glanced over and forwarded to the appropriate local authorities. It is in your interest, as I am doing with James Beckwith the owner of cxwebhosting and *******.org, to follow up with your own local authorities as well as the local authorities in Houston and Harris county. edited to add-- This is only as good as your ability to follow up on a constant basis.

The best way to handle it is to contact your city and county authority, contact the authority in Houston and Harris County, and inform them that you will be filing an ifcc complaint and to please be on the look out for a copy to be forwarded to them. Of course this is only helpful in prosecution and fact finding for a civil case, it does nothing to protect your data.

In order to help find an attorney who may be able to get an injunction issued to stop the planet from removing data... http://www.texasinternetattorneys.com/Need-Help.cfm

Good luck

Dave

Eu1net: Thanks for your reply. I again apologize if what I said was misunderstood. I am often surprised how, what I thought was straight-talk, can be interpreted differently by others.

I never meant to imply that all, or even most webhosts are vultures. I agree with you that, like most of us here, we are mainly honest, hard working folks. I am sure you are, too. ;) But I have discovered that Steve still has some active hosting sites. I won't name them here, but just warn everyone to check things our before you choose one.

Click here to see examples of some sites exploiting the Gunnels affair (www.google.com/search?q=%2B%22Steve+Gunnels%22+%2Bextortion&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US: official)

Let's shake hands now and get on with it. :)

Dabe B- Thanks for your reply. As for the FBI and local authorities, they are already involved and I do not need an attorney to handle this.....it is not a civil matter. When you collect money fraudulently with credit cards in state or not, it is a felony.......period. And the DA office represents the victims of felonies.

Our web presence ( everyone's) is an ongoing saga in the Internet....sort of the nature of the beast. But I repeat that this man's age tells us that his modus operandi is not something he dreamed up overnight. He has been doing something for 35 years and that started long before the Internet.

My philosophy is " just keep braiding rope". I fortunately did not lose my data as I had it all backed up on disc and have since uploaded it all and am running again. I am one of the lucky ones...for now.

However, I still want my money back for the services that were not rendered.

I have no good reason to believe that any data at The Planet is still intact. Steve apparently canceled his hosting on purpose which means the servers have been ghosted and recycled probably within the same day. And if I were Steve, I would have erased the drives before cancelling them anyway.

The only way to get him is on criminal fraud charges. Any civil suits will probably have to be directed at his corporation (which protects his personal assets) and more than likely the corporation is either closed or about to be closed.

oh y! i almost forgot about another incident w/super,nu

on one of the sites we hosted there, we let them register the new domain name for us, supposed to be free for the duration of the hosting contract - 2 year contract & they paid for 1 year. well @ renewall time they didn't do the deal & we lost a dotcom name because it came available & we weren't made aware of it & had to switch to a dotnet, luckily it was available! of course they had some lame-ars excuse too! @ that point we forced them to xfer all the names they registered for us to our main registrar.
side note - the scumbag that bought the name out from under us would not sell it to us for any $ + has never built anything on it - 4 yrs now we watch to see if it will get renewed & every year on the very last day possible he buys it back!

delahoc, I tried registering at your site and it wouldn't accept my email address -

I encourage everyone who was burned by Gunnels to act like adults and never mind the threats, those won't get you anywhere - and they make us all look bad.

I have talked to an FBI rep in Syracuse NY who will be visiting me for the information I have assembled this coming week. I have also filed complaints with Gunnels local law enforcement agencies, the bank he personally does business with, the FTC, as well as the Texas Attorney General and the BBB.

I have been advised not to retain a lawyer regarding filing a civil case as it would probably be a waste of time and resources.

However, this case does meet the requirements needed for Federal action, especially with the number of times Gunnels hit our credit cards without authorization. Once, twice, even a few times, one can easily say it was through bad accounting practices, but doing so several times, with several customers, it becomes a felony. Especially, when we can prove we signed for 4 year terms and our cards were charged after 2 years.

I would strongly advise that we collectively sign up at delahoc's page (when the signup form is fixed) so that we can plan an action against Gunnels.

At this point, I am out thousands of dollars, and I don't expect much retribution if any, however, it has become my personal goal to see that Mr. Gunnels serves some hard time behind bars for his well planned thievery. And this, I can prove.

Originally posted by rhaasch
The only way to get him is on criminal fraud charges. Any civil suits will probably have to be directed at his corporation (which protects his personal assets) and more than likely the corporation is either closed or about to be closed.

Stop speculating and consult an attorney, please. Being incorporated is no protection against criminal fraud charges. Judging from all the different companies, and the tales told in this thread, something tells me that piercing any Corporate Veil in this case won't be too tough:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_the_corporate_veil

For starters, do you think he had the proper 'DBA' (Doing Business As) paperwork for all those different 'hosting companies'? Do you think a real board of directors exists, and held regular meetings at which minutes were taken and notarized? Closing a company is no way to avoid fraud charges either.

Don't worry, the government isn't going to let anybody hide behind some sham 'corporation' to perpetrate mass fraud. Unless all his paperwork is in order, the corporation will be considered null and void. Even if it is in order, there is absolutely no personal asset protection when a corporate director uses the corporation to directly commit fraud.

Now, if he did have a board of directors, and they aren't directly involved, the Corporate Veil would, rightly, protect their personal assets from seizure to pay off claims against the 'corporation'.

Originally posted by delahoc
Actually, while I'm no lawyer, in most countries (including Australia) truth is NOT a valid defense in defemation, libel and slander cases. in most places, truth is an absolute defense to charges of libel, slander or defamation. It has to be -- because libel, slander and defamation are all causes of action based upon the Defendant's broadcast of false and damaging information regarding the victim.

Originally posted by MrSpkr
in most places, truth is an absolute defense to charges of libel, slander or defamation. It has to be -- because libel, slander and defamation are all causes of action based upon the Defendant's broadcast of false and damaging information regarding the victim.

By definition (in Australia at least), a person has been 'defamed' if their reputation has been tarnished or devalued in the eyes of a reasonable person. Regardless of whether or not what is said is true, if it makes someone else think less of you, then you have been defamed and will win the case. I can't recall if that extends to libel or slander, but it is the case in defamation.

Just a couple links here that might be of interest and one does state that his wife Claire was listed as one of the master minds of Steve's operation along with their son Patrick.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.www.webmaster/browse_thread/thread/4da93e2943c72e65/5f8f1199f7c1d7e4?lnk=st&q=%22steve+gunnels%22&rnum=4&hl=en#5f8f1199f7c1d7e4


http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=%22steve+gunnels%22&start=0&scoring=d&hl=en&

http://www.hostspot.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000248.html

How I am sitting here now feeling so stupid that I didn't check into things before. I have been with him since 1999 and there are posts that far back that he was a fraud!!!!!! It is turning my stomach the things I am finding now dating 1999 and forward. Here we go again on the hindsite is 20/20 but wow how did he go on as long as he did..?????

ratterrior,

How does one go about contacting the FBI concerning this matter? I am one of the ones who was taken by Steve Gunnels, as well. My posts are on page 3 of this thread, I think. I, too, would like to get some of my money back.

AJ

Just to let everyone know that some analysis of the many domains associated with Gunnels has been added to the 'history' section of the Gunnels Collective website:

http://www.gunnels.october.com.au/history2.htm

I got ripped by this pri@& too. I just want to know how deep it goes. Kacee you should setup a
forum for the numbers. I'd like to know how many people got ripped off by this guy. No one
wants too put there real name on the net so I don’t know how you could do it? I think this guy
has burn about 10,000 people at least, he still has servers that are running. I’ve seem some of his
directory structure and that was only on 1 server. That’s 5 mil if he’s managed to get all this
clients to sign up in the last year. I signed up in Oct 04 and that appeares to be the start of the big
push for this “new :” $#(% or that.

I’d like to give Dan some credit for his work over the years YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME SO
%&#$% YOU. I LOST TOO MUCH!!!! SO DID MANY OTHERS...