I just had an amazingly bad experience trying to sign up with The Planet. Ultimately I went with another hosting company instead.
To make a long story short, as a non-U.S. user they asked me to fax a photocopy of my credit card and passport to verify my identity. They then lost the fax (I have a fax confirmation receipt from their machine). So now my highly sensitive personal data is floating somewhere around their office. I asked them to look into it, try to check their fax logs, whatever -- no response.
How ironic that they requested this supposedly for fraud protection, and now I am the one who has to worry about fraud with my personal data misplaced, lost or stolen from The Planet's fax machine.
Instead we went with Net Access Corp (great customer support, much easier process for non-U.S. customers). I told The Planet to cancel my order and offered to take the time to tell them what went wrong so they could learn from my experience. They said oh yes, please tell us.
So I wrote them a long note explaining what happened. And in response I receive this message from Eric W. Clark, their senior accounts manager:
"The order that you had placed in the system has been cancelled. There will not be any new orders accepted given the high fraud rate score your order generated all based upon your information and inconsistencies therein.
We wish you well in your hosting endeavors but again we cannot accept the order as it was placed. There is no further information or details to be given regarding this order and we will not respond further."
"All based upon your information and inconsistencies therein??" I thought they said they lost my fax. And glad I could help you, buddy, with the free advice. Your appreciation is heartwarming. Think nothing of it.
Clowns.
Evan Rudowski
London, UK (apparently fraud capital of the world)
Linear Mode
