I am at war with softcomca, my web hosting. I sent the last email out to them this morning at 08:27am. Starting about 6:00pm this afternoon, my web site is down and I can't get any emails from their mail server.
What should I do next? Any legal action that I can take?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sender : modus
> Tracking Number : T2002022700C7Z600644
> Pool : Myhosting Technical Support
> Sent to : <support@myhosting.com>
> Date : 4/14/2002 08:27 AM


What are you talking about??? What console page??? What submit button??? This is it. I am taking my business elsewhere. When that happens, I will make sure this story will be posted on every single web hosting newsgroup/forum. Meanwhile, stop that password protection service so I won't be charged further more for something I have never authorized!!

on 4/13/02 9:58 PM, support@myhosting.com at support@myhosting.com wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> When you are at the password protection support console page at SoftCom,
> our pages clearly state the charges before going any further. In the
> initial page it will give description and will state the charges
> involved. Unless you hit the submit button there, it will not activate
> it.
>
> Thank you for your support!
>
> Regards,
>
> Belinda
> Customer Support
> http://myhosting.com
> http://mail2web.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: replies@myhosting.com [mailto:replies@myhosting.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2002 11:56 AM
> Subject: Re: Creating password access for client on my web page
> [T2002022700C7Z600644]
>
>
> Sender : modus
> Tracking Number : T2002022700C7Z600644
> Pool : Myhosting Technical Support
> Sent to : <support@myhosting.com>
> Date : 4/13/2002 11:56 AM
> ---
>
> That was exactly what I was doing. I WAS ASKING FOR INFORMATION. I did
> not authorize softcomca to activate password protection service for my
> account!!!
>
> on 4/13/02 2:27 AM, support@myhosting.com at support@myhosting.com
> wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> Your password protection service was activated on 27 Feb, the same day
>
>> that you sent in email for information for password protection
>> service.
>>
>> If you wish to cancel your password protection service, please let us
>> know and we will cancel it from here.
>>
>> Thank you for your support!
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Belinda
>> Customer Support
>> http://myhosting.com
>> http://mail2web.com
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: replies@myhosting.com [mailto:replies@myhosting.com]
>> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 1:10 PM
>> Subject: Re: Creating password access for client on my web page
>> [T2002022700C7Z600096]
>>
>>
>> Sender : modus
>> Tracking Number : T2002022700C7Z600096
>> Pool : Myhosting Technical Support
>> Sent to : <support@myhosting.com>
>> Date : 4/12/2002 1:10 PM
>> ---
>>
>> Daryl,
>> About 6 weeks ago, I exchanged emails with you for a couple times (see
>
>> below). From our emails, you can tell that I did not apply for or
>> authorize "password protection" for my account. I was shocked to find
>
>> out that softcomca charged me $9.95 for the setup fee and $4.00 per
>> month starting practically from the day we exchanged emails. I have
>> already sent in a complaint to your accounting department (I did not
>> attach the content of our emails though...). God knows how this
>> mishap happened. But I thought it would be a good idea to let you
>> know in order to to prevent this from happening again to your other
>> customers. Thank you for your attention.
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
>> ----
>> on 3/1/02 9:00 AM, support@myhosting.com at support@myhosting.com
> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Modus,
>>>
>>> You're welcome. You are correct, you can apply for the password
>>> protection feature with us for the fee og $9.95US for setup and
>>> $4.00US a month.
>>>
>>> Have a nice day.
>>>
>>> Daryl Brown
>>> Customer Support Representative
>>> http://www.myhosting.com
>>> http://www.mail2web.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: replies@myhosting.com [mailto:replies@myhosting.com]
>>> Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 11:51 AM
>>> Subject: Re: Creating password access for client on my web page
>>> [T2002022700C7Z556843]
>>>
>>> Sender : modus
>>> Tracking Number : T2002022700C7Z556843
>>> Pool : Myhosting Technical Support
>>> Sent to : <support@myhosting.com>
>>> Date : 3/1/2002 11:51 AM
>>> ---
>>>
>>> Thank you for the info, Daryl.
>>> I went to your website and somehow got the impression that there is a
>
>>> fee (one time or monthly...) for the password protection feature.
>>> Correct? Thanks, Modus
>>>
>>> on 2/27/02 10:22 AM, support@myhosting.com at support@myhosting.com
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Greetings,
>>>>
>>>> I have attatched to this email a document that you can look through
>>>> to learn about Password Protection.
>>>>
>>>> Have a nice day
>>>>
>>>> Daryl Brown
>>>> Customer Support Representative
>>>> http://www.myhosting.com
>>>> http://www.mail2web.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: replies@myhosting.com [mailto:replies@myhosting.com]
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 12:53 PM
>>>> Subject: Creating password access for client on my web page
>>>> [T2002022700C7Z554400]
>>>>
>>>> Sender : modus
>>>> Tracking Number : T2002022700C7Z554400
>>>> Pool : Myhosting Technical Support
>>>> Sent to : <techsupport@softcomca.com>
>>>> Date : 2/27/2002 12:53 PM
>>>> ---
>>>>
>>>> I would greatly appreciate any info regarding this subject. Many
>>>> thanks in advance. Modus

legal action over $15 worth of money? No lawyer will want to do it for you and if you do it yourself, it's not even worthed.

cheers,
:beer:

If you charged your hosting service then you should be able to dispute the extra charges. If you are being sent a bill which they say you should pay then you can drop the service. The problem might be getting your files out if you don't have a current backup. At least, that's how it seems to me.

-JoKeR

Your best bet would be to report the charges to your credit card company so they can issue a chargeback, depending on how recent the transaction was. Just tell them it was an unauthorised purchase and that you have no intentions of doing any further service with them and that you are considering legal action. Also, reporting them to the BBB might be a good idea.

I hope they weren't charging you extra for password protecting directories, and calling it a service. :)

You don't need a lawyer to file a claim in small claims court, usually. In fact, in some states, lawyers aren't allowed. The fees for filing the claim is usually adjusted according to how much you're suing for.

However, you probably do just want to continue asking them to credit you for the charges. If they don't, then let them know that you will be requesting a charge back with your credit card issuing bank, and then do that.

That is kind of rude for them to shut off your service. You may want to start shopping around for another provider asap. Even if they turn it back on, you probably don't want to stay there.

Just because you don't pay them by credit card, doesn't mean that they won't continue to pursue you for the debt. So your best bet is also sending them a letter by postal mail (with a certificate of mailing) notifying them that you're disputing the charges, and why. Of course, keep a copy of the letter for yourself.

I Am Not A Lawyer, by the way.

Good luck.

I don't really care much about the money part. It just turned me off to see how they run their business. Now my site and mail server is completely shut down by them even though my monthy fee is paid til the end of April. I just want to make sure people know about this and stay away from bad buinsess like theirs.....