Last July I made the mistake of trying out *****'s special package. It featured a 30 day full-money-back guarantee. I took advantage of this and cancelled after 21 days.

Within the last week, *****'s collections department has been emailing me and telling them to pay them $50 for setup fee on the account that I cancelled. The original offer included a complete waiving of setup fees and the full-money-back guarantee.

Anyone have any suggestions what I should do with the next Enron (*****)? It seems that they have all the power in the world to claim that people owe them money, and threaten to ruin their credit if we don't pay up.

Originally posted by Smear
Within the last week, *****'s collections department has been emailing me and telling them to pay them $50 for setup fee on the account that I cancelled. The original offer included a complete waiving of setup fees and the full-money-back guarantee.

Did you read the TOS? They used to have a special offer a while back where they waived the set-up fee if you don't cancel the account. :rolleyes:

hmmm... has anyone had a good experience with *****?

just curious...

Originally posted by Lonny
hmmm... has anyone had a good experience with *****?

just curious...

No. ;)

Actually I was exchanging emails with someone who had his site hosted with *****, and he said they were "okay, not great". That's the best experience I've heard of.

I'm with ***** and I'll say that I'm happy with them.

I've had many problems but they've been because I'm just a beginner and I didn't know what I was doing. My domain went down a couple of times because they had to fix something on my server computer but other than that it's fine. I went with them because they were the only company offering 24h toll free support and they also had the best deal for a dedicated server. I've since had to upgrade and that was done without incident. I pay $199 USD/month with 150gig bandwidth.

Their tech supoprt is very helpful. Granted it does take 30 min minimum to get through but I'm not bothered by it. They answer all their trouble tickets quickly which is also a very big plus.

This forum is fast... I couldn't press STOP or ESC button fast enough... So here is my nonesense line...

Hi,
I have seen people inquiring about ***** services, here is
what happened with me:

My server has been down from day 1, except for few hours after it was setup for the first. Although I have complained more than 21 times(11 phone calls, 10 emails and 2 tickets, 1 fax),
I never got a reply from ***** and they never refunded my money, yet they had the time cash the check I sent to pay for my order!

Following is what I experienced with my account at *****:
-->Week 1:
I was able to login to the machine and I discovered that the IP is not the same as the one specified in the contract. I contacted the support 3 times asking them to change the IP but they did not. The only thing they did is that each time, they requested the system administrator to reboot the machine!
-->Week 2:
In the fourth call, the technical support changed the IP to the correct one and they also changed the name
to the wrong one! So, now, I can telnet to the machine using my IP but not using the name! I had to make a fifth and sixth phone call to convince them to change it. Finally, they did change it. I became able to login to the machine but now I am getting all kinds of weird errors. For example, if I type any command at
the prompt, I would get "Segmentation fault"!
-->Week 3:
I phoned the support for the seventh and eighth time and sent two emails. Finally, I was told that there seems to be a hardware failure and a ticket has to be opened (c2564609.100). Later on, I was told the server was recycled. I tried to access the machine but I was never able to telnet/ftp to the machine. I sent another email inquiring about the status of my server.
-->Week 4:
I sent the fourth and fifth email with no one responding. Finally at the tenth call, I had another ticket open (c7753584.100) and it is till open up till this day from November 1, 2000! and my server has never been up since then.
-->Week 5:
Two more emails but no response. One more phone call. I am told that it will be fixed soon.
-->Weeks 6,7:
My server is still down! and I never received any email/telephone-call regarding that.
-->Weeks 10-16:
I have been trying to cancel the contract and get a refund without any response from the billing department. I even sent a fax asking for my contract to be canceled.

So after: 11 phone calls, 10 emails, 2 tickets (c2564609.100 && c7753584.100) and 1 fax, yet the server stayed down!!!!, they did not call, and they did not even want to cancel the contract, although, I was promised a money back guarantee initially!!! Not only that, but they want me to pay for the hosting costs on a server which I was never able to upload a single file to!!!

I have already filed a complain with the Better Business Bureau of Texas (http://www.centraltx.bbb.org/) about that company practices and encourage every angry customer to do so!

Wael

Go to:

https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

And fill out a report with the FTC. Eventually, you’ll get the federal government to bring suit.

EVERY ***** customer should fill out this form, whether you’re happy with them or not. :) Hehe. Just kidding, just kidding. Only do it if you have a valid complaint.

If you signed a form, physically or electronically, stating that you’d pay setup fees if you cancelled within a set amount of time... that’s an agreement you made between yourself and *****. You shouldn’t be protected from things you yourself agree to (otherwise life is just a big long out of body experience!). That would be irresponsible, psychologically dissociative, and a wholly damaging thing for you. Taking responsibility for our choices -- mistakes included -- is the only way anyone ever got ahead in life.

But check it out... If it’s just something they snuck on without your EXPLICIT consent, you certaintly have grounds. And if they do harm your credit (they ask for your social security # when you sign up? if they didn’t, they can’t harm your credit, now can they?), you can make a request for them to give you written proof of the debt you owe. It’s called validation, I think. If they can’t honestly show that you agreed to the debt, you can take them to small claims court for FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) violations. You will get $1000 for every provable violation, and can get a court order to have the negative credit removed. Most companies default (don’t show up) when you sue them for “small” stuff like this, so you automatically win.

Also, since they’re basically collecting a debt against you (whether it’s a real debt or not)... I think they have to follow FCRA rules about that. I.E., deliver them a letter, registered with return receipt, telling them that you do not wish to be contacted by them again. They can then legally contact you only once more, in order to tell you what recourse they’re going to take against you (sue, harm your credit, whatever). They must follow through with that recourse, or that’s another violation of the FCRA. They’re legally allowed to threaten you (well, within the law... heh), but not make empty threats -- in simple english, anyway.

Good luck, guys. And remember to use the FTC. Everyone from libertarians to democrats and republicans all agree that the government’s primary, core job is to protect us from crime, of which fraud is fundamental one. It certainly seems as if ***** defrauds tons of people to varying degrees, and is perhaps one of the few organizations that legitimately deserves the government’s nastiest forms of attention. Better than going after companies making vitamin C, claiming it’ll make you healthy or some such other perfectly innocent thing. Heh :)

OT, but, how is this possible??

"Wael
Complete Newbie

Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 0"

I see at least one post!? :-)

OT: I don't know, you'd think it would say 1...

Originally posted by jmars
...Also, since they’re basically collecting a debt against you (whether it’s a real debt or not)... I think they have to follow FCRA rules about that. I.E., deliver them a letter, registered with return receipt, telling them that you do not wish to be contacted by them again. They can then legally contact you only once more, in order to tell you what recourse they’re going to take against you (sue, harm your credit, whatever). They must follow through with that recourse, or that’s another violation of the FCRA. They’re legally allowed to threaten you (well, within the law... heh), but not make empty threats -- in simple english, anyway...

Here's the way that I understand the laws in the US:

Only a third party would be obligated to no longer contact you once asking them in writing to stop. After which, they could contact you more than once, as the action they're taking may require it.

The actual debt holder can continue to contact you about the debt whether you ask them to stop or not. However, it has to be reasonable (decided by a judge), so as not to fall into harrassment, and telephone/personal contact has to be within certain hours of the day. If you want them to stop contacting you about the debt, you must not only ask them to stop contacting you, but you must dispute the debt in writing. If you don't owe them anything, then they don't have the right to attempt to collect it.

Originally posted by Tim_Greer
OT, but, how is this possible??

"Wael
Complete Newbie

Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 0"

I see at least one post!? :-)
maybe he'she was banned!

***** - WHere downtime is not an option it's a reality!
I had day after day of downtime with them...

be careful about legal matters with them... I will just leave it at that...