I just got the update to Gmail which allows me to make phone calls right from the Gmail UI.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the complete integration of Google Voice into Gmail (no text messages or voice messages show up in your Gmail inbox at this time), but it does bring VoIP one step closer.
I often get asked why I tweet, or “what is Twitter?” Good questions… hopefully this video will explain it…
If Hollywood can make an overly dramatic film about the early years of Facebook, why can’t we make an overly dramatic movie about Twitter? Or at least the trailer to that movie!
(Via Mike Dopp)
I hosted my websites with Webhost4Life from 2005 to July 29th, 2010.
In early 2010, without my consent, they attempted to “migrate” my websites to their “new platform”. After multiple failed attempts to do so (still without my consent or notice when they would be re-attempting to migrate) email for all my hosted domains went down for days. Website data was replaced with files and database content that was MONTHS old!
When I contacted support to get things fixed they told me since my account was not yet migrated I’d have to contact “old” support. When I contacted “old” support they told me since my account was “being migrated” they could not help me, I’d have to contact “new” support.
This went back and forth for days. I finally researched and found a new webhost, moved each one of my sites over, repointed my DNS, and finished my own migration — all before they “finished” their migration.
I called to cancel and asked for a refund of the unused portion of my pre-paid service. Eventually I made it up to a billing supervisor who told me the amount to be refunded is around $11. By my math it’s over $112.
The latest number they came up with was $47.80, but they’re going to charge me $15 because they forgot to earlier. When I confronted them about the amounts I was told:
We do not have access to the old server. Unfortunately, we do not have any records for the services that you paid to the former owners. Since the charges towards the ‘Additional Domain Pointer’ were billed in the old platform. Hence, we cannot issue any refund towards this tool.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are available 24×7.
Sincerely,
Sherman Vaughn
Billing Specialist
I didn’t hesitate to contact Sherman. I provided him with screenshots from my account (before they locked me out of it), and provided a spreadsheet with my math. I haven’t heard back since.
| Service Description |
Ordered | Cancelled | Days used |
Amount | % Used |
Refund Amount |
| Additional Domain Pointer | 05/14/10 | 07/29/10 | 76 | $15.00 | 20.82% | $11.88 |
| Additional Domain Pointer | 08/17/09 | 07/29/10 | 346 | $27.00 | 94.79% | $1.41 |
| Advanced Hosting Plan | 12/14/09 | 07/29/10 | 227 | $167.28 | 62.19% | $63.25 |
| Additional Domain Pointer | 12/14/09 | 07/29/10 | 227 | $15.00 | 62.19% | $5.67 |
| Additional Domain Pointer | 01/09/10 | 07/29/10 | 201 | $15.00 | 55.07% | $6.74 |
| Additional Domain Pointer | 05/10/10 | 07/29/10 | 80 | $15.00 | 21.92% | $11.71 |
| Additional Domain Pointer | 05/14/10 | 07/29/10 | 76 | $15.00 | 20.82% | $11.88 |
| $112.53 |
Check out their WOT rating.
Update, August 12th, 2010:
I attempted to contact Dragomir Kassabov, Director of Quality & Training for WebHost4Life and was finally able to do so via Twitter on August 5th, 2010. I informed him of the problems I’d been having, and the issue with the refund. I heard nothing back for quite some time.
I re-tweeted what other’s are saying about WebHost4Life to my followers:
I kept Dragomir and WebHost4Life up-to-date with my frustrations via public tweets:
Then today, after this article was published, I got some DM’s from Dragomir:
I replied with the requested information and am awaiting his response. Based on this show of good-faith, I’ll hold-off the AdWords campaign until later this week. Instead, I’ll keep this post updated with information as it happens… and I encourage you to retweet links to this article, and posting your comments below.
UPDATE: Wednesday, August 17th, 2010, 14:22 MT
Apparently contacting Dragomir was a good thing to do. I just got a phone call from Justin, a QA Manager for Webhost4Life, who said Dragomir asked to work with me to resolve the issue. He was very polite and confirmed the history.
I advised him that the items and amounts on the spreadsheet were based on information gathered from their tools, but looked accurate to the best of my knowledge. Further, that if the numbers he was coming up with differed from mine I would be happy to discuss the discrepancy to make sure that the refund was fair and equitable. He told me he’d look into it and call me back in a little bit.
True to his word, he called back very quickly to inform me the amount looked good and that I’d be getting the full refund, which would likely take 2-3 business days. We agreed that if I didn’t see the refund by lunch on Monday that I’d give him a call back, but as of right now, it looks like Webhost4life is trying to make things right.
UPDATE: Thursday, August 19th, 2010, 13:47 MT
I just discovered the full amount of my requested refund ($112.53) is now in my bank account. Webhost4Life has officially “made things right” with me.
It’s unfortunate that the migration to the “new platform” caused so much headache and grief for me. It’s also unfortunate that trying to talk with technical support ended up being so counter-productive.
That having been said, with the attention that this issue has gotten I’m hopeful that EIG (the new owners of Webhost4Life) will correct the problems for the others.
Anyone who’s been hit by a trojan, virus, or some other type of malware knows how painfully annoying removal can be. What’s more painful is the advice that you can get from complete strangers on the internet.
If you don’t know why the following is funny, why don’t you go ahead and try it out? (Mwahahahahaha!)
(Source: Techbucket.net via Mike Dopp)
