I’d change hosting providers, but I’ve already paid for a few years hosting already. This is an alert to anyone hosted by Globat–they are doing it again. Here’s the email they sent out to everyone.
Dear Joe,
On Monday of this week, we sent you an e-mail with our new GloVault(tm) product upgrade offer that also included 3 free months of Web hosting and a price-freeze guarantee all for just $49.95. There is nothing you have to do to participate in this upgrade. It is all being done automatically! You will receive notification when you can use the wonderful new features of GloVault and your account on file is charged the one-time $49.95 upgrade fee.
If, by any chance, you have decided NOT to take advantage of this upgrade offer and the 3 free months of Web hosting, please click on the link below before midnight on August 16, 2007:
https://www.globat.com/optout_gv.php?52922.f3d3f73345
(If link does not work, please copy and paste the entire link into your browser.)
Thank you again for being a loyal customer.
Best regards,
Lou Rio
Vice President of Operations
Globat.com
(877) 245-6228 for US Customers
(323) 874-9000 for International Customers
(Emphasis added)
Yes, if you don’t do anything, they will automatically charge your account for this upgrade. I fell for it a while back because I habitually ignored emails from Globat. They spam you all the time. Then one day I found some money missing from my account and spent a good bit of time tracking down who did it.
I have heard of people putting together a class action lawsuit against them for these tactics. They are notorious for doing this. I am placing the alert out there to tell any Globat customers to check their email, in case they’ve assumed it was more spam. I have written them, saying that I no longer want to receive emails like this. They wrote back, apologized, and promised to no longer send me automatic upgrade offers.
Their memories are short. Mine isn’t.
FWIW, I’ve been happy with Site5. They are rarely down, and customer service responds quickly to any questions. I’ve been with them almost two years.
EFL Geek has an affiliate link, if you’re interested in switching to them.
I may just do that, but I’m waiting for my hosting time with Globat to run out first.
They don’t do refunds? When I moved from Powweb (definitely not recommended) to Site5, Powweb at least gave me a refund.
Just something to think about should they tick you off one last time.
They charge me last year. before i know it. and then i close the account even they did not refund the balance of my payment. But this year. They charge me again and the customer service people is very rude.
they are just stealing peoples money and refuse to return
Can anyone let me know the class lawsuit situation., I will join!
this busines should be closed.
The Globat billing practices border on theft or sometimes clearly and simply are theft. E.g. they used to send me emails saying that if I do not opt out of an upgrade, they would simply upgrade my account, and off course they would upgrade the bill accordingly.
I just discovered that they have been charging my credit card for an account that has been closed for ages and that they have added several upgrades to this account. The weird thing is that they are doing this on a credit card that did not even exist at the time I was a client with them.