Firstly im posting this to perhaps get some action and response from Chris but also to warn everyone away from this company as they obviously dont care about customers nor do they run a professional service.


Being in the UK hosting high bandwidth sites is impossible without a huge budget so we look to the USA to get such bandwidth for server.

Until recently when everyone dropped their prices we was faced with massive setup fees from the likes of RS and whilst we know you get what you pay for got offered a server through lightone for $100 per month with no setup fee.

With this we paid an extra on time fee of $40 for them to put the ram up to 512meg.

Firstly it took them approx 4 weeks to setup the server in the first place and then when setup Chris agreed to give me Plesk Unlimited Domain control panel licence in exchange for it taking them so long.

Every day i have had to reboot the server the load on the server is minimal with cpu and memory reaching a mere 3% at the most. Doing a top arose suspicions in that the memory stated was only 256meg. Doing a free check confirmed this .....they had taken the money for the extra ram and not bothered to install it.

The server connection has been very slow. I know this is primarily Cogent but somethings not right here. Taking 50-60secs to download the plesk holding page for a domain off a pc with a dsl line is not what you call high speed.

All connections ftp, telnet, ssh and http are all slow and i now believe that it was restricted if not disconnected at times to no doubt save lightone money.

After 4 weeks of pure hell with the server and having found out that i had been duped with the ram i contacted Chris through AOL AIM as they never ever respond to emails.

The response is fantastic to say the least. Replies of Dunno.....it will be on in an hour or so.......Hahaha........

This is fraud pure and simple. I agreed to pay for extra ram and they took the money and kept it without doing the work.

So finally i loose my temper and ask for a refund - well you can expect what happens next. Chris and lightone disappear off the face of the earth taking the server with them so not only have i been quite cleverly ripped off ive also been left in the lurch with the server and desperately trying to pick up the pieces before all
the clients that i placed on there quit and go elsewhere.

So i would like this to be a clear warning to anyone that in the future has dealings with Chris and/or Lightone.

They are untrustworthy
They provide substandard equipement and services
They commit fraud

I shall at all times post this message or refer to it when ever i see a post or advert by lightone.

Also this case is being reported to Squaretrade which will hopefully be past on to companies that deal with fraud and also be passed onto Elance and Ebay.

I would prefer a full refund and close this amicably but as they do not answer any emails, fax, aim messages or the telephone then it seems unlikely that they will
ever give me the full amount.

Well you live and learn - this is indeed a unfortunate experience to have and i do not want the same to happen to anyone else. So everyone be vigilant if you see lightone
advertising. Point them to this so they can go host with a respectable company

Hahaha,

:uzi: lightone :smash:

:eek: They suck

Did you pay by VISA? because VISA, or most major cc companies will issue a chargeback, investigate, and have your $$$ back within a month, it's a pain, but it would hurt lightone a lot more.
If you paid by paypal, even worse (read the horror stories about paypal, it never affects the buyers, always "good" vendors), and they could even get their account terminated/suspended with all of it's funds stuck inside :laugh:.

Unfortunately i went through Elance which uses their own payment system. Im in discussion with them to see what i can do about it although they state that my first point of call is with squaretrade and then with fraud investigation companies which i am more than willing to undertake.

Im sure that im not the only one to be in this situation. If anyone is reading this and have been duped by lightone then get in touch - we can band together and file a strong case against them

Originally posted by sparkle
Unfortunately i went through Elance which uses their own payment system. Im in discussion with them to see what i can do about it although they state that my first point of call is with squaretrade and then with fraud investigation companies which i am more than willing to undertake.

Im sure that im not the only one to be in this situation. If anyone is reading this and have been duped by lightone then get in touch - we can band together and file a strong case against them

Do a quick search on the board sparkle, im sure theres lots of unheard voices, but theres been like 5 posts similar to yours with outraged venting over the last month (which was frankly shocking to me since lightone had such popular offers for about 2 months solid).

sparkle, I'm sorry to hear about this, I have some servers (AMD 1.2 with 512MB Ram) with Chris, so if you would like to have his connection but not billing by him, just contact me! I also agree that his support is not satisfied and he never explained to me that slow connection is due to Cogent and not his fault...

Sparkle,
Did you try calling them?
1(800) 789-9092 ext. 1, 2 or 9.
Someone will usually pick-up, if not, try again few minutes later.


"All connections ftp, telnet, ssh and http are all slow and i now believe that it was restricted if not disconnected at times to no doubt save lightone money. "

I have been monitoring the lightone network and there have been no slow downs (over 30 seconds) for quite a while, it could be something with how you configured your server.

Disconnect the network connection to save money? That's VERY unlikely especially since OSPs pay for bandwidth by 95 percentile, capped or some other method where disconnecting the connections for a few minutes or a few hours will not lower their cost.

Usually the slow down time is on the US morning, I have checked the ping time is really slow. It's already happened for a few times. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by ckevin
I have checked the ping time is really slow.

How many ms is "really slow" ?
When was the last time this happened? Did you test fromm multiple locations?

yes, I have clients in Canada, HK, and France and they complained they have slow http, ftp.

Eg. normal ping time from HK is about 172ms, but in that period, will be around 1700ms, serious? This has happened for serveral mornings already e.g. yesterday morning and today morning.

well im unable to give the present ping times as the server was taken offline as soon as i requested a refund and also pointed out that i had paid for ram that i never recieved.

you bet the server was not configured properly.....explained this dozens of times to chris and support.....chris reply was....we did not setup this particular server so is not our fault. HELLO who's fault is this? whos responsibility is it? im paying lightone for a service which is then not their responsibility to fix.

was anything done about it......no

I didnt realise that they was resellers? Oh What I Hear You Say They Are Not?? Then how come when i have a problem with the server and the missing ram it is not their responsibility?? If it is not theirs then they must be resellers surely. Or is this yet another blatent untruth by Chris.

The server was four weeks late - why - as they was not allowed in the building that they have the servers in. Hello who has ever been refused entry into their own building? More untruths......gosh they are really looking like trustworthy people eh.

i can tell you that pings done to the server before it was taken offline just said unreachable.....timeout.....HELLO doesnt take a brain surgeon to figure this out....also hmm HELLO the server goes offline peak periods US time every day. The server only had 3 active clients on it and they was not exactly over doing things you know.

The other domains on the server was my own which are all in development stage and the visitors to the sites are myself and collegues.

Then the facts still remain that i paid for a service which i never recieved. I paid for ram which was never installed. The response of hahaha ....dunno....could do it sometime today....when you ask someone to recitify the situation is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

The server was down every day. Peak times sure enough.....call me paraniod if you wish but come now....this is quite suspicious.

Finally to take the server offline when asked for a refund and then not even give the refund is just the final straw really - hence the post. If Chris has the immature attitude to lie through his teeth, laugh and think he can get away with it as it is not face to face business then he has to think again.

I will go out of my way to make sure that i get my money's worth. Im not naturally a vindictive person but im no fool either.

I was actually happy with the service provided but Light One still billed me and didn't refund the money even though I had sent a cancellation of my server.

I have made a charge back and have the money now. Unless Chris can explain my bank why he billed me for another month and didn't refund it then I will keep the money.

I have this feeling he will probably bill my card again next month and then another charge back has to be made and I'm probably forced to get another VISA card. Oh well...

Well charging your card without authorization is illegal you know!

Even if you have given them permission to do so previous if you have cancelled and they still use your card without your auth then you can prosecute them.....your ccard company will frown big time against this as charge backs are bad for biz and costs money.

Originally posted by GAMPort
I was actually happy with the service provided but Light One still billed me and didn't refund the money even though I had sent a cancellation of my server.

I have made a charge back and have the money now. Unless Chris can explain my bank why he billed me for another month and didn't refund it then I will keep the money.

I have this feeling he will probably bill my card again next month and then another charge back has to be made and I'm probably forced to get another VISA card. Oh well...

Don't count on it, you wont need a new visa. If you get a second, file a complaint, every charge back goes against the merchants record, and if they have too many, their merchant account gets cancelled so they can't charge credit cards anymore.
Every time Chris gets a charge-back, im sure he's notified and probably kicks himself.

I know that too that's why I won't get a new credit card just yet. I don't pay to pay anything to get a new one though and don't use it for anything else since all my other costs are billed on my second card.