Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : VistaPages.com - A Nightmare Story

[vozdra]

oh man, where do i start.
i bought a hosting package with VistaPages.com (a big mistake) three weeks ago. my site was constantly either down or extremely slow, so i decided to cancel my hosting before 30 days expired, so that i could get my refund back as well. i created one ticket last night requesting an account cancellation, refund and nameserver change on my domain - because i registered a domain with them too.
i did not receive any replies last night, so i was hoping when i check my email this morning everything was going to be taken care of. i did not receive any replies from them this morning either.
i then sent an email message and still no answers regarding my cancellation request.
well, now i decided to go directly to their "office", since i live in toronto too, and there was no other way of contacting them.
i wrote down the address from their web site and headed to downtown toronto. they even put on their web site a nice picture of the business tower where their "office" is located.
so....i'm on adeleide st. w. looking for the building 157 (remember, that's their Headquarters).
finally, i found it. i'm in front of the building 157, but something is not right. the building is canada post office.
i'm confused, so i go inside, ask where is 157 adelaide suite 603, and it turns out it's just a mailbox. there is no suite 603, there is no large business tower, there is no VistaPages Headquarters. just a small brown mailbox.
then, i decided to call them. finally, after 5 times of trying, someone answers the phone. i said i wanted to cancel my account and get a refund, and the answer was that someone will send me an email. when i asked when will that be, and that i created a ticket more than 12 hours ago, they hung up. of course, they couldn't be reached by phone anymore.

that's my current status.
i tried contacting them with the tickets and emails, no replies. office does not exist, and phone is dead.

i don't even care anymore about refund, even though i'm entitled to it. all i want is my domain name, which is locked by the way, so i cannot even transfer my own domain name to another host.

what do you think i should do now? i need my domain asap so that i can get my site up and running again on a new host.

[vozdra]

i just tried to contact them via live chat. they denied access to me when they saw my name.
what is wrong with these people. is this a scam? i just want to cancel my account and get a domain back.

[Shaw Networks]

VistaPages has a fairly active WHT member on these boards. They'll probably be making a reply here soon once they see the thread.

[hcn]

the domain included for free? or you paid hosting and domain, sperately?

Maybe they have a cancellation process that you need to follow like sending a fax or something?

[vozdra]

IncognitoNetworks: i hope someone answers from VP, i don't understand how can people run a business with such behaviour.

hcn: i paid for the domain $9.99. domain is non refundable, and that's fine, i just want them to change the nameservers to point to my new host. they don't have any cancellation process. they have a 30-money back guarantee, and they basically ask you to create a ticket, and then only god can help you.....
i hope i get my money back, because today is exactly 25th day since i signed up.

[WN-Ali]

On their web site, their live chat appears to be online, have you tried contacting them?

I just tested their chat for you, and some of your questions might be answered

Me: Hello, what is your cancellation procedure?
Sorin Neatu: hi
Sorin Neatu: just send an mail to billings
Sorin Neatu: and they will get back to you regarding this
Me: How long does it take before my request is processed?
Sorin Neatu: I would say at least 1-2 days during this busy days
Me: Why so long?
Sorin Neatu: because billings and sales have many tickets pending
Me: Will I get my money back if my email was sent before the 30 day ended?
Sorin Neatu: I believe so

[vozdra]

wn-ali: thanks a lot for this screenshot.
i was finally able to talk to this sorin n. guy, but all he told me was that he can't do anything about it. he said he will talk to billing guys, but he is not sure when it can be done. he told me it can be done maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe in three days....
i just hope it ends soon....so i can move on asap.

[Morph-75]

I am sorry vozdra, I went through the same story as you two weeks ago with vistapages. But mine was less grave since I don't transfer the domains to the hosts.

I send them many tickets and I recieved no reply. After one week sending them letters and getting in their live chat without solving anything, I decided to write in this forum and finally they cancelled my account. I just checked my bank account and I noticed that I also recieved the refund few days ago. ( so vistapages, I take back what I wrote in the title of my original thread )

So I think they will get to you here. I wish you wil solve it soon.

Regarding the domain, I suggest that you never transfer your domain to a new host, It is better to have it registered in a seprate company in which you will have control of all settings like LOCK and NAMESERVERS etc.. which you can change to whatever you like and whenever you want.

[WN-Ali]

Originally Posted by vozdra

wn-ali: thanks a lot for this screenshot.
i was finally able to talk to this sorin n. guy, but all he told me was that he can't do anything about it. he said he will talk to billing guys, but he is not sure when it can be done. he told me it can be done maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe in three days....
i just hope it ends soon....so i can move on asap.

I would recommend transferring your domain out of there to namecheap.com as soon as you can

[vozdra]

morph-75: well, it's a little bit comforting knowing that it was finally resolved for you.

WN-Ali: i will do that, as soon as i can. it's really difficult to get in touch with vistapages, because they keep ignoring tickets and emails. i can't even imagine how long it will take me to transfer my domain to a new registrar.

[Kaumil]

Originally Posted by vozdra

morph-75: well, it's a little bit comforting knowing that it was finally resolved for you.

WN-Ali: i will do that, as soon as i can. it's really difficult to get in touch with vistapages, because they keep ignoring tickets and emails. i can't even imagine how long it will take me to transfer my domain to a new registrar.

Billing hours are 9am to 5pm EST. You must send in a ticket to cancel, and there is no "gaurantee" on the response time for cancellations and refunds. We do it as fast as possible as we have other customers to attend to, and your request will be responded to as we go through our queue of tickets.

Sending us a bunch of tickets will just get them closed as the primary ticket regarding the issue stays open. You are more than welcome to reply to the ticket to ask for a status and we'll reply to it, as for discussing this stuff on a public forum, I'm not up for it and this will be my first/last post regarding this matter.

[Nashville Guy]

There is a statement for customer service. I guess future customers now know what to expect.

[David]

vozdra,

I wouldn't expect an instant response from billing whether it's from Vistapages or any other company for that matter. Billing issues would be second to customer requests: Nonetheless with a few searches here on these forums as well as the net you'll soon find you're not the only one in the same boat.

I wouldn't recommend any rash moves just yet but don't remember your credit card company's may offer a chargeback feature. Don't use it as a first way out though as it can effect your own credit.

[Kaumil]

Originally Posted by Nashville Guy

There is a statement for customer service. I guess future customers now know what to expect.

Yeah, I kinda didn't tell the truth about the first/last post reply thing. But for your general knowledge, in a recent survey done, above 95% of our customers are satisfied.

I let him know what he needed to know about the issue and anything further related to this issue can be taken up within our support channels available to him.

[vozdra]

here is an update.
today, finally my dns have been changed. it took 5 days.
still no words on cancellation or refund.
vp-kaumil: you should have a better way of communicating with your customers. the problem is that you keep ignoring tickets and emails, so the person on the other end (your customer) have no clue what is going on with their requests.