Poor Start to worse finish

[sstudham]

I noticed the note about "poor start" and wanted to post a reply letting you know about my experience with a “poor finish”. I had to cancel my hostnine because of the poor customer service.

Over a month ago I emailed hostnine and asked them to cancel my account. They told me to fill out a form (poor customer service).

I filled out the form at HostNine - About us - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST . I did not get a verification email. A few days go by and I get an invoice. I send the helpline another email saying to cancel the account. They ask me to fill out the form again. Another month goes by and I get another invoice. I get told to fill out the form again. I send another email to the support queue and threaten to engage BBB and report their continued charges to my credit card to AMEX as fraud (I’ve done both). I fill out the form and this time I get the email for verification.

The tone in the emails from Nick highlight how poor hostnine’s customer service is.

Worst part was he made stuff up. Nowhere in the terms of service (HostNine - Terms and Conditions - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST) does it requrie a verification process.


On Mar 22, 2009, at 4:42 PM, "HostNine Billing" <billing@hostnine.com>
wrote:

> Perhaps you should read our Terms and Conditions before you mention
> the law, because that's the legal agreement you agreed to when
> signing up, and that is what would hold up in a court of law. You
> need to provide the proper verification information via the proper
> cancellation form or we will not cancel your account.
>
> You can threaten us with the BBB and chargebacks all you want.
> The BBB has absolutely NO authority over us or ANY business.
> And, we have fought chargebacks against people who refuse to
> complete the verification process before and won.
> We also have an excellent collections agency for these cases.
>
> If you want to cancel, follow the proper procedure as outlined in
> our Terms and Conditions. If you wish to expedite this process
> please fill out HostNine - About us - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST and include the last
> 4 digits of your credit card on file to verify, and we'll process it
> right away. YOU are the only one holding this cancellation back.
> In the time it's taken you to argue with us, you could have already
> been cancelled. We don't sway from policy for anyone, even if they
> do make threats we've heard before.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Nick H



-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Studham [mailto:studham@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 9:16 AM
To: billing@hostnine.com
Cc: nickh@hostnine.com; 'Kim Studham'
Subject: RE: [#CNX-864274]: Action needed in 24 hours

Nick,

Your "verification process" is an example of the poor customer service and why I am not recommending people use host nine. I do not acknowledge the verification process as a requirement beyond what is required by law as the verification process is not in the Host Nine terms of service. By knowingly continuing to bill me after my repeated statements of "stop this service" you are stealing.

The fact is I've send emails to "Host Nine" multiple times asking for my account to be canceled.

Please confirm the account is canceled within the next 24 hours and I will not be billed further.

If I do not get your verification that my account is canceled within the next 24 hours I will be filing a complaint with the better business bureaus and the credit card company you are using to steal with. More importantly I will start a negative PR campaign against host nine in the blog sphere including blogging about the legal process to recoup the last few months of billing even after Host Nine knew I had requested the service be canceled.

Scott

PS: I've searched my gmail account and the email you just sent me is the only one that contains the words "verification process hostnine", so either I didn't get your "verification process" reply or it is a new requirement. It doesn't matter because it is not in the terms of service I signed and it is not required by law so you have no basis to keep charging my credit card.


-----Original Message-----
From: HostNine Billing [mailto:billing@hostnine.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 4:39 AM
To: studham@gmail.com
Subject: [#CNX-864274]: FW: Customer Invoice

We never confirmed anything was cancelled.

In fact, in our reply to your cancellation request was:
** PLEASE NOTE ** Your account will remain active and be continuously billed until you complete this verification process. No refunds will be issued for accounts that are billed due to failure to complete the verification process.

I recommend you review that message and provide the proper information.


Regards,

Nick H

Originally Posted by sstudham

I noticed the note about "poor start" and wanted to post a reply letting you know about my experience with a “poor finish”. I had to cancel my hostnine because of the poor customer service.

Over a month ago I emailed hostnine and asked them to cancel my account. They told me to fill out a form (poor customer service).

I filled out the form at HostNine - About us - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST . I did not get a verification email. A few days go by and I get an invoice. I send the helpline another email saying to cancel the account. They ask me to fill out the form again. Another month goes by and I get another invoice. I get told to fill out the form again. I send another email to the support queue and threaten to engage BBB and report their continued charges to my credit card to AMEX as fraud (I’ve done both). I fill out the form and this time I get the email for verification.

The tone in the emails from Nick highlight how poor hostnine’s customer service is.

Worst part was he made stuff up. Nowhere in the terms of service (HostNine - Terms and Conditions - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST) does it requrie a verification process.


On Mar 22, 2009, at 4:42 PM, "HostNine Billing" <billing@hostnine.com>
wrote:

> Perhaps you should read our Terms and Conditions before you mention
> the law, because that's the legal agreement you agreed to when
> signing up, and that is what would hold up in a court of law. You
> need to provide the proper verification information via the proper
> cancellation form or we will not cancel your account.
>
> You can threaten us with the BBB and chargebacks all you want.
> The BBB has absolutely NO authority over us or ANY business.
> And, we have fought chargebacks against people who refuse to
> complete the verification process before and won.
> We also have an excellent collections agency for these cases.
>
> If you want to cancel, follow the proper procedure as outlined in
> our Terms and Conditions. If you wish to expedite this process
> please fill out HostNine - About us - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST and include the last
> 4 digits of your credit card on file to verify, and we'll process it
> right away. YOU are the only one holding this cancellation back.
> In the time it's taken you to argue with us, you could have already
> been cancelled. We don't sway from policy for anyone, even if they
> do make threats we've heard before.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Nick H



-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Studham [mailto:studham@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 9:16 AM
To: billing@hostnine.com
Cc: nickh@hostnine.com; 'Kim Studham'
Subject: RE: [#CNX-864274]: Action needed in 24 hours

Nick,

Your "verification process" is an example of the poor customer service and why I am not recommending people use host nine. I do not acknowledge the verification process as a requirement beyond what is required by law as the verification process is not in the Host Nine terms of service. By knowingly continuing to bill me after my repeated statements of "stop this service" you are stealing.

The fact is I've send emails to "Host Nine" multiple times asking for my account to be canceled.

Please confirm the account is canceled within the next 24 hours and I will not be billed further.

If I do not get your verification that my account is canceled within the next 24 hours I will be filing a complaint with the better business bureaus and the credit card company you are using to steal with. More importantly I will start a negative PR campaign against host nine in the blog sphere including blogging about the legal process to recoup the last few months of billing even after Host Nine knew I had requested the service be canceled.

Scott

PS: I've searched my gmail account and the email you just sent me is the only one that contains the words "verification process hostnine", so either I didn't get your "verification process" reply or it is a new requirement. It doesn't matter because it is not in the terms of service I signed and it is not required by law so you have no basis to keep charging my credit card.


-----Original Message-----
From: HostNine Billing [mailto:billing@hostnine.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 4:39 AM
To: studham@gmail.com
Subject: [#CNX-864274]: FW: Customer Invoice

We never confirmed anything was cancelled.

In fact, in our reply to your cancellation request was:
** PLEASE NOTE ** Your account will remain active and be continuously billed until you complete this verification process. No refunds will be issued for accounts that are billed due to failure to complete the verification process.

I recommend you review that message and provide the proper information.


Regards,

Nick H

You may want to check your spam box or email settings as our helpdesk auto sends out emails and we haven't had any issues with any other gmail users. As for the process we do this to avoid someone trying to cancel an account that is not theirs. I'm not sure how this makes you not want to refer anyone to our company or even use our company as we do it for your safety as well as ours. It's a simple process which requires providing the last 4 digits of the credit card on file.

If we do not receive a response on a cancellation request the ticket system automatically closes it. You could have gone into live chat, or called our toll-free number to follow up on the request if you did not receive a response to your inbox. Unfortunately we do not know if you don't receive a copy of it to your email and we will assume it was not a valid cancellation request.

[H9NickH]

Originally Posted by sstudham

I noticed the note about "poor start" and wanted to post a reply letting you know about my experience with a “poor finish”. I had to cancel my hostnine because of the poor customer service.

I'm curious to know where you experienced "poor customer service". I checked your ticket history, and the only 4 emails we have from you are regarding this cancellation (screenshot of ticket history attached), which was never properly completed until today. In fact, your first cancellation request (which was never completed properly) stated "Reason: Because I never used it.", and you also never had any accounts under your reseller plan. So, could you please tell us where you experienced a poor customer service issue that resulted in your cancellation?

Originally Posted by sstudham

Over a month ago I emailed hostnine and asked them to cancel my account. They told me to fill out a form (poor customer service).

Again, how is that poor customer service?

Please read HostNine - Terms and Conditions - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST

Cancellation
You must use only one of following methods to deliver a official written notice of cancellation:
Please fill out the entire Cancellation Form. On receipt your account will be pending cancellation within 24 hours. Please include your Name, domain name, username, password and your reason for canceling

In addition, your email to Billing requesting to cancel was sent on February 22, 2009, the date your account is set to renew, and the first cancellation request (which was never properly completed) was not sent until March 4, 2009.

Please read another passage from our Terms and Conditions:

However, if customer cancels fifteen (15) days before recurring monthly billing date customer will not be billed for the next month and all payments thereafter will be cancelled with immediate effect.

Originally Posted by sstudham

I filled out the form at HostNine - About us - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST . I did not get a verification email. A few days go by and I get an invoice. I send the helpline another email saying to cancel the account. They ask me to fill out the form again. Another month goes by and I get another invoice. I get told to fill out the form again. I send another email to the support queue and threaten to engage BBB and report their continued charges to my credit card to AMEX as fraud (I’ve done both). I fill out the form and this time I get the email for verification.

Right, you filled out the form on March 4, 2009, whcih you never properly completed. We replied in just over 2 hours requesting the proper cancellation information. We never received another reply from you after that. You will find attached a screenshot of the ticket confirming this.

You should also note that right on the Cancellation Form that you completed and you submitted it clearly states:

# Submitting this form alone does not complete your cancellation. Within 24 hours you will receive further instructions on how to verify you are authorized to cancel this account. Until that process is completed your account will remain in Active status.

Originally Posted by sstudham

The tone in the emails from Nick highlight how poor hostnine’s customer service is.

Worst part was he made stuff up. Nowhere in the terms of service (HostNine - Terms and Conditions - 99.9% Uptime - 24x7 Support - 877-251-HOST) does it requrie a verification process.

I made absolutely nothing up. As has already been mentioned, the cancellation form that you completed and you submitted clearly states that the accountholder information must be verified before the cancellation is completed.

We've done absolutely nothing wrong here. We followed our policies and procedures perfectly as outlined in our Terms and Conditions and the cancellation form itself. I believe you are just angry because we would not give in to your threats of chargebacks and complaints. We don't let threats get in the way of our policy, and threats will get you absolutely nowhere.

To recap this issue:
22 Feb 2009 08:36 AM - You stated you had already cancelled (which you had not done - please see attached your ticket history), we told you to fill out the form.

04 Mar 2009 07:32 PM - You completed the cancellation form but never properly completed the very simple verification process (it's as simple as replying with the last 4 digits of your credit card).

21 Mar 2009 08:35 PM - You contacted us once again after receiving your invoice (because you never properly completed the cancellation procedure) and immediately started threatening us with a "negative PR campaign" along with BBB reports and chargebacks.

22 Mar 2009 05:32 PM - You finally properly submitted and properly completed the cancellation process. Your account was cancelled, and we even refunded the charge made even though we were under no obligation to do so.

[sstudham]

Nick,

I see you continue to exagerate the truth. In your email to me you said, "Perhaps you should read our Terms and Conditions before you mention the law, because that's the legal agreement you agreed to when signing up".

The T&C's a customer agrees when when "signign up" are listed online at http: // www. hostnine.com /terms-and-conditions/

I your response and tone show everybody HostNine has poor customer service. Thanks for proving my point.

Scott

[H9NickH]

Originally Posted by sstudham

Nick,

I see you continue to exagerate the truth. In your email to me you said, "Perhaps you should read our Terms and Conditions before you mention the law, because that's the legal agreement you agreed to when signing up".

The T&C's a customer agrees when when "signign up" are listed online at http: // www. hostnine.com /terms-and-conditions/

I your response and tone show everybody HostNine has poor customer service. Thanks for proving my point.

Scott

I have not exaggerated anything. I believe I clearly addressed each and every point you made. Again, I believe you are just upset because we would not cave to your threats. Did you notice how once you properly completed the cancellation process that your account was promptly cancelled?