I wrote an earlier post, Clueless ISPs… about Verio’s attempt to collect money for unauthorized charges.
Verio ignored my emails and only went away when my credit card company agreed that Verio’s business practices were not appropriate and reversed the charges.
Months goes by, then I got a letter from a Verio minion who is pretending to be a bill collection agency.
I write a brief explanation why the bill is invalid. I use one and two syllable words and don’t get into a short version of Business Law 101 and don’t go into the essential parts of a valid contract (which are all missing, by the way.) I merely state:
If you had read my previous emails, you would know that you are trying to collect for services that were not authorized, were not wanted, and have not been delivered.
If you persist in attempting to run this tired old scam
further, you will find a complete discussion continuing on my weblog. I
will happily post excerpts from our correspondence in subsequent
essays, with copies sent to Verio’s management team. I am sure they
will appreciate further airing of their "customer friendly" billing
practices.
Verio’s automatic, non cancelable renewal of domain
registrations does not hold water with credit card companies and it
will not stand up in small claims court.
Another month goes by and I get another letter from the same minion.
Not a touch of intelligence or personal involvement. (Probably
generated by some artificial intelligence program. Dear (Your Name
Here), we regret….)
The letter does not acknowledge my correspondence, just attempts to
escalate the matter by telling me that this may affect my future
relations with Verio Web Hosting.
It already has….:)
I have already shifted some of my accounts from Verio to other ISPs
who are more responsive and much less expensive. I guess it’s time to
move the rest.
Verio used to have great tech support and I have been with them ever
since they bought up best.com, my first ISP in the early days of the
web. Unfortunately for Verio, their acquisition by NTT has not improved
their customer service.
In their quest to become the world’s largest operator of Web sites
for businesses and a leading provider of global IP solutions, they have
taken their eye off what it takes to maintain relationships with
customers.
Welcome to the 21st century, Verio. Business are all about conversations. You are talking and listening only to yourselves.
We smaller customers will go elsewhere…and save money in the process.