Interland

July 5, 2001 - I submitted an order with Interland to register the domain pizzapit.com. This order was placed after I had verified through networksolutions.com that the domain was available for registration. Interland charged me for services and assured me that the domain would be registered.

July 6, 2001 - From the networksolutions.com site, I verified that pizzapit.com was open for registration. I called Interland to reverify that the domain had been registered by Interland and was assured to that effect.

July 7, 2001 - From the networksolutions.com site, I verified that pizzapit.com was open for registration. July 8, 2001 - From the networksolutions.com site, I verified that pizzapit.com was open for registration, I initiated a trouble ticket with Interland, Inc.

July 8, 2001 6:40AM - another individual registered the domain name. Verified with that individual.

July 10, 2001 - Attempted to determine the status of the issue via e-mail to Larry Lee who stated that Interland's Domain Administration was looking into the issue. I reiterated the request for information about what specifically was being done to rectify the issue.

July 11, 2001 - Larry Lee stated that I would be contacted once he was contacted by Domain Administration. July 12, 2001 - Inquiry about the status of the problem, no reply.

July 13, 2001 - Inquiry about the status of the problem, no reply.

July 16, 2001 - Discovered through Interland's website all trouble tickets had been closed. No direct replies from Interland. Interlands resolution from the website was to the effect that the domain was not available, the order had not been processed and suggested other domain names.

July 17, 2001 - Received a forwarded e-mail from Larry Lee, (no comments from Larry). E-mail author suggested that I purchase the domain directly from the third party.

July 18, 2001 - Spoke to an agent at Network Solutions (InterNic), who stated that the domain name in question was open for registration from June 25, 2001 until July 8, 2001

July 18-23, 2001 - Attempted multiple times via e-mail to work towards resolution of this issue. I proposed desired solutions. No replies to my proposals.

July 23, 2001 - Purchased the domain name in question from the 3rd party for $500.

July 24, 2001 - Received an e-mail from Ken Gavranovic which stated that Interland cannot be held responsible for registration timing issues. Following e-mail correspondance with Ken Gavranovic led to a refusal to my requests (except refund of registration fee, $78) and statement to the effect of good luck finding another company that will tolerate you. My desired settlement with Interland called for refund of the charges billed to me for services not rendered, $500 to cover the actual costs of purchasing the domain name from the 3rd party, and refund of any outstanding service or credits following the transfer of services to another provider.

I hold Interland completely responsible for this issue and find them unwilling to work with me towards a solution. They are unwilling to accept any fault in this issue, despite being presented evidence supportive and demonstrative of fault. They have failed to register another domain name for me in the past and have overbilled me for services. I have full documentation, e-mail and written phone logs, of all events in the case(s) described above.

I have lost my reputation of being an efficient consultant who delivers what is promised. I have lost $500 in the purchase of the domain name from a third party and will lose approximately $1000+ in the transfer of services to another provider. I have been suffering extreme stress during the past three weeks as a result of this issue and have spent many billable hours attempting to contact Interland and solve this problem before and after it became a severe problem.

My company has been hosted by Interland for about a year now, with 2 sites up for the moment. It has been, to say the least, a struggle. In the last 6 months, we've had 6 representatives, each one worse than the one before. We've have 7 days of total or partial down time in the last two weeks - with virtually no explanation.

Our mail servers are out of contact at least 3 hours a day, intermittently. Their technical support personnel are pleasant enough, with a few notable exceptions, but they know about enough to send a caller to the next level of support ... who then knows enough to send callers to the next level of support ... get the picture?

My (latest) representative, Jason, will not return phone calls or e-mails. Lately, my messages have become increasingly hostile, so I guess he'll hand me off to the next unqualified rep to jerk us around.

Subscribers to our site have been treated to 504 NOT FOUND errors for long enough. I have enough to do for a living - now I get to transfer our web sites to a new location, wasting more of our time and money. We recently began setting up a subscription service to our on-line magazine, and we cannot charge for it yet, because we must first find a new hosting service.

An update to my earlier post: Hoorah! I finally recieved a response from Interland! It is so typical, I just had to share it.

This is from my rep, Jason:

"If you would like to cancel this account you would just need to let the billing department know the exact date you want the account terminated. The account will continue to run until they are notified by you regarding the cancellation. I am not sure what problems you are having but I would recommend directing all tech related issues to the tech support department. We can handle some issues on the sales floor but do not have the means to fix most technical issues."

Pardon me: when I ask for help, I get no answer, no comment, no phone call, no e-mail, not a peep. I mention I am disgusted and considering leaving? BOOM! In fifteen minutes I get detailed, explicit instructions on how to LEAVE THE SERVICE.

Now THAT's what I call a speedy response and great customer service. At least it simplifies my escape...

Still, I guess I'm glad we got to this point now, before we entered into more business with these people.

I signed up as a reseller and gave them about 15 sites to start, and added more shortly thereafter. The service and reliability is AWFUL. Sites are frequently down, my email goes down, and their tech support is incompetent.

I have to spend extensive time calling tech support, which is a big waste of time and money. Email outages cause severe embarrassment for an Internet marketing company, in addition to loss of credibility. They refuse to give me a refund, and I have signed up many of the sites for two-year periods.

I signed up for two years of Web hosting service with Interland.com. The service was horrible, with the Web site being out for over a week at a time. After six months, I cancelled the account and asked for a credit for the remaining year and a half I paid (almost $600). Interland refused, and refunded only $115 -- cheating me out of almost $500.