Energy with-out Oil Weblog

I note the last time I added an entry was well over a month ago.  Although this is not acceptable, I have had quite a few problems with the first hosting company I decided to try.

I created a hosting account with ThinkHost.com, and they were fine for the first three weeks, until I needed to use cPanel for mounting another blog if you are a tropical fish fan, try the Novice Aquarist blog.  They use a different, seemingly non-standard access panel for operating their system, and since it was not compatible with the programs I was using, I asked to be refunded for the added time after the month I was using the system, as a matter of fact, I asked for them to take two full months off and please refund the rest of the two year term I signed for.

Their response was that since it was over 14 days-two weeks, I was out of luck.  The length of time I was with them wqs 21 days!!!! - I had paid for two years!  Needless to say, I will never do business with them, and from now on I will ensure that everyone is aware that the policy they have, primarily a much shorter evaluation policy (14 days and you are locked in with no parole) and the fact that the “president” does not have the compassion or willingness to consider anything but his bottom line makes me unwilling to ever do business with them again.  To bad, because his selling line is that he uses only solar and wind generated electricity, the main reason I went with the system and wanted to support them above and beyond anyone else.  All well and good, but he has stolen the last 22 months I paid for the service because he wants to stand on his abbreviated guarantee and is obviously greedy.  Other hosting services I saw were a month or even 45 days, those would have been fine with the timing it took to determine his non-standard access was not useful for me - but I got caught.

I cancelled the account and closed my services, so now he is in effect stealing twenty two months of service, without offering anything in retuirn.  Since his service is non-standard,  I had no choice but to go with another provider who can supply all the same services, but with a much more standard admionistrative panel.  Ihope he can sleep at night.

If you are looking for hosting, try one who has some business acumen and is willing to listen to his customers.  The unsigned president of Thinkhost left a really bad taste in my mouth, and will every time I am asked what hosting company I use and or recommend. The final communication from them was:

Hi Steve,

I am the owner of ThinkHost. You entered a very clear legal contract, and we demand that you follow through with your side. We are happy to re-open your account, but you will not receive any refund. We are happy to provide a copy of the contract to the Better Business Bureau. Best of luck.

The coward didn’t even have the courtesy to sign his name!!!!!!!!!!!

But on to what has been happening, I successfully moved my sites from my original provider for many years to Thinkhost, then 21 days later off again to HostGator.  The www.income-energy-time.com website followed fine, but the blog didn’t.  I have finally gotten the blog up and running and so i am writing this initial posting.  Don’t worry, I will be getting back on topic with a new post shortly.  I will fish this with the original posts that went back and forth between myself and Thinkhost.  You decide whether I was beign reasonbable or not…….

Dear Chris Larson,

Let me recap, I requested termination of my account approximately 23 days after my initial welcome letter, October 15, 2008, starting the process on November 7, 2008.

As a small company, I budgeted and allocated funds to ensure hosting would be uninterupted during my initial growth phase. In good faith that your sytem and its accompanying applications would provide me with a hosting platform I could grow a fledgling internet marketing business upon, I allocated funds for a two year subscription.

I do not agree that 14 days is an adequate time period to determine whether the hosting service will support all the requirements of an evolving business in its first growth phase. I found the incompatibility approximately one week after the 14 day period elapsed. That is not even the length of time of your shortest subscription period, which is 1 month. In all logic you should feel confident enough in your offering to back up your service to at least the minimum of that. In addition that is a guarantee of satisfaction with a no questrins asked refund, I am not asking for that. There is nowhere in that statement that this is the only consumer protection I have available, or that once that period is over there is no recourse.

I am not asking for a full refund, never have. In previous mailings I suggest that you charge a full two month subscription rate - since my activities have spanned two calendar months - October and November - at the full monthly rate, and return the difference. I understand that I am exposed to some form of penalty. But, by deciding that the only period of time when any re-imbursement is allowed is the first two weeks of service, no matter the plan length is both arbitrary and unethical in my opinion.

The incompatibility of operating systems is fundamental, you have chosen what seems to be a non-standard access to domain administration that will not work with a program I chose as the platform for my business. The application I use works on cPanel, you offer only cCenter. As such, I have been forced to find alternate hosting. My research showed that there are plans out there that offer up to 45 days refund policy - 3 times your guarantee. Yours is the shortest I have seen.

As far as your explanation that your service is not much like a magazine subscription, that is patently bogus:

“In order to provide projected hosting for a length of two years, we must also project our future system’s needs based on account signups and the contract lengths chosen. Unlike magazines, who may alter the number of magazines created, or are able to market to one time buyers, our subscriptions require a long term allotment of resources.”

In addition to having the title of Customer Service Manager for the largest family owned pet product manufacturing corporation in the world, I have spent the last 8 years as the webmaster of a rather successful website - receiving up to 10 million hits per month alone. As extra branded websites were added to the host, that single site average has dropped to an average of 7-8 million hits per month. However those satellites have more than made up for that lost traffic in thier activity alone. The system has always been hosted in-house. The only allocation of resources required on IT’s part for additional sites was to ensure enough disk space and connection to the Apache webserver to ensure the correct availability to the internet. The site started with a few thousand hits per month and has matured in content over time. There was no need to “require a long term allotment of resources”

The size of the potential space allotted is identical between a monthly subscriber and a long term one. It is the same - unlimited. The benefits of the plan do not change between them, only the price/month. If a monthly subscriber drops, the same space is freed up as if I were to drop out. It can easily be recycled and replaced with a new subscriber coming on the system, long term or not. Delete the old directory and create a new directory and ensure the disk storage is not compromised. As long as you maintain adequate disk space, it makes no difference how long the period might be.

Unlike the costs accrued with a physical magazine, where allocations for paper and printing costs vary with the number of subscribers, and the costs per issue vary, hosting multiple accounts on a server, as they vary up and down on a monthly basis makes no significant change in the costs involved. The users are managing their account, and the electrical costs are identical to run the machine whether the system is maxed out or has a single subscriber.

So, unfortunately I must disagree with your premise that a long term subscription is treated any differently than a single moth - each has exactly the same plan variables, so each can use the same resources. If one or the other drops off, the same [potential] space is freed up. Now, possibly your statemtnet might hold a kernel of truth when dealing with a matured account that has been established over the course of many months and has a large number of domains. But that is not the case here, my account is less than a month old and used minimal disk capacity. I was associated with the account less than a month. By cancelling my account, you simply regain some space that is now available to another subscriber, no matter what term the plan.

Once again I am asking for a pro-rated return of my money, and only for the unused portion of my subscription service. Either way, I require you to terminate my account effective immediately. I do not require two hosting companies, I require one only that can provide the services I require. Either you are going to accept that your service cannot offer me the application I require to continue with my business building and return the unused portion, and we part on an amicable basis. Or you are going to refuse this request, dropping the cash directly to your corporate bottom line profit, since I will be costing you nothing in service or support. You have the money and it is up to you what your next step will be.

Should you decide to stand on your previous position: I will require that you provide, in the return response with your decision, your full mailing address and the name of the Customer Service manager to address my concerns in writing. Since, with this communication, I consider you to be directed to terminate my hosting account and all business connections with Think Host, effective immediately, I will also feel free to express my opinions and experience with your policies in any venue I see fit. This includes, but not limited to, your local Better Business Bureau, the various Internet forums, the company that recommended your service in the first place, and possibly, as an experiment, to see what a fully SEO optimized website can do to let the world know of your position in this matter.

Is your position, and the chance to make 163.90 (179.80 - (2 x 7.95)) pure profit for your bottom line at the expense of a start-up company really worth that?

I await your response.

Steve Pond

Hello,Cancellation Advice Please check the username, password and reason for cancelling fields are completed and correct before closing the account. Account Username : blueram85 Password : 0w6iLOlOj3 Name associated with account: Steve Pond Email address : spond@pubnix.net *Reason* for closing account: — I have enrolled in Wordpress Direct which automates a number of the operations required to add content to the blogs and websites. To use the program’s automation facilities, the host must use cPanel, unfortunately ThinkHost does not use that program for domain control, so I must find one that does. I do wish I could continue, but unfortunately in this case I must ask for termination of my account and refund for unused time. Best Regards, Steve Pond — If you are transferring to a new host, may we ask which one, and why? Answer: It seems the best bet for my needs is Host Gator - as mentioned above, I require cPanel for host control, and they have it available. So far I have not enrolled in any host yet._ Is there anything we can do to improve our service in the future? Answer: Your service was excellent, it is simply a feature that is lacking. Do you wish to close the account now or at the end of the month? Answer: Now Cancelation form v1.1
Roman Romanenko

Posted On: 08 Nov 2008 08:06 AM