The NexPoint Saga

[Bolty]

Bolty wrote:

Question : Please close my account at Nexpoint.  I no longer wish to use your services for the
hosting of the lurkerlounge.com domain.

I expect a refund of the final three quarters of the yearly renewal I paid in June 2003.  I was
informed that I was "abusing" the hosting I had only a week and a half AFTER I paid for another full
year.  I will be happy to pay for the first quarter of the year ending June 2004; however, please
refund me $74 for the remaining year I will not be using.

--- support@nexpoint.net wrote:

Answer : Hello,

I apologize, but our billing policy does not allow refunds for contacts which are terminated prior
to the renewal date.

I see that your website is currently online.  This indicates that the hosting service is being
provided to you.  There are limits placed on your site, but this is necessary to ensure the stability
of the shared server.

The resource usage of your website exceeds what is allowed for your current hosting plan, the
Windows 2000 Special.  If you would like to upgrade to the appropriate hosting plan, the Windows 2000
Enterprise, we can apply the remainder of your Windows 2000 Special contract to to cost of
upgrading.

The description of the Windows 2000 Enterprise plan is available at

http://www.nexpoint.net/products/shared/wi...nenterprise.cfm.

You may choose the payment terms you prefer.  As you can see, this hosting plan includes 40 GB of
monthly data transfer.  The cost for additional bandwidth is 4 USD per GB per month.

Please reply to this ticket with your intention, to upgrade with a credit from the current
contract, or to cancel with no refund.

Bolty wrote:

I apologize, but my responding policy does not allow me to give you an answer to your question
while you continue to gouge me.  You informed me that I was "abusing" your service RIGHT AFTER I paid
for another year of service.  Nice coincidence!

Bad business is where you find it, I suppose.  I can't say I'm surprised.  Naturally, I've taken my business
elsewhere.

[WarBlade]

I apologize, but my responding policy does not allow me to give you an answer to your question
while you continue to gouge me.



Naturally, I've taken my business elsewhere.

And fair enough too. <_<

[pakman]

Too bad. At least sending the emails made you feel better. At least, when I send a nasty note, it makes me feel a lot better, like the one I sent to University of Illinois....

[--Pete]

Hi,

I'm ignorant on this topic as far as Internet businesses are concerned, so take this for what it is worth.

With "brick and mortar" businesses, one can complain to the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, and various licensing/accrediting organizations. A business can survive a few such complaints, but enough will often cause them serious pain where it matters most -- in the bottom line. Also, a local business pulling this crap can be hauled to small claims court.

Is there anything along those lines that can be done for I-businesses? Might not be worth the effort, but it *could* give you a pleasant glow for "fixing those ba____s."

--Pete

[Brista]

I don't know whether there is an American equivalent but in the UK we have a low level court service called the Small Claims Court

The procedure would be basically as follows:

1) You get a court form. They're on the internet now, I used to go and get them from the court building

2) You fill it in, by hand in triplicate. It's not long, a single piece of A4 paper. You pay the court fee which is about 10% of the amount you're claiming

3) The company you're dealing with is on the spot. Basically it is not economic for them to hire a lawyer to deal with a claim for a small amount of money.

4) They write to you and tell you how wrong you are to take them to court and ask that you drop the case because you have no chance of winning. They may even tell you that they're going to sue you for maliciously wasting their time. You ignore this :)

5) They will probably settle a few days before the court case. The way this works is that they write to you and offer you one sum and you write back and say that you'll settle for a sum halfway between that sum and the total amount you're claiming. Congrats, you win

6) Or they fight it. You just go to court and explain exactly what you did. Just tell the truth here and don't particularly try to make things look good. The two times I have got to this stage the other side has got rather hysterical at some stage in the proceedings and said things that really didn't help them. Dull but safe is pretty effective by contrast. The court will find some way of splitting the difference, usually giving you a large proportion of what you claimed


Now that's the English system. It works well for you if

a) you don't spend 6 months worrying about "your court case"
b ) you like the idea that the other side spends 6 months worrying about "the court case"
c) you want your money back
d) you're not the sort of maniac who will spend all his savings, lose his house, etc trying to "win". Take one shot at it and if you lose it cost you the court fee, bus fare to the court, some paperwork time and you got a very interesting day out in return
and
e) the US has a comparable system


I've had five of these, 3 got settled, 2 went to court rather acrimoniously and turned out to be a terrific day out. British businesses don't really believe they can be sued. I, having got all or most of my money 5 times out of 5, believe differently ;)

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, I don't know anything about the American legal system at this level, obsessive people who get sucked into this sort of thing ruin their lives, yadda yadda yadda

[Bob]

I'm not sure i completely understand the situation, but by my interpretation:

They pop up and say "you're using too much server time by our estimate of fair usage, upgrade or go"
In short THEY are attempting to make a change to your contract. Under British law (i don't know about American) IIRC, they are liable to refund you, because they chose to end it

You paid for a service, they decided that you're taking the mick and tell you that you can't use the service anymore, thus they changed the terms, and you're entitled to take those terms, or reject them and have a full refund.

Of course, if you won on that, you could try for compensation for breach of contract and for the time you had to spend transfering your site to a new host :P

I see that your website is currently online.&nbsp; This indicates that the hosting service is being
provided to you.&nbsp; There are limits placed on your site, but this is necessary to ensure the stability
of the shared server.

When were these emails sent? post server change? did the dimwits actually check if they were still hosting it?



from the TOS

If the client is not satisfied with the provider services within the first 30 days of service, provider has the option to refund up to 100% of the monthly or quarterly fees. All setup fees are non-refundable and will not be credited under any circumstances

2 weeks is 10-11 days, you could argue that paying for another year constitutes starting a new service.

I'm probably just rambling rubbish due to the extreme quantities of anger flowing through my mind at the moment.

[--Pete]

Hi,

However, there is a question of jurisdiction. Often, the complaining party has to file where the problem took place. In the case of sales (say mail order or Internet), that is usually the home or record of the company being sued. So, the "bus fare" as you put it could amount to round trip air fare and possibly lodgings for a night (or two, cases do get postponed).

Sometimes, if the payment was through a credit card, the credit card company will help. One simply asks the credit card company not to honor the charge, giving reason why, until the matter is settled. This will sometimes get the desired results, but not always.

When dealing with anyone other than local companies, the possibilities in getting some form of restitution are often limited. The time and cost to push the matter through will often be greater than the value lost.

--Pete

[channel1]

Bolty: You informed me that I was "abusing" your service RIGHT AFTER I paid
for another year of service. Nice coincidence!

It actually might have been a coincidence.
Toontown Central went to NexPoint shortly after the LL, based on Bolty's recommendation. They pulled off the same stuff with TTC, at about the same time, but since we originally signed up after the LL, TTC hadn't paid for the next year. We just told them to stuff it, and that was the end of it.

It does look like someone at NexPoint decided to try gouging their customers, all at about the same time. Probably just bad timing that they caught Bolty right after he had paid for the next year.

NexPoint is based in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I don't know how that affects Bolty's legal recourse with those turkeys.

-rcv-

[Occhidiangela]

I was in Front Royal Virginia a few days ago.

Had I checked the site Thrusday nite from the Hotel (well, I did promise the missus to be internet free!) I could have run down I-81 to Harrisonburg and guaranteed about 100 bucks worth of payback easy. I have a pretty good arm, even at my advanced age.

:o

Oh well, so it goes.

[Bolty]

Update:

-- support@nexpoint.net wrote:

Your account has been closed you will receive an email confirmation to the email address on file.

A word exists to describe these people. I will not share it here.

-Bolty

[WarBlade]

A word exists to describe these people.&nbsp; I will not share it here.

Oh go on. You know I would. :P

. . . improve on it, that is.

[pakman]

I think "inconsiderate" is the one word you are thinking of :P

[Bolty]

-- billing@nexpoint.net wrote:

This is an email confirmation that your account has been cancelled per your request in support ticket 53042.&nbsp; Please retain this email for your records.

If you have any more questions please let us know. Thank you for choosing Nexpoint!

Bolty wrote:

You're not welcome!

-Another dissatisfied customer

[DeeBye]

You should have Goatse'd them. It's the only logical response.

-DeeBye

[Count Duckula]

Are you still missing the $74? :/ If you need help paying for the current LL hosting, just give us a holler. (Got a raise! Woohoo!)