I've been with shanje.com for at least a year. For the last few months, I have been getting no answers to support requests. Sometimes the issue is fixed when I check on it, but most of the time the email has been ignored. I'll dig through my emails to show some examples, but for one - I wanted to be downgraded from "premium" level, 3 emails and about 2 weeks pass by, no answer. I get billed for premium again, so I send another email. No answer. Send an email telling them if it happens again, I will dispute the charge. Wow - what a surprise - I get an answer. Only then they ask for my account info, which I already had provided. Another week goes by, no answer, no refund. Send an email again mentioning that I wasn't going to send any more emails about this subject, that I would dispute the bill. Surprise - I get another email asking for my account info. I ask for verification that the difference has been refunded, Shiloh sends me the system generated email receipt, no explanations to why it would take a dozen emails and two "threats" to get this done. That was a couple weeks ago.

Lately I've been getting error msgs in the control panel, under "manage users" and "add domains", the later being more important! Sent emails, 24 hrs apart, for week, no answer, check the control panel, same error msgs.

So, I look up shanje.org to see if it's available, and guess what, it is. I registered it and I started a phpBB site so that current and past Shanje customers could collaborate on some of these issues that have to be affecting all of us. I went through (and still to some degree) all the crap with webexpose and cosmotek, and frankly, I'm tired of looking for a new host every month. I think I have four different reseller accounts now.

The only way to get Shanje's attention is to hit them where it hurts, the pocketbook.

This must sound somewhat crazy, but I think I'll get my $12 worth of satisfaction.

Any other Shanje customers out there? I think it's time for us to get Shiloh to shape up, or ship out. It's ridiculous to have "over 29,000" domains and 1 support person, and it's even worse when that 1 person doesn't seem to give a damn.

So, is this a good idea? http://Shanje.org is just a pointer right now, the direct link is http://www.forum-host.com/shanje/phpBB


- note - I sent the url to support@shanje.com for this thread, let's see if he has a response

Well, I guess they do read the emails before they delete them.

Here was the response from Shiloh:

Keep in mind that SHANJE is a federally trademarked name. The trademark
was filed on October 25, 1999 and published on May 02, 2000. Your
registration of shanje.org on April 12, 2001 and continued use of the
domain name is in direct violation of our trademark. The standard penalty
for infringing upon a company's trademark is US$100,000. We have an
excellent trademark lawyer we have worked with in the past that would be
more than happy to pursue this issue if needed.

Before I ask her to file a cease and desist letter and file grievance suits
in Michigan and Washington DC, I figured I would just let you know that we
will not tolerate your intentional attack on our trademark. "Fun and
games" is one thing, but trademarks are serious business.

Anyway, just let me know if this is something you really want to go to
court over.

Thank you,
Shiloh Jennings

And my response:

Shiloh Jennings,

I believe that you are mistaken on several accounts, and the trademark law does not necessarily apply to this situation. The domain is .org is designated for non-profit organizations. The domain was not registered in bad faith, nor is meant to confuse or mislead potential customers for commercial purposes. It does not look similar to shanje.org or shanje.net, nor does it offer similar services, nor was it registered with the intent to resell for profit, nor does it use any images from shanje.com or shanje.net. Shanje is also not a famous or strong trademark, thus is not subject to the dilution statutes. I think your claim that it is in "direct violation" is a misinterpretation of the current laws. If you still disagree, please provide me with the exact violations you are referring to, and I will gladly consider revoking any ownership or involvement with the domain. If you can provide that information, also provide examples of domain names (registered or unregistered) that you feel do not violate your trademark, so I can ensure that it does not happen again.

I am not surprised by your response, nor am I surprised that you did not address the topic of complete lack of attention to support issues. If Shanje is not going to offer any kind of support, nor any means to track support issues, and is not reachable by phone, don't respond to emails, then what else is the community of Shanje customers supposed to do? You have not responded to the last 6 emails I sent, except the one regarding shanje.org. Nor did you respond to the last issue I had, until I said that I would dispute the charge. Is that how you believe you should conduct business, you respond when backed into a corner?

After finding this article, I decided to move the forum to shanjesucks.com, I offered Shanje.org to Shiloh for the price I paid for the domain, if they don't want it I will just let it expire.

http://news.cnet.com/news/0,10000,0-1005-200-335928,00.html

I'm going to fall over and die from this surprise. Sent email Wed asking about control panel problems, it's Saturday, and no answer.

lol...

I find this difficult to submit because of the udnerstandable grudge you have to Shunje.net, but one thing I know about shunje.net and their services, the only thing that I find on my part that works is whatismyip.com lol
It always gives me my IP, even so, the IP showing on the page is only a server variable for retreiving a client's host IP...

Are you located in America and is Shanje.net also?

If you are continueing to receive no free tech support, I would be looking into speaking with your countries "fair trading" organisation for business violations that shanje has caused.

Shanje.net did state, and I read it, that they offer 24x7 free tech support...obviously with you and maybe others they are not.
Therefore you, as a customer, have the right to take the action further with a depaertment of fair trading that you should have in the US....

I'd think about that well, in your case as a customer, you have more rights as a priority over shanje.net

Therefore if they continue to offer no free tech support, you can win the case over them, they will be charged and heavily fined for their misconduct, they may even will become bankrupt if they have little money left, who knows, but it'll surely hit the media, and their business will be over, no customer will except unreliable business, especially when they are paying for a service.

Reply here or send me an email with an questions or comments about my idea.

Regards,

WyteWolf

This thread's been sleeping since 04-21-2001 02:41 PM ;)

oh well...
at least it was stated

Actually somewhat good timing... props to wytewolf.

In my thread asking about control panels posted earlier today, someone suggested Shanje.NET ...this thread definitely makes me think twice. Odd coincidence... or not? ;)

iGabe, If you are going to let a thread that was started over 3 years ago alter your decision whether or not to use them then I feel sorry for you as that is very poor judgement. Lots of changes (up/down) can and will occur throughout a time period of 3 years. Perhaps look for recent threads (if any) about them and let them guide your decision making.

btw.. this thread really should be closed by a mod.

fair enough :)

One of our customers contacted us about this thread. Normally, I tend not to get into discussions like this in public forums, but I felt compelled to in this case. I am not sure why a three year old thread needed to be brought back to life.

Anyway, I did some digging to figure out who "gtpspeed" was. I think gtpspeed is really "Art Chang". I also searched through our old email based support system and found that between April 8, 2001 and July 4, 2001, he asked a several questions and all of them were replied to in less than 24 hours. In July 2001, we told him he needed to find a new host because we were constantly have problems with him. The problems consisted of things like billing, threats, harrassment, etc. So even though he was publicly blasting Shanje in April 2001, he was happy enough with our services that he stayed with us until we finally asked him to leave. After leaving, he found other hosts to use and then publicly blast. To make a long story short, he is a problem client regardless of who is hosting him and we did do everything we could at the time to help him.

We have implemented several improvements to support features at Shanje throughout the past three years. One major improvement has been to dump email based support in favor of web based support within our control panel. There are two major problems with any email based support system. One is that a considerable number of people send questions from email accounts that bounce email when you try to reply to their questions. The other problem is that customers seldom remember to include their account info in email support questions. Our web based support solves both of these problems. Additionally, an email is sent to the account owner any time any of our support staff replies to the tech ticket, so the customer knows there has been activity on the ticket. We have a demo of our web control panel at our website (Shanje.NET). Swing by and log into the WCP as the demo user, and then ask our staff some questions. You will see that our staff definitely does answer questions quickly.

As they say you cant escape your past ;) lol j/k. I checked your service out and your reseller package is good for the price :).


Originally posted by Shiloh@Shanje
One of our customers contacted us about this thread. Normally, I tend not to get into discussions like this in public forums, but I felt compelled to in this case. I am not sure why a three year old thread needed to be brought back to life.

Anyway, I did some digging to figure out who "gtpspeed" was. I think gtpspeed is really "Art Chang". I also searched through our old email based support system and found that between April 8, 2001 and July 4, 2001, he asked a several questions and all of them were replied to in less than 24 hours. In July 2001, we told him he needed to find a new host because we were constantly have problems with him. The problems consisted of things like billing, threats, harrassment, etc. So even though he was publicly blasting Shanje in April 2001, he was happy enough with our services that he stayed with us until we finally asked him to leave. After leaving, he found other hosts to use and then publicly blast. To make a long story short, he is a problem client regardless of who is hosting him and we did do everything we could at the time to help him.

We have implemented several improvements to support features at Shanje throughout the past three years. One major improvement has been to dump email based support in favor of web based support within our control panel. There are two major problems with any email based support system. One is that a considerable number of people send questions from email accounts that bounce email when you try to reply to their questions. The other problem is that customers seldom remember to include their account info in email support questions. Our web based support solves both of these problems. Additionally, an email is sent to the account owner any time any of our support staff replies to the tech ticket, so the customer knows there has been activity on the ticket. We have a demo of our web control panel at our website (Shanje.NET). Swing by and log into the WCP as the demo user, and then ask our staff some questions. You will see that our staff definitely does answer questions quickly.

Definitely a good reminder that it helps to hear both sides. Good to hear from you Shiloh, and welcome to WHT ;)

Been shopping around for a resellers account for the last month or so, and Shanje.NET is a very attractive option. I'm a big fan of your simple plan structure :)