free
This is our archive, please go to the main forum page for the latest discussions and news about free web hosting.


Scam from a hosting company

glopes
April 30th, 2004, 08:08
I signed up at www.besthost1.com last week for a hosting plan at $123/year, including a "free" domain name registration.

After 2 days my server was "ready". In fact every day since the beginning there are some problems: FTP server not working, or HTTP server not working (My domain shares an IP with a few other domains). The custommer service is more than poor, the "live help" either is a simple form, either after 10 minutes waiting sends a message "network eror, try again". To get a reply by email takes some time, and the guy never knows nothing. In fact Besthost rents some boxes in Texas, and the guy is in Canada!

Seeing this, I decided to move fastly my new domain to a more reliable place. As I hadn't the management codes (the domain was registered by Besthost itself) I asked Besthost to send the codes to me. The guy "Daniel" told me "Contact FIDPAC domainorders@fidpac.com as FIDPAC cares of the domain name registrations"

I emailed FIDPAC a dozen of times. Got the first reply after my 6th email, STEVE GUNNELS told me "We don't give the management codes" !

The domain is registered under my name, I am the "admin contact". ANd this bas_ard doesn't want to send me the codes ! FIDPAC registers the domains with TUCOWS / OpenSRS.
I tried to get my management codes thru them, their automatic system told me to contact FIDPAC ! I sent fax and email to them and am waiting the reply, but Friday before 1st of May, etc etc...

Now seeing that, I told BESTHOST that I want use my "90 days money back guarantee", and of course that I want my domain name management codes. The crook Steve GUNNELS of FIDPAC replied They replied : "The money back will come AFTER 90 days" !!! And "I will be happy to send you your codes". But of course he didn't send anything.

About my $123, I believe I lost them, bah ! These crooks will anyway loose morewith the advertizing I will make to them.

But what can I do to get my codes ASAP ? I need to have my domain hosted quickly ! I believe there IS a way, as I am the admin contact for my domain. Anybody can help ?

Thank you,

Gerardo.

CareBear
April 30th, 2004, 08:33
If you paid by credit card, mail them you're filing for a charge back if they don't honour their money back guarantee and give them a fair few days period to respond.
Meanwhile, contact your bank and start the charge back procedure and include the mail as part of your complaint.

As for the domain, it doesn't sound like you'll have much luck in getting that back. Never go with a host that registers a domain for you in the future, it's only a $10 save and not worth the potential headaches.

glopes
April 30th, 2004, 08:48
I paid using e-gold, and all transactions are final :( The problem isn't so much the money itself, but the domain name that I need !

And yes you are right, I won't ever use any 3rd party to register my domains... I submitted a complaint to ICANN, after Tucows and openSRS... But that's a big loss of time :(

glopes
April 30th, 2004, 08:51
Hers's RIGHT NOW what Steve Gunnels, the "Big boss" of FIDPAC.COM, writes to me:

*** QUOTE
From domainorders@fidpac.com Fri Apr 30 09:53:03 2004
Received: from ms-smtp-05.texas.rr.com ([24.93.47.44] helo=ms-smtp-05-eri0.domain.rr.com)
by tapuz.safe-mail.net with esmtp (Exim 4.30)
id 1BJYRr-000491-CA
for [MYEMAIL]; Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:53:03 -0400
Received: from super-hosts (cs2417430-171.houston.rr.com [24.174.30.171])
by ms-smtp-05-eri0.domain.rr.com (8.12.10/8.12.7) with ESMTP id i3UDqWDj012672;
Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:52:32 -0500 (CDT)
Message-ID: <200404300852330166.00A6888D@smtp-server.houston.rr.com>
In-Reply-To: <N1-GBaBV_fa@SAFe-mail.net>
References: <N1-GBaBV_fa@SAFe-mail.net>
X-Mailer: Calypso Version 3.30.00.00 (4)
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:52:33 -0500
From: "Steve Gunnels" <domainorders@fidpac.com>
To: [MYEMAIL]
Subject: Re: REFUND and DOMAIN NAME management codes.
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable



"Gerardo," you must be one of those cowardly Spaniards who just cut and ran like a little girl, from Iraq, no?

Sincerely

Steve Gunnels

*****
UNBELIEVABLE.....

Martie
April 30th, 2004, 12:01
Im not surprised one bit. There is a recent thread at WHT...do a little research.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=2336949&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

glopes
April 30th, 2004, 12:26
Im not surprised one bit. There is a recent thread at WHT...do a little research.
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=2336949&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending

Gosh ! Very bad that I didn't read that earlier :(

Anyway, a GOOD new: The management team of Tucows just emailed me that they gave instructions to Gunnel (FIDPAC) to send me the management codes of my domain! Let's see if the crook Gunnel does it....

Of course I now will forget my $123... Bah, anyway I never saw such scu_bag server as Besthost1 ! First day: 6 hours down, no service. 2nd day: 5 hours down, no service ! 3rd day, theft of my domain name. 4th day, insults !

I do hope that Google will keep all these posts a long time :)

Gerardo.

PulseHosting
April 30th, 2004, 13:38
Man, Thats bad! I hope people read this before they consider buying hosting from them. You have a right to a full refund as the service you piad for hasn't been provided. Well, thats the law in UK and I think it will be the same in the US. You should contact trading standards about this. Even if you don't want your money back it will put a bad name to the crooks!

glopes
April 30th, 2004, 13:48
You are right, that's bad... I got a few emails from various lists where I "advertized" for these crooks, they are already well-known :(
I filled a complaint at bbb.org, an official Service of the state of Texas where is located FIDPAC. Let's see...

Yu know, sometimes I think that a good hack of their servers (that never work!) would give a good lesson to these crooks... But it isn't authorized :)

PulseHosting
April 30th, 2004, 14:29
hehe, I know its tempting but resist! It will make things even worse! and they probably won't have enough uptime for you to hack them! You will be half way though hacking them when their servers go down again!

deltagods
April 30th, 2004, 16:25
123 DOLLARS PER YEAR!!!!!!!

WHAT A RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shame:

VerticalHost
April 30th, 2004, 19:35
123 DOLLARS PER YEAR!!!!!!!

WHAT A RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shame:
Ditto.

Pay monthly when possible.

Vegs
May 1st, 2004, 15:12
It would be advisable to choose host that has been around for more than 2 years.

bonz
July 20th, 2005, 07:11
I've been running weblifecanada.com through besthost1 for the last 8 years. Dan for the most part has been very good to with all of my request for help. Once he finds a new Affiliate i would recommend him. Its Steve gunnels that is the problem. My site is now offline as are all my stacked domains. I just paid gunnels the equivalent of 800.00 Canadian for 7 months of hosting. Gunnels not answering his email...... nice

TravisL
July 20th, 2005, 07:19
Holy crap! That seriously is a rip off, a big rip off.

hottweelz
July 20th, 2005, 07:29
Holy crap! That seriously is a rip off, a big rip off.

Are you guys calling the price of $123/yr and $800 for 7 months with 8 domains, a rip-off?

Or just the service from the host? Cuz the price is not a rip-off, in theory.

overulehost
July 20th, 2005, 07:29
I guess it is better to pay monthly at first before you have the confident to pay yearly

TravisL
July 20th, 2005, 07:34
$800 for 7 months.

hottweelz
July 20th, 2005, 07:41
$800 for 7 months.
Since he said 8 Stacked Domains, he might mean 8 separate accounts... thats how I took it anyway.

cbowlby
July 21st, 2005, 09:33
ok - it really really takes a lot for me to do this sort of post... I'm a lurker - and when I do get involved, I try to do something constructive building in a positive way.

But, I am so so so disappointed - I guess I needed an outlet...

Back in the spring of 2000, I began my relationship with besthost1 - and accidently therefore, fidpac and Steve Gunnels. The truth is, I'd never spoken to Steve (until recently) - and the only emails I'd received from him were solicitations.

Before I choose besthost1, I did a through research on the web regarding fidpac and anything else I could remotely connect with Steve. Nothing bad came up - although it clearly looked like things were new. However, I was very impressed with Dan - the technical support person at besthost1. He was able to answer all my questions, and address my concerns...

I'm a bit technical - but my needs were very light - lots of disk space for a non-profit genealogical site. Once in a while, I'd do some preliminary develop for a few clients web sites. (I'm really glad now that I did nothing to encourage my clients to change hosting providers...) I did however, convince my now deceased mother to host her even larger genealogy site with them.

And I think this is why I need to write!!!

Anyway, after about a year of great support, back in 2001 I think, I bit the bullet for lifetime hosting. Mom did too. Yes, we were both moved around a few times - but by and large, we got what we wanted hosting with them.

Fast forward - this spring, Steve actually calls my house. First, he tells me how sorry he is about my mother's passing. That he reviewed her site, and the memorial tributes to her were beautiful. Then he informs me that both Mom and I really really need to upgrade - that unless we do, he will not be able to secure our sites. He gives me his number, and he gives me a personal email address (ah - do I even need to mention that his voice box is full? - ah - probably not...)

I was indeed having some technical problems - annoying little things - but I've been busy, and haven't devoted the necessary time to sort through them - between my Mom dying of cancer - and my 96 yr. old Grandmother moving in with my family... just a couple of highlights...

Anyway, Steve did convince me to fork over another couple hundred bucks - and now - just go to www.besthost1.com and see what's posted. I spoke with Daniel - for whom I feel badly. I think he's been ripped off worse than any one of us.

All I can say is that the line will no doubt be very long to get a piece of Steve...

But, I do feel very very ripped off - way more than money... For a man to manipulate a grieving daughter for his so slight financial gain... there really must be something unhealthy about this guy...

Kukumba
July 21st, 2005, 09:41
Oh ouch, im terribly sorry...

cbowlby
July 21st, 2005, 10:08
Thanks - It stinks, but some other stuff in life can stick nastier. (Like, Steve could be a member of my family in need - now THAT would be a challenge I'm grateful I'm not facing!)

TheNetCode
July 21st, 2005, 14:41
Wow makes you think about how bad some have it and what kind of unscruplous things people will do. I hope it works out for you.

ryza
August 2nd, 2005, 15:03
Hers's RIGHT NOW what Steve Gunnels, the "Big boss" of FIDPAC.COM, writes to me:

*** QUOTE
From domainorders@fidpac.com Fri Apr 30 09:53:03 2004
Received: from ms-smtp-05.texas.rr.com ([24.93.47.44] helo=ms-smtp-05-eri0.domain.rr.com)
by tapuz.safe-mail.net with esmtp (Exim 4.30)
id 1BJYRr-000491-CA
for [MYEMAIL]; Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:53:03 -0400
Received: from super-hosts (cs2417430-171.houston.rr.com [24.174.30.171])
by ms-smtp-05-eri0.domain.rr.com (8.12.10/8.12.7) with ESMTP id i3UDqWDj012672;
Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:52:32 -0500 (CDT)
Message-ID: <200404300852330166.00A6888D@smtp-server.houston.rr.com>
In-Reply-To: <N1-GBaBV_fa@SAFe-mail.net>
References: <N1-GBaBV_fa@SAFe-mail.net>
X-Mailer: Calypso Version 3.30.00.00 (4)
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:52:33 -0500
From: "Steve Gunnels" <domainorders@fidpac.com>
To: [MYEMAIL]
Subject: Re: REFUND and DOMAIN NAME management codes.
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable



"Gerardo," you must be one of those cowardly Spaniards who just cut and ran like a little girl, from Iraq, no?

Sincerely

Steve Gunnels

*****
UNBELIEVABLE.....



Theres alot of information we are not getting here,

Id like to see the email you sent him inorder to recieve such a reply....

Dan
August 2nd, 2005, 15:14
Theres alot of information we are not getting here,

Id like to see the email you sent him inorder to recieve such a reply....

That was a friendly email no?

That guy, Steve, or whatever he is, must have nothing better to do but target the vulnerable.

If the domain is registered in your name, as the Registrant of that domain, you have legal rights to it.

jerryp
August 2nd, 2005, 15:37
Well my Steve Gunnels site stopped yesterday, 8/1/2005. I new he seemed shady but I had no idea he had ripped off so many people. I've been hosting with him for like 4 years now. Guess I have to start looking for a new host.

cyberoptik
August 2nd, 2005, 15:56
I'm sorry to see you guys have been taken advantage of and cheated. Pm me or view my sig if you would like a new host, OptikHosting will treat you much better than Steve Gunnels.

Ron

dcmdcm
August 3rd, 2005, 16:47
well count yourself lucky people I got ripped off 550 dollars for full lifetime status...I had 4 good years with them but now after an upgrade of 550, I guess steve took the money and ran....cause all my sites went down 2 days ago. now it is my mission for revenge...Im wondering if it might have been the person who was making threats to hack the servers and bring them down...that psses me off....oh yeah and right now hes holding 2 of my domains hostage with the unknown passwords. I tried to transfer them today but nothing has been transferred yet.

dc

send compaints about this host to anoncomplaints2@hotmail.com

I intend to do something about this

dcmdcm
August 3rd, 2005, 17:24
yep...me too sites went down 8/02/05 after 4 yrs and signing onto a lifetime contract recently

dcm

dcmdcm
August 3rd, 2005, 17:26
yep he ripped me off recently for an extra 149 for an "upgrade after charging me 399 sept 2004. i feel your pain!

dcmdcm
August 3rd, 2005, 19:46
I originally signed on with besthost and at some point they handed it over to gunnels without me knowing...explain that one. yes, all my sites recently "went under" as well without any explaination or notice...my price...550.00 gone.

RipclaW
August 3rd, 2005, 19:49
You can add me to the list of people that have also been ripped off by Steve Gunnels! "FidPac - Super.Nu" etc.... I am very upset and talking about this at the moment only adds fuel to the fire. Perhaps after some time I can include even more specific details about exactly what happened in my situation believe it or not this is the condensed brief version. :confused4

I too also received the phone call from Steve (who's a real smooth talker by the way) not that long ago to upgrade my existing services. I was already a lifetime hosting member and had paid a lump sum of $800 dollars several years ago to avoid having to pay monthly hosting rates. However most of my so called features never functioned properly. So for another $200 this so called upgrade Steve was calling me about was to ensure me that all my features I had already previously paid for to begin with, would now actually work and function plus a whole lot more. Steve was very sympathetic about the previous features not working and said things like "oh just give me a chance to make it up to you and prove to you, trust me you won't be disappointed." Thinking back about that conversation now makes me sick! Steve knows the right things to say and tells you what you want to hear, he's a con who's main intention is getting your money! I would double check any credit card statements that you provided Steve the card # number with, because Steve also took funds from a credit card with out any permission. :devious2:

So for a while things were running fine and all seemed to be well. One of the main newly added features in this upgrade package was the virtually no down time because it was all run on a "DUAL" server were if one server went down the other server would kick in. Well on Aug 1st 2005 all just disappeared like some terrible magic trick all my websites are gone along with all e-mail, no more contact or access to server, in fact no more Steve Gunnels! Being a lifetime hosting member I felt trapped like I had no choice or option but to hope eventually things would in time all work out. Where was I going to go this was a suppose to be my hosting provider for life. Thus instead of getting myself out of the nightmare when all the warning signs were smacking me in the face! Like a fool I only dove myself in deeper! :o

Now I'm not even sure what I should do or who to turn to for help, but one thing is for sure. It's obvious I'm not alone here many have fallen victim to this fraud with all of us together you would think something could be done about this scam? Because apparently I guess you can sell services to people on the internet bill and collect their money through credit cards and then just pliantly rip them off with no regard and have absolutely no consequences to be paid for doing so? No matter if anyone is able to be reimbursed one cent of their losses or not. Steve Gunnels should go to prison for all the good, kind and trusting people he has ripped off! Steve Gunnels is a criminal plain and simple guilty of committing felony fraud on a massive scale. :shame:

RipclaW

dcmdcm
August 3rd, 2005, 19:51
I just emailed intellihost (run by a gunnel) and said

"Just wanted to know where your friend steve gunnels is, theres some people looking for him" :P

that made me a little feel better

packaloomer
August 4th, 2005, 10:08
I'm another member of the "August Shut Down". Last spring I paid for a life-time host and you know the rest of the story. I will definetly be contacting the BBB in WI and the TV Consumer Reporter to get after Steve Gunnels. The details of my experience with SG is a ditto of all that has been said.

funnytoy
August 4th, 2005, 15:21
Hello everyone,

Also count me among the victims of Steve Gunnels.

Fortunately I have resisted to the temptation to subscribe for his lifetime hosting but have upgraded to the dual Xeon 3 months ago for 4 or my websites. Steve Gunnels even phoned me from Texas in Belgium where I'm based (that is the reason why my English is far from being perfect :-) )

I went on holidays last Monday and was harassed several times at my holiday place by some of my clients (I'm a webdesigner) telling me that their website was down for 2 days. I came back home today to ascertain that all my websites hosted by Steve Gunnels have vanished.

If someone has some informations and can tell me who to contact to at least recover my datas, I'd be very grateful.

I wanted to add that I have always appreciated Dan Levesques' support and that I'm very sorry if he is the first victim of Steve Gunnel.

It's very hard for me to act against Steve Gunnels from Belgium, but I hope that a lot of people in US will contact the right authorities to complain about Steve Gunnel's behaviour and just hope that he'll spend a few time in jail.

jerryp
August 4th, 2005, 15:33
Good luck on getting your data. I contacted EV1 servers support which was hosting my Steve Gunnels server (ns52.super-hosts.com), and they would not help me at all. I asked if I could at least just get my data and they said I had to go through Steve. Unfortunately alot of people would like to talk to Steve now, but he isn't answering.

If anyone has any luck getting their data from EV1 servers please tell us how.

aterrier
August 4th, 2005, 17:10
Hello everyone,

I just found this forum and am just amazed at what I have read. I was charged twice on the credit > the bank is after him and I closed the account. My site is gone and TG I have it all on disc.

Yes he is a scam and there are over 40 complaints with the Houston BBB. It is interesting there is a reference to a Canadian company......Dave of Becanada emailed me today and pretended to know nothing. I don't think so because I first signed with Best Host also and suddenly there was Steve at Super.nu.

The amount of money I lost is not small change and perhaps the bank can recover part of it for me. It is the reality that as wonderful as the internet is ( I even found out how to repair my dishwasher the other day!) it is full of snake oil vendors not unlike the ones who preyed on the pioneers on their way west. It makes everyone look bad. In business we often have to rely on phone conversations, web sites, printed ads and email to make investment decisions and as one of you said......he is a smooth salesman.

However, as my name says I don't give up easily. If any of you glean any scraps of info to track him down please send it along to me. ITM I am preparing a written letter to the Houston BBB.

So if Steve is reading these posts,,,,,,http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=584297#
Shame

iclicktv
August 6th, 2005, 15:55
I got taken by Steve Gunnels too. I had purchased a lifetime membership at super.nu and as of August 1st, my sites were down.

The bank will not help me, the cops don't care, not sure what the BBB can do. We need to act together and file a class action lawsuit against him or something to that nature. If you guys have ideas, I'm down.

In the meantime I sent an e-mail to WCBS 2 News in New York where they do a "Shame on you Segment" hoping they call me back. I have a contact there and hope they will be able to do something.
While I wait for them I'm also wishing colan cancer on Steve Gunnels.

So I would like to collect as much information as possible. If anyone has contacted a lawyer or anything I would love to hear about it.
I may do the same, but I think we should all do it together. (There is stength in numbers)

Please feel free to e-mail me your contact information and I will get back to you ASAP so we can work together.
I can be reached at iclicktv@yahoo.com

DaveinVA
August 7th, 2005, 16:55
I am pretty much in the same boat as the others here. I have been with Steve Gunnels super.nu for about 4 years and in June he started sending me multiple emails stating that the server I was on was being retired and I had a choice of upgrading to lifetime membership or having my site and email down for an undetermined amount of time until they could move me to another regular server. I emailed him and told him I couldn't afford the $500 plus he wanted and reminded him that I had recently paid $169 for 2 years and $89 for upgrades. I also reminded him that I'd been having email server problems for months that he never was able to totally fix and the server side spam program always let 100's through a day. He blamed that on the old server not being secure and thats why they were getting rid of it He then called me at home June 21, 2005 and talked me into upgrading to lifetime for $299. Things went reasonably well until 2 weeks ago when I started having email problems again (bouts of email server being down for minutes to hours) and I emailed him several times and received no response whatsoever. Then last friday my site and all of super.nu, gunnel.org etc all went dead. Emails to Steve Gunnels bounced and his phone has been disconnected (877-231-9303). Last night I finally broke down and went with another provider but still waiting for the new nameservers to propagate so thats now 3 days no email. I will find out tomorrow if the bank can help or not with the $299 but I suspect not. Yes he is a real smooth talker and he deserves a nice long jail sentence with a large cellmate named "bubba"

If anyone figures out how to get this guy legally (class action suit etc) I'm in.

Dave

PS: Remember that this guy potentially has all your passwords for email, webspace/ftp etc. When switching to new host use all new passwords!

TJR Networks
August 8th, 2005, 01:53
It's terrible that a single person can cause so many people all this trouble. :shame:

talked me into upgrading to lifetime for $299

Just a tip, though I am sure you are aware of it now, never pay for anything that involves the words unlimited or lifetime. The former relies on users using only a small percentage of the resources available to them and the later relies on a constant stream of new customers signing up a year or two down the track to finance existing customers. It may work for a short period of time, but something is bound to go wrong in the long run and their customers will inevitably end up worst off.

We are happy to give anyone who has been ripped off by this guy a 10% discount on any of our plans. :-)

mustard
August 8th, 2005, 09:56
We are interested in your response TJR Networks.

I see you are from NZ also. I will check out your offer of hosting. Where are your servers physically and geographically located? I will never deal with a company again who is offshore. I originally joined the lifetime hosting through a company in Ashburton NZ called Century Host now called Acehost who dropped me as quick as hot coal when they broke from fidpac and Gunnels. Until then I thought I was using services provided in NZ.

I upgraded recently as well to the new dual Xeon servers and my email and spam problems worsened and Steve answered my emails quickly and corrected the situation. I felt good about that but then other small problems occured including downtime as I was loading up clients on the space we have (had) I have spent the last two days round the clock just dealing with disaster recovery for my clients. Fortunately I have backups of all the files. Well I will leave it at this point since other contributors to this forum have said it all before me.
Very disappointed we are. Very sad that it appears we have been conned again by unscrupulous Americans. :confused4 We will be steering clear of all future offers from USA. Sad but true - a few spoils it for the rest.

Good luck to the rest of you
John

jerryp
August 8th, 2005, 13:42
Everyone, there is another group of Gunnels victims from a different forum that have created a website for us all to interact and gather information about Steve, and hopefully pass along to the proper authorities.

http://www.gunnels.october.com.au/

TJR Networks
August 9th, 2005, 00:39
Hi John,

While TJR Networks is run from New Zealand, all sites are located on servers at The Planet in the United States. If you are interested in transferring your site to our services, please contact us and we will send you a special promotional code.

Very sad that it appears we have been conned again by unscrupulous Americans. We will be steering clear of all future offers from USA. Sad but true - a few spoils it for the rest.

There are people like him in all countries unfortunately, so it is wise to do a bit of checking up on businesses before you order. :)

RipclaW
August 9th, 2005, 01:50
What Steve Gunnels really needs are several swift solid kicks straight to the crotch!!!
But until then why not enjoy this Top 10 List I have complied for ----s and giggles. 8)

------------------------------S.C.E.M.'s------------------------------
Top 10 Reasons Why Not To Host With Steve Gunnels!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


10.) His limited time only, bloated must have, unlimited, lifetime offers sound to good to be true... Because they are!

9.) His no nonsense total access to your funds approach, only sits well with clients that have 50 plus credit cards and own several homes.

8.) His greasy fat fingers have been genetically enhanced, to punch in your credit card number at 10 times the speed of the average tele-marketer.

7.) The speed of costumer response is entirely based on the amount of dollars that may be up for stake.

6.) His 100% iron clad satisfaction or your money back guarantee! Doesn't apply to new or existing customers.

5.) His deja vu server features will have you thinking again and again... "Didn't I already pay for that?"

4.) Not even a tapeworm would be comfortable with Steve Gunnels as a host!

3.) His lack of consideration is equally matched to the occurrence of his penile disfunction.

2.) He secretly wishes his velvety smooth dialog and deep pockets could work as well on the ladies.

And the number one reason not to host with Steve Gunnels... (***DRUM-ROLL***)

1.) He recently changed his name from: Steve Gunnels, to: Steve Runnels... - "Runnels!" - LMAO


At least he wont make nearly as much cash flow in prison renting out his bunghole,
then he has scheming all his customers! Can you say tender!!! OUCHY!
So their you go people I'll be here all week, so be sure to tell your friends! ; )

Cheezey
August 9th, 2005, 14:37
Put me on the list too.

I'd hosted with his organization since 2000 and only recently got the lifetime hosting. Previously I'd steered clear of it as it seemed fishy but after $600 (between having to upgrade to a new server where he insisted I had to talk to him on the phone which talked me into it with promises of more bandwidth, and then a month later when I renewed basically jacking up the rate yearly claiming my current bandwidth usage didn't qualify me for a cheap package and I'd have to pay extra for "double usage" it was more economical to go lifetime) I caved for it because my website means a lot to me.

I feel like a certified idiot, because a friend of mine had a real runaround with this guy where he basically held his domain hostage for him. I kept throwing money at it basically out of fear of losing my domain.

Now as of August 5th (I signed for lifetime in June after hosting with them 5 years, with admittedly not too many tech issues, it was just expensive) I'm out all that money and I can't get anyone at Tucows to give me my domain information so I lost that too.

TJR Networks
August 9th, 2005, 15:36
I'm out all that money and I can't get anyone at Tucows to give me my domain information so I lost that too.

Provided he doesn't renew it again, you should be available to re-register it within a few months after it expires.

zopiwebhosting
August 10th, 2005, 22:57
Provided the domain is in your name, you should be able to get this resolved through Tucows. I know it is a pain in the butt reaching them, I have tried like crazy on a different matter. If you call them, they have a if your reseller is no longer in business or you no longer wish to do business with your reseller option. Or you could attempt to transfer it to another domain as long as you do not need an authorization key. Apparently Tucows does not give them out and I don't think Steve will either.

I am sorry to everyone who lost so much money due to this scumbag (putting it mildly). I am glad I never ran across him, I think I would be hunting him down.

I hope you all find hosts that you will be extremely happy with.

hottweelz
August 11th, 2005, 08:08
I posted how to handle Steve in the NY State Of Mind... over that that other webiste against him... They didn't like it... I think they're about to ban me ;)

The guy really does need a good kick in the... (Let me NOT get banned here too)

Rayne414
August 11th, 2005, 14:29
After several e-mails and attempted phone calls to Steve and Tucows, I was surprised to receive two e-mails from Steve (fidelity@fidpac.com) with my account information and authorization codes for my domain names.

killaH
August 11th, 2005, 19:40
Customer happiness is always my #1 priority, and it should be. It's what keeps you from having a bad reputation, and a bad reputation is harder to get back than the money you've lost.

NetConEdge
August 11th, 2005, 20:46
Customer happiness is always my #1 priority, and it should be. It's what keeps you from having a bad reputation, and a bad reputation is harder to get back than the money you've lost.

That's correct, and I thank that is what every host wants.
Support and service for their clients, to keep them happy.

Starting a good hosting company costs a lot of money to invest, unless you use cheap dedicated servers or a reseller account , and I think all host's want to make profit , and the only way to make profit is to keep your clients happy, so they will stay.

Even we have problems somethimes with a client, when we have a problem ,we do everything to find a solution that satisfies the client.

TJR Networks
August 12th, 2005, 01:18
Those who are having trouble with their sites may find this thread at WebHostingTalk helpful:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=291643


We have had a quite a few emails regarding the offer we made here (http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showpost.php?p=585742&postcount=39). The promotional code required to receive the 10% discount is 'sgswitch'. :-)

Shadow Warrior
August 12th, 2005, 03:04
It is surprising that one man can cause so many angry clients. :shame:

In addition to TJR Networks, I would also like to help. I am willing to offer a month of free hosting to anyone who has had problems with Steve Gunnels, to help get you back on your feet. There are no strings attached, and you may leave after the free month.

If you would like to take advantage of this, please email me at steve@statichost.co.uk. :-)


Regards,

Steve McManus.

sweden_bene
August 12th, 2005, 17:25
In one message I got they told me they have 30 000 clients. Best1, super.nu and some others.
I have two lifetime accounts and one other. Steve Gunnels has always been very helpful but have they really shut down? They had very lucrative days a couple of years ago but not any longer. He has a family and kids. What to do? I am living on the west coast of Sweden.

killaH
August 12th, 2005, 18:07
I'll extend my condolences to those who've been affected by this, and would like to help out as well, but my goal is not to make any profit off this, and as I have a lot of spare space and bandwidth, I'd like to offer free hosting for a limited time for anyone who have been affected by this. My goal is not to earn money from this, but rather help out those unfortunate people who are the victims of greedy or unserious people who underestimate the value of offering a quality service.

RipclaW
August 14th, 2005, 00:42
I posted how to handle Steve in the NY State Of Mind... over that that other webiste against him... They didn't like it... I think they're about to ban me ;)

The guy really does need a good kick in the... (Let me NOT get banned here too)

I guess someone at "The Gunnels Collective" > http://www.gunnels.october.com.au/forum/index.php <
Just couldn't handle the rodeo burger and banned me for my Top 10 List.
Here's what I get when I try to visit their forum...

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /forum/index.php on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

What up wit dat? :rolleyes2 Oh I guess only serious people that have been ripped off are allowed at that forum. Nobody with a sense a humor, no funny money cracks will be tolerated! W-E-A-K

hottweelz
August 14th, 2005, 09:47
I guess someone at "The Gunnels Collective" > http://www.gunnels.october.com.au/forum/index.php <
Just couldn't handle the rodeo burger and banned me for my Top 10 List.
Here's what I get when I try to visit their forum...

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /forum/index.php on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

What up wit dat? :rolleyes2 Oh I guess only serious people that have been ripped off are allowed at that forum. Nobody with a sense a humor, no funny money cracks will be tolerated! W-E-A-K
No, they're site is actually down right now ...

tabberone
August 15th, 2005, 10:45
Add me and my husband to the list. And I had over 800 listings on ebay all with multiple pictures that went poof.

I registered with GoDaddy and within a week I'm back up and running as soon as I upload everything.

I had been promised by Steve that if I upgraded to the new dual server I would be able to access my old emails. Which I told him I needed since I was involved with litigation. What a crock.

Forget the BBB - he doesn't care, he's out of business.

Personally I'm going to the FTC and filing a complaint with the feds. The more people complain the more can be done. As far as I'm concerned it's fraud. He probably knew he was going under and was trying to get as much money as possible.

utcrazy
August 15th, 2005, 16:20
This whole thing sickens me.

mercenary
August 15th, 2005, 17:22
Now that http://www.gunnels.october.com.au (http://www.gunnels.october.com.au/forum/index.php) has gone down is there another forum where people robbed by Gunnels are sharing information?

Mercenary
Hunting Gunnels Sports Club (HGSC)

BradS2555
August 16th, 2005, 20:32
Hi there,
I've been using Super.nu for over 8 years. Steve's always answered emails etc, and messed my site up over and over again month after month year after year, some how I've always paid a little more money for a new server, and the problem goes for a while despite having lifetime server space, or so I thought.

It's a real shame, I'm worried now as wtfuk.com, windowtintfilm.co.uk and aprilia.net are in my name but the addresses (as I don't want people to know my address obviously, are not my REAL address), they're registered by Tucows and I want to transfer them to easyspace.com where I have new server space.

Is it possible? I'm the registered owner :)

GeorgeB
August 16th, 2005, 21:29
Hi there,
I've been using Super.nu for over 8 years. Steve's always answered emails etc, and messed my site up over and over again month after month year after year, some how I've always paid a little more money for a new server, and the problem goes for a while despite having lifetime server space, or so I thought.

It's a real shame, I'm worried now as wtfuk.com, windowtintfilm.co.uk and aprilia.net are in my name but the addresses (as I don't want people to know my address obviously, are not my REAL address), they're registered by Tucows and I want to transfer them to easyspace.com where I have new server space.

Is it possible? I'm the registered owner :)

As long as you are the legal registered owner of the domains then you have every right to transfer the domains to whoever you wish basically.

hottweelz
August 17th, 2005, 07:00
What is with people registering Domain Names under FAKE Addresses...

All domains, in the long run, are registered with ICANN... it's like avoiding the IRS.

Should be, and I think it IS, against the law! Now you probably won't get your domains back ever.

sweden_bene
August 22nd, 2005, 08:59
This is a quote from Gunnels super.nu in oct 2001:

"SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR CLIENTS OF METROPLEXWEB.COM AND NETCOMERSINC.COM - MESSAGE UPDATED AS OF: (date changed automatically by a java script when the saved page was opened now in Aug 2005)

As of 24 hours ago, service to your domain was discontinued by the upstream provider. We can make no representations as to the nature of this shutdown, or the financial or other status of any companies other than our own. We are a Texas based company, Hosting Services LLC, and our main site is http://www.super.nu We are a financially strong company and we begin our fourth year in the webhosting business this month.


Because we have a close relationship with the upstream provider in this situation, we are in a position to restore your domain immediately, on the same server as before, at the same IP address. All files, POPs, databases, FTP accounts, etc. are fully functional and intact. Here are three options you can use to get your site turned back on within one hour or less:
1. Sign up for our regular hosting plan." ETC. ETC.

Close relationship? I guess it was planned to get new subscriptions. Sorry to say this because Steve Gunnels otherwise was very helpful. And super.nu was cheap. Very cheap.

Jonathan-iZ
August 24th, 2005, 22:46
Sue them.

sweden_bene
September 14th, 2005, 06:55
Go to www.super.nu. Gunnels will help you. He did so for me.

rsbug
April 27th, 2006, 09:05
As previously mentioned here..... this guy is a scam artist plain & simple. I'm amazed he's still in business.

A few years ago I had a problem getting my refund back per his refund agreement and had to take legal action in order for it to get resolved. Some of you (a very small percentage, I'm sure) may of had no problems, but most have.

Stay away from this guy and his unethical business practices!





  
  News · Search free hosts · Free file hosting · Free image hosting · Reviews · Forums · Related Links · Advertising Info · Contact Us


Copyright © 1996-2008 Per Olof Sandholm. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement

EZ Archive Ads Plugin for vBulletin Copyright 2006 Computer Help Forum