Webhostforasp.net Billing Scam

[malcolmswaine]

I recently set up hosting and DNS with a company Webhostforasp.net using payment by credit card.

Three month into the yearly hosting contract they decided out of the blue to charge me for another year.

When I queried support to ask why they had done this I received the reply

"Due to your account expiration, if we do not receive any request for not renewing your hosting plan, we will auto renew your account. Please advise."

I never authorized the transaction and never authorized for any sort of automatic renewal - they just helped themselves to my money - and the account wasn't even due to expire for another 9 months.

I naturally complained.

After this they shut down my account - with 9 months of service that I have already pre-paid for, plus the extra year they decided to add on. Further, their useless control panel retains no information regarding the credit card details they seem to have secretly retained.

Really, stay away from these people. If the downtime on their servers isn’t enough to put you off, then giving them your credit card details should be.

I hope this serves as a useful warning to anyone else.

Edited March 1, 2009 by malcolmswaine

[Crushdepth]

Contact your bank and dispute the additional charge - then it's pretty much up to the company to prove that you approved it / they were entitled to it. Quite likely you will get your money back.

[desi01]

Dear Mr Malcolm,

I am writing this on behalf of Webhostforasp.NET support& billing team and I am also the one who is in charge on this issue and solution under your support ticket with us.

I believe that We have solved this misunderstanding between your complaint and our solution. I do appreciated your kindness and positive feedback on the solution that we have offered on this issue.

I hope that you can clarify your statement on Webhostforasp.net billing scam.

We are reputable webhosting company that are not trying to scam anything from our client. We are highly appreciated all our client privacy and confidentiality and have appreciated our client membership with us.

We are trying to provide our client with best services.

Thanks

Webhostforasp.net Support& Billing Team

[wxpwzrd]

Dear Mr Malcolm,

I am writing this on behalf of Webhostforasp.NET support& billing team and I am also the one who is in charge on this issue and solution under your support ticket with us.

I believe that We have solved this misunderstanding between your complaint and our solution. I do appreciated your kindness and positive feedback on the solution that we have offered on this issue.

I hope that you can clarify your statement on Webhostforasp.net billing scam.

We are reputable webhosting company that are not trying to scam anything from our client. We are highly appreciated all our client privacy and confidentiality and have appreciated our client membership with us.

We are trying to provide our client with best services.

Thanks

Webhostforasp.net Support& Billing Team

How nice of you to be on the prowl for bad comments about your service. At least you are given more of a chance here than you gave your customer. If even a shred of the customer's post is credible (and it is likely all correct), then you really have no excuse. Of course, you will probably be a hit-and-run poster to just come here say "we made up for it" and disappear so you will never any additional comment.

[malcolmswaine]

Here is a log of the support - agreeably I was a little angry at one point, but I do think it was justified.

Dear customer,

This is a quick reminder to tell you that your webhosting account has been renewed successfully.

==================

Date Added : 27 February 2009

Title : Complaints !! Billing

Query Details : Can you tell my why the following renewal has been charged without my authorization?

==================

Ticket History

desi (staff) Rate : Dear Mr/Ms,

Due to your account expiration, if we do not receive any request for not renewing your hosting plan, we will auto renew your account. Please advise.

Best Regards

==================

Date Added : 28 February 2009

Title : Complaints !! Billing

Query Details : "Due to your account expiration, if we do not receive any request for not renewing your hosting plan, we will auto renew your account."

The account doesn't expire for another 9 months, and I NEVER authorized an auto renewal - you cheeky stealing bast*rds.

If the transaction isn’t promptly refunded I am going to report it as theft to my bank. I suspect you will be blacklisted before long if this is how you conduct your business.

Unbelievable is all I can say.

==================

Ticket History

desi (staff) Rate : Dear Mr/Ms,

I have cancelled your account now and refunded the amount to you. Please check it again.

Best Regards

==================

Date Added : 28 February 2009

Title : Complaints !! Billing and account cancelation

Query Details : I have already pre-paid for 12 months from Nov 2008 to Nov 2009 and I intend to use my account during this period.

Please DO refund the amount charged for the renewal hosting service from Nov 2009 to Nov 2010.

Please DON'T just completely trash my account and leave me without a website and email. I assume you've just deactivated the account and not just sent my website to the recycle bin?

==================

Dear Mr/Ms,

Your account has been deleted and the fee has been refunded.

Your website all has been deleted because of you request for the refund.

==================

Date Added : 01 March 2009

Title : Complaints !! Cancellation and refund

Query Details : OK, enough of this idiocy. I asked you to refund the amount you charged me for Nov 2009 -> Nov 2010 without my permission.

I never asked you to refund the amount I paid for hosting and DNS from Nov 2008 -> Nov 2009. I never asked you to just go ahead and delete my account as leave me in the sh*t.

What part of this is so difficult to understand? You helped yourself to my money, and I wanted it back. It's not rocket science!

I don't want anything else to do with you. You are a completely incompetent bunch of amateurs. Deleting my web site from your file system as an obvious act of spite is something you would expect from a 8 year old child.

I expect the money for 2 years of hosting plus the 1 years DNS refunded to my card. You are the party that has legally breached contract, by not only fraudulently using funds, but retaining credit card information on file without permission or knowledge and canceling my account without any forewarning.

Please can you verify the the exact amount that has been refunded to my card. If you have refunded 2 years hosting plus the 1 years DNS then this is acceptable.

==================

Dear Mr/Ms,

Sorry for the misunderstanding between us. But I didnt quite understand about the problem.

Yes, for Nov 2008-Nov 2009, you have hosting with us and we never delete your account for that period.

As per the renewal things, we have specify in our TOC, that the account will be auto renewed on the expiry date.

And majority of hosting providers in the world do the same thing for this.

Now is already March 2009. and because you have requested for full refund and don't want any of renewal, therefore

We have to delete the account, because your account is already expired long time ago. I don't see anything wrong with it. And I apologize if this make you

not happy with the service.

However, if you still want to continue hosting with us , we can recover your site back, because we do have backup.

We refund full amount of 1 year hosting ($72)

==================

Date Added : 02 March 2009

Title : Complaints !! Account Cancellation

Query Details : You say: “Yes, for Nov 2008-Nov 2009, you have hosting with us and we never delete your account for that period.”

The date now is March 2009. The expiry date of the account is Nov 2009. Therefore the account isn’t due to expire for 8 months.

You also say “We have to delete the account, because your account is already expired long time ago”

The expiry date is in 9 months?!! THE ACCOUNT HASN’T EXPIRED YET.YOU JUST WROTE THAT IN THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH

Also “I don't see anything wrong with it”

I PAID FOR 12 MONTHS HOSTING IN NOV 2008.

I HAVE USED 4 MONTHS OUT OF THE 12.

IT IS NOW THE 4th MONTH INTO THE HOSTING CONTRACT

THEREFORE MY ACCONT ISNT DUE FOR RENEWAL FOR ANOTHER 8 MONTHS

SO WHY HAVE YOU CANCELLED IT.

MY WEBSITE IS DOWN. I HAVE NO EMAIL.

I don’t care about the files that make up my web site. I can FTP them back up.

JUST PUT MY ACCOUNT BACK ONLINE.

If, after 8 months in November 2009 when the account does actually expire and is due for renewal I decide to renew it, then I will organize it.

I DO NOT NEED TO RENEW THIS ACCOUNT FOR ANOTHER 8 MONTHS.

==================

Dear Mr/Ms,

I am highly apologize for this inconvenience. There is misunderstanding between refunded the double charges on your amount and request for cancellation. I have resumed back your account. Please check it again.

I have also, compensate you with 2 months free hosting. Now your account expire date is 28 March 2010.

Please kindly accept my apology on this issue.

Please let me know if you still got any further issue with your website.

Best Regards

WebHostForASP.NET Support Team

==================

Dear Mr Malcolm.

We recently noticed that you have post a very bad review on our billing service under title

"Billing Scam Webhostforasp.net".

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Webhostforas...am-t246528.html

We hope that you will be very kind to remove that Post since the problem that happens between us is purely misunderstanding and a bugs in our billing auto renewal system.

Thanks and Best Regards

Webhostforasp.net Billing Team

==================

End

[wxpwzrd]

All I can say is that this level of support is not surprising. They should be happy you did not report it to webhostingtalk or a site that has a much more significant web hosting community.

[TheWalkingMan]

What a mess.

[Khun Jack]

I had the renewal problem with Netfirms, without billing or notifying me they charged my daughter's credit card for renewing one year web hosting. My daughter did a charge back and my websites were taken down. Not a single message from Netfirms. When I contacted Netfirms they reply me that they always automatically renew hosting as good service for their customers who might forget to renew. I was not happy with Netfirms hosting so I didn't intend to renew it, but Netfirm's control panel has not an option to deactivate the renewal. I had to send a registered letter three months before renewal date to end the hosting service, Netfirms points to their TOS and will charge me 80$ to activate my account and consider the credit charge back as fraud. Now I was accused for fraud as well. I had at that time no credit card when I bought the one year hosting.

The charge back is never received as well, the Siam Commercial bank asked for the email conversation and months later nothing yet.

Lesson: never give a company your credit card details, use PayPal or another credit card processor.

[malcolmswaine]

Lesson: never give a company your credit card details, use PayPal or another credit card processor.

I think that's the way to do it Khun Jack. Just keep a small funds PayPal account for online payments of this kind. It's damage limitation at the end of the day.

Edited March 8, 2009 by malcolmswaine

[sniffdog]

And if using Paypal and the hosting company initiates a 'Subscription' cancel it immediately, so you're in charge when (and if) to pay.

Edited March 8, 2009 by sniffdog

[desi01]

Hi All,

I apologize if my post previosly cause any misundestanding again. I just want to ensure that there is clearly information stated.

> How nice of you to be on the prowl for bad comments about your service. At least you are given more of a chance here than you gave your customer. If even a shred of the customer's post is credible (and it is likely all correct), then you really have no excuse. Of course, you will probably be a hit-and-run poster to just come here say "we made up for it" and disappear so you will never any additional comment.

> A: We are posing our feedback here is to show that we are a reliable hosting company that is not based on hit and run. We made up our misunderstanding with our customer to ensure their satisfaction.

> Dear Mr Malcolm,

> Based on your comment: "Here is a log of the support - agreeably I was a little angry at one point, but I do think it was justified."

> A: Here is also the latest post that you have sent us:

"Malcolm Swaine : OK, thanks for putting my account back online Desi.

Regards,

Malcolm "

As I have said all the time. I am highly appreciated your good and positive feedback with us.

It is good that you have posted all the logs, so it can clarify that we have admitted there is a misundestanding between us and hope it will not happen again in future.

And we are highly appreciated your request not to put you on our auto renewal terms.

If you do not wish to proceed with auto renewal, you just can inform us. We can set you not automatically renewed your website.

Before your renewal also we always send you email notification that we are going to renew your hosting account.

> All I can say is that this level of support is not surprising. They should be happy you did not report it to webhostingtalk or a site that has a much more significant web hosting community.

> A: Thanks for your comments. We do highly appreciated all our customer feedback and their corporation in solving the issue with us.

Thanks.

[nothappy]

Hi Everyone

this has just happened to me, i searched for webhostforasp.net refund and this forum showed up number 1 in the search results, i am demanding a refund and posting to hopefully help others, i have many links to the dotnetnuke community, many twitter friends, and active in google apps that will be interested also, i will keep you updated,

peace

[alsonothappy]

I also had a bad experience with them. Below were some issues.

- Outdated and not applicable knowledge based system.

- Somebody to talk to?, no one is there to address concerns. 24/7 live support? seriously? seems like 24/7 unavailable.

- In my case, I cannot access their support system, support.webhostforasp.net, maybe after malcom's complain, they controlled it already.

I was embarassed with a client because they just couldn't deliver. Hosting companies normally setup dependencies max in hours not days.

Got some of their info and some HANDY CHANG was the receiver of payments.

WebHostForASP I think can be reached at 5716 Will Clayton # 1353 Humble, TX 77338 USA or phone 1-214-7744035. Got this from a certain forum. A lot of posts about Webhostforasp issues are swinging around the internet, so we can share our sentiments. This way, we can all unite and achieve a common understanding against this hosting company.

I think webhosttalk and related forum sites are just eager for these news. Twitter and facebook are also good portals.

[klikster]

This from WebHostingTalk

Discountasp.net is really an interesting choice and their responses to my questions where very accurate and descriptive, but there are other shared hosting solutions that offer SQL database support for the same money. Disount offers it as an additional addon.