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state · #1 08-20-2006, 12:22 AM

Hello everyone,

I'd like to first thank the moderators here at WHT for their advise to post this question here.

I'm having a problem getting an almost 9-month overdue refund from a webhost called personalsites.org. The fella in charge of this outfit, Adam Stewart (who posts here under the name of adamstew) has been nearly impossibe to reach.

This whole saga began back in November of 2005 when the server that I was hosted on in SagoNets datacenter went down. At the same time the datacenter upgraded their border routers and broke some things which caused the outage to last over five days. After this issue was resolved (and the server was moved) I backed up all my data and went to a new host. I didn't fault Adam for the outage, but it was time to move on.

Out of sight, out of mind I suppose. I forgot about the refund that he owed me (which is over $150). On April 15th I got an automated email indicating I was being billed again for a ssl cert. When I emailed Adam he replied that he had no record of my cancellation.

I replied with the ticket number and a mailing address for the check to be sent to on April 20th 2006.

May 5th 2006 I email Adam Stewart for an update with no response.

May 9th 2006 I email Adam Stewart again for an update with still no response.

May 12th 2006, yet another email message that has gone unanswered. Phone messages were not returned either..

On June 23rd I received an invoice from personalsites.org for $299.50 for my next year of service. Needless to say I was livid. I opened a new ticket and received this message:

The invoice has been cancelled. I apologize for the troubles with that.

I do show that a check for the refund due was mailed to (my address), which is the address we have on file for you. Have you not received it?

Nope. Sure haven't.

It looks like it was mailed out on May 18th, 2006. If you haven't received it by now, then you most likely will not. We can send another one 60 days from May 18th (which is when that check expires).

On July 19th 2006 I emailed Adam Stewart of personalsites.org again stating that the 60-days had passed and asked him to send the check. No response.

August 12th 2006 a follow-up email was sent, no reply. No check. Same day I sent an email to the alternate contact (personalsites@gmail.com) and sent a message to them via Google Talk (while he was online) with no response.

I decided to post my question about how to contact him in their support forums in a thread simply entitled "Where is Adam" which was left over from the last time he disappeared only to see a day later that my posting title had been changed to “Non PS.org Member” and my access to post in those forums was revoked. This of course means that he saw my post and decided to silence me there to avoid further questions or detract future suckers.

Over the last two days I've left about five voicemail messages on the support line (1-814-248-3609) and sent several emails to service@personalsitessupport.org which in turn generated a few new service tickets that went unanswered.

The only IM chat client that I have is Google Talk, each attempt to contact him when he was listed as "online" resulted in...well...nothing. Shortly after that, he was listed as away.

I've also emailed him at his personal email address and called his personal phone number listed on his personal website (youreverydayadam.net).

Yesterday at 4pm I got this email message from Adam:

I too have been trying to reach you for your refund. Unfortunately, I am traveling at the moment and can't answer my phone. Anyway, do you have a paypal address I can just send the monies owed to you? I think this will be simplest considering the trouble we've had in getting you a check.

I'm not sure how he's been trying to reach me, In all my emails and dozens of voicemails I have left two email addresses and my cellphone number. No missed calls, no emails.

I replied back at 5:24pm with a paypal address that he can refund my money to. Since then I have not recieved any email or phone response. No transfer of funds. In that timeframe he did find the time (at 9:51pm) to post some deals on this forum, but not respond to me:

/showthread.php?t=540476&highlight=personalsites

So, being that he's a member here, I'm looking to publically open a dialogue and get my refund. If anyone has any comments, feedback, suggestions on how to accomplish this...please chime in.

**Sorry fellas, the site says that I can't post URL's yet (not enough posts).

***anon-e-mouse*** · #2 08-20-2006, 02:12 AM

*subscribes to thread.

HostTitan · #3 08-20-2006, 02:18 AM

Sorry to hear the troubles you've been having and hopefully you'll get some answers soon. What method of payment have you been using?

state · #4 08-20-2006, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rohitj

What method of payment have you been using?

I paid up-front for a year with my credit card.

I charged it last June, so I'm not sure that a charge-back is possible at this point. I haven't persued that avenue in hopes of resolving it without the involvement of a third party (which has failed, hence my posts here).

Other avenues include filing a grievance with the BBB or taking him to small claims court for cost plus legal fees. I hope it doesn't have to come to that but he's demonstrated a wreckless disregard for customer service.

WebGuru72 · #5 08-20-2006, 03:51 AM

oh that is horribol. You should never pay for 1 year to a host that you have not tried before (unless you really know the host very well or way reputable) buget hosts should be tired first. Keep us posted. Is adam the only one that works there. is there someone else..... they probably think since it has been a few months, it would be easy for you to give up.... Good luck.... Look at it positively in teh event you do not get the money, it was an expensive lesson. good thing you moved with your data prior.

state · #6 08-20-2006, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WebGuru72

oh that is horribol. You should never pay for 1 year to a host that you have not tried before (unless you really know the host very well or way reputable) buget hosts should be tired first.

I should clarify that this wasn't a "new" host for me, I had been using personalsites since around June 2004. I decided to pay for the year based on that positive experience and the discount.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WebGuru72

Is adam the only one that works there. is there someone else..... they probably think since it has been a few months, it would be easy for you to give up....

As far as I know it's a one man operation. I have no plans give up anytime soon.

WebGuru72 · #7 08-20-2006, 02:34 PM

Oh man I am sorry to hear that... That sucks that you have been with the host for so long and he would care less. Keep us posted.

DimensionServers · #8 08-20-2006, 02:45 PM

I am sorry to hear you didnt recieve a refund. Have you tried contacting the BBB? What was your initial payment method. If it was a cc card then maybe try contacting your credit card company?

Martie · #9 08-20-2006, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by state

I should clarify that this wasn't a "new" host for me, I had been using personalsites since around June 2004. I decided to pay for the year based on that positive experience and the discount.

Thats even worse :-(
Heres what I would do in this situation:
Contact your credit card issuing bank ASAP! If it were just charged in June...this is August so I feel pretty certain they can help. As far as I can tell you've went through more than what I would expect any client to go through as far as contact.

Worth noting too is normally if a client pays by credit card and a host "refunds" them its typically done the same way that charge was made (credit BACK to the original cc used) HOWEVER...it looks like he offered a refund quicker via paypal for you...and you agreed to that BUT he just didnt follow through. About RE-issuing a check "after" one he supposedly issued is ridiculous. If a check is "lost somewhere" all he has to do is "stop payment" on that check and re-issue another! By now...red flags are up all over the place.

Its pretty bad IMO to see how much trouble clients are going through to get refunds, cancellations, etc. and looks even worse when they've been active here recently: adamstew: Last Activity: 08-18-2006 08:51 PM

I suppose you could try to PM here but if it were me....I would bypass that altogether and contact my bank.

Its another INSULT to the industry and there are some of us that are still around that run their business "with ethics and professionalism" and threads like this are MORE than disturbing.

I wish you the best

MKHosting · #10 08-20-2006, 04:41 PM

It will be interesting to see if he does reply to this then. If he is active here he may have already seen it.

Hopefully This will get you your refund

. If he advertises here last thing any host wants is bad posts about them on a forum they advertise on.

Martie · #11 08-20-2006, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MKHosting

Hopefully This will get you your refund

. If he advertises here last thing any host wants is bad posts about them on a forum they advertise on.

Yes, one would want to think that way but unfortunately that doesnt always seem to be the case. Many hosts enjoy the bad publicity as well as the good.

MKHosting · #12 08-20-2006, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martie

Yes, one would want to think that way but unfortunately that doesnt always seem to be the case. Many hosts enjoy the bad publicity as well as the good.

I suppose any publicity is good publicity. But then I would never let something like this happen.

state · #13 08-20-2006, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martie

Contact your credit card issuing bank ASAP! If it were just charged in June...this is August so I feel pretty certain they can help.

I'll be contacting them on Monday to inquire about this, but the initial charge that I'm owed a refund from was made in June of 2005. I don't know how far they go back with reversing charges.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martie

Its pretty bad IMO to see how much trouble clients are going through to get refunds, cancellations, etc. and looks even worse when they've been active here recently: adamstew: Last Activity: 08-18-2006 08:51 PM

I've certainly been diligent in trying to contact him. He knows full well that I'm trying to reach him.

In my initial post I mentioned that I posted in a thread titled "Where is Adam" and that my posting privs were revoked after participating. This post was on his support website personalsitessupport.org. It almost seems vindictive to me to remove one's voice to avoid dealing with the issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martie

I suppose you could try to PM here

With my new member status I don't have the ability to do that. I can't even view user profiles! Feel free to PM him on my behalf

Just as a general update, I have left two additional voicemails today, opened two support tickets and a critical ticket that's supposed to page him. I guess he forgot to remove my email address from the list of folks allowed to use that mechanism.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I'll keep you updated.

Martie · #14 08-20-2006, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by state

I'll be contacting them on Monday to inquire about this, but the initial charge that I'm owed a refund from was made in June of 2005. I don't know how far they go back with reversing charges.

I've certainly been diligent in trying to contact him. He knows full well that I'm trying to reach him.

Im not sure either but I would definitely still contact them. The first thing the bank will want to know is if you've tried to resolve it directly with the company, which obviously you have and it looks like the owner had agreed that you were DUE the refund, but he just hasn't followed through so hopefully that will work out in YOUR favor. Keep us updated.