By webjourneyman on

I signed up for a year long hosting for $60 (using promo code) 2/2/08, the terms of service stated that unless I unsubscribed before that date this year I would be charged $120 annually. January 10th I used a upgrade/downgrade service interface on their site to cancel my subscription. Despite that I was today charged $120, Amit is not replying, service ticket has not been replied to. When re-reading the initial confirmation mail there are instructions there that I should cancel on PayPal using a cancel button, when there I can find no such button, but perhaps there was before. When logged into DVD I´m told that my subscription is due, therefore the upgrade/downgrade feature.

Reading here I'm pessimistic about ever getting a reply to the service ticket. What is the best way to handle this, is filing for fraud the only option?

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.5.x or older

Comments

vm’s picture

vm commented

call paypal and dispute the charge or your credit card company and dispute the charge or as a last resort call an attorney. Though based on paypal's protection guarantee and standard credit card protection, calling an attorney may not be necessary.

As side not and so that others reading this understand. This is not a drupal issue. Drupalvaluehosting is not affiliated with drupal.org.

webjourneyman’s picture

webjourneyman commented

I realize Drupal Value Hosting is not affiliated by Drupal, however I chose their sevice after reading an announcement by them here on this very forum a year ago.

So I thought to as hera and this is also a warning to those contemplating doing business with them.

vm’s picture

vm commented

There are already multiple threads of this nature on the forums.

see: http://drupal.org/search/node/DVH
see: http://drupal.org/search/node/drupal+value+hosting

webjourneyman’s picture

webjourneyman commented

"If it's seems too good to be true it probably is." They were brand new a year ago offering hosting for $5 per month. I did lots of research before selecting them, on different hosting forums, checked with Better Business Bureau and more but as I say they were a new company, no info to be found and I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I knew I was taking a risk in regards to the quality of their service (and they got hacked into and DoS attacked soon afterwards, rendering them useless) but I never expected them to steal from me, somehow I just assumed they wouldn't, silly me.

vm’s picture

vm commented

80% of new companies fail in their first 3 - 5 years. If you are serious about your site find a well established host. Side note, those hosting review sites are crap IMHO.

seanray’s picture

seanray commented

It should be wise to avoid hosting your site with new hosting company if it's really important to you. Only work with those who have been in business more than 3 years. In this way, you can get enough customer feedback information and evaluate their product by yourself.

In terms of DVH, you can contact their service to explain your situation, and ask for a refunding. Or you need to contact Credit card or Paypal to see how possible they can pause the payment process.

Best Drupal Hosting | Affordable Web Hosting | Drupal Tutorials

webjourneyman’s picture

webjourneyman commented

I´ve been refunded after making a complaint at PayPal, the ticket is however still open at DVH. This was a problem with automatic subscription that I should have cancelled myself, cancelling at DVH was not enough. I apologize for alleging that DVH are thieves but in light of the ticket still being open and unanswered I can only conclude that DVH is in trouble and not to be reccomended.

webjourneyman’s picture

webjourneyman commented

Seems like Amit Gupta the webpreneur and drupaller has realized the importance of good (and quick) customer support for a hosting buissness. Just having canceled my hosting and redirected my domainservers I get a goodby letter from DVH:

"Dear Thor,

Hope you are enjoying your stay at DVH!

It is my pleasure to present to you the new dedicated support team for managing support requests/tickets at DVH!

DVH is proud to announce appointment of the following team members:

Customer Service Manager: Priyanka (priyanka@drupalvaluehosting.com). She is a MBA grad with dual major in Systems and Marketing. She brings with her 4 years of rich experience in managing customer service operations. You can reach her email directly for any issue resolution (or escalation of requests).

New Customer Support Executives: Arjun (Linux guru), Swati (sales and b illing solutions) and Chris(the technical wizard of PHP and Drupal)

Personal Note: DVH was started in late 2007, and thanks to your support, it has been a great journey. I have always found it motivating (and cost effective too!) to attend to support queries personally. But now it does not remain a one-person job due to the scale of business, so finally decided to recruit a more responsible and dedicated team for handling day-to-day customer support. Of course, I can be reached directly at (amit@drupalvaluehosting.com), wherever my assistance is needed.

I am sure this will ensure fast and quality support for your queries. The team will quickly transition to its role within the next 48 hours.

We have great things in store over this year at DVH. In mid-Jan we recieved additional funding of approximately USD $78,000 from our private investors and we plan to utilize that in making the year 2009, a great hosting experience for you at DVH!

Regards,
Amit
"

In all fairness I must say that the only time I experienced that sites were down was during a DoS attack. Overall DVH performed better in that regards than my last cheap shared host. And this billing incident was only the second time I had any kind of trouble with DVH and I did overreact to the support ticket not being answered to for hours (might still be open for all I know, except I closed it myself having gotten the refund).

alpinejag’s picture

alpinejag commented

I put in a ticket to cancel a month ago and still have yet to hear anything back from them. I did end my subscription through Paypal first though so they couldn't charge me. I've sent several emails to DVH and still haven't heard anything back since then. I can still access everything on my account too. Glad to hear another good story about Paypal making things right though.

twood’s picture

twood commented

STRONGLY CAUTION - I DO NOT RECOMMEND DRUPALVALUEHOSTING.COM They are the most unreliable, poorly supported, worst web hosting service I have ever encountered. If you are designing professional sites and expect any sort of reliability, I'd stay away. I had sites down for two entire days with absolutely no response from them. They also charged me inappropriately and fail to respond. In 12 years of designing and developing online, in my opinion, they are the worst.

yrre7’s picture

yrre7 commented

Does anyone know if I can still cancel my yearly subscription with them in paypal? I paid them like last month. I also had the same problem and I am totally not satisfied with them since they haven't replied my tickets for 2 days already.

alpinejag’s picture

alpinejag commented

Yes, just find the subscription in your transaction history in Paypal and when you view the details there is an option to cancel.

I've had my ticket open to cancel my account with DVH open for over a month with no response. After you cancel the subscription in Paypal they have no way of charging you again though.

yrre7’s picture

yrre7 commented

Is yours yearly subscription? or monthly? Mine is actually an yearly subscription, and I can't seem to find the Cancel link you mentioned. I think I can only choose to dispute or file a complain?

vm’s picture

vm commented

if you paid upfront for year disputing may be your only option. The refund would have to come from DVH.

alpinejag’s picture

alpinejag commented

Mine was a yearly. I canceled several months before the subscription was due though, so the option might not be there if they already charged you again.

1.  Log in to your PayPal account.
2.  Click History under My Account at the top of the page.
3.  Choose Subscriptions from the Show drop-down menu.
4.  Check the From box and change the date back to the year the subscription was created.
5.  Click Search, and then click Details.
6.  Click Cancel Subscription.
7.  Click Cancel Subscription again.

From Paypals help, it was actually shorter than posting the link.

If they did already charge you just dispute it through Paypal. They will get DVH involved if they need to, assuming DVH will actually respond to them.

yrre7’s picture

yrre7 commented

Thanks guys,
I will try that...I guess I have to move all my websites first before canceling.

kevinquillen’s picture

kevinquillen commented

Heard far more bad than good for this 'host'.

Just be careful, cheap hosting is never what they say it is.

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read my thoughts

yrre7’s picture

yrre7 commented

another question.
Since they never respond, how am I supposed to get the EPP authorization key from them to move my domain?

alpinejag’s picture

alpinejag commented

Do a whois on your domain and try contacting whatever registrar they used.