GISOL fraudulent theft ripoff dishonest billing credit Los Angeles California

My problems with GISOL began a year after I first registered an account with them, on the advice of a professional web designer.

At the time of my domain renewal, I used their online system to re-register my domain and was subsequently charged not once but THREE TIMES to register, even though I had to call their support line to confirm the renewal had gone through at all, because their barely functional website had timed out. Rather than fight this, as I had expected to retain the domain for some time and was told it was unlikely that I would be issued a refund, I let it slide.

Their control panel had been in a state of disrepair for some time, and when it came time for my hosting renewal, they neglected to send an invoice and simply re-charged the debit card I had used the year prior to register the account.

Not knowing that this would happen, as I had been told I would receive an emailed invoice to approve before it was charged, the unexpected fee of more than a hundred dollars put my bank account into the negative; the bank was of little help, as GISOL insisted the charges had been authorized via a previous user agreement that I was unable to access and review on their broken control panel.

Again I was told there was little chance of a refund, and even if it would be approved, it would take a period of several months to process, so again I (rather stupidly) let it slide.

The following year of service was terrible. My website would disappear for long periods and when I would call technical support, they would offer little or no explanation for the outages, only that it would be back online soon. Sure enough, within hours of the call, the website would reappear, but would continually go offline for undetermined lengths of time, and I would be forced to repeat the process.

Also, FTP access would stop for days at a time, again with explanation as to why this was happening. Throughout this time period, the Control Panel remained outdated with updates dated months or even years prior to the current date and would occasionally be completely inaccessible, with no explanation as to why this would occur.

Technical support was absolutely useless. I would have to explain the problem several times over to at least two people before anyone would understand what I was talking about, and even then they would offer no explanation, only assure that it would be fixed soon. The supposed 24-hour line would at times just ring and ring without an answer not even a holding message.

When it came time to renew the hosting service again, I opted not to. However, it was my intention to retain my domain name, which is paid up through October of 2007, and move it to my new host. I consulted with GISOL own online technical chat as to how to cancel my account and retain my domain name, and followed the instructions exactly.

This resulted in threatening emails stating that I had needed to cancel my account months prior to its expiration and, as I had not, I was liable for another year's service meaning that I was expected to pay for another year of webhosting I had no intention of using. Upon refusing, I received email messages threatening collection action.

On top of all this, GISOL was and currently is holding my domain name hostage. They are illegally withholding the information necessary for me to transfer my PAID domain to my new hosting account elsewhere. Repeated attempts to garner the necessary information have only been met with demands for payment, if not entirely ignored. They did not respond to the complaint I filed with the Better Business Bureau. They have even, to date, removed my contact info from the WhoIs information for what is my rightfully owned domain name (so-lost.net).

This is a fraudulent company that resorts to scare tactics to squeeze more money out of customers and former customers. They provide sub-par service and have engaged in what I consider to be the theft of my property the domain name.

Amanda
Des Plaines, Illinois
U.S.A.