GISOL, Global Internet Solutions Reviews
GISOL, Global Internet Solutions : GISOL, Global Internet Solutions Reviews : Violated
I've been with Gisol since before 2003. As a poor graduate student at the time, they seemed to have the best deal and my trusted and well-respected Web Professor had been the one to recommend them. I in turn became a Professor and have recommended them to my poor students as a first web host. I feel awful now to have exposed them to such a scam.
I've had server issues with them in the past but nothing like what I went through recently in May/June 2007.
I tried to renew one of my web accounts online via their control panel back in March. Their control panel had a glitch and the payment apparently never went through. In May, my site was offline with no notice. I contacted their tech support and spoke with “Shaun.” He told me that I should move that site into my current hosting plan via their control panel. I did as he said, paid $53 to add the second domain name, and all was fixed. The next day my account was suspended and ALL my websites were offline, including a non-profit site I run for needy children, my personal website, and all my class websites I use to teach my University students.
I learned that Gisol said that this action THEIR tech support walked me through was not allowed and that they’d be charging me a $499 violation fee! On top of this, I learned that because I “let” my other account expire, payment was due and a Collection Agency was going to try to collect an additional $399 for that.
After an angry outburst, I nearly dissolved into tears with tech support over the phone. I live outside the US so just calling them costs me money. Amazingly THEY CALLED ME back in one hour. It was “Senior Tech, Shawn Alexander.” He said that the only thing I could do was upgrade to a pre-paid 3 year plan for over $700. Plus there was a $95 “upgrade fee.” He threatened that I could either do this, or pay the violation charges, risk my good credit rating with their Collection Agency, and remain with suspended accounts even though the primary one had already been paid for until May 2008. He told me I’d pay upfront now, but since the violation fees appeared not to be my fault, he’d give me 7 months free and in January I can get a refund. Because I had violation fees against me, this was “already in the system and he could not undo them.” According to Mr. Alexander, his plan for web hosting salvation via an unwanted 3 year prepaid account was the only way...
I asked if I could think about it because I knew of their increasingly poor reputation and recent F rating at the BBB. (The last time I had checked 6 months or so before it was a B.) He told me I had to decide NOW because “they charge violation fees on Fridays and if I waited, the Collection Agency would be after me.” He said that since I live outside the US, they would then have to go after my husband who is living in the US. Also, “The Collection Agency can’t be paid with credit cards so therefore my checking account details were needed.”
I KNEW I shouldn’t have given them this info over the phone but Mr. Alexander tried to placate my fears by giving me his badge number, his personal phone # (which is the same tech support number you can find on their website) and personal email (admin@gisol.com) that no one ever answers. He said that I’d only be charged once and that to abuse this information “(laughs) would be illegal!” Furthermore he stated, “This call is being recorded and a transcript will be available in my control panel. (Of course it never was.) He also explained, “The reason we have an F with the BBB is because we decided not to become a member.”
Argh. I knew I was being bamboozled, but they used my tired mind (in my time zone it was nearly midnight), scare tactics of a collection agency, and a lack of time to think it over all to hook me in.
They did provide the service and as I have transferred now all my domains to GoDaddy and set up hosting with them, I am only using Gisol's crappy service as backup. I plan to eventually cancel. I’m sure that if I try to get the supposedly promised refund in January it will never happen. In other news, one of my domain names is being held hostage by them. They will let me have it if I pay $500. I won’t pay! Thank goodness my other two more important domains were registered with other companies.
I plan to change my checking account info and eventually cancel my Gisol account. I’m trying to look at this as some kind of annoying unexpected car payment and move on with my life, but I am angry. How many other people are they scamming?
Class action! Class action! Class action!
GISOL, Global Internet Solutions web hosting provider replied:
You should file a complaint with the IC3 (which is the FBI related unit regarding internet crime) as well as the National fraud Bureau, the office of the attorney general of California and the district attorney of Los Angeles. I just file a complaint to all those office because it happen a pretty similar story and this company must to be shut down !!! more people file, more weight we will have and the autorities will investigate them . I believe it is a one man operated company, they move a lot, the adress where the company is registered is a private residence where a Mr. Lee is living and he never had anything to do with this company. The adress listed on their website (on Santa Monica Bvd) is a virtual office where they only retrieve their mail. All the phone number of this company are unlisted and caller id blocked. I managed to trace few of them with adresses attached to them but, some are disconnected, some have an answering machine on, and some have Madonna music on... The company is hiding and moving from one adress to another one so nobody can trace them (I should say "him", as every single phone contact I had was always with the same person who changes his name everyday to make believe there are 800 employees in the company... Voice recorded proved me it was the same person!!!) They only have 2 server and I believe they are from a very small size. so to keep the flow of money coming in, they eliminate already paid customer to make space for other future victim ! They have a "F" with the BBB , because they have close to 300 complaint against them. when you live outside the country, like myself also, you are more at risk to be their victim. However Here is what happen to me :
13 month ago I sign up for a 30 month package which include a "free domain" and a 1 year automatic domain renewal option. Last month I suddenly couldn't log into my website. I contacted them by email and they responded that my account was into redemtion and that the sales department was going to contact me. Which they did, by phone , the same day. The Gentleman who call me on my foreign cell phone certainly never expected my caller id picking up his number (as it is unlisted and caller id blocked..) but the number came on my screen. He told me that they made sevearl attempt to contact me to inform me that my domain was going to fall in redemtion (which is false, I checked with my email provider and none of GISOL email went throught their system..) and now I will have to pay $399.95 redemtion release fee and $9.95 to renew the domain. I questioned the fee, he told me that GISOL didn't get one penney of tis money and that it goes all to....ICANN !!! I needed my website as it was my professional tool so I call back the next day the number who was on my cell phone to pay. The guy was extremely surprise when he pick up the phone, he was the same than the one I spoke with the day before. He told me that my credit card will reflect two charges : one of $99.95 to the order of allindomain and on of $309.95 to the order of GISOL... and he hung up ! I contacted ICANN to have some explaination, was answered that my domain was registered with allindomain and that their fee was certainly $90 to release and $9.95 to renew, so I assume that GISOL just screewed me from $309.95. I sent an email to sales and admin, to question the fact I was billed that kind of money and the fact that I had a 1 year automatic domain renewal option and that they didn't respected it and let my domain go in redemtion. Their answer was just unprofessional, agressive and threatening: "WE TOLD YOU THAT WE DON"T GET ONE CENTS OF THAT MONEY !!! Do you want us to cancel your account ? Sales departement"
I told them to do not cancel my account, that they didn't responded to my question, therefor I was filing a complaint with the BBB. Next email from them was : "Your account has been suspended. Please contact the admin departement to discuss your suspension" I call the number, the guy made believe he never spoke with me and he didn't knew me, he told me that their system was in upgrading so he couldn't have access to the file, and to call back after 5pm pacific time. I did... their office was closed. I call back the next day, when the guy pick up he reconized my voice , he hung up! itried again it was of the hook, then tried again he hung up again, tried again had an answering machine, thired again few hour later : number has been disconnected. I contacted them,asking to reactivate immediatly and they send me another email saying :"we are whiling to continue working with you if you contact the BBB and tell them tha our issues have been resolved". I did it, I knew I shouldn't had but I really needed my site to work, so I send them the proof of it asking them to reactivate. They answered one week later :" decision have been made by our management to do not provide you service. We strongly recommend you to govern yourself accordingly and to use the service of a lawyer for future correspondance with us." End of the story !!! I am disputing the charges on my credit card, as I paid for a service they choose to do not provide less than 24 hour after payment, and I filled complaint to all the office named above as well as the NFIC, webassure, econsumer,and FTC. I strongly recommend to anyone who's having problem with this company to do the same, as I said above, more there will be people filing, more the authorities will look into and investigate them.