A word of warning

[eBuy]

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

[JPnyc]

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

[JLowry]

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.

[JPnyc]

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.

[scotthew]

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!!

[Gromit]

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.

[JLowry]

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]

[JPnyc]

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

[dcomiskey]

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.

[JLowry]

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

[JPnyc]

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

[desoto0311]

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

[sHanzek]

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

[natureday]

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

[susanah]

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!