While investigating various reseller plans, I came across SERVERPLEX.COM. Their bulk reseller plans were competitive with most of the others I have found. I ran a "whois" on them, and did a traceroute (NetDepot in Atlanta).

Based on the results of the whois, I sent them the following Email:

Hello. I have looked over your plans. They look good.

I will probably sign up with you after I contact the Secretary of State's Office in California, 916 657 2175, to see if you are registered to do business in that state. Can you give me a physical location of your company? The whois lookup shows:
Server Plex
staten island ny
staten island, new york 10314
US

But your site says: P.O. Box 1824, Cupertino, CA, 95015-1824

I called Cupertino City Hall and spoke with the licensing department. They have no record of you, and suggested I ask you for your physical location.

Best regards,
***** *******
==========================================
Their reply:

Dear ** *******:

We have recently acquired ServerPlex from a third party and are registering it as we speak. We have operated a hosting organization which we recently sold to Dell Computer Corporation (www.dellisp.com). However, since we just acquired the company we are still obtaining office space while our remote techs answer support/sales inquiries in the mean time.

We hope this answers your questions.

Thanks
John Waters
Customer Service
===========================================
I'm sure their motto was stolen from P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute".

Maybe I'll be spending a lot of time on the phone with various City Hall Licensing offices, checking out every hosting provider I find in WHT, as well as other places.

(...to be continued)

A lot of State's have a web site for the Secretary of State department. You can do online seaches on a lot of them. That should help your long distance bill :)

Yes... excellent idea... But I may still have to call the Licensing Office of their local communities...

My own Corporation is listed with the Missouri Secretary of State's Office, and searchable through their website. But if you want to see if I have a business license in good standing, you may have to call the St. Louis City Hall, department of Business Licenses.

I have one.

I insist that anybody who takes my credit card info over the internet better have a business license in good standing. That way, there's no "P.O. Box" to hide behind if I find someone scamming, cheating, trying to steal my wife, etc. So if need be, I can always catch a plane, rent a car, show up at their office, and let them try their excuses face-to-face. I love travelling.
:)

Edited P.S. : As an experiment, I may just harvest every single hosting provider I find in WHT and check for their licenses. Then I can sell access to the list for those who don't want to spend the time, or accept bribes from the scammers to remove their names from the list (bribes start at $11,111,111.00 per incident)
:)

As said in the email, we recently acquired ServerPlex and are in the process of registering it under our corporation. I dont know what you are trying to prove with your posting here on wht, but instead of lie to customers we like to be upfront and honest.

After purchasing ServerPlex 3 weeks ago, we are still in the process of reshaping the organization to better serve our customers needs, I dont see the "wrong" in that.

hmmm, I have a registered DBA, but not a business license.
Am I legal?
I bet a large portion of people on the internet don't even have that.

[i]
Maybe I'll be spending a lot of time on the phone with various City Hall Licensing offices, checking out every hosting provider I find in WHT, as well as other places.

(...to be continued) [/B]

Where I am located as a business that supplies a "service" I don't have to get a business license. One of the benefits of having your business outside of city limits. I can simply operate as a sole proprietor doing business as.

Personally, I don't care about the hoster's license.

I prefer looking at reviews here and other sites.

Originally posted by dialuphost
As said in the email, we recently acquired ServerPlex and are in the process of registering it under our corporation. I dont know what you are trying to prove with your posting here on wht, but instead of lie to customers we like to be upfront and honest.

After purchasing ServerPlex 3 weeks ago, we are still in the process of reshaping the organization to better serve our customers needs, I dont see the "wrong" in that.

I am confused also. What is the problem?

I guess the problem is that we do not have a business license in our area, if that matters. We are a reputable company with many web properties and "business licenses" for the applicable ones.

After only three weeks of acquisition of this company we have been focusing on customer care and are in the process of bringing this company under our corporation.

What bothers me the most is the defamation caused. "Scammers" is clearly a form of defamation, because a business doesnt have a business license when not required so is not automatically classified as "scamming"

Originally posted by dialuphost
What bothers me the most is the defamation caused. "Scammers" is clearly a form of defamation, because a business doesnt have a business license when not required so is not automatically classified as "scamming"

yes that is kind of screwed up...

:eek:

From Dialuphost.com What bothers me the most is the defamation caused. "Scammers" is clearly a form of defamation, because a business doesnt have a business license when not required so is not automatically classified as "scamming" Yes I agree. "Scammers" might be defamation if it applies to a company who is not scamming.

And perhaps in California a business can do business without a business license (I'll be shocked if that's the case...you've given me something else to investigate), but in Missouri, I wasn't even allowed to advertise my name until the licensing was in place.

Why are you so defensive?

I didn't say dialuphost was scamming. I didn't even say ServerPlex was scamming. I'm just reporting my observations to help other people who visit this forum, who might have decent, hard working people as their hosting clients, avoid costly and embarrassing mistakes. Since you, by your own admission, are not among the scammers (I think we all agree that there are lots of them out there) I would have hoped you would have the same viewpoint about those who are scammers (who not only screw over a lot of people, they do so as our competitors).

It doesn't take three weeks to change the whois info from ServerPlex to Dialup Host, does it? Not that it's my business, but it was that shady whois from ServerPlex that made me curious in the first place.
I guess the problem is that we do not have a business license in our area, if that matters. I really don't know if it matters or not. That will give me something to do tomorrow. I'll call the City Hall again and find out for you. Maybe you don't need one. But it matters to me. I don't know you. You can post all the company business info you like, toll free numbers, etc., but if you don't have a business license where you are doing business, you will not get my credit card number. And I recommend the same philosophy to every other potential or existing reseller out there who fancies the idea of running a hosting business. Make sure your host is legal, and make sure you are legal. It doesn't cost that much, you can do it yourself, and you'll feel a lot better about it when you do.

I did run Dialuphost, Inc. through the California Secretary of State's online Business Search for Corporations. This is what was returned: "information displayed here is current as of "JUL 12, 2002" and is updated weekly. It is not a complete or certified record of the Corporation.
----------------------------------------------------
For information about certification of corporate records or for additional corporate information, please refer to Corporate Records. If you are unable to locate a corporate record, you may submit a request to this office for a more extensive search. Fees and instructions for requesting this search are included on the Corporate Records Order Form.

No results matched the search term : "Dialuphost, Inc."
---------------------------------------------------
So you see, even that kind of search doesn't really validate a company's legality for me. [note: I wrote "a" company, not "your" company] It is sort of a disclaimer which says, if I can paraphrase, "We can't find this corporation, but they still might exist. Write to us for more details."

I've already been screwed over about three times since 1996. I'm sharing what I consider valuable information with visitors in this forum: WebHosting Talk. You, or any other visitors here may disagree with me, but that does not mean my intentions are not honorable.

When you say:I dont know what you are trying to prove with your posting here on wht, but instead of lie to customers we like to be upfront and honest. I get somewhat confused. What do you think I am trying to prove? And I'm sure that I could interpret that sentence to mean that you think I am telling lies. But I choose to give you the benefit of the doubt. I know you probably didn't mean to call me a liar. These posts are sometimes difficult to interpret objectively, wouldn't you say?

I'm sure their motto was stolen from P.T. Barnum: "There's a sucker born every minute".

Well I "assume" nothing was meant from this statement. I clearly understand your intentions as a fellow host emailed me about your post.

We are a California Corporation, but have not disclosed the information as a fellow employee was stalked by her ex-boyfriend. We have done this to protect her, but I assure you we are a California Corporation, I will not disclose our corporation name, as we want to keep that private in case the information gets out to this guy.

Here is our CORP-STATUS:

9/27/2000 active

Entirely, even if we were not a valid corporation instead of trying to defamate against a company that you know nothing about, simply do NOT buy their services, thats it. With your post, I see alternative motives.

We also have our reasons for our whois, but customers have access to us at all times by all means, so that is not a concern.

I suggest you spend your time finding a host with a business license as that is important to you, and leaving our name out of posts you label with the words "scammers, scam" or anything of the like.

Have a nice day

Someone has too much free time on their hands. Muse, have you considered working for the RIAA? You could help the recording industry tax more people so they don't have to send their kids to a state college.

I suggest you spend your time finding a host with a business license as that is important to you, and leaving our name out of posts you label with the words "scammers, scam" or anything of the like.

I appreciate your concerns. However, the name "dialuphost" did not come up in my post until you identified yourself as such later. Only the name "John Waters" from Customer Service was in the original post. And apparently that is not you. You are "Bobby".

And I'll share this with you. Personally, I don't buy your story about hiding the Corporation, etc. And there's nothing you can do about the fact that I don't buy it, except perhaps learn how you are perceived by someone else, and grow from it. And there's nothing I can do about not buying, unless I really, really wanted to dig deep. And I don't. My observations started out here with ServerPlex.

If you don't think what I discovered about ServerPlex would lead anyone of any common sense to question the legitimacy of that company, what am I supposed to think about you then?

But for those who come to this forum to learn, myself included, hopefully something useful emerges from these posts about the so-called hosting business.

I come here to exhange information. You should thank me. I pointed out something to you that you apparently weren't aware of. Since ServerPlex is publicly viewable on the web, cautious people will be researching the company to see who is behind the "great deals" at their site. If you don't want people to associate what seems to be the dubious business practices of ServerPlex with Dialuphost, Inc., you might benefit from taking five minutes to change the contact information for that domain.

Personally, I don't care what you suggest I do with my time. This forum is, by definition:

"Discussions on all aspects of web hosting including past experiences (both negative and positive), choosing a host, questions and answers, and other related subjects."

Your right to defend yourself, if you feel it is necessary, is not questioned. But your presumption that you can suggest to me that I spend my time doing what you think I should be doing is ludicrous.

The way you choose to deal with my observations will reveal to the astute observer its own information about you.

My conscience is clear. I am trying to help. If you see alternative motives in my posts, then I can only imagine that your mind works in devious ways. What would you think my motives are? I am selling nothing. I am "promoting" only my observations of my own search for a hosting provider so that others may benefit from my mistakes, as well as my avoidance of mistakes. My motives are pure. For some reason I feel compelled to help beginners avoid some of the mistakes I made, and still make. Why would you have a problem with that?

I have not defamed you, or your company.

I have no more time to reply to this thread, I hope you find a hosting company with a business license. Im back to my customers.

Originally posted by the-muse

Maybe I'll be spending a lot of time on the phone with various City Hall Licensing offices, checking out every hosting provider I find in WHT, as well as other places.

(...to be continued)

We do not have to be listed with the city government office here, as we are outside of the physical city limits:

Why? - My office is not in the city limits. We are incorporated and registered with the state... all this was done by our attorney and we are operating legally and have done all we are required to do to own a business.

In fact, our address shows a city different than the area we live in.:
Our office is between to towns (suburbs in the metro area). The mail for our office comes from City A, so the post office has us put City A, on our mail. We really are only a few blocks from City B so if we were there, and inside the city limits, and were required to register with the City, we would not necessarily be listed in the city on our mailing address.

We are a very legal and legitimate company.

I just want to make sure your advice does not cause people to eliminate a lot of possibly good hosts. Each area has different ways of registering a business.

Excellent information Alareach... well written, easy to understand and informative...

Just the fact that you are registered with the state instills confidence...

Thanks for your augmentation of my observations...

I appreciate the-muse's info and think he's giving some excellent advice. I see no alterior motives. It does appear that dialup has something to hide, though. I don't buy that stalking reason either. If true, it should be dealt with in another manner.

From the people who know me on this board, they know I run an honest operation.

I originally got upset due to the fact that I thought there were alterior motives to this thread, but I will take the benefit of the doubt, and call peace between the-muse.

Additionally, the reason we do not disclose our corporate info is due to my reason mentioned. After talking to my employee, she agreed that it would be okay to release this info to fellow whters so I am disclosing that we run under the corporation name:
Gamorah Corporation.

I hope this clears up any confusion and a heated debate that may have been taken the wrong way......

this is hardly warez or kiddie porn, 2 obvious examples of lawbreaking. id reckon in 95% of licence-less hosts cases its an oversight

Well, I'd have to give some credit to the stalking thing, but won't say why. I will say, I wouldn't hide an entire coporation because of it though.
Even if someone only has a DBA, it does mean that they are registered somewhere as doing business. If they are known, and respected as providing a good service, they will have 90% good reviews here.

Thank you DialUp for providing your company name. That makes you look more credible in my book.