Hello,
My name is Joshua; I am trying very hard to start my own company, and what I have gathered a easy way and not so easy way but challenge would be starting a hosting company. There is Tons of other hosting companies out there that offer cheap prices, and lots of other nice features. Now why would I want to start some thing that has so much competition? Well I did a little research and discovered that there is about 20,000 domain names being registered daily, if I can get a fraction of that per month I would be one happy camper.

My first attempt on my hosting company was to put together a website that catches the eye and the heart of my clients, and some thing that feels like home to them, along with tech support and even Great service that I can offer for them, I should have started the research a bit sooner and did a little more on it before jumping the gun on picking the right reseller hosting company.

I know that the best way is have your own servers with great computers but then we are talking about money I wish I had, so I want to start small and try my luck with this spending about $100.00 to $200.00 a month and hope that I would double or even triple that amount in a year or so.

I found a website at www.datacities.com and I looked into it, it was very awesome the way they word things, like free lpanel (something that I wanted because it was easy to use for a newbie like my self) and Cpanel and also they offer a 30day money back guarantee. For 39.99 a month that’s not bad, so I signed up with them and got started on what I needed to do first. I did use paypal to pay them.

Well after the first few days I wanted to log into my e-mail account that I created using the Cpanel e-mail account function and it wouldn’t let me log in using the username and password, I tried a lot of things, to get it working and nothing would work at all, so I logged on to the Lpanel “Members area” at www.datacities.com/lpanel and I submitted a support ticket letting them know there is a problem with my e-mail Inside of the Cpanel client area, Its not letting me log in and its acting funny, here is there Reply

“Dear Joshua Thomas, Please be sure to turn this on: \"Outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentification\". Try it with email@domain.com, not email+domain.com as your username. Let me know if this works out for you. Remember you may use the Outlook Express \"auto-set-up\" feature within your cPanel. Thanks. Sincerely, Martin J. Calabrese Sales Manager”
Ok first of all I did not say any thing about outlook express; I never use it and wont start now. So why would they give me some answer like this I wondered to my self? So I asked them again and tried to explain my self a lot better and this is what I get the second time,

“As far as turning on \"Outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentification\", you may do so by checking into the \'Options or Advanced\' section/tab while in your POP3 set-up. You should also try name+domain.com when prompted via Webmail for your username. We do not carry phone support, although our General Support department will assist you shortly.”
Ok now this is starting to make me mad, I never asked any thing about the outlook express or even once mentioned smtp or pop3, so I just left that alone for awhile and started working out other bugs that I found on my path to be a great hosting company.

One day ( a few days later) I logged into the “members area” Lpanel at datacities.com/lpanel and I seen that my account was pending for activation, that’s funny I paid them what is going on now. There was this link that told me I need to verify my account and I need to enter the 2 small amounts that datacities billing program separated when I purchased the account, humm I thought for a moment, so I logged onto my paypal account to see if they took out 2 payments that added up to 39.99, funny there was only one amount token out for 39.99, so I logged back into my lpanel “Members area” to see if what this means and what should I do? I told them I paid using paypal not a credit card and my paypal account only took out one lump sum of money not 2. So this is there reply,

“This feature is mainly for credit card orders to ensure less fraud and consumer protection.”
Ok I thought that’s cool then, but why does my account say pending? That’s funny so I told them what I was going through and asked them to fix this and this was there reply

“Please check your paypal account and see if any amounts were deposited into your account and verify them on your members area. If none have been made please let me know. This feature is mainly for credit card transactions however it is being worked on. Let me know if you have any questions. Michael Cruz Datacities”

So I told them what my paypal account looked like and it took out one lump sum of cash not 2 so I asked them to remove this from my client members area Lpanel login and take away that this site is pending crap from my lpanel screen and this is what they sent me

“Correction: I made a mistake on my last reply. The charges are split in two different amounts which are verifiable only by the card holder. This avoids fraudulent order or credit card transactions. I can check if this applies to your paypal payment... What paypal email or full name was your recent payment made from? Sorry about the mixup - This is a new feature and we are working to improve quality service and authentication for each account. Michael Cruz Datacities”

Ok WTF is really going on here? I am already starting to get mad now I have 2 problems that isn’t being fixed my E-mail that I can’t log into and now this stupid verification thing they started, ok now to move on to my hosting company that I am excited about and maybe I can get these things fixed later.

So I was going to my Lpanel that was installed on my domain that came free with my resellers package just so I can set things up to start my hosting packages and billing client,
It and I loged in took me to a page that said this,
“YOUR LICENSE HAS EXPERIED PLEASE CONTACT LPANEL AND UPDATE THE INFORMATION”
Ok now I am really pissed off so I sent them a ticket telling them my problems and they would not respond to any of my tickets or even my e-mails, so I told them just to cancel my account and send me back my money like you promise with the 30day money back guarantee you offer, and this is what they send me,

“What was the name or email used for your paypal payment? I am trying to look for your subscription information so that I can activate your account. name or email used for paypal? Thanks. Michael Cruz”

So I sent them a e-mail and told them all the information (that they should already have) and this is there response back to me

“I noticed you had canceled the monthly subscription in paypal: Sep. 6, 2004 Subscription Cancellation From (paypal account name) Cancelled Is there a reason the sunscription was canceled?”

First off I want to point at their spelling and grammar, isn’t it great? Well mines not perfect but come on, I use spell check at least hehe, ok why would they ask me this after I told them I cancelled with them? These guys are really smart.
A few hours later after I cancelled my account I get this e-mail,

“Sorry about any delay mainly due to the hurricane - I usually have very fast turn around time on billing desk however you were saying you had some suppoer issues? Perhaps those issues could have been sent to the support desk which is faily fast on replies to any suppot needs. Frank is our head engineer on staff and monitors the support desk every hour. Please consider staying with us. I will grant you a free month if you so wish. I am sorry for any delay on my part. Let me know.”

Well this is to late I already found a better hosting company “x1services.com” These guys are awesome and up to date, and after telling them I have a better plan with a new company they send me another e-mail (notice they are faster on e-mails after canceling my account?)

“I replied to your other ticket which I saw was part of this one. Let me know if you would like that free monthy credit.”

Are they begging me now? I do not want them as my hosting company so I will not take there free month at all. (Still waiting on my money)

After a few days later, after my account has been cancelled they send me this really late reply about my lpanel

“No problem. Your Lpanel License will be activated - I will forward this over to the Lpanel Dept. Please stand by for a reply.”

This is too funny but at the same time this is why I do not want their free month service, I wouldn’t use them even if it were free for the rest of my life. I finally get this e-mail from these guys.

“Account has been canceled as requested.”

All right now maybe they will send me back my money (I been checking my paypal everyday now)
So I send them an e-mail saying this.
“Withdrawal-ACH-A-PAYPAL WEB^PAYPAL (ECHECK)-$39.95 $*******.**
Please send the money back in the account as soon as you can its important please.”

And they replied with this,

“Please open a billing ticket with the details of this matter. I am not
able to follow a threaded ticket via a web email.”

Ok so I went to www.datacities.com/lpanel and typed in my username and password so I can submit a ticket, but for some reason I can’t log into There Lpanel “members area” “Client area” so I can submit a ticket, says the username and password is incorrect, ok maybe they thought I didn’t cancel yet with them or some thing, “they our slow on times your know”
So I send them an e-mail saying this
“I do not have a lpanel any longer with you guys, how would I open a support ticket?”
And this is there reply back to me; hang on your going to laugh,
“Your original Lpanel.net members area login and password should still
Work. This was created upon your initial demo license and/or purchase.”
I love this part how they added this should still Work. ok what part of the it does not work don’t they understand (I hate playing e-mail tag and always being it) ok time for a new e-mail back to them, I sent this e-mail about a week ago or longer and no reply yet, and still no reply, no money back in my paypal account, so I went to webhostingtalk.com to see what I should do, they screwed me hard, I do not only hate these guys but I fear other hosting companies now, I hope No one buys Lpanel from them or even any part of there hosting packages. After complaining in the forums sending datacities e-mails left and right I still haven’t got any were. So I have posted my story to you guys Hoping that no one will make the same mistake that I made when wanting a hosting company, I want people to learn from what I have suffered from, and after looking around here are a few more link that should let you understand a bit more about datacities and Other peoples stories about them, maybe there is a pattern here that needs to be pointed out to everyone and anyone looking for a hosting company, I hope Datacities/Lapnel goes under.

Here is the other Links I have found on my research.

Here is my complaint on these guys
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=319167


This guy is having the same troubles I did, if not worse,
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=268373



Just a few other things I found on datacities
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=245497
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=241046


Here are a couple threads where they get in trouble because they can't read the rules hehe
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178098
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107991

Here is one where they pretend to be some one they are not just to make them look good, this gets better too.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=195098
Here is the Problem why you do not get good tech support from datacities
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106944
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106961


<<Signature to be setup in your profile>>

Thanks for the heads up, I wish you better luck with your new host. Does lpanel own datacities, or the other way round. We were looking into new billing systems (as WHAMP is taking too long to get upgraded) and lpanel was one of our options. So I don't know what of support to expect from lpanel as of yet. ModernBill may be the the best way to go.

yes Datacities owns Lpanel

Perhaps you should run a search on WHT. I read somewhere here, Modern bill is not that good . Read their complains, you will know why.

Joshua

I use whmautopilot and it intergrade with WHM/Cpanel, I like it alot you might want to check that out.

To go even more off topic:
the only modern bill complaints I have seen is that it is to complicated for some people to understand the setup of it. Past that it is a great program.

OH ME OH MY - I am SOOOO Glad I found this thread. Let just start by saying I would only recommend LPANEL if you want a buggy system that periodically gets fixed when Datacities doesn't trump their time table and customer service doesn't matter to you.

I own an LPANEL account and had to bite the bullet and get another billing system because of their lack of or complete absence in customer service.

On every single ticket - (and I dare LPANEL to call me on this) - that I entered with them would take anywhere from 4 days to well over a week in getting a response. OH BUT WAIT....... was the response a solution to my problem. HECK NO! :angry:

LPANEL would throw back another question to me like, do you have an account with us. LOL - if I am using their support system - I best have an account with them, right?

Well - so that again takes 4days or longer once I reply for them to ask me yet another question.

I spent literally almost a month on a single question before I got an answer. Uhhhh HELLO! :crazy:

Oh there is more - first off - these are young guys about 4 of them trying to manage a hosting company and start up a billing system.

Its actually gets better. I was then told by their staff to please use the support forum instead of their ticket system because they respond faster in the forum and could get help from other clients. UMMMM - then why have a ticket system? :confused:

So I use the forum.

I find that the forum was the only way to communicate with them but you had to be on your best behavior cause they would delete your post if you sad anything negative about LPANEL and the support. So much so - they banded me from the forum - yet I payed for their service for a year!

OHHHHHH - lets talk about the money thing. I was so ticked that on their site they mention a 30day trial run. So I figured that would apply to me and since I was unhappy and I was within my 30 days I would ask for a refund.

NOPE! They told me since I purchased a copy of the program they would not refund me. It seems that I was wrong and you only got a free 30 day test drive of the program but if you buy it - your stuck. SOOOOO I am stuck with LPANEL for a year - even though I am not using it.

AND GET THIS - They wont let you sell your account to someone else. SO I AM SITTING ON A WORTHLESS PIECE OF - YEA YOU NOT!

I am not sure if they have a truely happy customer using their program.

I know some of the support people that were helping them in the forum to try to relieve some anger ended up leaving because they said LPANEL treated them even worse then they treated their clients. :gone:

It is insane and I truely hope no one will use their billing system. I would use a simple email form and do all the accounting on my 10 fingers before I ever went back to them. I PROMISE you it will be the biggest frustration and waste of money you have ever done. Your odds are better in winning the lottery then it is getting them to answer a support question.

They wouldn't answer your weeks and then a new update would come out and you would get a quick email saying, this update should help you. But they would never tell you inadvance that they were working towards a fix - they just left you hanging.

Well - I think I vented enough. LOL

Thanks for the info. Defintely helped in my decision NOT to use lpanel.

I can tell everyone that these guys are not very serious about what they are doing. We were suppose to beta test version 1.5 and and that did not happen until 2 days before they released it. Yes that's right! 2 days! I found all sorts of bugs in there system and worked with Frank on it. Well...it is pretty obvious that they didn't care about the bugs because they just went ahead and released it. We never tested another copy of 1.5 to see if the bugs were gone.

Looking further I came accross a mistake that LPanel had made. The forgot to encrypt LPanel before they sent out the link to beta test the first time. I found some interesting things in there scripting. It would seem that they have emails sent to them in there scripts. Now I have always believed these guys just had to much access to people systems but never was I told this would be in there scripting.

I also noticed the pretty much the entire software was developed using dreamweaver. Now dreamweaver is a nice program but to develop there entire program in dreamweaver is just to much. They depend way to much on dreamweaver writing there code instead of them hard coding it themselves. The bugs show it and so does there response time to fix a bug.

Based on my experience with this company these guys have no business sense. I left them after two months because they could not get a simple contract together for the support guys. I mean weeks went by without a contract and one excuse after another. I felt like one of there customers again. I said fudge it. I am not gaining a damn thing but alot of stress. Supporting a company for nothing is not what I would call very smart. That was stupid on my part and will never happen again.

LPanel expects there customers to understand that they are coding and trying to make there product better. Well customers really don't care about that stuff. They want there product supported while you are making the product better. Hire a support staff if you have to. Do something about it instead of ignoring these guys.

My final analysis on this company is....4 guys that do not have a clue on how to run a business. 4 guys that are possibly looking at class action against them. Alot of chargebacks. There best bet is to stop development for now and give the people who want their money refunded back to them. This will show good faith and admit they need more experience and testing before they release anything else.

STOP HUSSLING THESE THE CONSUMER!:angry:

Piggers I am disappointed in you.

Anyways tryant I am not sure what your story is but you posted information that was months ago or years ago in the links provided above...

Alot of things have changed since then.
Also You keep saying you are sending emails but none of us have recieved 1 email from you regarding anything about such matter.
Lpanel does not stop you from accessing Lpanel if your cpanel account is suspended.

tryant if you need help then PM and I will look into this matter.
I will need at least your lpanel login name / domain in the PM.

Piggers dreamweaver does not write any of Lpanel.
I thought your post was quite funny.
We use dreamweaver yes, dreamweaver can be setup to not modify any files with .php extentions. So it is basically just a text editor for php files.

As for the bugs I worked with you many times to resolve issues in 1.5. Anything that was reported as a bug was fixed in 1.5 before it was released.

Some of the things you all post is entertaining, as some may be true some might not be.
For the most part datacities customers are 110% happy with our service.
tryant I am not quite sure what happened in your case but I will look into it.
Fact of the matter is people try to out smart hosting companies then they get busted, then they report the hosting company is bad. Which isn't the case, It is the customer who tried to pull one over on the hosting who got caught.
Which is quite funny tryant had all these problems not 1 datacities person has heard or recieved emails from this person, and he just signed up for WHT in september to report we are screwing him over? Serious people come on.
Maybe tryant just had a bad experience with us for whatever reason who knows, I just find that odd.

Alot of customers are very happy with Lpanel.
Yes it had its share of bugs which are now fixed.
Just like ALL software.
For us to not be serious?
We are very serious about our software and our business.
We have made adjustments in the developement / support flow.
Which will greatly help our customers and provide the level of support they expect.

I mean serious do you people go to any major software forums?
Do you ever get to speak to the dev's directly?
I have been on the cpanel forums many times with bugs in cpanel and have not once spoken to a dev.

Lpanel you get a chance to talk to dev's as well as help build the product by recommendations etc.

We treated our help bad? I don't think so maybe get the facts before posting lies.
Piggers left because he wanted to leave. I can post the email if you want. He wanted things done right away. After he was told not to help until a contract was in place. That was his fault not ours. Piggers was treated very well by me and I helped him as much as I possibly could.

Also tryant I just read the other part of your post.
1) The billing system use to run on paypal / 2checkout which we moved from and now use linkpoint which is why some accounts had some weird issues.
2) Yes the new ccverify was added to protect hosting companies from fraudulent orders because the customer must confirm the 2 charges to their account. However this should not have affected your paypal account.
3) I do all the technical issues and I am not sure I even had a ticket from you.
4) Send me the info as requested above username / domain and I will make sure this is taken care of.

Yes we do not like to lose customers over mistakes or a bad experience.
I think this was just a bad experience for you because of other factors and I apologize for the inconvenience.
Maybe in the future we can provide you hosting services.

You are disapointed in me? I am disapointed in you guys. Bangsters and I were both told on several occassions that the contract was being done by someone. It never happened. This went on for a while. In fact bangsters was just told by Scott that there would not be a contract until he sees some performance. What the hell is that. When you go to a job they don't tell you that you will not get paid until they see some performance. They usually feel you out over a period of time. You guys knew what the two of us could do by giving you the free support. In fact you got even more from me(No disrespect bangsters). I had no documentation what so ever and I was still able to support your product and get things resolved with very little contact from you on how to fix things.

My reasons for leaving is because I could no longer give your product the type of support that it needed without documentation anylonger. You brought out a new version after I beta tested it for 2 days. In fact I am still having issues with the problems that were found during beta testing. How can you release a product without fulling testing it? I don't understand that. I have a bud that paid the full lifetime and he has had major issues since day one and nobody I mean nobody has fixed his issues. He has countless numbers of tickets that are open without of them being resolved.

Let me post your reply when I asked you where the beta was and when it was going to be released.

[20:22] userdelroot: u wanna beta test?
[20:22] Piggersisdaman: wasn't that the plan
[20:22] userdelroot: i mean u want to beta test some stuff right now with your reselelr account?
[20:23] userdelroot: ill setup our developement shitznitz
[20:23] userdelroot: 1 sec
[20:23] Piggersisdaman: you are releasing it on the 6th and we have not even tested it. scott let me see it lastnight
[20:23] Piggersisdaman: k
[20:27] userdelroot: devel.lpanel.net/beta
[20:27] userdelroot: piggers / piggers
[20:27] userdelroot: add your server
[20:27] userdelroot: for your reseller account and go to town
[20:27] userdelroot: ;)
[20:27] userdelroot: any weird stuff you find put it into an email to me
[20:27] userdelroot: ill check it out
[20:28] Piggersisdaman: lol
[20:28] Piggersisdaman: are you serious
[20:28] userdelroot: what ya mean?
[20:28] userdelroot: you will see the major changes lol
[20:28] Piggersisdaman: this ain't beta testing it dude....everybody has different problems because they are on different servers.
[20:29] Piggersisdaman: lol
[20:29] userdelroot: lol
[20:29] userdelroot: that has nothing to do with it
[20:29] userdelroot: cpanel servers all the same
[20:29] userdelroot: however i have installed another apache which will be be testing on also

Now if this was true we would all be having the same problems. After this conversation I had the beta around two or three days later. Two days after that you released it.

I am out! You guys make me laugh with all of your excuses. You already have a bad rep because you cannot deliver. I don't have to say anymore.

Have a good one Frank.

wow frank I would like to see some of the post I posted a year ago on here, thats funny because I just started on webhostingtalk about 2 weeks ago maybe 3 at the most look at my profile, and if you are mistaking me for some one else then maybe you can see there is a problem and some guy has the same complaints as I do, and yes I did send you all e-mails about these issues and I still have them with my replys, also I do not wont to argue with you or anyone at datacities because all you guys do is lie your way out of any thing you can, look at the other post I found on the forums and you can see that other people are having the same troubles, so when you sit there and try to defend your self on one complaint about your guys services, why waist your time? and why waist your time writing these lies when you can spend that time fixing your problems with your hosting company and your software?, check this out

dcfrank
Newbie

Registered: Apr 2004
Posts: 24

your not even here for a year or even have that many post, so how can you say some thing and have no proof of it? that shows me AGAIN all you do is make things up to cover your butts on the forum so people wont think your such a bad company, well guess what I have nothing to prove to you or your company and i did get a e-mail from you guys saying that you will fix my problem give me 3 months worth of service and refund my money, well telling me some thing and doing some thing about it is 2 deferent things buddy. here is that e-mail

Staff member, Mike Cruz responded to your ticket ID 8320:

I am very sorry about this matter. There was a billing issue which for some reason did not activate your account. In this case Not only will I credit your account but I will offer you credit for an additional 3 months at no charge. Is this ok with you? Please let me know. Sorry about this.
If there is anything else I can do for you, Please let me know.

Michael Cruz
Datacities.com Administration

Join the Datacities Hosting Community Forum: http://www.datacities.com/forums/

Update your website with over 5000+ Templates (Free Previews)
http://www.cheaptemplatesonline.com/

so that right there tells me Oh look sorry you was right about your problem thats why you can't log into the lpanel but we are fixing it
and now you get on and say some thing totaly deferent, how do you lie so much? is it a gift? I realy would like to know and understand your kind!
but anyways please do not reply to this forum and this post anymore or even tell me anymore lies or try to cover your butts any ,onger on any of these forums because I my self is sic of it and your company, and I am going to say I have no other choice but to report you and your staff about your issues to BBB.org and let them understand whats going on, they have a nice forum you can fill out just for my reasons, ( Guarantee's) and I will let them investigate your crew and company, it does take 30 days but you will be on there record as a bad company and will be investigate by the goverment. I am tried of even talking about this and fighting some thing that never ends. thank you and have a good night!

Without getting too involved in this thread, I would just like to add a few important notes.

Lpanel offers 30 day trials to evaluate our services.

30 days free, therefore if you do not like our services after 30 days then you move on. With DataCities, we offer 30 day money back guarantee's for all plans.

We have always honored valid refund requests. Our hosting services are extremely reliable and Lpanel is a very powerful hosting management software.

There is absolutely no "class-action" lawsuit against us, nor are there chargeback issues. The fact is that we are a hard working company that has grown tremendously over the past few months. We are not scamming anybody and provide valuable services to our clients.

Sincerely,

<<Signature to be setup in your profile>>

then send me back my money! if you value your services, and how many times have I asked this question on the forum? all I want is my money and this all stops.

You cannot expect us to monitor this forum for refund requests. Open a support ticket or email me directly at scott@lpanel.net and I will evalulate your refund request.

Your refund request has been processed. Your review is completely legit and understandable, your account was marked as active but was actually still in pending status for way too long.

I have refunded the invoice in question and I have also credited your account with 3 free months. This is a $119.85 value, I hope this compensation suits you.

Take care.

Refund From DataCities, Inc. Sep. 20, 2004 Pending Details $39.95 USD $0.00 USD


I have tears in my eyes from happyness.
I am shocked and suprised.
Thank you guys
sorry we can't do business anylonger for the rest of my life.
its about time :)

ohh and the 3 free months I have no use for it, so you may cancle that too. but other then that I will write a support ticket to you all about cancling the account. thanks for the refund!

Well I would be the first to admit that I was wrong on my accusations about lpanel. I do apoligize for my remarks that I made. They do have a good product and have took the steps to make sure that there customer base and there future clients are taken care of.

I believe every company comes to a point where they need to expand if they are doing well. They realized this and did so which says alot about how much they are willing to keep there customers happy.

So LPanel I do apologize for my rude remarks!

Wow.... a bunch of bad publicity and at the end, one sorry message. I would have had a bad impression on Lpanel, if I didnt finish the story here. So the lesson to learn today is , always finish what you read. =)

Joshua

dont worry, after a while you get imune to the rants and can get to the real information. :D