Warning Do Not Use — Data393 or Ventures Online Hosting

GD
Posted By
Gary Dickson
Sep 9, 2004
Views
906
Replies
16
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Closed
I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement ‹

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been using Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this year they merged with another company and they are now Data393. Late in July I request some help with accessing their help desk — submitted an online form at least once and emailed after that at least one time. Several weeks later I final received a response. By that time I was shopping for a new hosting service. I emailed Data393 on August 10th requesting they terminate my account. I receive no response to that email and assumed the account would be deactivated within 2 weeks (standard procedure I thought). On Sept 1st I received a billing statement for September from Data393. I called and spoke with a female in their billing department (I thought) on September 2nd. After a brief conversation and the female looking up my email I was told that my account would be credited and that it was terminated. On Tuesday a charge showed up on my bank account — you guessed it DATA393 for Sept!!!

I just got off the phone with them and was told that since I did not submit a ticket through their help desk that there was nothing that could be done about it — I must pay for September. They claim to have sent me emails stating that the ONLY way to terminate an account is via their help desk. I swear that I have received no such emails ‹ I am an honest business person.

This is all a bit weird since in the end they terminated my account because of a phone call. A paradox that I brought to their attention on the phone but that they didn’t seem to find odd.

Since I didn¹t terminate in the perscribed fashion I suppose there is still a good chance I¹ll receive another bill and charges in Oct ‹ I¹ll let you know.

IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BAD SERVICE AT A REASONABLE RATE USE DATA393.

Please pass this along to as many people as you might know who use these types of services. I would hate to hear of someone I know having to deal with these people like I have had to.

I am cross posting this to a few other newsgroups. What other newsgroups would it be good to post this to?

Gary D.

Epidemic Design
http://www.epidemicdesign.com

³There is no defense against good design²

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

R
Rykers
Sep 9, 2004
EMAIL THEM!!

"Gary Dickson" wrote in message
I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement <

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been
using
Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this
year
they merged with another company and they are now Data393. Late in July I request some help with accessing their help desk — submitted an online
form
at least once and emailed after that at least one time. Several weeks
later
I final received a response. By that time I was shopping for a new hosting service. I emailed Data393 on August 10th requesting they terminate my account. I receive no response to that email and assumed the account would be deactivated within 2 weeks (standard procedure I thought). On Sept 1st
I
received a billing statement for September from Data393. I called and
spoke
with a female in their billing department (I thought) on September 2nd. After a brief conversation and the female looking up my email I was told that my account would be credited and that it was terminated. On Tuesday a charge showed up on my bank account — you guessed it DATA393 for Sept!!!
I just got off the phone with them and was told that since I did not
submit
a ticket through their help desk that there was nothing that could be done about it — I must pay for September. They claim to have sent me emails stating that the ONLY way to terminate an account is via their help desk.
I
swear that I have received no such emails < I am an honest business
person.
This is all a bit weird since in the end they terminated my account
because
of a phone call. A paradox that I brought to their attention on the phone but that they didn’t seem to find odd.

Since I didn
MB
Matt Bostock
Sep 9, 2004
Post a constructive review to www.webhostingtalk.com. I’m not sure what you’re trying to achieve by posting to a few newsgroups to be frank.

Please pass this along to as many people as you might know who use these types of services. I would hate to hear of someone I know having to deal with these people like I have had to.

There’s a few billion people who might want to use their services (or at least anyone with an Internet connection). There are lots of good and bad hosts out there, just like the companies in any industry. This isn’t really the place to complain, IMHO.

Hope that helps,
Matt 🙂

Gary Dickson wrote:
I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement ‹

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been using Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this year they merged with another company and they are now Data393. Late in July I request some help with accessing their help desk — submitted an online form at least once and emailed after that at least one time. Several weeks later I final received a response. By that time I was shopping for a new hosting service. I emailed Data393 on August 10th requesting they terminate my account. I receive no response to that email and assumed the account would be deactivated within 2 weeks (standard procedure I thought). On Sept 1st I received a billing statement for September from Data393. I called and spoke with a female in their billing department (I thought) on September 2nd. After a brief conversation and the female looking up my email I was told that my account would be credited and that it was terminated. On Tuesday a charge showed up on my bank account — you guessed it DATA393 for Sept!!!
I just got off the phone with them and was told that since I did not submit a ticket through their help desk that there was nothing that could be done about it — I must pay for September. They claim to have sent me emails stating that the ONLY way to terminate an account is via their help desk. I swear that I have received no such emails ‹ I am an honest business person.
This is all a bit weird since in the end they terminated my account because of a phone call. A paradox that I brought to their attention on the phone but that they didn’t seem to find odd.

Since I didn¹t terminate in the perscribed fashion I suppose there is still a good chance I¹ll receive another bill and charges in Oct ‹ I¹ll let you know.

IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BAD SERVICE AT A REASONABLE RATE USE DATA393.
Please pass this along to as many people as you might know who use these types of services. I would hate to hear of someone I know having to deal with these people like I have had to.

I am cross posting this to a few other newsgroups. What other newsgroups would it be good to post this to?

Gary D.

Epidemic Design
http://www.epidemicdesign.com

³There is no defense against good design²

DD
Dave Du Plessis
Sep 9, 2004
On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 14:25:38 -0700, Gary Dickson
wrote:

I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement ‹

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been using Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this year they merged with another company and they are now Data393.

cut
I am cross posting this to a few other newsgroups. What other newsgroups would it be good to post this to?

Gary D.

Why don’t you do a newsgroup search, and copy the urls, Gary? You can include
‘soc.culture.south-africa.afrikaans’
as well
‘soc.culture.south-africa’
&
‘alt.languages.afrikaans’ Gary.
(The first one is where I am from:-)

Dave
T
tina
Sep 9, 2004
If your card was charged without your permission – you can do a chargeback.

–Tina


FREE: Web hosting accounts
HOSTING: Cpanel, Multi-domains, Resellers
SERVERS: Dedicated, Colocation, Managed
http://www.affordablehost.com , serving the web since 1997

"Gary Dickson" wrote in message
I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement <

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been
using
Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this
year
they merged with another company and they are now Data393. Late in July I request some help with accessing their help desk — submitted an online
form
at least once and emailed after that at least one time. Several weeks
later
I final received a response. By that time I was shopping for a new hosting service. I emailed Data393 on August 10th requesting they terminate my account. I receive no response to that email and assumed the account would be deactivated within 2 weeks (standard procedure I thought). On Sept 1st
I
received a billing statement for September from Data393. I called and
spoke
with a female in their billing department (I thought) on September 2nd. After a brief conversation and the female looking up my email I was told that my account would be credited and that it was terminated. On Tuesday a charge showed up on my bank account — you guessed it DATA393 for Sept!!!
I just got off the phone with them and was told that since I did not
submit
a ticket through their help desk that there was nothing that could be done about it — I must pay for September. They claim to have sent me emails stating that the ONLY way to terminate an account is via their help desk.
I
swear that I have received no such emails < I am an honest business
person.
This is all a bit weird since in the end they terminated my account
because
of a phone call. A paradox that I brought to their attention on the phone but that they didn’t seem to find odd.

Since I didn
GD
Gary Dickson
Sep 9, 2004
On 9/9/04 3:24 PM, in article CK40d.668$, "Matt
Bostock" wrote:

I’m not sure what
you’re trying to achieve by posting to a few newsgroups to be frank.

Just blowing off some steam I guess — and well maybe trying to fight back a little

Please pass this along to as many people as you might know who use these types of services. I would hate to hear of someone I know having to deal with these people like I have had to.

There’s a few billion people who might want to use their services (or at least anyone with an Internet connection). There are lots of good and bad hosts out there, just like the companies in any industry. This isn’t really the place to complain, IMHO.

Hope that helps,
Matt 🙂

Gary Dickson wrote:
I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement ?

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been using Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this year they merged with another company and they are now Data393. Late in July I request some help with accessing their help desk — submitted an online form at least once and emailed after that at least one time. Several weeks later I final received a response. By that time I was shopping for a new hosting service. I emailed Data393 on August 10th requesting they terminate my account. I receive no response to that email and assumed the account would be deactivated within 2 weeks (standard procedure I thought). On Sept 1st I received a billing statement for September from Data393. I called and spoke with a female in their billing department (I thought) on September 2nd. After a brief conversation and the female looking up my email I was told that my account would be credited and that it was terminated. On Tuesday a charge showed up on my bank account — you guessed it DATA393 for Sept!!!
I just got off the phone with them and was told that since I did not submit a ticket through their help desk that there was nothing that could be done about it — I must pay for September. They claim to have sent me emails stating that the ONLY way to terminate an account is via their help desk. I swear that I have received no such emails ? I am an honest business person.
This is all a bit weird since in the end they terminated my account because of a phone call. A paradox that I brought to their attention on the phone but that they didn’t seem to find odd.

Since I didn¹t terminate in the perscribed fashion I suppose there is still a good chance I¹ll receive another bill and charges in Oct ? I¹ll let you know.

IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BAD SERVICE AT A REASONABLE RATE USE DATA393.
Please pass this along to as many people as you might know who use these types of services. I would hate to hear of someone I know having to deal with these people like I have had to.

I am cross posting this to a few other newsgroups. What other newsgroups would it be good to post this to?

Gary D.

Epidemic Design
http://www.epidemicdesign.com

³There is no defense against good design²

GD
Gary Dickson
Sep 9, 2004
I gave them permission long ago to charge it on a monthly basis — would this still be possible?

On 9/9/04 4:08 PM, in article , "Tina –
AffordableHOST, Inc." wrote:

If your card was charged without your permission – you can do a chargeback.
–Tina
T
tina
Sep 10, 2004
"Gary Dickson" wrote in message
I gave them permission long ago to charge it on a monthly basis — would this still be possible?

You should call up your credit card company and explain the circumstance. I would think making it impossible for you to cancel your hosting account is grounds for a chargeback. 😉

–Tina


FREE: Web hosting accounts
HOSTING: Cpanel, Multi-domains, Resellers
SERVERS: Dedicated, Colocation, Managed
http://www.affordablehost.com , serving the web since 1997
MM
Mike Marlin
Sep 10, 2004
you stopped giving them permission to charge your account on the day you terminated service i have done
chargebacks for this very reason and always got my money credited back to my mastercard
mike

"Tina – AffordableHOST, Inc." wrote in message
"Gary Dickson" wrote in message
I gave them permission long ago to charge it on a monthly basis — would this still be possible?

You should call up your credit card company and explain the circumstance.
I
would think making it impossible for you to cancel your hosting account is grounds for a chargeback. 😉

–Tina


FREE: Web hosting accounts
HOSTING: Cpanel, Multi-domains, Resellers
SERVERS: Dedicated, Colocation, Managed
http://www.affordablehost.com , serving the web since 1997

S
Scraphead
Sep 10, 2004
This isn’t a pity party hotline.
Take it somewhere else.

"Rykers" wrote in message
EMAIL THEM!!

"Gary Dickson" wrote in message
I never do this sort of thing but here goes…

This is a public service announcement <

I will try to keep a very long story as short as possible. I have been
using
Ventures Online for over 3 years as my host. In the first part of this
year
they merged with another company and they are now Data393. Late in July
I
request some help with accessing their help desk — submitted an online
form
at least once and emailed after that at least one time. Several weeks
later
I final received a response. By that time I was shopping for a new
hosting
service. I emailed Data393 on August 10th requesting they terminate my account. I receive no response to that email and assumed the account
would
be deactivated within 2 weeks (standard procedure I thought). On Sept
1st
I
received a billing statement for September from Data393. I called and
spoke
with a female in their billing department (I thought) on September 2nd. After a brief conversation and the female looking up my email I was told that my account would be credited and that it was terminated. On Tuesday
a
charge showed up on my bank account — you guessed it DATA393 for
Sept!!!
I just got off the phone with them and was told that since I did not
submit
a ticket through their help desk that there was nothing that could be
done
about it — I must pay for September. They claim to have sent me emails stating that the ONLY way to terminate an account is via their help
desk.
I
swear that I have received no such emails < I am an honest business
person.
This is all a bit weird since in the end they terminated my account
because
of a phone call. A paradox that I brought to their attention on the
phone
but that they didn’t seem to find odd.

Since I didn
L
Larry Linson
Sep 10, 2004
Gary —

A quick scan of the approximately six months of history of comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro doesn’t show you ever posting in the newsgroup prior to the current thread. And, no matter how strongly you may feel about the particular host/presence provider, the post is certainly off-topic.

I think people in c.g.a.p-s-p would cut some slack for one of the "regulars" but if you have not posted here in the past six months, you would have little claim to be a regular.

How about you clip c.g.a.p-s-p out of your newsgroup lists when you post your next response in this thread? I am sure that your graphics knowledge and expertise, and guidance on using Paint Shop Pro, however, would be welcome on a continuing basis.

Larry
GD
Gary Dickson
Sep 10, 2004
Sorry — lost my head. Several very stress filled days capped off with the service rep from hell on the phone — I plead temporary insanity. I’ll try not to let it happen again. I’ve been doing this stuff for many years and I can’t recall another time that I’ve randomly cross-posted like that. I just perused ADG where I do post occasionally to find where other ADGers might also be posting and c.g.a.p-s-p seemed to be one of the other main groups that seemed appropriate.

Once again I am sorry — I know what it can be like sifting through some of the crap that pops up on ADG.

On 9/9/04 7:38 PM, in article Ns80d.2204$, "Larry Linson" wrote:

Gary —

A quick scan of the approximately six months of history of comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro doesn’t show you ever posting in the newsgroup prior to the current thread. And, no matter how strongly you may feel about the particular host/presence provider, the post is certainly off-topic.

I think people in c.g.a.p-s-p would cut some slack for one of the "regulars" but if you have not posted here in the past six months, you would have little claim to be a regular.

How about you clip c.g.a.p-s-p out of your newsgroup lists when you post your next response in this thread? I am sure that your graphics knowledge and expertise, and guidance on using Paint Shop Pro, however, would be welcome on a continuing basis.

Larry

M
mrclean
Sep 10, 2004
In article <BD6634A0.A0E6%>,
says…
On 9/9/04 3:24 PM, in article CK40d.668$, "Matt
Bostock" wrote:

I’m not sure what
you’re trying to achieve by posting to a few newsgroups to be frank.

Just blowing off some steam I guess — and well maybe trying to fight back a little
<SNIP>

Did you HAVE to include your full post for a one-line reply?
M
Markus
Sep 10, 2004
"Magic, it must be remembered, is an art which demands collaboration between the artist and his public." -E.M. Butler
"Gary Dickson" wrote in message

I gave them permission long ago to charge it on a monthly basis — would this still be possible?

How feasible would it be for you to also request a new account number to preclude any future charges from them? Or just report the card as lost/stolen.

-Markus
B
billing
Sep 10, 2004
Good Day all,

Mr. Dickson was kind enough to make us aware of his post here. I represent the billing department for Data393 LLC. In rebuttal to his remarks, I have provided Mr. Dickson with a copy of the email he claims he did not recieve, from us regarding cancellation procedures seen below. As a side note, all policies are also posted on our company website.

Hello,

This is no problem however we do require that you open a helpdesk ticket to request an account cancellation. This is for identity verification and tracking purposes. Please log in at
http://support.venturesonline.com and the support staff will be happy to assist you.

Thanks,

Amy Weber
Billing Department
Data393

I’ve also provided him with mail logs showing our server delivering the above message successfully to him at his new host.

Aug 12 13:53:22 ns1 sendmail[31804]: i7CJrLbJ031798:
to=, delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:01,
mailer=esmtp, pri=30598, relay=epidemicdesign.com. [66.84.56.11], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (i7CJrMS32048 Message accepted for delivery)

Any legitimate corporation has a standard procedure for cancellations which they request be followed and is likely included in the terms of service that you agree to when signing up with them for service. Our company is no different. We have these policies in place for the protection of our customers as well as ourselves.

Regards,

Amy Weber
Billing Department
Data 393 LLC
R
RicSeyler
Sep 10, 2004
But the guy ended up posting his problems on a newsgroup, so didn’t you fail him somewhere along the way??? Just a though… FWIW

That’s what I take from it.
Even problem customers are still customers.
Especially when you are auto debiting a credit card.

data393 billing wrote:

Good Day all,

Mr. Dickson was kind enough to make us aware of his post here. I represent the billing department for Data393 LLC. In rebuttal to his remarks, I have provided Mr. Dickson with a copy of the email he claims he did not recieve, from us regarding cancellation procedures seen below. As a side note, all policies are also posted on our company website.

Hello,

This is no problem however we do require that you open a helpdesk ticket to request an account cancellation. This is for identity verification and tracking purposes. Please log in at
http://support.venturesonline.com and the support staff will be happy to assist you.

Thanks,

Amy Weber
Billing Department
Data393

I’ve also provided him with mail logs showing our server delivering the above message successfully to him at his new host.

Aug 12 13:53:22 ns1 sendmail[31804]: i7CJrLbJ031798:
to=, delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:01,
mailer=esmtp, pri=30598, relay=epidemicdesign.com. [66.84.56.11], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (i7CJrMS32048 Message accepted for delivery)

Any legitimate corporation has a standard procedure for cancellations which they request be followed and is likely included in the terms of service that you agree to when signing up with them for service. Our company is no different. We have these policies in place for the protection of our customers as well as ourselves.

Regards,

Amy Weber
Billing Department
Data 393 LLC


Ric Seyler
GD
Gary Dickson
Sep 10, 2004
I originally requested cancellation via email to their billing dept on Aug 12 at 8:45am

**** Here directly from their terms of service page *****

"All Cancellation requests must be received Five (5) days prior to the cancellation effective date (end of current cycle date). Cancellation requests must be made in writing to Data393 at ,
submission of a written support request at http://support.data393.com, or written letter mailed to"

Here’s the link if you don¹t believe me…

http://www.data393.com/terms-of-service.asp#tnc

I’m not a lawyer but it reads to me like I used 1 of the 3 accepted methods for cancellation.

I also spoke with someone there last week who stated that my account was terminated and that I would be credited. Here is the record from my broadband phone services activity log:

Date: 9/2/04 
Time: 8:26 AM 
To: 13032681470 
Duration: 3 min
Transaction ID: 398053159 

I don¹t think that I am a problem customer. In the 3+ years that I have used them I have contacted maybe 4-5 for very minor things.

On 9/10/04 1:39 PM, in article
Sho0d.134958$%, "RicSeyler"
wrote:

But the guy ended up posting his problems on a newsgroup, so didn’t you fail him somewhere along the way??? Just a though… FWIW
That’s what I take from it.
Even problem customers are still customers.
Especially when you are auto debiting a credit card.

data393 billing wrote:

Good Day all,

Mr. Dickson was kind enough to make us aware of his post here. I represent the billing department for Data393 LLC. In rebuttal to his remarks, I have provided Mr. Dickson with a copy of the email he claims he did not recieve, from us regarding cancellation procedures seen below. As a side note, all policies are also posted on our company website.

Hello,

This is no problem however we do require that you open a helpdesk ticket to request an account cancellation. This is for identity verification and tracking purposes. Please log in at
http://support.venturesonline.com and the support staff will be happy to assist you.

Thanks,

Amy Weber
Billing Department
Data393

I’ve also provided him with mail logs showing our server delivering the above message successfully to him at his new host.

Aug 12 13:53:22 ns1 sendmail[31804]: i7CJrLbJ031798:
to=, delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:01,
mailer=esmtp, pri=30598, relay=epidemicdesign.com. [66.84.56.11], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (i7CJrMS32048 Message accepted for delivery)

Any legitimate corporation has a standard procedure for cancellations which they request be followed and is likely included in the terms of service that you agree to when signing up with them for service. Our company is no different. We have these policies in place for the protection of our customers as well as ourselves.

Regards,

Amy Weber
Billing Department
Data 393 LLC

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

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