Another sucker/victim here ...
From the former Gunnels Collective ...
I signed up with this organization for my site in 2000. Back then I didn't realize what the big deal about letting someone have total control over my domain was, and it was pretty smooth for a number of years. Back then it was through a reseller, Century Host, and had a very nice tech support guy named Stephen Hands who worked for them - he was always very helpful and friendly to me.
Then they ditched Century Host and I had to start dealing with Steve Gunnels directly.
#1 - Despite numerous requests, he never got around to changing my information for my domain.† I've since been married, moved, and changed ISPs so my name, address, and contact email are all wrong. The only way I can now prove I am who my domain says is to show a marriage certificate and verify my phone number (which is right).
#2 - Random fees out of nowhere. Even though my domain renewals were supposed to be free when I signed up, once Century Host was no longer handling it I got charged $70/year for my domain name.
#3 - Bandwidth overage charges. I did use a lot of bandwidth, and I bought "permanent" (expensive) extensions to it for my account that were supposed to be a "one time fee" for the length of my hosting stay with them. However this was later justified to charge me an extra full year of service. I renewed for two years, got a warning that my site was in danger of "imminent deletion" after one, and he fed me some line of bull that I was marked as "double usage" so the two year fee went to that and I did owe him another. He told me that my 2.5 gig site that draws something like 40 gigs of bandwidth a month was "excessive" and the only economical thing for me to do was go lifetime. I had reservations, but he said, and I quote (because he insisted on dealing with me over the phone - probably because he could pressure me that way) "Look at it this way, you've been with us for five years. You KNOW we aren't going anywhere, and it's only $399. It's a great deal for your kind of usage."
Yeah, call me sucker, I bought it. I smelled a rat, but I didn't know what else to do because I didn't want to lose my domain. A friend of mine had left them a couple years before and he held his domain "hostage" for $70 or so and wouldn't release the passwords for him to leave his service. I think he ultimately lost his domain.
Furthermore around the same time I got suckered into "lifetime hosting" I had just spent $200 to be moved to a new server because they were spamming me constantly about how mine was going out of service. I only run a fan site, not a business, so I said just move me to the free one over email. The spam and warnings kept coming and eventually I got one that said I'd lose my site if he didn't talk to me on the phone. (Pressure tactics again.) I paid for the upgrade because he promised me more free space and bandwidth with it, and I'll grant that he did add that to my account...
But as of the big August outage, my site's down, gone, and several hundred dollars along with it.
Thank god I keep backups. I didn't lose my site, but I fear my domain is gone for good unless I can get Tucows to give it to me. They aren't much help though - their 800 number gives you a runaround and won't let you talk to a real person so I'm hoping that my email to them will suffice.
I signed up with this organization for my site in 2000. Back then I didn't realize what the big deal about letting someone have total control over my domain was, and it was pretty smooth for a number of years. Back then it was through a reseller, Century Host, and had a very nice tech support guy named Stephen Hands who worked for them - he was always very helpful and friendly to me.
Then they ditched Century Host and I had to start dealing with Steve Gunnels directly.
#1 - Despite numerous requests, he never got around to changing my information for my domain.† I've since been married, moved, and changed ISPs so my name, address, and contact email are all wrong. The only way I can now prove I am who my domain says is to show a marriage certificate and verify my phone number (which is right).
#2 - Random fees out of nowhere. Even though my domain renewals were supposed to be free when I signed up, once Century Host was no longer handling it I got charged $70/year for my domain name.
#3 - Bandwidth overage charges. I did use a lot of bandwidth, and I bought "permanent" (expensive) extensions to it for my account that were supposed to be a "one time fee" for the length of my hosting stay with them. However this was later justified to charge me an extra full year of service. I renewed for two years, got a warning that my site was in danger of "imminent deletion" after one, and he fed me some line of bull that I was marked as "double usage" so the two year fee went to that and I did owe him another. He told me that my 2.5 gig site that draws something like 40 gigs of bandwidth a month was "excessive" and the only economical thing for me to do was go lifetime. I had reservations, but he said, and I quote (because he insisted on dealing with me over the phone - probably because he could pressure me that way) "Look at it this way, you've been with us for five years. You KNOW we aren't going anywhere, and it's only $399. It's a great deal for your kind of usage."
Yeah, call me sucker, I bought it. I smelled a rat, but I didn't know what else to do because I didn't want to lose my domain. A friend of mine had left them a couple years before and he held his domain "hostage" for $70 or so and wouldn't release the passwords for him to leave his service. I think he ultimately lost his domain.
Furthermore around the same time I got suckered into "lifetime hosting" I had just spent $200 to be moved to a new server because they were spamming me constantly about how mine was going out of service. I only run a fan site, not a business, so I said just move me to the free one over email. The spam and warnings kept coming and eventually I got one that said I'd lose my site if he didn't talk to me on the phone. (Pressure tactics again.) I paid for the upgrade because he promised me more free space and bandwidth with it, and I'll grant that he did add that to my account...
But as of the big August outage, my site's down, gone, and several hundred dollars along with it.
Thank god I keep backups. I didn't lose my site, but I fear my domain is gone for good unless I can get Tucows to give it to me. They aren't much help though - their 800 number gives you a runaround and won't let you talk to a real person so I'm hoping that my email to them will suffice.
posted by No more Steve Gunnels! at 11:51 am
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