When I first started this site, I was in the Peace Corps, had little money and needed to find a cheap web host and I found the cheapest, in more ways than one. I found 1dollarhosting.com owned by some company called Webcountry. At first it was alright. It was a little slow, but everything online in Samoa was slow. They did hoodwink me into paying a membership fee, but that was nominal compared to what I would pay if I had hosted my site at a real company. The problem for me started when I wanted to run Movable Type. I couldn't get it work on my site. The problem was that I didn't have a mySQL database. I could purchase one through Webcountry, but for a few bucks a month and that didn't make financial sense. So another volunteer (thank you, Paleni) allowed me to host my blog on his site. I just uploaded pictures and other media to mine. It was laborious. It was sluggish. But it worked.

When I got back to the States, I moved my site to a real full service host, Total Choice Hosting and cancelled my account at Webcountry, or so I thought. The other day, I look at my credit card bill online, and there's this charge for 12 bucks. 12 bucks isn't much. But I don't want to be charged for services I'm not using. Who would? It's a matter of principle.

I called them up.

They told me that I needed to cancel the service through a specific webpage on their site (which I have subsequently done) but didn't know about at the time, which I think is part of their shady customer service practices.

I explained the situation to the "customer service" rep. I asked for a refund. She said they couldn't do that. I told her that I was going to contest the charge with my credit card company. Then she threatened me. She said if I did that they, Webcountry, would tack a $150 charge on my account and send it to collections, at which point I asked to speak to her supervisor. When I got nowhere with him, I asked to speak with his supervisor, a man named William.

I explained the situation again. He threatened with charging me for storage overages, which I wasn't even aware of. I told him that was completely dishonest, all I wanted was a refund for the $12 for an account that I was clearly not using and for which there had been a misunderstanding about the nature of the cancellation process. He called me dishonest for storing more than 20 megabytes on their server, which was absurd. It was obvious I wasn't going to get anywhere with him, so I hung up.

When I came home, I looked online and it didn't take me long to find a message board with complaints about Web Country. They have an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau. What a joke.

Here's what the BBB has to say about this piece of shit company:

Some complainants allege false advertising regarding the advertised price of $1 a year for web hosting services, claiming the actual cost is $62. Other customers complain they experience problems with downtime, rude or argumentive technical support representatives, and failure to honor their money back guarantee. Some customers complain that the money back guarantee is useless as fees for services are comprised of several individually non-refundable amounts. Reportedly, only about $12 of the money paid for services is actually refundable. Many customers complain their sites are never activated, and they opt to cancel for lack of response. In these cases, customers disputed credit card charges or put stop payments on checks. Sometimes months later, they receive collection notices billing them for services which were never activated or used.

The company responds to some complaints by disputing allegations, refusing refunds, issuing partial refunds, or offering explanations for their actions. Several complaints are closed as unresolved, meaning the customers are not satisfied with the company's response.

That's a report to be proud of.

Sure enough, this policy of threatening the $150 "Administrative fee" and collections is written into their Terms and Conditions:

18. Refund and Disputes:

All payments to 1DollarHosting.com are non refundable (except those covered by our 30 Money back guarantee- see item 19). This includes setup fee's, membership fees and subsequent charges regardless of usage. All overcharges or billing disputes must be reported within 45 days of the time the dispute occurred. If you dispute a charge to your credit card issuer that, in 1DollarHosting.com's sole discretion is a valid charge you agree to pay 1DollarHosting.com an "Administrative Fee" of $150. 1DollarHosting.com will use Collection agencies and report to the major credit bureaus if required.

I'm no lawyer, but that doesn't seem legal to me. Lawyers? Any idea?

Anyway, the question is, what to do? I could contest the charge with Visa and deal with the consequences of fighting Webcountry or I can just pay the 12 bucks and walk away. In the past, it wouldn't have been a question. I'd have fought them tooth and nail and if they wanted to me to collections and fuck up my credit, I'd sue them, but now, it just doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble. I should just suck it up and file it away under lessons learned, which is exactly what they want me to and how disreputable companies like Webcountry make money. It's really disgusting.