Hosting Scams

Well, I have had an interesting and aggravating week, due to a site that is now on my scam list, as well as a weeks worth of thunder and lightning which forces me to stay offline. I was going to place this in Authors Ramblings, but I think this deserves a section all its own.

The owner of this site owns both http://www.boomspeed.com/ and http://www.picbuddy.com/ and is also an ebay seller. Boomspeed and PicBuddy are image hosting services for the most part.

I had been with Boomspeed for about 5 years, and the service was always free. Altho I had been planning to purchase server space on a real server, at the time I had a great number of webpages and splash pages hosted here. Without warning, I tried to log in in early January, only to find out that my account had been locked, and if I wanted to access my files I had to pay them $25 for the next 6 months use, and the TOS states that I will be billed every 3 months thereafter at $18 per 3 months.

Against my better judgement, I paid them the $25 from my debit card, even tho the hosting I actually sell myself was only $36 a year for unlimited service hosting of several websites. I also wrote them around April, informing them, according to thier TOS, that I no longer wished to continue the service and to cancel the account, but never recieved a response.

On June 4th, I found a charge from Boomspeed on my statement for the $18, and once again contacted them according to thier TOS, with no response. On June 29th, they charged my card again for another $18 which I did not notice till the next statement arrived on July 20th, I again emailed them with no response. On Monday, July 23rd, I went to the bank and cancelled my card.

Today, Monday July 30th, I recieved an insufficient funds charge of $35, for another $25 charge on the same card I just cancelled.I am told that they had apparantly already placed a hold on my account for that money when I cancelled it, unaware to me, and the very next day on the 24th, that $25 and another $35 because they sent my account to the negative, was raken from my account. I now owe the bank $45.

I of course quickly transfered money from my main account to this one that I use only for the internet, and the bank manager gave me a phone number to call that was supposed to be Boomspeed customer service, but the only thing you get when you call that number is a message instructing you to contact the same non responding email support address I have been writing for almost 6 months now.

Anyhow, I did just a little searching and found out I am not the only one. I also read some comments that state this is a rather common problem with image hosting services. Below please find posts from the ebay forums and blogs that show others are having the exact same problem. Also take note that the very last post has also had the exact same experience as I have in the last 2 months also.

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boughtitxsoldit ( 1669) Visit Seller's Store11 commentsBOOMSPEED photo hosting don’t use them, thievesPosted Jan-19-07 22:29:44 PSTI tried there service and found I personally did not like there site setup so I wanted out before the free 30 day trial period was up and found out that there is no link or button to delete an account. I tried emailing with no response, I tried calling with only a recorded message to go online and email them with still no response. I ended up getting charged their fee when I had no photos on there website. Before I could get a dispute going on my credit card they charged me again. I received a refund on the 8th and then they charged me again on the 18th not once but twice. I ended up having to cancel my credit card so now I am stuck without a new card for one to two weeks. So the final result I want to let anybody know is if you want to use BOOMSPEED for photo hosting, don’t do it unless you want to be with them for life with no help or communication from them at all.

Comments

Back to topftwwarnerve ( 102) View seller's items View BlogI also have Boomspeed and have been paying for it for nearly two years- they DO NOT answer emails about cancelling your account- there is NOTHING on the boomspeed website saying how to (you have to dig to find it, and even then, nothing happens)... I'm at the point where I'm going to report them to my credit card company and demand they pay me back for the past 8 months that they have charged me for using their site. FYI- last time I logged on was 9 months ago and it was to delete the account.
If I cannot get a refund, and they continue to charge me, I will hunt them down and sue the pants off of them for credit card theft and anything else I can pin on them. This is RIDICULOUS.
DO NOT USE BOOMSPEED- EVER!!!
Mar-02-07 14:06:21 PST Report this comment
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Boomspeed is ripping me off

rockiezz (1157 ) View Listings Report Jul-24-07 06:12 PDT Hello, Has anybody else noticed that Boomspeed is ripping them off? In the last two month Boomspeed has charged my account 3 times $18, $18, & $25 and I can not seam to get in touch with them. Has anyone else been able to get in touch with them if so please let me know how. Thanks in advance, John

vicsvues (833 ) View Listings Report Jul-27-07 15:07 PDT 3 of 4 Hi, I cancelled Boomspeed 4 years ago and see they are charging me again. How did you get in touch with greg?

letez (38 ) View Listings Report Jul-30-07 05:21 PDT 4 of 4 Yes, I was charged $18 on 6/28/07 and then $25 on 7/23/07. Please tell me how to contact Greg as well. I have sent 3 emails to their so called support and haven't received even an acknowledgement of my concern.
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If any of you reading this has been ripped off by this service, or has any other comments, please leave your comments here. I encourage it. I will also be posting this alert on my other blogs, and websites.

Sincerely,Cat