09 Apr 08 Group complaint of gisol

We all share same goal.. to get our money back. Unfortunately individuals are quite weak against companies. To gain more effect (hopefully) we shold join. Together we have more evidence, more names = better effect. I’m collecting contacts for filing group complaint to several authorities, and wish every one, who has evidence of illegal billing, to send me your contact information to give authorities when asked. all information are kept confident and are given to authorities only when asked. We will not give your contacts to any other third party, or use these contacts to spam you.

You may send your contacts to our email adw[at]cimonet[dot]net . This mailbox is spambox, which will be filtered with ‘group-comp2008′ , (i know this email will be picked by spammers) so make sure you have that on subject line.

I must agree that gisol have truly unique customerservice at refunds department. I have never ever got this kind of service: ‘would you be more pi**t off if i hang up on you’ (after 1,5 hours on hold). Way to go GISOL

09 Apr 08 Gisol Complaint: FTC Response

The following is the response I recieved from the FTC after using the FBI IC3 complaint system. Although it looks like an automated reply, if enough people complain, they may take notice.

Thank you for contacting the Federal Trade Commission. We entered the information you provided into our shared law enforcement data base. We share this data base with Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies. Attached is your electronic response, which includes your reference number. Any enclosures can be found at www.ftc.gov under Consumer Protection and Consumer Information section.
Information from consumers like you helps Federal, State and Local authorities investigate possible illegal practices and enforce our laws. Someone from the Federal Trade Commission or another law enforcement agency may contact you if they need additional information to help them in an investigation.
Please visit the FTC’s web page, www.ftc.gov, to get free information to help you avoid costly consumer problems.

Dear MIKE:

Thank you for recent correspondence. The Federal Trade Commission acts in the public interest to stop business practices that violate the laws it enforces. Letters from consumers and businesses are very important to the work of the Commission. They are often the first indication of a problem in the marketplace and may provide the initial evidence to begin an investigation. The Commission does not resolve individual complaints. The Commission can, however, act when it sees a pattern of possible violations developing.

The information you have provided will be recorded in our complaint retention system. This computerized system enables us to identify questionable business practices that are generating numerous complaints and may be in violation of the law.

Thank you for providing information that may be used to develop or support Commission enforcement initiatives.

Sincerely yours,

Consumer Response Center

08 Apr 08 Complaint filed with LADA, Bureau of Special Operations, Consumer Protection Division

I lost $71.40 to GISOL when they billed my PayPal account to “renew” my subscription for another year while allowing my domain to expire on the same day. Luckily, they couldn’t take any more of my money because only that amount was authorized for automatic payment through PayPal.

Though my out of pocket loss was small, the greater loss is that my domain name is now toast. I’ve had to register my site under a similar name but with a different extension which means that my present customers can’t find me under the old domain name, other sites referral links to my site are now broken and my sites search position is forfeit.

I am angry for what GISOL did to me, for the harm done to others and for what GISOL will continue to do in the future if it is not stopped. I cannot accept that a company can break the law with such impunity in this country.

So far I have filed complaints against GISOL with the BBB, Attorney General of California, the Internet Crime Complaint Center, High Technology Crime Division of the LA District Attorney and most recently to the LA District Attorney, Bureau of Special Operations, Consumer Protection Division.

I encourage all others that have been ripped off by GISOL to also file complaints. GISOL must be stopped!

08 Apr 08 I got screwed by Gisol too

I just got screwed by them too. $1,800 worth. I’m furious!

I signed up for a site with my AmEx card — they called to say they’re not accepting AmEx anymore and would I like to put it on another credit card. I said yes. Then he said because I’m registering a business, he had to put me on a business account but instead of $5.95/mo it would be even cheaper, $3.47/mo, around $42/year. I said great. He said to check my e-mail in ten minutes. I did to find a charge of $1798.

And I was recommended gisol by a friend who said he’s had a site through them for five years!!! Have they overtaken a previously viable business?

07 Apr 08 Web complaint registered with Internet Crime Complaint Center

Thank you for filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Your complaint has been successfully submitted.

The IC3’s mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 aims to give the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism.

________________________

April 7, 2008

Internet Crime Complaint Center

Dear Sir/Ms

I am a victim of an internet crime perpetrated by Global Internet Solutions (GISOL). According to GISOL’s website, GISOL’s postal address is:

GISOL, Inc.

7336 Santa Monica Blvd.

Suite #30

Los Angeles, CA 90046

GISOL had been hosting my website for a couple of years. Since availability of the site seemed OK, I never asked for support so I was not aware of any problems until March 25, 2008 when my site suddenly became unavailable.

I contacted GISOL tech support the same day via their website’s support ticket feature and was told that “Your domain is expired its in a redemption period you need to wait till the redemption period gets over …and also you need to e-mail this issue to admin[at]gisol[dot]com”.

I checked my records and found that GISOL had accepted a PayPal subscription payment for $71.40 on February 8, 2008 for an additional year of web hosting. However, GISOL neglected to advise me that GISOL had allowed my site’s domain name to expire on the same day.

I also found that my domain was registered to GISOL, not in my name as I was formely led to believe when I signed up for their service. As a result, GISOL has a lock on my domain name so I cannot simply move my site to another host and GISOL is completely unresponsive to my requests for assistance.

I have sent numerous emails to GISOL admin with no response. I have called all the phone numbers on their website plus others that I found on the web but the numbers are either disconnected, never answered or connect me to an outsourced technical support representative that claims to know nothing. I have generated additional tech support tickets only to receive the same advice to wait for GISOL admin to get back to me.

The BBB gives GISOL an F rating per the following review: “Complaints allege unauthorized credit card charges, dissatisfaction with services, and difficulty implementing cancellation and refund policies. Most complainants are unsatisfied with the company’s response and most complaints go unanswered.”

Most of the complaints against GISOL go far beyond dissatisfaction with their services. In my case it is my contention that GISOL committed fraud by accepting payment to host my website even though they had allowed my domain to expire thereby making their offer an empty promise.

I guess I am lucky as many other GISOL customers (there are literally hundreds of similar reports on the web) have been defrauded of thousands of dollars – a thinly disguised but calculated scheme to extort money from customers with “valuable” domain names to insure that GISOL keeps them current. Others. (like myself) without a valuable domain name (and protected by PayPal) are simply defrauded for the renewal fee and then dispatched with the expectation that we will go away to make room for more lucrative “customers”.

It is depressing to learn that Global Internet Solutions has been committing such fraud on unwary consumers for several years. While my immediate monetary losses are relatively small, I have spent hours attempting to contact GISOL. Later, when I finally realized that my attempts were futile and that my domain name was not going to be restored, I was forced to register my site under a different domain name and move it to a new host which cost me additional losses. However, my out of pocket losses pale compared to the goodwill losses suffered because my customers can no longer reach me under my old domain name and my former search position has been forfeited.

If you need additional evidence I strongly advise you to simply search the internet for “GISOL”. You will be surprised at the number of complaints that this search term reveals and the extent of GISOL’s fraudulent conduct.

07 Apr 08 Global Internet Solutions Not a WebAward winner

Continuing the See if you can find Gisol’s “Awards” theme, I came across this post on the Webmarketing Association’s WebAward Blog.

It adds weight to the fact that Gisol are less than honest:

Global Internet Solutions Not a WebAward winner

We want to warn the online community that Global Internet Solutions claims “Global Internet Solutions has won the award from the prestigious Webawards competition”. This is in fact not true. They have never received any awards from the Web Marketing Association.

We have received several complaints regarding Global Internet Solutions and it is apparent from their unethical and illegal use of our logo on their Web site that anyone considering purchasing their services should be warned.

We will continue to pursue legal means to insure only Web sites that have legitimate won a WebAward are able to display the logo on their site.

Follow up note: A day after this posting appeared, our logo along with several others was removed from the site.

Posted by Catherine G on March 6, 2006 02:56 PM

05 Apr 08 What to do if your domain is in grace or redemption period

If you have found this page by searching about domain problems, ignore all references to Gisol. This post is to help victims of a webhosting company called gisol.com or Global Internet Solutions, but the information below will still be helpful to you.

One of Gisol’s tactics is to make sure that your domain is not renewed. You usually don’t know anything about it until your website disappears.

When this happens, it will be in the redemption period, and they will probably get you to sign up for a new contract, quote you a small renewal fee, then charge as much as they can to your card. Gisol will usually be the registrant of the domain, not you. 99 times out of a 100, you will not see anything for that money, as they will not pay the redemption fee. Your domain will stay as it was.

You can check what status your domain name is in by searching at DomainTools.

• The grace period should start immediately after your domain expires. It lasts for 30 days. You have access to your website and emails during this time. During this period, if you are the domain registrant, you can pay the normal renewal fee to the registrar.

• The redemption period is a 30 day period, starting after the grace period. During this time, you have not got access to your website or emails. You can get it back by paying your registrar an ICANN fee of $99.95 plus your normal renewal fee. Again, this is if you are the registrant. Gisol may want to charge a lot more than this.

• PendingDelete is usually 5 days long and starts after the redemption period. In these 5 days, nobody has access to the domain, not even the registrar, and there is no way of stopping it being deleted.

• Usually, you will be able to re-register your domain name in the normal way on the 65th day after it expired. (Don’t register it through Gisol! Like you was going to. LOL)

You can check with the registrar of your domain as to when it will enter PendingDelete status. Allindomains (now www.dotster.com) was the registrar of my domain that Gisol registered in their name. I gave them a call, and after I explained the situation they gave me the info – they were fine with me. They apparently don’t like Gisol and have refused to do business with them. (What a surprise!) The lady on the phone said it was something to do with the amount of unhappy Gisol customers they had phoning them. (Another surprise!)

• When the pending delete period is over (ie it has been deleted), your domain becomes available for anyone to buy. Unfortunately, there a lot of people/companies (domainers or cybersquatters) out there that register domains as soon as they are deleted. They either hold it for advertising, or if it is a valuable name they will try to sell on for a profit.

• Here’s your problem…. You may lose out to one of these companies.

Fortunately, there are things you can do.

• You can register your interest in a “backorder” service before deletion. They try to snap up the domain as soon as it is available, on your behalf. Beware though, as some just send them straight to auction. Prices range from $50 to $100. If it goes to auction, usually you can enter a maximum bid. (Like ebay)

• GoDaddy’s backorder service is useful, although it isn’t quite so good at snapping up the domain immediately after delete. If an advertiser (cybersquatter) gets it, they may get rid of it after a few days (domain tasting) if it doesn’t get any traffic. GoDaddy will keep trying to get it and may do after a few days. This service costs $18.99, but you have to pay upfront. You can use it again if they don’t get your name. They are not as good at getting it straight after deletion, but they do keep trying.

You can contact me for further details of recommended backorder services by using my Contact page, or leaving a detailed comment below.

Good Luck!

04 Apr 08 See if you can find Gisol’s “Awards”

02 Apr 08 Ripped off out of $600 by Gisol

Here is the letter I sent to the LA District Attorney’s Office. I saw another poster on here who had sent one, and I used their first line as it seemed appropriate.

Hello. I am a victim of a high technology crime perpetrated by Global Internet Solutions (GISOL). According to GISOL’s website, GISOL’s postal address is:

GISOL, Inc.
7336 Santa Monica Blvd.
Suite #30
Los Angeles, CA 90046

I signed up for service with them a few days ago, on March 29, 2008. I had called them that afternoon and spoke to an Indian gentleman who answered all my questions about their services. It seemed like a legit company. The service I signed up for was unlimited web hosting at $7.95 per month, with no setup fees. I signed up for 12 months of service, pre-paid. This would be $95.40. I signed a document online for what I believed to be stating what I was to owe. The website showed that I was to pay $95.40. I was sent a confirmation email which is attached stating I would receive my account info in 24 hours. If I did not, to email sales[at]gisol[dot]com and I would get my details. I did not get a call but figured they might be a little behind. Fair enough. The next email I received was yesterday, 4/1/08 that said my account would be charge $718.20. I immediately called GISOL. I was on hold for 30 minutes. I called back and spoke to someone who told me to email them. When I told them I already did, he said he needed to transfer the call. I was on hold for 15 minutes when I ended my call. I tried calling back 4 times but could not ever get a hold of anyone. I emailed the above address asking what was going on (email attached). On my way home from work this morning (4/2/08) I called them at 3:30am. The person who I spoke to was finally able to find out I had an account with them and provided me a password to get online. He could not help me with my billing issues and told me to email admin[at]gisol[dot]com. (email attached) When I got home I used their online tech support and spoke to “Neo”. He said to email admin[at]gisol[dot]com and that he couldn’t help me further. I once again called their hotline number. (866-244-7925) I pressed 2 for billing. I told them my issue, and the response was, “you need to contact our billing department”. I said, I pressed 2, this is the billing department. He said hold on, I’ll transfer you. I waited 10 minutes and no one ever answered. I called back and someone else answered. Finally when I continued to complain he told me to contact their phone support billing and provided me with a Los Angeles telephone number. 323-924-1109 I tried calling at 8am this morning…no one ever answered. (5am PST) I have called them all day…no answer. I also found two other numbers that are listed for them (323-852-9059) and (323-924-5915) to which no one answered. At 8amEST this morning, I contacted my bank to let them know as soon as I was charged for the amount, I wanted to dispute it. I have done everything I can to try and resolve this issue with no avail. I have also submitted a complaint with the BBB of Los Angeles but have no received my copy of this complaint as of yet.

Please help the victims of this company by shutting this place down. Please file a lawsuit via the state for the victims of this company that never got a refund.

01 Apr 08 Copy of email to LA District Attorney regarding Gisol

Below is a copy of an email that I sent to the LA District Attorney regarding GISOL.

Head Deputy
High Technology Crime Division
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
201 N. Figueroa Street, Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA. 90012

Dear Sir

I am a victim of a high technology crime perpetrated by Global Internet Solutions (GISOL). According to GISOL’s website, GISOL’s postal address is:

GISOL, Inc.
7336 Santa Monica Blvd.
Suite #30
Los Angeles, CA 90046

GISOL has been hosting my website for a couple of years. Since availability of the site seemed OK, I never asked for support so I was not aware of any problems until March 25, 2008 when my site suddenly became unavailable.

I contacted GISOL tech support the same day via their website’s support ticket feature and was told that “Your domain is expired its in a redemption period you need to wait till the redemption period gets over …and also you need to e-mail this issue to admin[at]gisol[dot]com“.

I checked my records and found that I had authorized a payment of $71.40 on February 8, 2008 to GISOL for an additional year of web hosting but a search of the web revealed that GISOL had allowed my domain to expire on February 2, 2008.

I also found that my domain is registered to GISOL, not in my name as I was led to believe. As a result, GISOL has a lock on my domain name so I cannot simply move my site to another host without GISOL’s assistance.

I have sent several emails to GISOL admin with no response. I have called all the phone numbers on their website plus others that I found on the web but the numbers are either disconnected or never answered. I have generated additional tech support tickets only to receive the same advice to wait for GISOL admin to get back to me.

The BBB gives GISOL an F rating per the following review: “Complaints allege unauthorized credit card charges, dissatisfaction with services, and difficulty implementing cancellation and refund policies. Most complainants are unsatisfied with the company’s response and most complaints go unanswered.”

But some of the complaints against GISOL go far beyond dissatisfaction with their services. It is my contention that GISOL actively commits fraud – in my case by accepting payment to host my website even though they had allowed my domain to expire thereby making their offer an empty promise.

Based on the facts presented here and similar experiences by other GISOL customers (there are literally hundreds of similar reports of fraud on the web), I further contend that this is a calculated extortion scheme by GISOL to force customers with “marketable” domain names to “buy them back” at an onerous price or to renew their hosting contracts at an exorbitant rate.

Others, (like myself) without a marketable domain name are simply defrauded for the renewal fee with the forced expectation that we will go away to make room for more lucrative “customers”.

It is depressing to learn that Global Internet Solutions has been committing such fraud on unwary consumers for several years. I would like to believe that justice will eventually prevail but how many more consumers will GISOL be allowed to injure before they are finally shutdown.

Jesse Xxxxx
(address supplied)