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Here is a detailed account of my issues with GISOL: On 10/20/2003 I signed up for the Windows Pro account for a whole year, costing me $239.40. My username was altmanjc and my account number was 347482. Unfortunately I didn't use a credit card (a big mistake as I later learned). There were some issues with setting up my account. I admit that part of it was my fault because I went in and accidentally deleted the temporary domain name they gave me. I didn't have the ability to recreate it and most of the control panel software depended on it. I also had some problems with some files I uploaded to my public domain names. The web shell in the control panel wouldn't even let me delete them. I tried getting them to reset everything for me but it took many ticket responses and e-mails over the span of nearly two weeks to get everything fixed properly. At one point in the process they even pointed my temporary domain name to someone else's account and claimed they fixed it! At this point I decided that the level of support was unsatisfactory and if I would ever use this host for a client's website and there was a problem then I would be in big trouble. I wrote to them and asked them about canceling my account. They wrote back and said that customers are required to go to http://cancel.gisol.com to cancel their account. I filled out the cancellation form and it said that my account was scheduled for cancellation on 10/31/2003. This was well within the first 30 days so I expected it to fall within the 30 day money back guarantee. Even if it didn't it should've fallen under 11b of their policy and I should've received a refund for the unused portion. Therefore I went ahead and signed up for an account on another web host. This one actually seemed to care about their customers. They almost always get back to me within 15 minutes after I write to them. It was almost the total opposite of GISOL. I wrote to them many times asking about the status of my cancellation/refund request and they basically brushed me off. I don't even think they read most of my trouble ticket responses because most of the time they just seemed to send me the same standard form response stating that my cancellation was queued and to wait for it to be processed. On 11/24/2003, which was about a month after the date my account was set to be cancelled, they stated that I could either have my account moved to a new server or cancel it without any refund at all. They even threatened me by saying that if I had started a chargeback on my credit card (which I hadn't) they would charge me extra fees and send credit collectors after me!!! I tried numerous times since then to have someone tell a manager to contact me but no one ever did. I even called long distance a few times and usually got through after being on hold for 35 mins. but couldn't get past pre-sales/level 1 support people. On 12/18/2003 GISOL finally ended up claiming that "The 30 day guarantee only applies if we are unable to setup your account due to problems on our side. Also, refunds are based upon managements approval." This is not stated in their policy... even in fine print somewhere. Plus, it seems very convenient to me that the refunds are based upon managements approval. All they have to do is claim that management didn't approve the refund and your money is gone. Personally, I don't even think that they speak to a manager because there never seems to be one around to speak to. I highly doubt that anyone has gotten their money back without doing a chargeback on their credit card. On 1/07/2004 I tried going to the cancellation form to save a copy of the page stating the October cancellation date for my records (and for the website). However, when I got there it didn't say that it was set to be cancelled in October anymore and it allowed me to fill out the form. I filled it out and it said I would get a refund for the unused portion of my account. However, sometime shortly after I filled out the cancellation form they cancelled my account and haven't given me any money back. Therefore I now have no account and no compensation for the 11 months of unused service (assuming the 30 day money back guarantee didn't apply). All I had been requesting was a refund for the unused portion of my account. According to section 11b of their policy I should've gotten a refund for the first year's payment ($239.40) minus the first month's fee at the regular rate ($24.95) which comes to a total of $214.45. This should've been very fair but instead they cancelled my account and gave me nothing back. On 1/05/2004 I decided to start this website to warn people before they spend money on this web host. If you do decide to purchase any of their accounts I highly recommend you:
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