imsleepy

This is a little long, so go grab some coffee and get comfy...

I think I mentioned on this board in a thread somewhere about a friend of mine and CIHost.

She signed up with them just over a year ago and paid a year in advance because they said she would get a digital camera... No surprise, the camera never developed... ok I was trying to be cute...

Anyway, sometime near the end of last year, she changed hosts, promply followed all of the instructions to cancel the account and asked for a refund. Well, she didn't hear anything about the refund after about a month so then she called them... they claimed they never got notice to cancel the account... so, she cancelled right there on the phone...

After another month of no refund, she started getting pretty upset and called again... guess what??? They claimed she never cancelled the account. :dvvbash:

So, she called me and asked if I would talk to them. I called, said I was her. They said they never got notice to cancel the account! So, I said let's do it right now. I got the woman's name and she said the refund was issued (in the computer I presume).

That was almost 2 months ago... so my friend calls again... of course, they never got notice to cancel the account. Time goes by and she gets her visa bill... they charged her for another year! :dvvbash:

So, apparently last Saturday, she called again. She wound up with a guy in tech support who told her the billing office was closed, but that she could go online and submit a ticket. So, she did....

You won't believe this response. Here is a copy of the email she sent me:

We opened ticket c10870716347.04 today on Sat Jun 12 17:09:25 2004 You stated your problem was:
Subject:
Cancel Web Services.

===== 6/12/2004 15:29 (dannyb) =====
Customer reports no luck with canceling the services, and asks this be escalated. Also asking for refund because of non-use.

We would like to thank you for calling into technical support today. Your problem has been marked as "Completely Resolved" by Williamt

Williamt's notes on your issue are:

===== 6/12/2004 16:46 (williamt) =====

Hello,

We are sorry for the delay. But, this is not the forum for cancelling any service with us. If you call 1-877-4CIHOST you will be better servered.

Thank you,
William T.

If you ever have any other issue pop-up, we will start a new ticket number so you will only need ticket number - c10870716347.04 should this same problem stated above occur again.

Best regards,

Williamt
Support Team
www.hostingsupport.com

Did you catch the part about "Completely Resolved"? Can you believe this! And then he tells her she would be better served if she called them. Well, she did call them bright and early Mon morning... and... are you in suspense yet... they never received any notice to cancel the account. :dvvbash:

Anyway, to date, the account is still not cancelled because they have not received notice to cancel it.

Now that she has sent me this with a valid ticket number and a guys name on it, you can bet I will post it in every forum I am a member of!

I looked into hosting with them awhile back, but changed my mind when I read their review on one of those hosting review sites... ouch... it was bad! Wish she had asked me before she signed up, but it was the free digital camera with a year payment that got her attention... that she never got.... :dvvbash:

SmartGuy

I just skimmed through that and it sounds like a bunch of BS. Surpass has had problems with CIHost in the past... They sent out letters to Surpass customers, caliming to be Surpass Admins. I think they were offering a huge discount for ex-surpass clients. So this isn't much of a suprise...

Travis

they look real desprate

__________________
"A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you."
— Marian Wright Edelman

imsleepy

Makes you think...

Here they offered a puny littly (probably cheap) digital if you pay a year in advance. AND she paid some high setup fee too. I don't know how much it was... she said high.

One of the things that got my attention with Surpass was I just happened to walk in during the 2 4 1. Didn't even know about it until I read it here in the forums.

But Surpass didn't say "Pay a year and get a freebie" they are really taking a risk when you think about it. Odds are a sizable chunck of those new accounts will leave after the first month. Just because... no other reason... most will be kids that really can't afford it. So, they put all that time into setting up these massive amounts of new accounts and free accounts just to turn around and close some of them again in a month or so. Most companies wouldn't take the risk. They would want that year... and non-refundable at that!

Honestly, in the back of my mind I didn't really expect to see the free account and if I did, I figured it would be a month or more down the road... you know... wait for those that are going to drop to drop before handing out the freebies...

But they didn't do that... it says a lot about their integrity as a whole.

CIHost could learn alot from Surpass!

**jumps down from soap-box** :rant:

Etan

Wasn't there another mention about thie 4cishost recently. Similar nightmarish story - John or Bassdaddy or somebody posted it?

When you see stories like that it makes the occasional downtime with AWOL DBs seem trivial in comparison!

__________________
Nate

:surpass:

CollinsHosting
CollinsWeb.biz

Servers: Chopchop, Pass7

Bigjohn

Not me... but I do remember other bad hosts... My first host was Featureprice... I was with them for 3 years.... until it all fell apart for them.

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Travis

Hey im kina offended

__________________
"A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you."
— Marian Wright Edelman

imsleepy

That was probably the other post I mentioned at the beginning. It was in reply to something, but don't remember what it was. But that was before I saw that email today.... I couldn't believe my eyes.

As for you unleashed... you must be of kid category??? Sorry, nothing personal... just kids have a tendency to sign up for something today and lose interest tomorrow... NOT all though!!! Most are very responsible... :evil:

imsleepy

It's the end of that email that get's me:

"If you ever have any other issue pop-up, we will start a new ticket number so you will only need ticket number - c10870716347.04 should this same problem stated above occur again."

I'm tempted to tell her to just keep opening the same ticket over and over... maybe once an hour.... maybe then they will get the idea she wants to cancel! :shakehead