Thread: Dezines Web-Hosting

Having huge problems with Dezines lately:
http://www.web-hosting.com/ or
http://www.simplewebsite.com/

I've been a customer of theirs for 4 years now, and had smaller problems off and on, but nothing lasting longer than a day, so I've never had the opportunity to contact their support.

August 27, 2005, I attempted to retrieve my email and got an error message of "connection refused". I assumed that maybe their mail server was busy, etc, so didn't worry about it. Sept 1, it was still not working, so I checked out FTP access to my website, and got an error message that my password was incorrect. I checked out my webpage at this point and also found out the my PHP scripts were no longer being parsed by the server (ie. The PHP script shows up as text on the website). So I emailed their customer support to ask what was going on.

Sept 1, I received a reply that everything was working fine, I must be mistaken. Sept 1, I emailed to ask if they could please look again, as I still could not access anything, and I had not changed my password, so I didn't know why FTP was telling me it was wrong (I assumed this was also the reason for my email not working).

Sept 6, I sent a followup email, as I had not received an answer back.

Sept 7, I sent a followup email, as I had not received an answer back.

Sept 8, I sent a followup email, as I had not received an answer back.

Sept 10, I sent a followup email, as I had not received an answer back.

Then (also Sept 10) I attempted to send an email to my Dezines hosted email address, on a whim, just to see if the mailbox was full yet. I received a reply from the Dezines mailserver seconds later stating that the email address I had attempted to send to did not exist.

At this point (also Sept 10), I sent an email to their support, as well as sales, demanding that they let me know what was going on.

Also at this point, I just really want to ditch them as a web-host, but I've paid for a year in advance and I still have 4 months left, so I kind of want my money back!! However, if they can't even answer my support emails, I really doubt they are going to do that. I'd also like to get on FTP one last time to get all my files back.

Just extremely frustrated... Oh, and my domain name is also registered through them.

Ouch I would first do a transfer on your domain away from them. you can go to any domain registrar for example
https://www.securepaynet.net/gdshop/...5Fid=colorteck

And do a transfer. First i would do everything to get my files before doing the transfer. this will give you complete control of your domain with your own domain control panel. If they do not approve the transfer then go here and do a www.whois.sc to find out who the registrar is and contact them directly to get your domain. Once you pay for the domain it is yours to keep and is illegal to be held for ransom.

After you get your files get setup on a new web host then worry about the refund.

Good luck to you! Do you still have access to your control panel? If so get a backup from there. We have a few great web host located here.

Nope, no access to a control panel (I've never even used their control panel, as when I signed up, they never had one, you had to email them for everything, the control panel seems rather new). I tried to login to the control panel and it says my account doesn't exist.

Since the PHP isn't parsing right now anyhow, I'm able to get a full copy of all my pages and images, but I had other stuff stored on there as well (forum sigs, avatars, etc) that I don't remember the paths to, so that's why I'm still emailing them, trying to get *some* response at least.

Have you tried to contact them by phone:
SALES - TOLL FREE
1-888-757-HOST

Thanks! I was so focused on looking for ways to get support, that I never thought of looking for *other* numbers

Called the number just now, and after about 5 or 6 rings, got voice mail. Left a number for them to call me back at (although at this point, I'm not too hopeful), so we'll see what happens. Didn't leave the reason that I was calling, as I didn't figure this would help them call me back any faster

I'm guessing that they are going out of business or something...

They didn't answer my phone message from yesterday. I called again today and just got voicemail again. Left another message on the off-chance, but I doubt I'll get a call back.

I remembered from when I first started sending them support emails that they had a pager form to send an email to a pager if it was an emergency call, I had thought about using that, but I can't find the form now, assuming they took it down.

They also used to have a live chat feature on the website (which always said the department was not available anyways) that now does not even work at all (says .php files are missing).

I'm guessing I'm probably SOL for the rest of my files and my refund. Is there anything legally I can do to try to get my files/money back, or is it even worth trying?

Going to move my hosting and domain name over to Host Gator this week, I think...

Nope, I haven't got a web-host yet, I'll check out Colorteck then I haven't signed up for a new one yet, as I didn't want to tip Dezines off that I was leaving and have them delete all my files (yes, yes, I should know better and have a full backup ).

I did receive a call back from someone at Dezines yesterday, but of course it was when I was out at lunch. I called them again when I got back and left another message, but they haven't responded to that yet either.

Thank you very much for your help, I'll PM you the info.

Called back 3 or 4 more times yesterday, and never got a person answering the phone.

Called them back this morning, and finally got a real person, who said that they had upgraded the servers and this required me (not them) to login to my new HSphere login and recreate everything (FTP logins, POP3 mailboxes). In addition, the MySQL database that I had was missing.

I recreated my FTP login, downloaded all my files and then emailed billing to tell them to cancel my account and process a refund for Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec. Surprisingly (or not!?) I received an email minutes later offering 6 free months if I'd stay a customer. I declined, as I've already signed up for and transfered everything to Colorteck.

So, in short, I don't think I'd recommend Dezines

Well, thanks to VISA, I was able to get my money back. Dezines billing department only responded to my queries on a status of a refund twice. The first time was to say that they had cancelled my account and ask if I would come back as a customer if they gave me 6 months (or something like that, I don't remember) of free service, and the second time, just recently, was to ask if I would come back as a customer if they gave me 2 years of free service.

I went to VISA and within a week, they had refunded my money. Funny enough, the SAME day as I got the refund from VISA, Dezines emailed me again to say that they were having trouble billing me for the next year of service on my VISA. Even though they had SAID they cancelled my account, and had emailed me twice to try to get my business again.

How do companies like this survive!!???

Received another request for payment from them today, despite the voice mail I left on the sales line, and the email to billing, AND the fact that I've contacting them every week for the last couple months, talking about my "cancelled" account.

Sabkor,
I'm sorry you had to go through that. It really is sad that a few individuals can give legitimate businesses a bad name. In any type of business there needs to be ethics. By ethics I mean what is right is right and that is what decisions should be based on. Is it right to give you your money back? If they screwed up, of course it is. If someone has a question/concern and they send you an e-mail, is it right to e-mail them back even if your not sure of the answer. You bet it is. Its unfortunate that many business owners, not just in hosting, dont get it. What alot of customers are looking for, in my opinion is a little honesty. Even if that honesty isnt what they want to hear. At least you know were you stand.

Just my 2 cents.