Hi,

Do you know that AIT (Advanced Internet Technology) http://www.aitcom.net is stealing my money.

I applied with AIT for a server in December 1999, and they told me that the application was rejected due to some errors in the application form. and since then they are charging my credit card every month, not responding to my emails and phone calls.

Find out the whole story at: http://www.webwand.net/ait/

Please give me your opinions and suggestions.

What?
I happened in December 1999?
Too late :(

My advice, contact your CC bank, do a charge back and change your CC number.

What you should do (or rather, what you should have done a year ago) is call your bank and tell them you will not accept any further charges from Advanced Internet Technologies. The fact that this has been going on for over a year means you're probably going to have a rough time doing a charge back for everything but the most recent charges.

Shan first off I would quickly change your info and refrain from using the word steal or stealing. Why not just say "Why you should possibly not do business with AIT)

Using something as harsh as "steal" may hinder your ability to get compensation.

Some things I would do

Send letter to Better Business bureau in the state they are registered in as well as the local Consumer Affairs.

Someone from the State if may be able to assist you in giving addressing you should write to explaining your problem.

Whois http://www.register.com/whois-results.cgi?63cf325518b4cdfe8ab98f5aad3d655f0c1a5f6adb9eede7
shows they are located in Fayetteville North Carolina

Good Luck

My very first post here was about my experiences with AIT. What a delightfully polite group of incompetent and apathetic nincmpoops they are.

Billing is one of their perennial problems. A friend of mine used them for awhile on my recommendation and they billed him for the month before he signed up with them.

You're still lucky in the respect that you didn't become one of their abused customers.

As far as a solution to your problem, and without reading the story you have linked, if this has gone on for a year, it's time to pull out the big guns.

A few of us discussed state attorney generals recently and if you search, you can find a link to a list of all of them. Get in touch with the appropriate one as this is fraud.

By all means, as suggested, contact your credit card processor in writing and let them know the whole story if you haven't already.

Contact the BBB (Better Business Bureau). They have no authority to do anything and there is always the off chance that AIT might not want a bad report, especially in such a case where they are obviously so inept. It shouldn't take a year to correct a mistake.

Send them a letter they have to sign for advising them of the problem and your course of action. When they realize you are serious, they might take you seriously and resolve the problem.

I am sorry to put the word "steal", but what would you say about someone who charge you over 700 dollars and keep charging your credit card for nothing in return.
If you read the linked story I wrote (in my modest English) you will find that I was trying all the time to stop them from charging my CC with no success.

I called the bank and they told me that I have to change my CC, which I use very often for paying other hosting companies and online services and this will be very painful choice.

I am going to contact the BBB as you suggested and will ask AIT for a full refund.

Thank you all for your kind help.

Here I dug up some information on AITcom.Below is some from the internic and the rest is from the secretary of state.

http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/Corporations/

http://www.jus.state.nc.us/ <--- for the attorney's office

Something you can do is contact the State Attorney Generals office and make a complaint.


Date: 2/9/2001
Document Filings


Corporation Names
Name Name Type
AIT Asia, Inc. Legal NC

Business Corporation Information

SOSID: 0556380
Status: Current-Active Name
Date Formed: 7/7/2000
Citizenship: Foreign
State of Inc.: XX
Duration: Perpetual Country of Inc.: british west indies

Registered Agent
Agent Name: Townley, Robert C.
Registered Office
Address: 421 Maiden Lane
Fayetteville NC 28301
Registered Mailing
Address: 421 Maiden Lane
Fayetteville NC 28301
Principal Office Address
Dr. Roys Drive
3rd Floor Genesis Bldg.
Grand Cayman Islands



AIT, Inc.,
ATTN: Robert C Townley, Chief Legal Officer
421 Maiden Lane
Fayetteville NC, 28301

Registrar Name: THE NAME IT CORPORATION
Address: 421 Maiden Lane, Fayetteville, NC 28301, US
Phone Number: 910-321-1370
Email: support@nameit.net
Whois Server: whois.nameit.net
Referral URL: http://www.nameit.net
Admin Contact: Ed F McDaries
Phone Number: 910 485 2383
Email: cmo@nameit.net
Admin Contact: Clarence E Briggs
Phone Number: 910 485 2383
Email: ceo@nameit.net
Admin Contact: Beau . Garcia
Phone Number: 910-321-1265
Email: bgarcia@nameit.net
Billing Contact: Ed F McDaries
Phone Number: 910 485 2383
Email: cmo@nameit.net
Billing Contact: Steve P Young
Phone Number: 910 321 1370
Email: cfo@nameit.net
Technical Contact: Ed F McDaries
Phone Number: 910 485 2383
Email: cmo@nameit.net
Technical Contact: Michael G Janicki
Phone Number: 910 485 2383
Email: cio@nameit.net
Technical Contact: Scott B Ritchie
Phone Number: 910 485 2383
Email: sritchie@nameit.net
Technical Contact: Burtland . Jones
Phone Number: 910-321-1267
Email: bjones@aitcom.net
Technical Contact: Charles M VanSickle
Phone Number: 910 321 1370
Email: charles@nameit.net

heh hold on guys.. dont get all rowdy on him yet. Have you even contacted the host yet? I know something similar (well not really) happened to one of my customers. Someone signed up for an account and I sent him his email within 30 minutes of his signup to tell him his account was ready with intructions. Well he claims he never got the email (I went back and found that "Message_accepted" from our maillog but anyhow he said he didn't get the email I said blah blah customer is always right and credited his $$ back. I think you should go that route before anything else, it is probably an accounting error on the hosting end but if they wont charge it back.. GET EM!


James R. Clark II
Nethosters Inc.
http://www.nethosters.com

You'r right Jic,

But I have all the correspondance between me and AIT and they know all about it but they are just ignoring me.

I received a message from the host when I applied for a server telling me that my application was destroyed and I have to apply again. And in another message, and as a reply to my complain for sending me an invoice,they appologized for the mistake and told me that there was an error in the billing system and they are sorry, and the next month they charged my credit card again.

You may not need to change your credit card with the bank.Go to AITCOM's site, and login to their billing system.

Don't know the info? That's okay. heh... I'm a former customer... login is usually the first 8 letters (and dashes if you have) of your domain name. Password should be as you have chosen, or go back over that application with a fine-tooth comb and FIND any reference to a password. If you can't find it, you can always see if their billing system will e-mail the password to you. All you should need is your userid and your e-mail addy.

Get into the billing screen. Click on "update credit card" -- now botch up the last eight digits of the card. Just change 'em. The odds of you hitting someone else's number are basically zero. Submit the new number.

AITcom is not smart enough to go back in billing records and charge the "old" number. You will now get notices of "declined credit card" in e-mail. Better than fraudulent charges!!!

==============================
This said... I too am in the middle of a billing fiasco, although they don't owe me any money. I canceled on November 4th and never rec'd a bill for December. And yet they have me as owing $63 or whatever for December, and keep trying to charge my card (which mysteriously comes back as declined, thank God it had expired anyway, I won't give them the new expiry date).

I have been fighting this since December, have e-mailed with 7 different C.S. reps and finally last month even filed a complaint with the BBB. It has had NO EFFECT.

Today I escalated to billing: billingescalation@aitcom.net, and it was forwarded to a Yolanda Schmitz (yschmitz@aitcom.net) who assured me she'd take care of it by Monday. I am not holding my breath but I told her if it's not done, I too am going to the Attorney General's office as well as my and her state's Consumer Protection departments. In fairness to her she was very apologetic and also wanted to know who had called me and had been so rude and threatening on the phone.

====================================
You have got to get that credit card # out of their hands. They will keep charging it 'til the cows come home. And I don't care what the credit card companies say, you probably won't get the $$ back from MC or Visa, but if you stage war with complaints (and maybe a few of us could get together and do a PR awareness sort of thing online... hmmmm) you MIGHT get a refund of your fees. When I did the complaint thing and put up an "anti-*****" page on my website, I got a $680 refund from *****... it does work, even with the biggest cheats.

====================================
I would like to keep in touch with you and any others on AITcom billing disputes. My e-mail is baileysemt@yahoo.com and my ICQ is 107630105.

"Bailey"

You poor soul, your communications with them have been in EXACTLY the same format as mine. They are completely clueless and useless over there!

(1) Whatever you do, DO NOT TALK TO LINDA. She was very rude with me on the phone, told me that "This is the internet and anything goes. WE make the rules, and if you don't like it, that's too bad, you'll just have to pay up." !!!!!!! Never mind consumer protection laws, etc. Apparently she is a demigod and beyond accountability.

(2) Stealing is not an overly harsh word. This IS theft of funds because the charges are not authorized.

(3) I know it's a pain in the butt, but really, if you can't get into their billing system to change the credit card number... CANCEL THE CARD. Make sure you put a "stolen card number" complaint on your card because that IS essentially what has happened!!!!! Just because you signed up for service with them only to have the service declined doesn't make it NOT stolen. You didn't authorize the charges = stolen card #. This will also protect your credit rating. Very, very important. This may help you with any charges from the last 30 days, at least!

Make sure your new credit card is a Mastercard. They have a $0 fraud liability which Visa does NOT have. Citibank has a "click citi" platinum select card for internet use only. I have one of these and it is really freakin' slick. :-) They have always stood by me so far, including with AIT problems.

=================================
Decent companies:

Thus far, I have not had problems with cancelation and post-cancel fraudulent billing with:
nomonthly.com
burst.net (of course, March isn't here yet)

FWIW.

=================================
Good luck!
Bailey

We happen to be in the same little North Carolina city so if you need any local information about AIT let me know. BTW we do not do any business with them.

... if they are a "real" company with legitimate office space and employees, or if this is an outsourced outfit with a bunch of telecommuting monkeys who log in to a central server from home. Given the lack of accountability, lack of follow-through, and the seeming "left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing" and inability for employees to communicate with one another, I am guessing this is a log-in deal. Watch they're based in a strip-mall... or they lease a cubicle in a MailBoxesEtc. set-up office suite....

The quote "What a delightfully polite group of incompetent and apathetic nincmpoops they are." says it all. Bravo.

:-) Bailey.

Sorry they actually do have a real NOC downtown (complete with security guards; too many irritated customers?) which the city helped pay for. But that says nothing about the people that work there and they have had a few fights with the local city council over who was going to pay for stuff. They tend to think quite highly of themselves around here. At the beginning of last year they had all sorts of talk about having an initial IPO but apparently the stock market took care of that for them.

I had some problems with billing, but after contacting thier CMO I was able to get everything straighten out and a credit. It seems to me some people are too quick to bad mouth without trying to contact the people in charge. Any company can have a few bad employees. Try contacting: cmo@aitcom.net Maybe he can help. Good luck. :}

Too Quick?

After over one year of correpondance and over $700 of illigal credit card charge you call it too quick?
I was complaining all the time for the invoices and the charges and all they do is to escalate the problem to a higher level of billing then drop it back again to charge my credit card.
Any way I contacted the person you mentioned and I am waiting for his reply.

Thanks for the advice.

I've had a virtual Server #2 account at AIT for about 3 years now and generally have had no major complaints.

There was one period where they took my entire site down for a day about two years ago, claiming I was eating up system resources but couldn't back it up nor ever apologized or explained how it happened to begin with. That really annoyed me, but it never happened again.

They do not bill promptly. Sometimes I may not get billed for two months and then get billed all at once. But, in general, their billing has been fair. There was one instance where they billed me an extra $2 for a domain I had removed, but once I brought it to their attention it was corrected.

Still, I'm transitioning all my clients (slowly) over to Alabanza accounts hosted at HostingMatters.com. I like the Alabanza control panels and my clients like them too. Annette and Stephanie over at HM give me excellent support and making a 50% margin as a reseller is just fine with me. One day when I support over a couple hundred clients I'll move to my own server.

AIT's prices were OK, but those $20 setup fees for each domain were killing me. And their control panel for clients is not as good as Alabanza. And they don't support mySQL databases. Maybe not even PHP, I'm know sure.

Overall, AIT is OK, not great, and their virtual servers work very well. They helped me get my business off the ground and now I'm moving on.

That's my two cents.

Sean

Hmm... they suspended your site with no notice for the most vague of the reasons why a host might do so... their billing is erratic... their control panel is weaker than the competition... way-above-industry-norm setup fee...

But they are "OK?" I guess that's the beauty of the hosting business: customer expectations are so low!

I thought the same thing, Jay. I wonder what it takes for some people to think a company is poor or bad when such bad practices are deemed acceptable enough that a company who uses them is okay.

Ultimately, though, the truth comes out. The fact that they are leaving says more than the undeserved platitudes.

What "undeserved platitudes"?

Duster, I'm not in any mood to get into any flaming wars with you. I understand your past experiences with AIT left you very angry and you rise from the grave at every opportunity to slam them. That's fine. Leave me out of it.

But if anyone else cares to read what I said, I said I hadn't had one freaking hiccup with my AIT server in over 3 long years - nada, not one.

And while they might not bill regularly, they haven't screwed me ever. Ever. I don't count a $2 overcharge one month that was corrected when brought to their attention "erratic billing".

I said I am moving for other reasons.

And I'm not giving anyone "undeserved platitudes". I said they were "OK". And based upon some of the horror stories we hear about other web hosting providers here, I think OK is not that bad at all.

I'm out of this conversation, thank you. Sorry I added my two cents.

Sean

Originally posted by spcover
I don't count a $2 overcharge one month that was corrected when brought to their attention "erratic billing"."Sometimes I may not get billed for two months and then get billed all at once. "

I call that erratic. You, apparently, do not.

Really, Sean, I apologize if you found my followup to your post to be offensive. While of course I was specifically commenting on your post, I realize that you are not exactly new to the hosting arena and were certainly balancing a few weaknesses against what you experienced as good server performance.

The fact remains, though, that you wrote a few paragraphs of basically negative points, but ended up with the closest thing to a recommendation of AIT that I've ever read: yep "they are OK" is that! :)

Basically I was using your post to make a broader point: in the larger scheme my feeling remains that much of the success of the biggest hosting firms -- the AITs and *****s -- is simply because many customers don't hold hosts to a very high standard.

Anyway, as I said I know you've been around here and the net in general for a while. I hope for long enough that you don't take a followup expression of contrary opinion to be a personal affront.

I think it' is outright theft and a criminal offence to charge for something you don't deliver.do a charge back and change credit cards.don't give them a false cc number as that puts you in the cc fraud category and would give them some comeback on you.stay on the right side of the track and call the marshall!

Originally posted by spcover
What "undeserved platitudes"?

And I'm not giving anyone "undeserved platitudes". I said they were "OK". And based upon some of the horror stories we hear about other web hosting providers here, I think OK is not that bad at all.
I'd say that "okay" is platitude enough under the circumstances.

Duster, I'm not in any mood to get into any flaming wars with you. I understand your past experiences with AIT left you very angry and you rise from the grave at every opportunity to slam them. That's fine. Leave me out of it. You can't because I won't. Never have, never will. Flaming, however is being insulting on a personal level, not having a difference in opinion. You were left out of it. My remarks were about AIT. If you're going to be overly sensitive about criticism of a company you do business with, perhaps you shouldn't be posting.

I don't understand the grave remark as I am neither dead nor gone. Neither do I slam AIT at every opportunity. There are plenty of people telling the truth about them. I'm cotent that the page on my web site and the truth reported here have cost them some business they would have otherwise gotten.

But if anyone else cares to read what I said,....
..There was one period where they took my entire site down for a day about two years ago, claiming I was eating up system resources but couldn't back it up nor ever apologized or explained how it happened to begin with.
..They do not bill promptly. ..

I don't consider that okay.
I'm out of this conversation, thank you. Sorry I added my two cents.
I'm not, even if you over reacted. You've shown us that some people have low expectations of hosting companies, thus, their recommendations may be suspect, particularly if they do not provide details. You;ve been helpful in that respect. Thank you.


[Edited by Duster on 02-15-2001 at 07:45 PM]

JayC - I apologize for over-reacting.

Regards,

Sean

Here's my recent as of today story on aitcom: I used them for hosting a domain since their beginnings, aprox. 1996. No problems then, they were small enough to care about customers.

Recently I decided to transfer my domain to a different hosting co. just because it's cheaper and offers a simpler interface to your account.
Ok, in order to cancel my account with aitcom, I had to fax them a print out off their site.

Today receiving my cc statement, surprise, the account is still billed for the next quarter!!! I called them, and being Xmas eve, I was lucky enough to get through immediatelly. According to their reply, I will still be billed for the remainder of my "billing cycle" which in my case would be like 6 months!!
They claim they sent a change in the contract provisions in regard to this cancellation policy about 1.5 years ago, which of course I don't have and never heard about such a policy.

I put a charge back on my cc and will complain with the NC BBB. Also will complain with the GA of the State.

Any ideas?

Do a chargeback immediately, then call your credit card company and tell them the card has been used for fraud and you want the account # changed. That way AIT cannot re-charge you for the balance due. Have your cancellation paperwork in-hand and send it to the CC company. Most likely you'll go a round or two on the chargeback, if AIT contests the chargeback, just re-send the same info to the CC company. Keep pushing it. They pulled the same crap on me (account policy change), the policies changed in 9/2000.

If you search on the BBB you should find that AITcom has a bad record with them.

*nods* Good for you, gittin' outta there. :)

:D Bailey

A John Horton (jhorton?) of AITCOM talked me into one of thier Server 2+ accounts. My biggest reason was needing a database. After months of trying to use msql, they sent me an email saying it was not compatiable with thier system (they still advertise it). Additionally, host 11 months get the 12th free. Well after 11 months, 12 Months, 13 Months, 14 months I didn't get a free month. Being warn on this board of thier strange habit for chargin you for six (6) months when you cancel (which was not part of the rules when I joined up). I cancelled the credit card that I was using a cancelled them.

Got an email from thier billing department that they would send me a check for my free month. But all I actually get is emails from thier billing department saying my account is past due (8 months now).

:puke: AITCOM