Need advice on how to deal with a previous hosting vendor who is being scummy...

[miloa]

Hello,

Just switched over my accounts to Vortech and am thrilled to find a company that does business the way I do!

I was hoping that some of you veterens out there could give me some advice on how to handle a web host that I signed up for previously who is completely non-responsive to my request for a refund as per their policy.

I've emailed them several times asking for a refund quoting their policy but have received nothing back from them. Their 24x7x365 tech support is non-existant, they set my account up wrong (bought 500mb, gave me 350mb) and their billing department is a ghost town.

I told them (in the email) that I am disputing the charge, and I alerted their third-party credit card processing company of this fact.

Now the third party people are saying that I can't dispute the charge because I authorized it and that if I do, I'll have to pay bank fees and lawyers fees, etc. etc.

When I talked with my credit card company, I told them about the situation - told them that I HAD authorized the charge but that they weren't giving me a refund. They didn't say I couldn't dispute it...

Aw crap, why can't everybody just do what they say they will do?

Any suggestions or similar type situations and their resolutions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks very much!

-Andy Milo

[Light Speed]

Can you take them to small claims court?

[Brangwyn]

I've had many American friends recommend the BBB for resolving small issues like this http://www.bbb.org/ If your not in the US then check around most countries have a similar organisation available that you can lodge complaints about dodgey business practices with.

You don't need to alert their 3rd party CC procesor, in fact you would be better off directly contacting your bank or the issuer of your CC and explain, as they will be able to arrange a chargeback for you. Sounds like you might have tried this already but I'd give it another crack personally.

[Funnyhat]

A charge back is something most companies do not want because it does effect them in more ways then just lost money... however since the company is using a 3rd party they most likely don't give a rats ass. Most credit card companies (your bank or what not) have a policy for charge backs if you authorized the charge or not. I have purchased some stuff off of eBay and it was not what it was said to be. I got a full refund on my credit card because I told the credit card company I was not going to pay for something I did not get. However in most cases there is a time limit on the charge back.

As far as the 3rd party credit card company coming after you... I would not worry about that. For one unless it is a lot of money it is not worth their fight and in most cases they have no ground to stand on since you were not delivered the product you were buying.

Mark

[generic]

what company?, maybe you can save someone a headache in the future.

Or maybe someone knows somweone there who can help you.

[Vixen]

You can charge the funds back through your credit card depending on what time frame they allow on charge backs (varies according to the bank and/or credit card company). Be aware that the company can indeed dispute the charge back. If they dispute the charge back and win, the money will be returned to them. If that does happen you can issue a second charge back. However, please be aware they can dispute the second charge back attempt also. If the money is returned to them on the second charge back attempt, it is over at that point and you can no longer dispute it through your credit card company. Be sure when you place the charge back with your credit card company that you supply them with a copy of their refund policy and all documentation showing that you did indeed cancel per their terms in order to receive the refund.

As for the BBB, they can not do anything other than send the company a copy of your complaint and ask for a response. If the company responds, you are sent a copy of the response and the case is closed. The only time complaints are posted, with the BBB, for everyone to see is when (1) the number of complaints are excessive and (2) the company does not respond to the complaint. Otherwise, no one ever sees the complaints that are sent. They are basically a glorified mediator.

[newmem]

I had one similar experience.......I just moved on to another host, and later on found Vortech. The amount was quite small for all the hassles.......didn't do anything about it.

Was unhappy about their unprofessional treatment and the fact that they stole my money, but I am glad I found out about them before I gave them all my business.........eventually they will be going out of business and losing all their clients.

[miloa]

Originally Posted by tracewebspace

what company?, maybe you can save someone a headache in the future.

Or maybe someone knows somweone there who can help you.

Good point! The company is megawebhosting.com - Honestly, for the billing part, it just may be the holiday that is keeping them from getting back to me. As for their crappy tech support, well that is another thing - i asked for write permissions to be placed on a folder and was told from their "live help" person that the engineering dept had to do that, and just to email. 12 hours later it still hadn't been done and I was told that they were doing "upgrades" and that they would do it in a few minutes. Well, that was 3 days ago now and it still isn't done.

I actually just got what I believe is a SECOND charge from the third party company, which is IPAYSYS.COM. At first I thought these people were trying to be helpful, but now I don't know. I mean, its only $75 bucks, but this is starting to chap my a#s...

I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't just come off a hosting company that seems to have gone belly-up. Only messages on the telephone, no response to email and their servers are getting funky. Seems like no one is home. To go from that to the non-responsive megawebhosting.com is really just adding insult to injury so to say.

Anyway, I'm glad I've found this place.

Thanks all for the advice and information about the process... Its good to have friends...

If anyone knows anything about or anyone at megawebhosting.com I'd be most appreciative if you'd pass it along.

Thanks,
Andy

[bigdave]

Well I tried to goto their site and it didn't resolve for me their whois info is below, have fun!!

Registrant:
AL-Ghanim, Thunayan
Thuanayan Khalid AL-Ghanim
P.O. Box 68
AL Souq AL Dakhili, Kuwait 15251
KW

Domain Name: MEGAWEBHOSTING.COM
Status:

Administrative Contact:
AL-Ghanim, Thunayan 1@1tv.tv
Thuanayan Khalid AL-Ghanim
P.O. Box 68
AL Souq AL Dakhili, Kuwait 15251
KW
+965.977.4377 (fax) +965.538.4500

[Light Speed]

Originally Posted by bigdave

Well I tried to goto their site and it didn't resolve for me their whois info is below, have fun!!

Registrant:
AL-Ghanim, Thunayan
Thuanayan Khalid AL-Ghanim
P.O. Box 68
AL Souq AL Dakhili, Kuwait 15251
KW

Domain Name: MEGAWEBHOSTING.COM
Status:

Administrative Contact:
AL-Ghanim, Thunayan 1@1tv.tv
Thuanayan Khalid AL-Ghanim
P.O. Box 68
AL Souq AL Dakhili, Kuwait 15251
KW
+965.977.4377 (fax) +965.538.4500

You're (REMOVED) (sorry for the expletive)

Chalk it up to education.

[miloa]

Originally Posted by Light Speed

You're (REMOVED) (sorry for the expletive)

Chalk it up to education.

HAHA! OH, that made it worth while. I don't really have to wonder what the (REMOVED) word was... hehe..

[miloa]

Originally Posted by bigdave

Well I tried to goto their site and it didn't resolve for me their whois info is below, have fun!!

Domain Name: MEGAWEBHOSTING.COM
Status:

OOPS! I'm sorry, its www.megawebserver.com! Darn... Well at least megawebhosting.com isn't actually a business yet....

So, anyway, the (correct!) whois is kind of a dead end anyway:

Private, Registration MEGAWEBSERVER.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160
PMB353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599

[bootNumlock]

wow, that is kinda spooky all by itself... a webhosting company has their whois record hiding behind some service that keeps the identity obscured... perhaps we all learn a lesson here, by checking this stuff out first... although i myself had never thought to do that before...

maybe you could post comments on that one webhosting bbs about web hosting companies -- somebody help me out here, as i cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of that site.

happy holidays!

[soky]

It would appear they are a reseller for Interserver out of Jew Jersey... According to reverse lookup of hosted IP address. (# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2003-12-25 19:15 )

Registrant:
Interserver, Inc
po box 244
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
US

Domain name: INTERSERVER.COM

Administrative Contact:
Lavrik, Michael nic@interserver.net
po box 244
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
US
877-566-8398 Fax: 973-815-2799

Perhaps contacting abuse@interserver.net with a Cc to the reseller might do the trick.

[Curt]

I just pulled up megawebserver.com just for the sake of seeing what their site looks like. Did anyone else notice that they "innovate the way the world looks at webhosing"? Andy, does the word "hosed" feel sufficient?

I can't really find anything more about the company though, other than it's "part of TenaMax Inc USA". Neither MegaWebServer nor TenaMax seems to have any BBB records though, but at least that means they've got a better rating than my previous vendor.

Advanced Internet Technologies
http://www.carolina.bbb.org/commonre...845&national=Y
http://www.aitsucks.com/

Just remember folks, we're the lucky ones who found a good hosting company. But tragically, there's still many more out there living with crappy hosts. Please remember them in your thoughts and prayers during the holiday season. And if you happen to pass a lonely soul on the street, holding out a paper cup and a pathetic cardboard sign that says "Survived bad web host", give them a nice hot meal and a Vortech-branded sleeping bag. Maybe one day we can put together a nice TV telethon or something. Brad?