The Fun Never Ends.

Last week, I signed up our sci-fi organization for web space at iPower. On Friday I investigated having the .NET domain we had point to the .ORG webspace as well. I was confused by the pricing structure and used the online chat to talk to someone at support. We danced around it because it didn't seem like he was sure what I wasking but he eventually said that it would cost $10.

Today, however, I learned that I had been charged $45.40. A $10 set up charge and a $2.95/month for 12 months charge for. . . something. I wasn't sure what.

I immediately got back on to the online chat and was told that the pricing structure had changed. I asked if that had happened between my request for additional service and the processing of my request and he indicated yes. He wasn't able to adequitely answer what the $3/month was for and referred me to the Additional Services department.

I called that phone number, got some running around and more insufficent answers and eventually got someone in Sales who explained that a redirect costs additional bandwidth for which there needed to be an additional charge to "deter" people from over using this service. I still wasn’t convinced but he was, at least, able to provide me alternative courses of action. One was to move my domain registry to iPower, whereupon the domain pointer redirect would be free. Second was to contact my registrar in that perhaps they could manage the redirect. In either case, he said that he would refund all of my money and cancel the redirect if I chose. He also made much of iPower’s high reputation and that it was not in their interest to jerk customers around over $10.

I contacted Network Solutions and was able to set up the forwarding for a $12/year charge.

I called iPower again to take the sales guy up on his offer to cancel the redirect and refund all of my money and was told that it was not possible. I asked for a supervisor and told that she was off the floor, apparently going over to the Sales department
to chide the sales guy for having offered me a refund.

When I finally got ahold of the manager, I was unable to convince her to agree to the terms that Sales had. Her manager was out of town. That person's manager, the CEO, was out of town. This struck me as a typical attempt to stifle the discussion so I confirmed names and the business address.

I've sent a letter to the company CEO. When someone tells me a service will cost me $10, I expect that it will cost $10. When someone tells me I will be refunded for a service who’s cost I was misled about then I expect to receive that refund. When a website says, "We make sure you’re satisfied, or your money back", I expect
that they will at the very least make an effort to resolve my problem.