shouting loudly

I cannot recommend against Globat.com strongly enough. After the break, you’ll find a complete and total telling-off of a company with some of the worst customer service practices imaginable.

Even if you don’t read it, avoid them at all costs. Will update w/ their reply.

UPDATE: Tom Cox, the Director of Customer Service, has zeroed my account and submitted a cancellation order. I’ve already moved my site’s files and DNS info over to Host Gator (so far, so good; FTP uploads are many times faster than Globat) and am waiting for DNS propagation.

Once the transition is complete, you can see the file I’m using to test the propagation: a picture of me riding a pony.

Now for the letter:

October 20, 2008

Dear Globat.com employees, managers, and other concerned persons,

In my last written correspondence with Globat.com, via the web-based
“Contact Us” form on January 7, 2008, I expressed my extreme
displeasure with Globat and opted out of further web hosting service
once my pre-paid year of service has expired—one employee’s willful
misreading of this correspondence notwithstanding. This is my second
written notice: I have paid for service until November 30, 2008, and
at no point from that day forward will I need Globat’s services.

I will move my website elsewhere before my account expires. Until
then, I demand the following from all Globat employees:

-Stop trying to charge my credit card

-Stop threatening me with discontinued service and extra charges

-Mark my account balance as $0.00

-Faithfully host my account until I find transfer to another web host,
or until November 30, 2008, whichever comes first

My web hosting service and domain name registration are paid until
November 30, 2008, because I purchased one full year of service on
November 30, 2007. On January 7 of this year, I received notice that I
had 10 days to opt out of Globat’s GloVault service; unless I opted
out, I would be charged $49.95.

In response to this outrageous marketing practice, I notified Globat
in writing via the web-based communication form (a reply email subject
line contained the following, which may be an email tracking number:
TUPO #JMX-43321-602) that I would not renew my account. I have
confirmation that Globat received such request, though the replying
representative played the good employee, pretending that I was not
clear enough when I wrote: “Once my prepaid year is up, you can go out
of business for all I care. Buzz off.” While colloquial, this is a
clear and unequivocal opting out of all further services.

On October 1, I received an email notifying me that my website
“billyherman.com is coming up for automatic renewal on or around
2008-12-01.” I do not know what Globat considers “on or around”
December 1, but no reasonable reading of that phrase would include
October 20. (Additionally, note that the onus is upon Globat, the
drafter of this ever-moving target of a quasi-contract, to provide
more reasonably clear terms.)

Later in the same email, I am warned that “$12.00 will be charged on
or up to 30 days before 2008-12-01″ for the extra domain,
billdherman.com. In this case, today, October 20 is explicitly and
clearly outside the window of time offered.

Yet today, I received an email notifying me of the failed attempt to
charge my card for the renewal of all services, urging me to add
up-to-date credit card information to my billing account. It even
contains the ominous warning: “We will attempt to bill your card again
in five days. If the charge is declined again, your hosting account
will be subject to immediate suspension resulting in interruption of
service and an additional $30 fee.”

For once, I am thankful for the inconvenience of having had my credit
card company lose sensitive information and sending out a round of new
cards in an abundance of caution, but allow me to focus on the real
problem: I pre-paid for one year of service. In five days, I will
still have over one month remaining on that paid year. To threaten to
suspend my service for not paying far enough ahead for Globat’s tastes
is beyond the pale. I paid for the service. Even if I was penniless
with no hope of ever renewing, Globat would still be legally obligated
to host my account until the end of November.

The current invoice itself is a travesty and a joke. When I signed up
for your service, I purchased a year’s hosting for $53.28. This year,
the price has risen to $95.40, almost double. Adding salt to the
wound, the domain registration is charged at the fee of $14.95, a full
$2.95 more than the price quoted in an email of not three weeks ago.
This is bait-and-switch gotcha marketing at its very worst, and
attempting to automatically bill me over one month in advance of the
expiration of my service is even worse. Threatening to interrupt
service during the year for which I paid in good faith is
reprehensible, and Globat should be ashamed.

To describe the company’s billing and customer management practices as
obscene and unconscionable would be too polite. Despite my general
satisfaction with the actual services provided, Globat’s treatment of
me as a paying customer has driven me to conclude that the company
deserves not only to be avoided, but to be actively boycotted.

Fortunately for me—and unfortunately for anybody whose livelihood
depends on Globat’s profitability—web hosting is one of the most
competitive lines of business in history. I am taking my money
elsewhere.

Allow me to repeat and make even more explicit the statement made
quite clearly in the above-referenced written correspondence of
January 7: I hereby opt out of any further renewals, charges, or
assessments against my account. Mark my account balance as $0.00,
because once I have exhausted my utility from the services for which I
have paid, I am no longer a Globat customer.

I have prepaid for service through November 30, and before that day, I
will move my website elsewhere.

Further, I hereby demand that Globat and all its agents and employees
cease and desist from engaging in any of the following:

-Billing or attempting to bill any of my credit card accounts

-Suspending, revoking, or in any way failing to deliver the service
for which I have pre-paid in full

-Claiming, online or in writing, that I have a balance with your company

-Assessing any additional charges to my account

-Attempting to collect on any further charges in any way, including
calls, emails, or written notices

-Referral to a credit collection agency

-Reporting my account to a credit reporting agency, which would be
libelous and will be pursued as such

I look forward to the smooth transition from hosting with Globat to
another site. Until then, consider this my second official written
notice that my business relationship with this company is over on
November 30, 2008, at the very latest.

Sincerely,

Billy D. Herman