A word of warning

I have been using Globat.com for my hosting for a few months and between my own account and clients accounts, we have about 25 hosting plans with Globat. I recently installed new software for my dating site, only to find that Globat doesn't allow cron jobs and I now have over 200 emails backed up in the system.
I contacted globat immediately and arranged to have my domain moved to a new host, Globat assured me that the transition would be complete within 24 - 48 hours. When the 48 hours had passed, I checked with Whois and the domain still hadn't been transferred, I contacted Globat by email on 5 subsequent occasions and they didn't reply so I decided to use their live chat facility. Admittedly, their support staff were as helpful as they could be, but they told me that the matter hadn't been addressed and that at the very earliest, it would be looked into after the weekend.
Is this the way a top level company is supposed to conduct itself? I signed up for my hosting with them on a weekend and there was no problem setting up the DNS then, so why would there be a problem now?
I suggest that people should find out exactly what they are getting when they sign up for hosting with Globat and in particular, they should read Globat's user aggreement, as it basically absolves them of any and all responsibility towards their clients.
When I signed up with Globat, they advertised their servers as having 99.9% uptime, this wasn't the case, within the first few weeks, their servers were down on at least 4 occasions and have been down on numerous occasions since, but If after the initial 30 day period, you realise, as I did, that their servers are overloaded, slow and frequently down, you will discover that you have no recourse, in fact, if you then decide to move your hosting to a new company, Globat state that they will charge you $150 and hold you in breach of contract.
I think people should be aware of this prior to signing up with Globat and needless to say, when my own and my clients accounts with them have expired, we will be moving to a less unscrupulous hosting company.

Regards
eBuy
A very annoyed Globat customer

Thanks for the head's up. I'll move this to the e-commerce forum where it'll get more views.

The $150 charge that ebuy is talking about was filed on me.

I started a hosting account with them in February of 2004. It expired in February of 2005. I paid them $90 for this account in 2004 when it started. In the middle of July I received a phone call from a collection agency stating I owed 257.50 to Globat.

This was quite a surprise to me so I promptly told them it was crap and I wasn't paying it. I assumed the person on other would tell me what I needed to do, but he just said ok. So conversation ended.

Today I get a letter in the actual mail from collection agency stating I owe money, so I call them back up. I talk to a helpful representative and explain my situation to her.

She told me when I sign up there is a small section stating if you don't go online and cancel your account within 15 days of it ending, they will charge you $150 dollars. They also decide to charge me my $90 again that I supported them with last year and then some other misc bs fee's bringing it to $257.50.

What gives them the right to charge me for this, and what laborous intensive tasks are they performing to be charging me $257.50 of my hard earned money that could be going towards food or clothes for my kids?

I am outraged that a company would be so shoddy and dishonest to pull this over on "unsavy" internet users. It is bad business practice and these people are practically theives in doing so. I asked the representative how often people come through because they did not know about cancelling their accounts with globat. She replied with "A lot."

I imagine I will report them to the Better Business Bureau. I am not sure what else I should or can do. People are being taken advantage of by this unfair company.

Do not use Globat. They are scum.

Wow, that's 2 roughly identical testimonials. We appreciate you telling our users here. Lots of people come here to get tips on beginning e-businesses, and you've very likely just spared them what you both went through.

I've got one better from Globat...

I signed up for web hosting with Globat in December of 2002 for $90 per year. About a week in I realized that their hosting was inadequate for the project and I tried to contact them to utilize my 15-day money back gaurentee.

Unfortunately all of my phone calls and e-mails went unanswered, and there was no "Cancellation Request Form" or instructions in the terms of service on how to cancel. I'm a procrastinator, and I eventually forgot about it and they kept my $90.

THREE YEARS LATER... I get a letter from a collection agency looking for $265 (on top of the $90 of mine which they kept). Apparently they automatically renewed my account in December of 2003 without contacting me. So they were looking for:

- $90.00 for web hosting from 2003 to 2004
- $150.00 for Breach of Contract Fees
- $25.00 for late fees

The collection agency rudely told me that I never filled out a "Cancellation Request Form" and therefore I'm held responsable. I told him I'm not paying for it and now my credit is probably going to be ruined.

Here's the kicker - I looked back at when I first agreed to the "Terms & Conditions" in December of '02, and there was no mention of a Cancellation Request Form.

http://web.archive.org/web/200212162...=userAgreement

Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated!!

Horror stories like these make it hard to trust anyone -- complicated, deliberatly dense user agreements, no customer service contact info (or buried on the site) and unresponsive service reps all contribute to the feedling that everyone's out to steal you blind.

I guess we just have to keep doing as much research as we can (oh goody) and asking friends and colleagues who they do business with -- before we agree to or sign anything.

Sometimes thought of living life off the grid sounds pretty darned good. Then I remember Tivo.

Ebuy and Scotthew-

I am going to register a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

You can do so as well here.

http://complaint.bbb.org/

Scotthew, I was told to pay the exact same amount. I refused to and then about a month later I was contacted by a "federal claims adjuster" who was from http://www.fbcs-inc.com/index.htm. At least that's who he said he was. I ended up being offered to pay $200 or he was going to make the mark on my credit. I buckled and payed it.

This company stole my money in my opinion. What a shoddy contract to have your own consumers who have supported your business for a year to be raped by fees that they provided no service for. Did I do this company some type of harm worth $200 by not using them for web hosting for another year? It really ticks me off. They never even sent me an email asking if I would like to renew or I would have to pay the fine. So am I supposed to remember all the details of the TOS from 12 months ago?

I encourage you to register a complaint as well with this company if you have experienced the same thing. I think a lot of people just shrug it off. I asked one of the people who called me how often they receive collection services request on this type of thing from Globat alone. She said "A lot." It might have been on the terms of service, but they are preying on people who trust a company to take care of its consumers who support them and then they pressure them into paying up a hefty fine or their credit is toast

What a bunch of theives...

I want my $200 back damnit. :Mad:

[/rant]

There's also this website for online type fraud
https://www.econsumer.gov/pls/econsumer/

With the exception of forgetting about any sort of payments, in the future also make sure your credit card company is aware that said hosting company isn't allowed to charge for anything. In the case of the $90, I would have disputed that with my CC co. Then again, I'm a champion procrastinator...
But it's also a good idea to file BBB complaints and also see if you can do the same with other state and/or federal agencies.

Another person called just now and said the 200 dollars I payed them was not the correct amount. I told them that is what I settled on with the collection agency. The guy said they need 18 dollars and 88 cents more. I told the guy to take me to court cause I wasn't paying it.

He said "You know what sir, goodbye."

I wonder what their next move will be?

So ridiculous... My blood was boiling, but now I have something to post about. Good way to vent :)

Glad to be able to help in some small way. I do the same sometimes.

First; thanks for this site; it's been extremely beneficial, so I've decided to become a member.

I had a VERY similar incident wherein I purchased a domain name from ezinames.com and was charged $500 (yes FIVE-HUNDRED dollars) for a "mega-hosting" package that was buried in two lines in a 14 page "terms & conditions" web page. (This is what I get for trying to save $3 and forgetting to stay loyal to godaddy who have always treated me right.) Their site barely mentions hosting and never in the same place that the domain is purchased... Apparently I had 15 days from my domain purchase to cancel "via the administration interface" my "automatically enrolled" hosting package.

Problem 1: I couldn't login for the first 3 days.
Problem 2: I had to call them to find the link to 'cancel' because is was in such an obscure area. (Which didn't matter; this was AFTER the expiration period. It was for my own benefit.)

I was SO upset at this (bounced checks/etc. as this was my bank debit/Visa card; BAD mistake) that I did what any reasonable consumer would do. I searched for a contact on their site to give them an earful. OK, there's an email form and.... well; that's it.

After scouring the internet to find the individual(s) owner(s) who actually received my money, I came across two names: Bradley Norrish + Chesley Rafferty

They own Internet Registrations Worldwide Pty Ltd (Australia, I believe) who in turn owns ezinames & iregistrations. Input any of those companies and/or people and see what comes up.... Lots of time spent in court... Apparently the ridiculous number of fines (in the deep hundreds of thousands) and the number of companies and sites that the courts have shut down are still significantly less than the profits they receive... Sad.

It may not be "fraud" or "theft" because there exists a "terms & conditions" but common decent people know the truth.

I've had similar (far less painful, though) outcomes with certain hosting companies as well...

Because of this, I ended up purchasing my own servers, leasing bandwidth, and now, selling hosting to friends in need. It also helps to have control over servers in the case of testing e-commerce package(s). Hosting makes no $$ these days, but the contacts are valuable, and the server control is great. If anyone would like to speak to me about hosting with a small start-up that charges honest prices, has reliable service and actually has someone on the other end of the phone line, contact me. (I don't want to hock services, so I won't post a URL.) I'll setup vanilla oscommerce installs for free as well as mambo(CMS) and it's shopping cart component.

Thanks for letting me rant.

-DeSoto

Well, I just got my letter from FBCS collection agency saying I owed Globat $257.50 (seems to be a popular amount). About 2 years ago I very shortly tried hosting a site there - moved it after about 1 month because of the slow servers and long response times. I figured they could keep the $90 I paid for the year... Little did I know they'd do this...
I'll be contacting the better business bureau, and whoever else I can find.
Steve

There are a lot of rip off companies out there.
Godaddy is very reliable.

I also received a collections notice for $269.45 after I simply allowed my contract to end after one year after deciding I didn't wish to use GLOBAT anymore. I never received a bill of any sort prior. GLOBAT also went as far as to track me down at a new address. Today I submitted a complaint and documentation to the NY State Attorney General Internet Bureau. So far my attempts to resolve this over the phone with GLOBAT have left me on hold for hours and repeated hung up on.

I will also contact the BBB and econsumer.gov. This is an outrageous waste of my time and energy!

JLowry, you said that you paid them $200. Did they bill you and send you the receipt from the collection agency ? or They didn't do anything then a month later they call you and ask for 18 and 88 cents ?

I dont know what your states say about it, but if you tell most collection agencies to never contact you again in Nebraska, they cant contact you ever again. It costs them $$ to file bad credit so normally 98% of the time they never do it anyway, particularly if you tell them you dont owe anything. Ask for thier name, address, and state and tell them their own state's attorney general may be calling them. Usually, these credit collectors are just a company working on a percent of the collected recovered and play games to try and get you to pay as much as they can, but I believe its illegal in ALL states for a collection agency to file a bad credit report, that can ONLY be filed by the original company, with a signed affidavit that can get them in a heap o' trouble if its fraudulent so they rarely do it!

John Ka0osk

Sounds like a good idea to research what is and isn't legal in your own state. Many of these comapnies use sketchy tactics....knowing that most people will fall for tehm or knuckle under.

There's gotta be info on what a customer's rights are in this situation....anyone?

Hi your state attorney general/Collection Agency Board is the best place.
Colorado says:

YOUR RIGHTS

* You may dispute the debt (or any part of it) within 30 days after receiving the first notice. Your dispute must be in writing. The collection agency must then stop collection efforts until it mails you proof of the debt (a bill or court judgment) and the name of the original creditor if requested (if different from the creditor listed on the collection notice).
* You may inform the collection agency to stop calling you at work or at home, limit the hours during which they call, or to contact you only in writing only. Your request must be in writing. The collection agency must comply with your request but may sue you if it believes the debt is valid. If you are sued, you have the right to appear and defend yourself in court.
* You may refuse to pay the debt or inform the collection agency to cease communication. Your request must be in writing. The collection agency may send you one final notice of its intentions. It must then comply with your request but may sue you if it believes the debt is valid. If you are sued, you have the right to appear and defend yourself in court.
* You may ask the collection agency for a copy of your payment history. The request must be in writing. You are entitled to one copy a year free of charge. The collection agency may charge up to $5.00 for additional copies.


PROHIBITED COLLECTION PRACTICES

A debt collector may not:

* Use obscene or profane language.
* Make repeated telephone calls to annoy or harass, such as calling and speaking to you 3 times in 1 day.
* Telephone you without stating his name within 60 seconds. The debt collector may use an alias (false name) if it is listed with the Colorado Collection Agency Board.
* Threaten violence against you, your property, or reputation.
* Publish or post the debt through any list other than a credit bureau report.
* State that he is an attorney if he is not licensed to practice law.
* Claim he works for a government agency or has governmental authority, if he does not.
* Accuse you of committing a crime or threaten you with arrest.
* Misrepresent that papers are legal documents when they are not or that papers are not legal documents when in fact they are.
* Misrepresent the amount of the debt or collect an amount greater than the amount you legally owe.
* Threaten to take actions that are illegal.
* Threaten to take or sell your property, garnish your wages, or attach your bank accounts unless that action is legal and the debt collector intends to do it.
* Report false credit information about you.
* Make you accept collect calls or pay for telegrams.
* Deposit a post-dated check before the date on the check. If the check is post-dated by more than 5 days, the debt collector must inform you in writing no less than 3 days nor more than 10 days before the date the check will be deposited. (A debt collector may ask you to write a post-dated check - the choice is yours).

Sorry huge post here's a very good link that explains alot:

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebu...lidation.shtml

.

wow. I'm sooooo glad I found this thread. Globat sent my husband to a collections agency when he tried to let his hosting service expire. We disputed the claim and the agnecy sent it back to Globat, who sent it back to them for collections. The agency tells us that if we don't send a post dated check to them by the 18th that it will go on his credit. I'm telling him we should fight it, but he's too worried it will mess his credit up.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by llallen1113

wow. I'm sooooo glad I found this thread. Globat sent my husband to a collections agency when he tried to let his hosting service expire. We disputed the claim and the agnecy sent it back to Globat, who sent it back to them for collections. The agency tells us that if we don't send a post dated check to them by the 18th that it will go on his credit. I'm telling him we should fight it, but he's too worried it will mess his credit up.

---

I know thats the worst part of it all, try this link hope it helps :)

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebu...lidation.shtml

after reading all of your horror stories I found this to be a little humorous.
http://www.hostaward.com/globat-review.shtml

many other reviews are pretty much the same.

I have some good news in regards to my problem with Globat. My husband filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau yesterday, and sent an email to Globat customer service explaining that he filed the complaint, and reasons why. A Globat customer service manager contacted my husband today to resolve the matter. The manager called the BBB with my husband, resolved the problem, and removed my husband's account from collections. I don't know if everyone will have the same response we have had but I thought it was worth sharing.

Hi Everyone,

I read through this post and am sorry that this has happened to you. I suggest to first ALWAYS call your credit card company and put a block on any further transactions with the company as well as file a dispute with them. They will investigate for you. You can fight a TOS if it is not clear and concise.
File a written complaint with documents to your Attorney General's office. At least here in Massachusetts, they will investigate for you as long as you make a formal complaint. They will also provide you with further 'to do's' if need be.

Here is a link to the First Gov website. Yes, a Real government website that should prove helpful.

http://www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topi...et_Fraud.shtml


Good Luck:)

Always do your hosting with godaddy
THey are the best and the biggest (cheapest too:)
When your domain exspires, they will let it wait about 3 months. Other companies will sell your domain name the day it exspires.

Just got my extortion letter today from FCBS.

I However do not buckle to these scams!

Here's the email I just sent to their billing department and I will follow through. I have never lost a credit card chargeback dispute!

-------------------------------------

Nice! After many months of on time payments and a clean cancellation, you send me to a collection agency for some bogus fees? If you do not immediately remove these bogus fees ($183.99) and send me confirmation that my account is closed with a $0 balance within one week of this email (6/19/2006), I will be filing complaints with the BBB, the Attorney General and various ISP forums. In addition, I will file a written request with my credit card company for a complete chargeback of all previous fees paid to Globat for web hosting. Your attempts to extort additional funds from me are futile as you will never get another penny from me after this slick tactic. Please govern yourself accordingly.

********* ********
********@*********.com
(***) ***-****

In short, Domainsarefree.com (via Globat.com) makes it impossible to stop renewal of my domain registrations. I have tendered notices to Globat.com by e-mail, voicemail (phone calls never answered by human), and certified mail over the course of 2-months---absolutely no response.

"Miraculously", Globat did get my complaint filed with the CA Attorney General's office, and issued a refund.

I suggest you do the same---keep your complaint concise:
http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/consumer_complaint.htm

The AG will take further action against Globat only if they receive your complaint. These crooks should be shut down, even if it means they go set up shop in Nevada.

File against:

GLOBAT, INC.
11288 VENTURA BLVD #443B
STUDIO CITY, CA 91604

I would recommend you use Host Department they dont auto renew unless you select that option and you can pay either monthly, every 6months, or yearly and you can pay by credit card or through PayPal. Also their hosting plans are awsome.

Thanks for the heads up. I will certainly inform others to avoid GLOBAT at all costs.

I use hostdepartment for my ecommerce they have unlimited storage and bandwidth and even set up my ecommerce site for me for free all I had to do was upload my images and add the text and prices.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cyberbishop

I suggest you do the same---keep your complaint concise:
http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/consumer_complaint.htm

The AG will take further action against Globat only if they receive your complaint. These crooks should be shut down, even if it means they go set up shop in Nevada.

File against:

GLOBAT, INC.
11288 VENTURA BLVD #443B
STUDIO CITY, CA 91604

---

Thank you for this information cyberbishop. I submitted my year old complaint today, but I am still mad about Globat.com extorting me based on bogus fees.

Please submit your complaints if you experienced similiar services.

Folks,

After reading these post; I felt compelled to communicate back to the community.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you for the less than positive experience you have received with Globat. I take these complaints and your feedback seriously and work diligent towards addressing them so that I can build a service that enhances the customer experience.

I would like to also extend my gratitude for letting us know exactly what about the service experience that has made you dissatisfied. This helps me immensely.

Upon reviewing these complaints; it has come to my attention that these problems rooted from basic clerical error.

I would be happy to address any of these issues; I simply ask that you give me the chance.

I humbly offer to you my direct contact details so that you may reach me at any time for any concerns you may have.

Edward G.
Globat Customer Service Manager
[email protected]

I have been having HUGE issues with globat and was looking around to see if i was the only one, i just found this site, YAY!
Im so pissed that I just went straight to the BBB. and now after reading this i am file a complaint with the AG, I am hoping that everyone who has had issues with Globat does the same. they are extortionists!

this is what happened to me in a nut shell:

Over the past 2+ I have been trying to put up with Globats shoddy customer service.
There have been many times where they'll do automatic upgrades without my permission, and then I have to spend a week or so trying to get the charges reversed. I has finally decided to remove myself from them and switch over to a new hosting company, every time I email with a question is gets directied to a new rep who has seemingly no knowledge of anything related to the internet or webhosting. I have to start over with each person, there then is the problem of too many people working on my account so changes that I request will get reversed. It has taken me 2 days to change my Name server with them, (I am also disputing incorrect charges as I have stated in my other claim) then right after I got my name servers changed, one of their employees changed it back without confirming the change with me! This is horrible. I am extremely frustrated with their lack of customer service, morals and just not treating their customers as intelligent human beings.

Over the past week I have finally become fed up with Globat, they give me automatic upgrades and charge me without my premission. Recently I was trying to transfer a domain and was advised by globat support to click on a link to change the domain, this resulted in a $12.00 charge and nothing changed with my accounts. I was verbally told that the charges would be reversed, nothing has happened yet. I just transfered my domain to a new hosting company before the renewal date, I had checked with a globat employee to make sure I would not have to cancle my account, that transfering was all I needed to do to avoid being charged the $14.99 renewal fee. I come to find out, I was then charged $21.90 for account renewal. I was told the amount was higher because of a security add-on, I have never requested any security add-ons to my account. They will Not reverse this charge. I feel like I have been taken advantage of, I have been a loyal customer of theirs for over two years, I have finally been fed up with them charging me when I have asked to not be charged and getting little to no positive or helpful response from them when I dispute I claim. I am cancling my whole hosting package and I was told I would be refunded the $110.00, but I fear that when I do, an issue like this will come up again and they will just keep my money.


another great thing that JUST happened, is that I just FINALLY got my DNS changed so i can authorize a transfer, and THEY CHANGED IT BACK!!!!

My wife and I signed up with Globat.com in 2004. All in all, it wasn't that horrible, until the first of the year. Strange credit card charges started appearing. Forty bucks here, forty bucks there, etc.

This is a scam simple & plain. Their spam-ish newsletter, has a small checkbox at the very bottom of the e-mail that says, "Check here if you wish to opt out [of the upgrade at a higher price]." Since when did silence give someone the right to charge you at will. That's a little bit like the Girl Scouts coming to your door and saying, "Buy some cookies". You slam the door in her face. She bills your credit card. Apparently, silence equals YES. See the problem?

After re-reading their user agreement (which has changed drastically since 2004), they actually have made adjustments in their language to reflect this new policy of exploitation as of Jan.1st, 2007. We never signed, and/or approved of, this modified contract. See the problem?

It's illegal folks.