We have this user that was praising our service this February. His renewal came along and obviously the user didn't want one of his accounts. His solution after he had been charged straight to his bank (failed to email us or let us know) and charge backed both transactions.

After a chargeback is received we then suspend a client’s account and let them know why. We did this to this client and obviously irate that his account was suspended proceeded to post on our forums. Our numerous attempts to take the issue through the helpdesk (we require the user to submit information including an agreement that they agree to these charges), failed with the user continuing posting on our forums.

These were subsequently locked as really the public forum should not be aware of a customer issue in regards to billing and we care for the privacy for our customers. Jump forward 2 days the customer sends the document as requested to us. We then forward it to worldpay. Obviously without a yay or nay from worldpay/their bank we are not going to toy with the idea of letting the site stay unsuspended. Because of his constant complaints we compromised and restored the site from backup sure not the latest and change the password prior to placing it but up for public viewing. In a case like this you need to be careful as some clients do a bait and switch (feed you a bullcrap story and switch providers and your out for the chargeback fees) seen it before and it will continue to happen.

So after explaining over 10 times that the forums are not a place to discuss his issue, and the root cause of the issue was him and his ability to not contact us prior to contacting his bank. I thought he may have become civil.

Nope, jump forward a week worldpay processes one of his chargeback’s (before it was in staging and required documents from us which we sent). So again we suspend. He visits our forums and states if he doesn't get a resolution within x days he will change hosts

More specifically he will host with his friend for free.


This is funny, all this trouble over a chargeback.




I'll go with my friend who said he'll host my site with the same specs as what you're giving me, for no price at all. And I won't exactly stay quiet about the quality of service around here...get my drift?


So at this stage, I get a little annoyed and I think lost my cool a bit, still the user thinks we are sitting on our hands and we are causing the delay, even after explaining it to him multiple times.

http://www.myacen.com/forums/showpost.php?p=103841&postcount=20 is my response. (you may or may not need to be registered I can't honestly remember)

He then responded on the 6th August indicating he is not making any threats. I then respond indicating he has 72 hours to contact his bank and our helpdesk regarding the issue.

We give him more than 72 hours and he then posts


I'm not contacting your help desk, I'm not doing anything else besides going back to a site you people screwed up. Put my site back up NOW. Delete it go ahead, I don't really care anymore
I'm going to do whatever I can that will drive customers away from you people, because you provide the most imcompetent service I've ever had the displeasure of having.


This is in our open forum so I don't see a problem with posting it here. Don't you love spiteful customers? When will they learn that contacting the merchant is the easier thing to do?

I’ve been doing this for more than four years now, so it's not our first experience with this sort of thing, sure the first time was a reality check and lead to terms of service changes back a long time ago but now you just take it on the chin. It's a shame that after so much assistance after the chargeback claim was filed the user has turned around and is making these demands.

I just had to get this off my chest as really it has bothered me. Sure his site was down, however he is not seeing it from our point of view and frankly if a client does not understand after 10 times of thorough explaining then it's not likely he or she will ever comprehend the issue. :rolleyes:

So to the new hosts good luck and god bless

Thanks for listening :emlaugh:

Robert

:idea: :gone:

There always seems to be a few clients like that who seem to have a problem understanding both sides and figure you should do what they say no matter what. Good work keeping to your guns on it.

Thanks for the edit by the way Lubby :)

Originally posted by coight
Thanks for the edit by the way Lubby :)

Your wish was my command. ;)

I just had to get this off my chest as really it has bothered me.You had quite a lot on your chest. :)

We've seen this type of behaviour from people on WHT from time to time and it always makes me wonder how they get through life in general...

Some people just simply won't listen to reason, or meet you halfway or really do anything but get mad and spit and cuss. It's just life that sometimes you run into that person that simply will not act reasonably.

Good Job at keeping your cool. Its difficult to do in some cases. You ought to see the week after Christmas in the mall. If you would like to see individuals who can not see both sides thats the place. Have a great evening!!!

Originally posted by coight
. . . Sure his site was down, however he is not seeing it from our point of view . . .
Well, that's their perogative. They're the paying customer, and as the host taking their money, we need to make a good attempt to see things from the customer's point of view, be that as twisted as it might be. :uhh:

Anyhooooo, hope you got it off your chest and you feel better. :D

FWIW, next time you get a charge back customer you might try something less invasive than completely disabling / deleting their account. I've found that simply changing the password on their email accounts is the quickest way to get most customer's attention, without actually causing the customer any downtime or public notice that they've been suspended.

Originally posted by Jay Suds
FWIW, next time you get a charge back customer you might try something less invasive than completely disabling / deleting their account.
heh. Not that it's ever happened, but if an active client of mine does a chargeback, their account is suspended immediently. I'd suspend, and then ask why. :eek3:

Jay Suds, I like it. That is a really clever way of handling it. I would have never though about doing it that way either.

However, I do have to agree that I would suspend them too. Charge backs cost money and time. And, my point of view is if your going to cost me time and money and you initiated. Well then I will nicely return the favor with a click of the button :)

Don't bother with customer forums.
They are a bad idea - full stop.

ANy benefits are far outweighed by the negatives.

Originally posted by GordonH
Don't bother with customer forums.
They are a bad idea - full stop.

ANy benefits are far outweighed by the negatives.
I would beg to differ. :)

My personal experience with HTTPme was that the forum/community was a HUGE positive, and very beneficial. :gthumb:

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
heh. Not that it's ever happened, but if an active client of mine does a chargeback, their account is suspended immediently. I'd suspend, and then ask why. :eek3:

I'd do the same thing. Most merchant account/gateway providers charge a fee for chargebacks, including mine. Not only that, you need to deal with trying to prove you provided the services. And a lot of times the merchant gets screwed and the chargeback is on your record.

I will always work with a customer to resolve billing issues but if a customer doesn't contact me at all and issues a chargeback, I'm sorry but I will give no leniency. The account is immediately suspended. You don't pay for services and expect to have your account active? Let alone the time, money, and frustration. Ridiculous. :crazy:

Sorry you had to deal with that kind of a customer coight, but at least he/she is gone.

Originally posted by Jay Suds
FWIW, next time you get a charge back customer you might try something less invasive than completely disabling / deleting their account. I've found that simply changing the password on their email accounts is the quickest way to get most customer's attention

Yeah. I have done that. Some customers actually didn't notice that either. In this case I don't think it would have made any difference. When they mention the words "friend" and "free" in reference to hosting their site its time to turn off the lights.

Is there anything to protect you from Chargebacks in your TOS, I am wating to make. legit. I have in their, that it will be cancelled on the next billing cycle.. Is that enough? or do I need somehting better to cover by butt to protect from idoits like that? I understand the other side of chargebacks, thats why I have implemnted Fraud Prevention.

If they are in the UK I refer them to a debt collecton agency.
I have done this for amounts as low as $20.
The collection agency charges the customer the fee as well which can be up to $100.

I quite enjoy the feeling of revenge.

I just wonder why they don't host with their 'friend' for free from the start, instead of causing their host endless trouble :)

You guys seem to have a much easier time of it than I do.

In the past year I have been threatened with the death of my children by a spam gang in Florida if I did not host their spam site. This was reported to the FBI and apparently the same gang had been implicated in burning down a data centre somewhere. Mafia connected. The FBI advised me not to go to Florida for the forseeable future and the threats continued for a few months.

Then I had a customer who said "give me £xxxxx or I will post nasty stuff about you all over the internet". I know from having ignored these sort of threats in the past that they can be very damaging. There is still stuff out there posted by someone like this that claims I am a drug dealer.
I decided to sue this new blackmailer but my lawyers advised that paying him would be a lot cheaper provided we got a written undertaking that he would drop any future claim.
There was no point refering it to the police because it was a civil issue.
So I gave in to blackmail and he got a new car.

This seems to be par for the course out there if (like us) you have lots of customers. We probably only come across one every three months but each one stings.

Gordon, I have to say ... that is really horrible. In 8yrs I've been hosting, I have never once ever been seriously threated by a customer.

I think those are the two worst incidents we have had.

If I was ever short of cash I would not hesitate to sign up with all of you on here and blackmail you for a living :emlaugh:

Spam Gang, threats, we are hosting companies not drug house. Why would you threaten a host? Good Luck and keep safe Gordon

Wow. Drama is alive and well.

I can say that I've never been threatened, but back to the original post for a minute...

I have a clause in my T/C that says if you chargeback for any reason, I suspend. In order to get un-suspended, you have to pay what you owe plus $45.00 within 5 days or I delete your files. No games. No bull. Needless to say, I only have a chargeback every once in a while.

Good job sticking up for yourself. Based on your detail, you really did try your best. Way more than I would have done.

Kudos 2u.

- LH

There are always peop;le who become 'pains in the asses'