"Millenium Hosting" is BIG SCAM charged $2,400 after 3 days of "unlimited bandwidth"

[bolonki]

Folks, I had the bad fortune of signing up with milleniumhosting.net for an unlimited bandwidth plan last Thursday, and started to set up some blogs during the weekend. Yesterday night the account was cancelled for no reason, and a PayPal bill was sent today for $2,400 (after three days of extremely defective hosting, plagued with down time, apologies, terribly slow when it was up, he claimed he was installing two Xeons on the server)


Sorry to have to suspend your sites, as agreed your monthly hosting fee is waived. Your bandwidth overage was 2.4tb. The charge for this overage is $1 per gb or $2400.00 for the month. I will release your files to you after you satisfy your overage charges.
Mike
As you see, this guy wants to keep my files and will not 'release' them until I pay 24 hundred dollars. He claims I used 2.4TB in three days ("hosting" down all the time, by the way) and the funny thing is that the plan was supposed to be of "unlimited" bandwidth... BEWARE

By the way, the $42,50 per month plan that I signed up for at www.milleniumhosting.net read like this (now he has edited this and all plans):


# Platinum Plan
Disk space 80,000Mb/80Gb
Bandwith Unlimited
Monthly Price 42.50
Site Builder
24x7 support
Instant backups
No contract!
99.9% uptime guarantee Or We Will Credit You
30 day money back guarantee
Free / Instant setup
Domains Allowed Unlimited
Subdomains Unlimited
FTP Accounts Unlimited
MySQL Databases Unlimited
CGI
PHP
Perl
Python
SSI
Cron
FrontPage
Curl
GD
Image Magick
Streaming video and music
Free module Installation
Pop3 accounts Unlimited
Web Mail
E-mail alias
Auto responders
Mailing list
Catch All
Spam Assassin
Mail Forward
IMAP
SMTP
Latest cPanel And Free Updates
Fantastico And Free Updates
And Much Much More

[hottweelz]

Can I ask a question? What part of that site made you say "Oh yeah, thats a host I want to sign up with?"

No Sarcasm intended, I really want to know what was attractive, or what indicated that this was a professional host.

[hottweelz]

After you answer, I'll go ahead and have the guys over at PHP-Nuke verify that he paid for that software to remove the Copyright Code from it. ;)

[bolonki]

Great question HottWheelz, I had over 24 emails with him, Mike Erwing, before signing up. Here's what he wrote, check also what I had written to him:


From: mike@milleniumhosting.net <mike@milleniumhosting.net>
To: Bolontrack <bolontrack@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 11, 2005 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: Offer at FreeWebSpace.net and Platinum Plan
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Trash this message | Report phishing | Show original | Message text garbled?

I also want to add the reason the site is having problems today is because
i moved all my files to the main directory on my server so all everyone
has to do is go to www.milleniumhosting.net instead of
www.milleniumhosting.net/php this is why i was experiencing difficulties
today on the site like sign up and log in the forum seemed to be fine
until i tryed to log in so i am working on that now. and if you have
doubts about millenium hosting i am will to do this to build your trust i
will offer you 30days free hosting for the platinum plan to see for your
self no money upfront no nothing just to try our service and see im not
filling words i cant uphold i will give you free for 30 days the platnium
plan to see i am a upfront hosting company


> Hi Mike,
> Yes, I have tried signing up for the forum and the link to activate
> membership doesn't work. At that point I realized that milleniumhosting
> doesn't have a track history, and I sort of got cold feet because I have
> been burned before pretty badly. Everything sounds good, but so it did the
> last time: once I paid the guy disappeared with $39 I paid, he's name is
> "soybean" in the freewebspace forums and "nayble" on webhostingtalk
> forums... another worry I have is that perhaps you won't be able to afford
> the $65 or so that layeredtech charges for the Sempron server and I will

So he established trust by saying he will give me 30 days of the "unlimited" plan for free. By the way, I was only hosting a bunch of WordPress blogs, and the domains are new from last week...

[hottweelz]

I'll give you a free site just for having to endure that. Stop by my forums in the signature and request it, or if you like, start a new thread here and receive multiple offers for a free or paid hosting account. (Whichever you really need) and evaluate carefully every offer.

Did you notice his entire paragraph was a run-on sentence? ;)

[bolonki]

I'll give you a free site just for having to endure that. Stop by my forums in the signature and request it, or if you like, start a new thread here and receive multiple offers for a free or paid hosting account. (Whichever you really need) and evaluate carefully every offer.

Did you notice his entire paragraph was a run-on sentence? ;)
Yes, a run-on sentence... actually reviewing his grammar and style I probably got taken by a 15 year old or something. I appreciate your free hosting offer, but I am planning to add a site that has a lot of traffic and your biggest plan offers 60GB bandwidth, for that site I need about 1.000GB. I will follow your second suggestion and see what the offers are like. Thanks!

[A1Owner]

Yes, a run-on sentence... actually reviewing his grammar and style I probably got taken by a 15 year old or something. I appreciate your free hosting offer, but I am planning to add a site that has a lot of traffic and your biggest plan offers 60GB bandwidth, for that site I need about 1.000GB. I will follow your second suggestion and see what the offers are like. Thanks!


Hmm u need only 1.000gb ? if so check the plans we offer . Plus note contact www.bbb.org and file a complaint against him and keep all the emails u recieved and sent to him to be produced as evidence . Please everyone be warned of such scams that are happening now a days. pirate2

[hottweelz]

No problem, start that thread and I'll assist you in pointing out some of our colleague/competitors who are definately worthy of such things... Only issue is the amount of bandwidth. Just shy of One Terabyte is quite a bit to find for free.

[hottweelz]

Hmm u need only 1.000gb ? if so check the plans we offer . Plus note contact www.bbb.org (http://www.bbb.org) and file a complaint against him and keep all the emails u recieved and sent to him to be produced as evidence . Please everyone be warned of such scams that are happening now a days. pirate2

Hey, no he needs 1000gb. In countries outside of America, they tend to use a decimal in respect to our comma. I'm assuming he may be from South America, Mexico, Spain, or other parts of Europe.

[A1Owner]

Ok Hotweelz but for 1000gb My freind u need to get dedicated server for urself. That is only option than , and we can get you good deal depending only on ur budget.

Plus hotweelz u drunk today why the double posting u done it already 2 times.

[hottweelz]

Yea I'm actually not having a good day, but trying.

To P'oD over this: http://freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?t=77455

[WebhostingX]

bolonki, sorry for what happened to you but in my opinion that was a big scam. You will not make anything?

[bolonki]

Sorry about the lack of comma in the 1,000GB. HottWheelz is right again about assuming that I am from a Spanish-speaking place (he would make a great detective, like Columbo or so, and he's Italian I read).

Right now I need for sure 700GB but the site is growing in visits so 1,000 to 1,500GB would be ideal.

[hottweelz]

They must be some sweet blogs! (To suck up that much bandwidth) LOL

[A1Owner]

Sorry about the lack of comma in the 1,000GB. HottWheelz is right again about assuming that I am from a Spanish-speaking place (he would make a great detective, like Columbo or so, and he's Italian I read).

Right now I need for sure 700GB but the site is growing in visits so 1,000 to 1,500GB would be ideal.


Oh so it will be non-english site , than i would suggest make ur budget atleast 120$ per month and get urself a dedicated server u can even sell ur own space if ur not using so much bw permonth .

[bolonki]

Oh so it will be non-english site , than i would suggest make ur budget atleast 120$ per month and get urself a dedicated server u can even sell ur own space if ur not using so much bw permonth .
I don't see why the language makes a difference? Is Spanish more expensive? :) I know Spanish uses more words to say the same thing... but more bandwidth? Actually, Spanish compensates for more words by being spoken much faster than English... just remember Speedy Gonzalez, wasn't he a fast talker?

[utcrazy]

Very odd situation here! Well let me know if you need hosting, we're always here to help. I think the most tell tale sign of a bad host is their gramatical and spelling errors. I don't approve of some of the hosts that even posted in this thread *cough* *cough*. I would probably offer what you need for $70/month. Just because of the bandwidth.

Ciao

[A1Owner]

I don't see why the language makes a difference? Is Spanish more expensive? :) I know Spanish uses more words to say the same thing... but more bandwidth? Actually, Spanish compensates for more words by being spoken much faster than English... just remember Speedy Gonzalez, wasn't he a fast talker?

u fail to understand me . Language doesnt make it expensive but makes it harder to get hosting on USA based servers if site language is not english .

[hottweelz]

Very odd situation here! Well let me know if you need hosting, we're always here to help. I think the most tell tale sign of a bad host is their gramatical and spelling errors. I don't approve of some of the hosts that even posted in this thread *cough* *cough*. I would probably offer what you need for $70/month. Just because of the bandwidth.

Ciao

He said Ciao, wasn't a hint at me was it?

[utcrazy]

No, you have perfect english. I'm more directing my underlieing comments at a1whs.com. Ciao is just a new sign off phrase of mine. :)

Cheers

[hottweelz]

No, you have perfect english. I'm more directing my underlieing comments at a1whs.com. Ciao is just a new sign off phrase of mine. :)

Cheers

Oh ok, got paranoid from when the Original Poster pointed out I was Italian ;)

[utcrazy]

How could I the humble UT offend hotwheelz the great 561 poster? :)

[A1Owner]

No, you have perfect english. I'm more directing my underlieing comments at a1whs.com. Ciao is just a new sign off phrase of mine. :)

Cheers


Oh by the way i am just waiting for that support ticket to be replied on ur site dude . Its been 6 days now and wait continues. So stop trying to pick fights with me u little kid who has a -ve paypal balance and not even verified paypal user 2 or 3 users already had issues with ur hosting so dont make me start again at ur non-supportive hosting. :confused4

[utcrazy]

Wow, awsome english sir. Well that's support's issue if their not answering tickets. But I personally check them every day. We have had issues with a few clients. Most of the issues were the clients fault. But we offer our money back guarantee and we did our best. I don't need some dispute with a kid who cannot spell.

Thanks

[A1Owner]

Wow, awsome english sir. Well that's support's issue if their not answering tickets. But I personally check them every day. We have had issues with a few clients. Most of the issues were the clients fault. But we offer our money back guarantee and we did our best. I don't need some dispute with a kid who cannot spell.

Thanks


Wow didnt u hear the term "Customers are always right " if not good luck with ur life and hosting.

[utcrazy]

Customers aren't always right, that's the thing. If my client wants to host child porn because he thinks it's legal, is he right? Of course not Have you heard the quote "Learn some proper english" well maybe not because I just made it, but do so!

Ciao

[hottweelz]

Somehow, I feel like I started this? LOL

[utcrazy]

No you really didn't, it's my fault. A1whs.com dosen't seem to be able to take sarcasm or even handle fights properly. I shouldn't have said anything about a host who cannot spell and uses net speak.

[A1Owner]

Somehow, I feel like I started this? LOL


Yes see what happens when u drink and type :biggrin2:

[utcrazy]

Yes see what happens when u drink and type :biggrin2:

Let's just end this arguement right here, truce? There's always going to be some gramatical issues with non-english natives so, I shall deal with that myself.

[hottweelz]

Let's just end this arguement right here, truce? There's always going to be some gramatical issues with non-english natives so, I shall deal with that myself.

Ok, but did you spell "Grammatical" wrong, in all fairness. Sorry, had to. Heh.

[James]

Hello bolonki,

I don't quite fully understand here. How much bandwidth did you actually use in three days?

2400 USD - where does this sum of money suddenly come from? If the plan you signed up for is unlimited bandwidth, on what grounds is he charging you this money, for "over-usage"? He must have give you some kind of explanation, whether it is rubbish or not.

Obviously you have moved on though, which is a good thing. A good lesson.

James


Folks, I had the bad fortune of signing up with milleniumhosting.net for an unlimited bandwidth plan last Thursday, and started to set up some blogs during the weekend. Yesterday night the account was cancelled for no reason, and a PayPal bill was sent today for $2,400 (after three days of extremely defective hosting, plagued with down time, apologies, terribly slow when it was up, he claimed he was installing two Xeons on the server)

As you see, this guy wants to keep my files and will not 'release' them until I pay 24 hundred dollars. He claims I used 2.4TB in three days ("hosting" down all the time, by the way) and the funny thing is that the plan was supposed to be of "unlimited" bandwidth... BEWARE

By the way, the $42,50 per month plan that I signed up for at www.milleniumhosting.net read like this (now he has edited this and all plans):


# Platinum Plan
Disk space 80,000Mb/80Gb
Bandwith Unlimited
Monthly Price 42.50
Site Builder
24x7 support
Instant backups
No contract!
99.9% uptime guarantee Or We Will Credit You
30 day money back guarantee
Free / Instant setup
Domains Allowed Unlimited
Subdomains Unlimited
FTP Accounts Unlimited
MySQL Databases Unlimited
CGI
PHP
Perl
Python
SSI

[utcrazy]

Oh no you didn't

[devianthoster]

1) He's full of crap he was never offered unlimited bandwidth
2) see number 1

how do I know this cause I sold the freaking server!
exact bandwith usage on the server (and it wasn't in 3 days either) is 3.9TB right now for the month of october (from the first to now) when checking the stats most of that comes from him and his 20+ sites he had running soaking up more bandwidth then google.

so you can all stop your spouting crap about millenium hosting as I know for a fact the owner didn't rip anyone off it's just another user got caught trying to abuse a good host and now doesn't want to pay his bill.

[James]

Hello Devianthoster,

Why would the client lie about the unlimited bandwidth he was offered? Can you at least state what he was exactly offered?

[devianthoster]

his account on the server says 100GB for 10 accounts and 10gb for the rest

[mikeerwin]

he was actually offered 450gb bandwith and 40 gb of space on one domain and the same for his second domain i am no scam artist or anyother things he said its kind of hard to be a scam artist when he didnt pay 1 red cent

[devianthoster]

ok yeah that adds up just divded weird hehehe.... but I do verify that there is no scamming going on I billed millenium for the bw used and I personally went through the server logs and matched up all bandwidth used to each customer. It's all on the up and up and like mike said how can you scam someone if they haven't paid anything? if anything mikes the one getting scammed by his client cause somehow I have to get over $3000 so I can pay my bills from this. and it's coming out of mikes pocket from the looks of it.

[James]

Well,

The client is claiming that he had been offered "unlimited" bandwidth. The host says 450GB. There is two sides to the story here.

But mikeerwin, as a host if an account goes over the bandwidth limit, the account should be halted and client contacted, to see if the client is willing to pay for the extra bandwidth for the month. You have no right to just let it spiral out of control without the client knowing and then charge such a huge some of money.

Best

[Robert]

If he has a limit of 800GB, why was his site allowed to consume so much bandwidth? The server should have prevented him from consuming more than 800GB. Poor management on the owners part.

I also looked at your site and cannot find a Terms of Service or a Privacy Policy or even a AUP. And if one does exist, a customer is not required to accept to it when they signup. Therefore, you cannot hold him to any extra money due besides the monthly hosting fee since you don't have any contract agreements with him.

[Tree]

Therefore, he is not legally obligated to pay the money.

[bolonki]

Ok folks DEVIANTHOSTER = MIKEERWIN = MILLENIUM_HOST

So obviously after being exposed in the thread, Mike Erwin quickly registered another alias, this time "DeviantHoster", which is actually what he is... a scam artist.

I did say this "Mike Erwin" recently edited his site to modify the descriptions of his plans, getting rid of the unlimited bandwidth offer. That's easy enough to do. Also, he did raise his prices.

And he completely made up the 2,400GB usage, absolutely made it up... folks, this guy is a big freaking liar! I have many, many emails from him saying that the bandwidth was unlimited... and I was the one concerned about him being able to give me what he promised!

There is no way in hell I could have consumed even 240 megas of bandwidth, let alone 2,400... I had just registered the domain with Yahoo last week... don't you see this guy is taking everyone for a ride, laughing hard while he writes bull plotting the next move... anyway, you all have been warned.

Another interesting piece of data: Mike Erwin has been online since September 11, 2005... we are not talking about an "established" hosting provider... anyway, the damage with me is done, I just wanted to warn you guys of this scam artist.

[devianthoster]

you are so very wrong on a whole bunch of things there
1) me and mike aren't even close to the same person don't even live in the same country.
2) wether or not unlimited bandwidth was offered isn't my problem.
3) I only came on here to state what I know as the sever owner.
4) again your calling him a scam artist. is anyone forcing you to pay anything are you out any money at all?
By the very definition of a scam artist you'd fit the bill more then he.

5) I can give proof of the bandwidth usuage by your sites.from the very server logs however it's not my job.
Again I only came on here in order to clear a few things up...you have been provided with logs of your bandwidth usage. Now if you chose to pay or not is up to you and out of my hands. (also not my concern)

However I don't know to many people that would rent pretty much a whole dedicated server to you (we won't even talk about cpu and ram usage from your site) due to the sheer number of sites you want to host. and for the price he offered you he would have lost alot more then he would ever have made from this.

Again before you go involving me if your little hissy fit and saying I'm something I'm not get your facts straigh the only thing I have to do with millenium hosting is the server and being paid for such.

[James]

Ok folks DEVIANTHOSTER = MIKEERWIN = MILLENIUM_HOST

Perhaps a moderator can check the IP addresses of the three identities.

[bolonki]

2) wether or not unlimited bandwidth was offered isn't my problem.

This is a central issue here, because that's the main broken promise (among others). So if you Mike are trying to clear anything up, then you should be concerned.



3) I only came on here to state what I know as the sever owner.

The server is from layeredtech.com, are you the owner of layeredtech? Because that's where Mike said his server was, and that's what traceroute says it is.



4) again your calling him a scam artist. is anyone forcing you to pay anything are you out any money at all?

I'm out whole bunch of work I did setting up the site, and I got charged $2,400 on PayPal for BW I absolutely did not and could not use, you/Mike made that bw usage up. It's just a plain fat lie... the layeredtech server offers 1TB per server. Mike/you has only one server. How come you say it's 2.4TB, and if it was true, why didn't you stop this extreme usage before?



By the very definition of a scam artist you'd fit the bill more then he.

You are making even less sense here, I didn't do anything wrong other than trusting you, Mike.



5) I can give proof of the bandwidth usuage by your sites.from the very server logs however it's not my job.
Again I only came on here in order to clear a few things up...you have been provided with logs of your bandwidth usage. Now if you chose to pay or not is up to you and out of my hands. (also not my concern)

What I saw on CPanel was minimal, marginal bandwidth usage. The site had less than 5 visitors in a day, and I was one of them. To talk about 2.4TB it's a ridiculous lie, I don't think it's even possible in three days!



However I don't know to many people that would rent pretty much a whole dedicated server to you (we won't even talk about cpu and ram usage from your site) due to the sheer number of sites you want to host. and for the price he offered you he would have lost alot more then he would ever have made from this.


So now Mike you sound like you made up this story about 2,4TB BW usage to get rid of an account that you thought would make you lose money. Well, it's pretty clear once again that you are Mike Erwin indeed. What cpu and ram usage are you talking about? Again, are you with layeredtech.com? Stop pretending, Mike.



Again before you go involving me if your little hissy fit and saying I'm something I'm not get your facts straigh the only thing I have to do with millenium hosting is the server and being paid for such.

Again, are you with layeredtech? Because layeredtech owns and hosts that server. Mike Erwin/MilleniumHosting.net bought a AMD 2600 server from layeredtech.com, that's easy to see if you trace the domain, and he mentioned that. So are you the owner of layeredtech.com?

Regardless, if you have like you say proof of 2,4TB usage in three days post it here... it's just a bunch of baloney. And you are, indeed, Mike. Same confused, feverish grammar and lies.

[bolonki]

Perhaps a moderator can check the IP addresses of the three identities.
This would work in case he did indeed use the same connection... but it could still be the same person using more than one connection. Myself today I used two connections, one at work, another one at home. So if the IPs turn out to be different, it doesn't mean they are two different people. And a proxy is very easy to pick and hide behind a proxy... just pick a proxy from another country and claim "we are not even from the same country".

[devianthoster]

1) it's not my job to stop anything I don't control his sites and what he does with it.
2) I'm a layered tech reseller I rented the server to mike whatvever happens beyone that isn't my doing.
3) all I care about is wether I get paid for my bill when it all comes down to it wether you feel you got ripped off or not well that's between you and mike
4) I didn't think my grammar was that bad. and proof...like i said not my problem you want proof take it up with mike but again don't be calling me a liar when I don't give 2 s**ts about what happens other then making sure my bill gets paid as I have to pay it to my host. so please leave your problems between you and him.

also if you need prrof you can contact me in pm as I'm not posting my email in here as I don't wish to offer anything in this forum.

[devianthoster]

oh and yeah my typing sucks what can I say.

[utcrazy]

"all I care about is wether I get paid for my bill" Wow, that's a great attitude! Good luck with that.

[Brandon]

Heh. Scam artist, thats what Mike is....
Check this:
http://layeredtech.com/order.php?packageId=105
For the 2600 server, he is limited to 1000gb bandwidth....and it costs $150 to upgrade to 1500...
I doubt layered tech would allow him to go over his limit...

[bolonki]

1) it's not my job to stop anything I don't control his sites and what he does with it.
2) I'm a layered tech reseller I rented the server to mike whatvever happens beyone that isn't my doing.
3) all I care about is wether I get paid for my bill when it all comes down to it wether you feel you got ripped off or not well that's between you and mike
4) I didn't think my grammar was that bad. and proof...like i said not my problem you want proof take it up with mike but again don't be calling me a liar when I don't give 2 s**ts about what happens other then making sure my bill gets paid as I have to pay it to my host. so please leave your problems between you and him.

also if you need prrof you can contact me in pm as I'm not posting my email in here as I don't wish to offer anything in this forum.
Another possibility: if you are a "layeredtech reseller" (I doubt it, this middleman between the company providing the server and the hosting company is baloney, why would anyone rent from you rather than layeredtech directly?) but if you are, then there's the possibility that you are scamming Mike, telling him that the server went through 2.4TB of bw in just three days. I don't think it's even technically possible :shame: , especially when the server was down at least 50% of the time, like you know, and that was over a weekend where traffic is low for everyone... and I repeat, I got 5 visitors per day, myself and three friends I emailed about the site. :P

[devianthoster]

server was down for like 3 hours at one point due to your sites eating the cpu......I don't actually know why he rented from me......and I gave mike my login to my client area so he could see the graphs for himeself .
also if you weren't so determined to accuse everyone of scamming everyone else.people might be more willing to help you such as I have a total backup of your sites.

[Jan]

Perhaps a moderator can check the IP addresses of the three identities.
Checked some time back ;)

[tz25.com]

Checked some time back ;)



And ??? Results???

[bolonki]

server was down for like 3 hours at one point due to your sites eating the cpu......I don't actually know why he rented from me......and I gave mike my login to my client area so he could see the graphs for himeself .
also if you weren't so determined to accuse everyone of scamming everyone else.people might be more willing to help you such as I have a total backup of your sites.
You have a total backup, good. Now, what am I supposed to do, beg? You know I have been wronged, and that kidnapping my backup and asking for ransom it's just adding to the injury. I have all communications with Mike, and not once he mentioned ANYTHING regarding bandwidth consumption by my site, not once. Then he suddenly cancels the account, hijacks the backups, and charges $2,400. That is after Mike promised he would let me download the backup, he even sent me some non-working username and password combination, I have every email to prove this. He knew the right thing was to return the files to the owner, myself. So if you are not Mike like you say and are on the right side, you would allow me to recover my files.

[bolonki]

I was looking for some posts by Mike on this forum to show that MilleniumHosting.net really did offered me unlimited bandwidth, and that he did indeed had the Platinum plan going for $42 with 80GB hard disk and unlimited bandwidth.

Mike did not post here advertising the Platinum plan I signed up for, because in this forum it is forbidden to post "unlimited" or "unmetered" bandwidth. But he did post on this forum this other plan (and as of this writing he has not edited the post), he offers 500GB bandwidth for $14,50 a month in a post dated October 11th:
the thread is here:
http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?t=77167&page=1&pp=15


Deluxe Plan
Disk space 25,000Mb/25Gb
Bandwith 500,000Mb/500Gb
Monthly Charge $14.50
Site Builder
24x7 support
Instant backups
No contract!
99.9% uptime guarantee Or We Will Credit You
30 day money back guarantee
Free / Instant setup
Domains Allowed Unlimited
Subdomains Unlimited
FTP Accounts Unlimited
MySQL Databases Unlimited

And you can see that this plan is no longer the same on the MilleniumHosting.net site, proving my assertion that he did indeed edited the bandwidth and prices of each of his plans, but he is still offering 500GB for $25 per month, check it out: http://www.milleniumhosting.net/modules.php??op=modload&name=ShopStop&&service=1

And it gets even worse, he still offers a get three months for the price of one:


For the month of October Millenium Hosting Is Offering this special. Pick a plan that you want and pay for your plan and you will recieve 2 months free thats right 2 months free. Pay for october and dont be billed until January. --Millenium Hosting
As you see in the quote above he still has a promotion on (he forgot to edit this part of his site, it's still right on the front page) for paying for just one month and you get two months free. This means for the example above, you would pay $14,50 and have three months of 500GB each (1,5TB for $14,50!) with generous hard disk and ram.

So if he is offering 500GB for $14,5o with two months free, you know I am telling you the truth that his $42,50 "Platinum" plan offered 80GB hard disk and unlimited bandwidth. He even had a footer at the bottom of the page on the Millenium Site saying "don't ever worry about running out of bandwidth, even if you have a free account, I will give you all you need, unlimited bandwidth. I want everyone to be very, very happy."

The above offer on the thread posted arose suspicion from Danny (username Scene Power), who asked Mike:


1/2 a standard server for $15/month? Thats impossible, explain how its done. Danny

I also asked Mike via email how come he could afford to do this. He said he owned the server, had it payed for, and could do whatever he wanted, even offering absolutely free hosting with unlimited bandwidth. He saw this as a way to promote his brand new hosting site, and said he would later charge newer clients more money.

So Mike answered, in the thread here on this forum in response to Danny/Scene Power question:


Im Not Overselling Im Not Out To Make It Rich I own My own servers so I dont have to pay anyone else so I can afford to sell cheap. --Mike

Read the above answer from Mike on this thread, in this forum:
http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/...67&page=1&pp=15

By the way, on this forum Mike writes that he owns his own server and doesn't have to pay anyone else, which is the opposite of what DeviantHoster has been saying here. Deviant says that Mike owes him money for the server... check out Mike's words right on this very forum:
http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?t=77167&page=1&pp=15

So I ask the members of this community forum to help me out here, I need to recover my files and move on after this awful experience. Now you all have read that Deviant says he has full backup of my account. Please weigh in and recommend him to allow me to download the backup. Help me out guys, I trusted Mike also in that he said he would do daily backups for free, so I did not keep my own backup. I did a lot of blog writing in those three days of hosting, and I really would like to get my files back.

[Tree]

Just as you are not legally obligated to pay him, he is not legally obligated to give you your files back.

Bottom Line: You messed up. Unless he will willingly give you your files back, just start over at another, reliable host.

[bolonki]

Bottom Line: You messed up.
How exactly did I "mess up"? I signed up for hosting, put up a blog and started writing... three days later, with absolutely no warning or indication of anything the account is cancelled and the big charge comes, despite express, written promises to the contrary.

[Tree]

You went with a company that offered outrageous resources. Not an extrememly smart move on your part. Although it is not your fault in the slightest, it could have been prevented.

How much space and bandwidth do you really need for a blog? People these days. Greedy, greedy, greedy.

[T^2]

I really think that this should be solved with more privacy. This argueing between the two parties involved in a public forum helps no one. As of now there has not been hard proof (screen shots of bandwidth usage and etc) by either one of the involved parties. So until either one of you is able to do that I suggest you settle this via private emails or phone calls.

After everything is sorted out, then maybe you can give everyone an over-view of your experience with this host.

[[A]nders]

I really think that this should be solved with more privacy. This argueing between the two parties involved in a public forum helps no one. As of now there has not been hard proof (screen shots of bandwidth usage and etc) by either one of the involved parties. So until either one of you is able to do that I suggest you settle this via private emails or phone calls.

After everything is sorted out, then maybe you can give everyone an over-view of your experience with this host.

good point computerhelpworld.

i think we should see some screenshots of bw usage...

[NetCafe]

All I can say is only a fool would believe that 500gb would cost so darn little.

"But he did post on this forum this other plan (and as of this writing he has not edited the post), he offers 500GB bandwidth for $14,50 a month in a post dated October 11th:"

[NetCafe]

devianthoster , as a bystander and party of no vested interested, I beg to differ on your claim of being "not your problem to provide". My take is that you are indirectly involved one way or another, especially if you are offering hosting too. This affects your reputation as an honest and reliable, not forgetting responsible host.

It is therefore in your own interest to set the record straight and clear things up. being host ourselves, we would have helped bo get his backup back and move on.

A simple gesture will go a long way towards your reputation and creditability and your claim of being "only the server owner".

My 2 cents.

[Robert]

I really think that this should be solved with more privacy. This argueing between the two parties involved in a public forum helps no one. As of now there has not been hard proof (screen shots of bandwidth usage and etc) by either one of the involved parties. So until either one of you is able to do that I suggest you settle this via private emails or phone calls.

After everything is sorted out, then maybe you can give everyone an over-view of your experience with this host.

It really doesn't matter if he consumed 1.2TB of bandwidth. The fact of the matter is, it's the host's responsbility to make sure that clients do not utilize more than their allocated bandwidth AND to make sure they have a proper terms of service and acceptable use policy that would cover them for overage bandwidth charges incurred by the client.

Since they do not have neither a quota system in place (or at least a working one) and they have no TOS or AUP, therefore, the client cannot be held liable for any charges outside of what was originally agreed upon.

The client may have used 1.2TB of bandwidth, but we do not know if the agreement really was for "unlimited bandwidth". How a host can allow a client to consume 1.2TB and not notice is beyond me.

This is a perfect example of two things:

1. Offers such as these that are 'too good to be true' are normally too good to be true and shouldn't be touched even with a 9 foot pole.

2. People who want to run a hosting company need to understand they are providing a service to people and must run their company like a real company and not like some street corner newspaper vendor who can just make up his prices and rules as he goes along.

[bolonki]

Some people assume that there was indeed some extreme BW usage, but I didn't see any unusual bandwidth usage when I had access to the CPanel account.

Two days ago I PMed this guy DeviantHoster who claims has proof of BW usage, but he hasn't responded so far, and I don't think he will -- because he is either the same scammer Mike Erwin or he is a close associate. For the record, www.milleniumhosting.net was not run by Mike Erwin alone, but with two other people. So they can be the ones supporting Mike Erwin (or whatever his real name is) on this and other threads by registering multiple handles.

Also, there is now another thread by another forum member who says he's been scammed by www.milleniumhosting.net

[A1Owner]

Site is down so everything now comes to an end

[HostingAxis]

Site is down so everything now comes to an end

It's back up again. :-|

[hottweelz]

As an additional note, I contacted MilleniumHosting.net, and personally spoke to Mike Erwin about is lack of copyright on his PHPNuke Installation...

He then banned me.

[mikeerwin]

I was told not to worry about the copyright for the phpnuke i explained what happend and they had me paste the code in the footer when that didnt work i was told not to worry about it and as far as banning you yes you were making just as much fun as river was

[Ninju]

I was told not to worry about the copyright for the phpnuke i explained what happend and they had me paste the code in the footer when that didnt work i was told not to worry about it and as far as banning you yes you were making just as much fun as river was
If I'm reading that correctly.. which I don't think I am, it's reading across 9 days.. not 3.. And... Isn't that a speed graph anyway?

[hottweelz]

I was told not to worry about the copyright for the phpnuke i explained what happend and they had me paste the code in the footer when that didnt work i was told not to worry about it and as far as banning you yes you were making just as much fun as river was

Who at PHPNuke told you not having the copyright was ok and "Not to worry about it?"

[mikeerwin]

Im not going to get into another heated discussion. If you want to turn me in go ahead
i did what was asked by putting the code into the footer of phpnuke it didnt work. So unless you are the programmer of phpnuke then dont worry about it. I did what i was asked.

[hottweelz]

Im not going to get into another heated discussion. If you want to turn me in go ahead
i did what was asked by putting the code into the footer of phpnuke it didnt work. So unless you are the programmer of phpnuke then dont worry about it. I did what i was asked.

Read this (quote from gnu/gpl license):
Quote:
c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

The point here is that as soon as php-nuke becomes an INTERACTIVE program, you MUST display an ANNOUNCEMENT including APPROPRIATE copyright notice. In this case APPROPRIATE is defined by author.

So removing or even changing copyrights of php-nuke is ILLEGAL (civilly).


And since you are a "Commercial Business" allbeit Sole Propreitor, Limited Partnership, Limited Liability Corporation, etc, etc, etc. The organization, could in theory sue you, as you earn revenue with their system without publicly making the notification of their assistance available.

[bolonki]

Im not going to get into another heated discussion. If you want to turn me in go ahead
i did what was asked by putting the code into the footer of phpnuke it didnt work. So unless you are the programmer of phpnuke then dont worry about it. I did what i was asked.
Hello Mike, good to see you back in the forums.

You had time to reflect by now; why don't you give me my files back? I trusted you, and you stung me in my good faith. Be honorable and return my files, it's a lot of writing in those files, just plain blog writing, that doesn't belong to you and you have no use for... why keep it? You can still rectifiy your karma and say "my name is Ed..."

Don't be needlessly mean. Return my files. You know I did nothing wrong other than trusting your promises.

[T^2]

I was told not to worry about the copyright for the phpnuke i explained what happend and they had me paste the code in the footer when that didnt work i was told not to worry about it and as far as banning you yes you were making just as much fun as river was

That graph you attached..it doesn't show any relevant information to this accusation/case.

[bolonki]

Folks, the graph that Mike Erwin posted begins in October 1st, and it's not true because my domain was bought October 12!

So you know that graph is phoney as hell, and it only shows transfer rate in mbps, not bandwidth usage...

But even if the graphic was true, the increase you see from October 13 to October 17th could never amount to 2400GB bandwidth usage like you claim Mike... and then again, if usage was bothering you, why didn't you say something? You didn't say anything, because it was an "unlimited bandwidth" plan Mike, that's why.

[T^2]

How about we just end this?

Bolonki: you got tricked yes. But you were also foolish to think that there was a thing as "unlimited bandwidth" hosting plan. DO SOME RESEARCH.

Mike: DEAL WITH THIS PRIVATELY! As stated before in this thread, there is no legal binding that says he has to pay you due to your poor website and no TOS.

[bolonki]

I agree that this should have been a private conversation... but I am using this forum as the only way I have to communicate with Mike Erwin because he does not reply to private messages or emails. And the thread also serves as warning to other people, both about MilleniumHosting.net and the pitfalls of new "hosts" that offer way more than they can deliver and are actually out to scam good faith individuals... btw, the other guy (if he is indeed another guy, which I doubt) devianthoster, has not replied to my PMs either...

[Tree]

Does Mike have your credit card number? Has he made any actual charges? If you answered no, then just ignore him and his "bills" or "invoices" or whatever you guys are calling them these days.

Although it is a sad reccommendation, ignore him. If he repeatadly calls your house or something, report harrassment. Easy as that.

[renob]

http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?p=632340#post632340

[James]

Perhaps better have not bumped this topic.

[renob]

Perhaps, time will tell.