Today, I experienced one of the worst horrors of dealing with the Internet.
Uh-huh!
Just try to sign up for a web hosting plan without experiencing technical snafus, headaches & nightmares, emotional traumas, and cash out-of-hand!
Locating a company to provide a reasonably-priced hosting plan is difficult enough, but when you run smack-dab into a company that practices deception - engages in fraudulent business conduct, and posts unauthorized charges on credit cards for exhorbitant sums not due, for starters - it makes for a mighty scary day on the WWW.
Blue Host, for instance, is one of those web-based companies that lures potential consumers to their site under false premises - the promise of low monthly hosting plans - then bills charges to credit card accounts which were not disclosed (or agreed to) in a cavalier fashion with no guilt or shame.
After-the-fact, staff give customers the run-around - and shame! - evade good-faith efforts by the "victim" to resolve the issues in a legally responsible and ethical way.
In essence, Blue Host is run by a pack of dishonest thieves, judging from my experience thus far.
When I signed on for a new domain hosting plan, I was promised unlimited usage and scads of free storage, for a reasonable fee.
However, once the a-holes secured my credit card information - and billed me in about two seconds flat - an alleged malfunction at the server (their words, not mine) prevented me from completing the transaction (or, so I thought, according to their e-mails).
So, I was instructed to re-submit the order form.
Horse dung!
It was all a clever ploy to extract more $$$ from my bank account.
Do they think I was born yesterday?
Lo & behold!
Once the order was submitted, an invoice wormed its way into my mail box at Yahoo, confirming my worst fears.
In spite of their claims that the order was not processed due to a computer glitch, my account was dinged sums, a follow-up invoice alleged were due!
Now, the run-arounds, commenced.
One fellow noted that he could not respond to my queries until I established my identity.
Hogwash!
If that was the case - logic dictates, without doubt - that they should have waited to ascertain that niggly little bit of precious information before they debited my bank account (don't 'ya think?).
No Sir!
So, I fired off a formal demand, requesting a strict accounting of the sums charged to my account.
That was several hours ago. No response back, yet!
Then, out-of-the-blue (no pun intended), I received an e-mail from a staffer in "support" at the Blue Host rip-off outfit, who informed me that my account was being placed "on hold" and into deactivated status on the grounds that employees were having difficulty getting in touch with me!
OMG!
Are they just idiots, clever con-man stalling and delaying, or what?
"Poppie-cock," I muttered under my breath with a nod to Judge Andrew H. Hauk (dearly departed).
I fired back an e-mail - and noted for the record - that I had been in touch with two of Blue Host's employees all morning and that no one had the decency or professional courtesy to even respond back.
No reply back to that one, either.
If Blue Host was going to close the accout, or deactivate it, weren't they required (by law) to address the issue of the payment and duly inform me if I would be receiving a credit back at the end of the business day?
Golly, what a friggin' mess!
So, I am penning this consumer alert to warn my readers (and others who stumble upon my blog) to steer clear of Blue Host web hosting or whatever the fu** the fly-by-night losers call themselves, today!
Meanwhile - I have tgo to-da-loo - and put in a telephone call to the bank.
It's the only way I'll get my credit back - I surmise - at this point.
I'd rather have a root canal, believe me.
Scumbags!
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