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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Business is like evolution - survival of the fittest. The fittest aren't necessarily the good guys - just aggressive enough to beat the competition.
    True, but it doesn't make it right though...

  2. #27
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Kingston, Ontario
    Posts
    1,588
    Originally posted by ericnmu
    use a cell phone number
    Oh I really want telemarketers calling that instead of my home number Maybe I should give them yours instead

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,556
    I used to work for Aplus.net and started my own company because of their practices. They didn't take care of customers and are sending all of their support to Bulgaria. The owners of the company are Bulgarian and their designers are Bulgarian and trust me.. You will NOT get what you pay for, if you get it at all. The sales people are told not to tell you (the person they are calling) where they get the information. They are supposed to say they got it from "public information." They know it's not right and is illegal, they just don't care. They just recently tied themselves into the do no call registry, only because they were getting fined heavily I'm sure.. They ended up calling alot of people and they'd say I'm reporting you because I'm on the do not call registry! lol Anyways, they also tell the sales people that it's a good thing if they get a web hosting company and or design company as they can sell you reseller programs or dedicated servers. I was one of the top sales people until my customers started getting jerked around, then when I rocked the boat, I not only got demoted from a Sales Team Leader but also got suspended, which is when I left. I've got a few of their customers so far. It's not hard seeing as how they screw their customers every chance they get!! In case you care to call the person responsible. The VP of sales is Michael Nieman and his direct extension is 6975. The company's owner is Ivan Vachovsky. His extension is 6901 I believe. Hope this sheds some light and let's people know how Aplus really is.. They lost alot of good people because of these practices since Michael Niemen came on board.. I hope more people see them for what they really are!

    Ps. If you hit about 20Gb of transfer on their "unlimited and unmetered transfer" then expect to be shut down without warning. They say they send you an email, but don't, and if you want you're site back up, then you have to pay for a dedicated server and they expect you to pay for a year in advance, and since they don't give refunds that money is theirs no matter what. Then they expect you to pay them to transfer the data over to your new dedicated server.....
    Last edited by XTStrike; 05-25-2004 at 05:32 PM.
    James Lumby

  4. #29
    Originally posted by Zoren
    I got the same call today. The salesman was stumped when I told him that we were a web design and hosting company. He paused for a while and then asked if we needed any dedicated servers. Phone spam is even worse than the email kind. Someone had to wait on hold so he could waste my time.
    Have to wonder if ValueWeb is using the same sales people and lists as APlus. Got the same call and the salesperson was just as stumped when they found out I didn't need hosting because I was a provider. She then asked about web design, nope... How about dedicated servers? No thanks, we lease some and own some. Well, could we at least email you about our dedicated servers? You might find the prices very competitive!

    I just had to sigh at that point.
    www.square-network.com www.squarenetwork.com
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    May 2003 Member of the Month
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  5. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    ./Southest Missouri
    Posts
    602
    I got a call at home from APlus a few weeks ago. I told them right where they could stick their dedicated server.. Believe me, it wouldn't be a comfortable situation.

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    933
    Frankly, I don't see why they even do this cold-calling thing.
    1 - It may be illegal.
    2 - It gets them Hammered by us on WHT and Im sure on other forums too.
    3 - They have to pay rather large amounts of money to pay these people to call unreceptive people. Who even takes the time to answer calls like that?(if you have callerID) And the people that do answer.. how many of those are actually interested enough to buy something. This money could be put somewhere else, perhaps a different form of advertising.

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    504
    Originally posted by Rman2003
    I got a call at home from APlus a few weeks ago. I told them right where they could stick their dedicated server.. Believe me, it wouldn't be a comfortable situation.
    Ouch.....That's gotta hurt. They'll feel that in the morning.

  8. #33
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Nova Scotia, Canada
    Posts
    4,128
    Originally posted by z280 Hosting
    2 - It gets them Hammered by us on WHT and Im sure on other forums too.
    3 - They have to pay rather large amounts of money to pay these people to call unreceptive people. Who even takes the time to answer calls like that?(if you have callerID) And the people that do answer.. how many of those are actually interested enough to buy something. This money could be put somewhere else, perhaps a different form of advertising.
    You do of course realise that WebHostingTalk represents around 0.3% of the hosting industry (and that's generous)?

    Cold-calling, whilst not entirely clever when calling other companies (bad research) is a marketing technique.

    Back when I lived in Leeds (UK) for a few years, we got calls from 'Double Glazing' salesmen all the time (even sometimes from the same company that we purchased it from). The best way to counteract this is to ask them not to call again. Once you have said this, then the law kicks in (in most countries), and they are not allowed to cold-call you.

    Cold-calling is a proven (working) sales technique, and whilst many do not like it (i'm not fond of it either), it is going to be around for a long time.

    I got a cold-call from MCI (yes, even the giants use it), and it was basically offering me space in one of their datacenters. The call was pleasant, and the representaive (Stefan LeSomething) left his phone number with me.. and 8 month's later, I called him back, and we're using them for a venture in Nova Scotia.

    Cold-calling works.. if you don't like it, get tele-zapper or something of that nature, and always, always make sure you ask them not to call back. (it works in most cases)

    Simon
    EIRCA Ltd, home of The Genius Network™.

  9. #34
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    "Chicago"
    Posts
    69
    these guys have called me several times,and I have told them to remove me from their call list.

    we certainly need to file a "class-action" againt them!
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  10. #35
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,556
    In addition to my last post, I must admit that most of the support reps that are in the US are quite good, but their hands are tied. Michael Nieman, who controls what people get charged and how they get ripped off. He controls the cold calling and is the major "bad apple" at aplus which infects everything else at the company like the plague. His practices have lost the company, pretty much the whole marketing department, including the VP of Marketing and Business development, the head of the billing department, the collection department and various other reps and sales people. Unfortunately, because of him, the rest of the company suffers. The web designs don't get finished to the way that they were quoted and it takes months for even the smallest design. As to the "unlimited bandwidth." You don't even need to hit 20 Gb transfer per month for your site to eat up 8+ hours of clock cycles in a day. Please do call Michael Nieman and tell him how you feel about them calling your customers!!
    Last edited by XTStrike; 05-25-2004 at 05:35 PM.
    James Lumby

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario
    Posts
    1
    Heyyyy
    I just got that phone call 5 minutes ago. i told them I got free hosting, and he said he cant even beat that.

  12. #37

    happened to me

    Yes, they've called us. I will not do business with them.

  13. #38
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Posts
    151
    Speaking of whois being public.... did anyone notice when Network Solutions started offering "privacy" for an extra charge?

    I forget the number, I just saw it a week or so ago.

    Dan
    http://www.IwantFUI.com
    If you could host a new kind of content from your old-fashioned web servers
    and make new money from your customers and differentiate your business all at the same time... could you afford not to try? See the new site

  14. #39
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Port St Lucie, FL
    Posts
    117

    Smile I got this call as well..

    Amazingly, I got this same call from APlus.net within 24 hours of signing up for a domain. It might have been effective if..

    1. I hadn't already acquired hosting for that domain.
    2. I hadn't had my eyes opened by visiting WHT for the first time the day before.
    Paul Embry
    Knight Software and Web Design
    Paul.Embry@gmail.com
    Quality PHP Web Programming for Reasonable Prices

  15. #40
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Posts
    210
    I would have preferred a phone call over what I got. I get home, and go to get my mail. There was a little paper in it from the post office saying todays delivery wouldn't fit in the mail box. I have 8 domain names, and I got about 5 letters for each domain from some company asking me if I wanted to transfer my domains to their hosting and registrar! They made a good fire starter, though

  16. #41
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Dallas, TX USA
    Posts
    2,812
    Originally posted by Coach
    Have to wonder if ValueWeb is using the same sales people and lists as APlus. Got the same call and the salesperson was just as stumped when they found out I didn't need hosting because I was a provider. She then asked about web design, nope... How about dedicated servers? No thanks, we lease some and own some. Well, could we at least email you about our dedicated servers? You might find the prices very competitive!

    I just had to sigh at that point.

    Don't mean to laugh, but that was a real desparate move. Did you say that they could email you the prices?

    Anyway, Still aplus.net is the lowest of all, and there're a pretty big company. They also have tons of complaints with the BBB in there state, so they got there account disabled.
    Have you ever visited there website, and a live chat box pops up & someone asks you if you need help. Even though this doesn't supprise me.


  17. #42
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    504
    APlus.net is getting really dirty lately, really dirty. First telemarketing from Public WHOIS records, then cloaking their links into all clients web pages, now sending out junk mail to addresses found in Public WHOIS records - this is nasty.

  18. #43
    Originally posted by daejuanj

    Don't mean to laugh, but that was a real desparate move. Did you say that they could email you the prices?

    Anyway, Still aplus.net is the lowest of all, and there're a pretty big company. They also have tons of complaints with the BBB in there state, so they got there account disabled.
    Have you ever visited there website, and a live chat box pops up & someone asks you if you need help. Even though this doesn't supprise me.
    I hate that live chat box crap. I suppose some people might see it as the company trying to be helpful. Not me, though. I see it as them interrupting me reading the website, doing my research, and making an informed decision to give me some stupid sales pitch.
    http://www.bash-shell.net - webhosting geared towards personal websites and small businesses.
    http://domains.bash-shell.net

  19. #44
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Kansas City, MO
    Posts
    53
    Originally posted by retri
    I hate that live chat box crap. I suppose some people might see it as the company trying to be helpful. Not me, though. I see it as them interrupting me reading the website, doing my research, and making an informed decision to give me some stupid sales pitch.
    On the other hand though, if you're trying to find some specific detail about what they offer, it's usually easier to just ask a real person, rather than have to crawl through the website to find what you're looking for.
    Take care,
    Brad Birmingham
    http://www.bluevirtual.com

  20. #45
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Dallas, TX USA
    Posts
    2,812
    Originally posted by B_Birmingham
    On the other hand though, if you're trying to find some specific detail about what they offer, it's usually easier to just ask a real person, rather than have to crawl through the website to find what you're looking for.
    If thats the case, you can always click on the live chat button yourself. They are plain as day.


  21. #46
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Motorcity
    Posts
    150
    I just was woke up by these co** suckers asking me If I wanted to use there dedcicated servers and switch data centers, they say they did a google search and noticed I offered dedicated servers. I did at one time. I was "affinity /servepath reselller" there calling from abacus 858-320-6641 according to caller ID. Is there anything we can do to put a fire under there as* ?

  22. #47
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Mountain View, CA
    Posts
    229
    I think that would fall under a cold call, because they're calling you individually.

    If they set up an automatic dialer with a canned message, then it would fall under phone "mass marketing purposes".

    The problem is that the whois records are public. I'd say just enter a number that's not your home phone.

    For my domain names I've actually received "pseudo postal bills" for search engine submissions. I don't use my real phone number, so I don't have to deal with any phone calls.
    DreamLogic Cult Film and Music Reviews
    STOPware - Visitor Management solutoins

  23. #48
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Amsterdam/Rotterdam, NL
    Posts
    2,135
    Originally posted by LaurenStephens
    helllloooo??

    does anyone here know the definition of spam???
    Yeah we do, it just seems that you don't

  24. #49
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Posts
    1,708
    We just got one of these less than ethical calls on our Toll Free lines. It is illegal to use Toll Free numbers for telemarketing since it costs the owner money. This is a pathetic way of getting new business if you ask me.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    UrNode - Virtual Solutions
    http://www.UrNode.com

  25. #50
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Posts
    151
    Originally posted by kris1351
    We just got one of these less than ethical calls on our Toll Free lines. It is illegal to use Toll Free numbers for telemarketing since it costs the owner money. This is a pathetic way of getting new business if you ask me.
    It's a federal crime too. Yikes

    Dan
    http://www.IwantFUI.com
    If you could host a new kind of content from your old-fashioned web servers
    and make new money from your customers and differentiate your business all at the same time... could you afford not to try? See the new site

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