HallOfShame

Hall of Shame

Welcome!

This is a little something new for our website. It's called the Hall of Shame. Companies with bad service, bad products, or unpleasant representatives will be listed here to save you, the consumer, the trouble that WE had with them.

Inaugural listing: DTC Communications (http://dtccom.com/)

• These bozos ordered lots of quality control software from us. We shipped it out the same day. (It would have actually gone out the subsequent day but... oh well that's not important to the story). After a month of no phonecalls, E-mails, complaints, or contact from them, we'd assumed (rightfully, in my opinion) that there was no issue with the order. Then, one month later, they had their credit card company issue a chargeback stating they "hadn't received the item".

• Deciding to get to the heart of the matter first and foremost, I called up our happy little mouth-breathing customer, and asked what the problem was. I was informed that the "guys who had him order it never received it." Upon my reply of "Oh! Well, that's easy enough to fix. I can send you a replacement if you like. Or a refund." "No, they don't want it any more". End of conversation. I wish I'd thought to ask why none of them thought to contact us and ask about it, but I seriously doubt the answer would have done much good.

• Now, friends and neighbours, giving them the benefit of the doubt, they're still a pain in the tail verging on hemmorhoidal because a chargeback (unlike a refund, or replacement - which we would have happily issued either of) has to be settled through the merchant services company (in this case PayPal).

• So, now I've been working with PayPal for two weeks trying to make sure these bozos get their money.

• Remember - the product they were buying was quality control software, so I'm assuming that, at the moment, they're not using any kind of quality control system for their production lines, but rather doing it the old way with a pad and pencil. Hurray. Nothing like a good quality security system.

• Bear in mind, during the entire process, I'm not even sure they DIDN'T get the software. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. If you ever do business with these people (which I REALLY don't recommend - we can put you in touch with much better security companies. Ones with friendly representatives), and they say their quality control system features AnStat, feel free to drop us here at Weber Consulting a line and let us know. It'd be really handy info.

• Followup: The chargeback actually cost US a processing fee. Ahh, well, cost of doing business. Stay away from these turkeys.

Liberty Names of America / Domain Registry of America / Other domain hijackers

Well, you can't blame them for trying - oh wait; yes you can.

When one of my clients falls for this horse excrement, it's a nightmare trying to get posession of their domain back under their real registrar.

They basically send an "invoice" stating that it's time to renew your domain registration, usually at a 500% to 1500% markup of what any honest company would charge. ($8.00 a year is about the maximum you should EVER pay for registering a domain name alone, not counting hosting charges, which should be an additional $20 to $50 per YEAR. NOT MONTH.)

Then, when you try, two weeks later to reclaim your domain and put it back under your old registrar, it's a huge pain in the tail, and to top it off, you've lost your money to them (it's non-refundable).

Luckily, I've come up with a solution. Google images is a wonderful tool, which you can use to find all sorts of images useful for conveying your feelings to them.

Instead of the "invoice" and payment/credit card info they've tried to trick you into sending, you could send, oh, a little old lady giving the "bird", or go with a metaphoric representation of your view of them - a horse's presented posterior, or a photo of Richard M. Nixon. Let your imagination and aggravation guide you.

They've recently stopped sending prepaid envelopes, but I guarantee if they get a few thousand photographic representations of our ire, they'll tone down the schtick. It'll be well worth the stamp.

Or, send them the annoying stuff local advertisers leave on your door - exterminators' pamphlets, the Watchtower, the Door Store.

Separate thought - If you're legally savvy, and are sure you can cover all your bases in the construction and compilation (and you're not afraid of litigation or prison), send them a "Sign up" sheet crafted to look like an invoice billing them for your evaluation of any future pamphlets they may send you. State that you're not CURRENTLY their independent review service, but if they pay you $600 per pamphlet they send you, you'll call and alert them if you spot anything that makes their "invoices" look unattractive. Be sure you include a clause obligating them to send you at least 20 more "invoice" signup sheets. At $600 each. Put it in microprint on the bottom of the back of the page.

(For the dismaying multitude of people on the net who can't differentiate between humor and literal suggestion, the preceding paragraph was a joke - do not do this. However, do feel free* to send them pictures of a monkey throwing poo, and the like. I'm pretty sure that's only a misdemeanor, if they catch you. Plus, if it's your first offense, you might get out of doing any prison time).

(* Don't do this, either)

Seriously, despite the humorous tone I've taken, these people should be ashamed of themselves, and if you see anything in your mailbox asking you to renew your domain, it should be IMMEDIATELY suspect.

Your REAL registrar WON'T mail you anything. Why? BECAUSE THEY ALREADY HAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS.

Domain Registry of America? Liberty Names of America? All of you pseudo-patriotic scam artists out there? You should be ashamed of yourselves.

As a final note, I'll mention that I've registered a LOT of domain names on behalf of clients who don't want to deal with it. I give them the login, and ftp server info and such, should they ever need it, but all the renewal and tech info comes to me. AND SO DO THESE STUPID SCAM INVOICES!

I get TONS of them, and I want these yahoos (no offense to Yahoo! Inc.) to stop.

It's people like this who write spyware for profit. It's people like this who used to sell "X-ray" specs to kids in magazines. It's people like this who suck the joy out of the internet and replace it with trepidation and fear and I feel that, to put it in the most eloquent terms that these people merit, they should go "sit on it." And also perhaps "rotate."