Today, WebHostingBuzz is introducing an innovative environmental policy to deal with customers who fraudulently open accounts and then choose to file complaints with the Better Business Bureau when we fail to open those fraudulent accounts.<\/p>\n

Since we are very environmentally conscious as a company, we have decided to use the paper from such complaints as toilet paper. \u00a0This allows our company to save money by buying less toilet paper, but also saves the environment by reusing wasted paper. In addition, we have also pledged to make a $100 donation to the International Tree Foundation to apologize to Mother Nature for this cruel abuse of her resources.<\/p>\n

The implementation of this policy began yesterday after a long saga with a fraudulent customer which goes back several weeks. \u00a0I will include the transcript of the entire ordeal in a text file attached to this post, but here are the basics of what happened:
\n<\/p>\n

\n
• A prospective customer opened an account with a discount coupon code for a specific package, except he applied it to a package which it was obviously not meant for (the coupon code was for $21 and for a Gold Package. \u00a0Customer ordered the Lite Package, which would have caused us to owe him $7 every month.)<\/li>\n
• Prospective customer (Robert Blair) complained to our customer support:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Lena.s: your account could not be created because you have ordered RLite [xohmhosting.net] which costs $14.95 ( you chose monthly billing cycle). And you have applied a coupon “green”(which gives a discount $21 off the total price)<\/p>\n

  lena.s: so you can either order a new RLite package but with a bigger billing cycle<\/p>\n

  robert: and? it accepted the code and there was no disclaimer stating that was not valid<\/p>\n

  robert: ill just contact the BBB about this false advertising<\/p>\n

  lena.s: yes, technically the discount was accepted, but if the discount is bigger that the price, the account can not be created<\/p>\n

  robert: this is outrageous<\/p>\n

  robert: the better business bureau and ripoffreport.com will be hearing about this. NOWHERE does it state the promo code cant be more than the order amount<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  \n
  • Robert then chose to demand to chat with management, which is only available by email<\/li>\n
  • He then emailed the chat log to our management. \u00a0Matt Russell, CEO of WebHostingBuzz, responded:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Robert,<\/p>\n

    This coupon is clearly for a yearly payment cycle, you applied it to a monthly payment cycle and unfortunately our system did not present you with an error message.<\/p>\n

    If you want to make such a big thing about this, go ahead and contact the BBB and find a different hosting provider. We have no interest in doing business with you. If you go ahead, in return, your details will be submitted to a database we share with most of the other major hosting providers and you will find that you will not be able to use any of our services. This works both ways.<\/p>\n

    Frankly, I am quite shocked that you wish to make such a big deal out of such a little thing.<\/p>\n

    Regards
    \nMatthew Russell
    \nCEO<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \n
    • To which, Robert replied with:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Never have I been treating so rudely. When I found the promo code it did was not “clearly” for a yearly payment cycle, nor did your billing system give me an error message stating it was “clearly” for a yearly cycle and not good for monthly.<\/p>\n

      Are you seriously making threats against me? You are a complete jerk and I will not tolerate you speaking to me like that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \n
      • To which, Matt replied with:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Robert,<\/p>\n

        Your own tone determines how we will reply. You were pretty rude with a member of my staff which immediately set you off on the wrong foot. Had you been a little politer in either your discussion with Lena or your initial email, we might have been more understanding to your plight. And calling me a jerk seals the deal \u2013 take your business elsewhere.<\/p>\n

        Let us just clarify exactly what has happened here. You found a mistake (the first person to find it to the best of my knowledge) and have turned it into a big issue and suggested \u201cfalse advertising\u201d, when infact this is a simple mistake. Other retailers make mistakes too (how often do you see news articles on Dell\/Amazon who have mis-priced a product?). We all make mistakes and I have no qualms admitting that there is a bug in our billing system that did not show this coupon as invalid for this payment cycle.<\/p>\n

        I am not the type to make idle threats and I consider this issue closed and wish you luck finding an alternative hosting provider. However, if we receive notification from the BBB or I see that you continue to beat this dead horse in public, you are foolish if you expect us not to respond.<\/p>\n

        Regards
        \nMatthew Russell
        \nCEO<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

        \n
        • Apparently not satisfied, Robert replied:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Complaint’s been filed. We’ve been waiting a response \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

          \n
          • And here’s where the new-found policy began, when Matt replied with:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            Cool. I look forward to tearing it up and wiping my ass with the piece of paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

            For some odd reason, Robert the Fraudulent Customer went ballistic after a CEO told him he was going to wipe his ass with his fraudulent complaint, posting to WebHostingTalk<\/a> to vent his frustration. Unfortunately for him, most of the community sided against him and he started to contradict his story, and the real story came to light.<\/p>\n

            To address his concerns about using his complaint as toilet paper, I made the following official company announcement to declare the action company policy:<\/p>\n

            Dear Roblair,<\/p>\n

            My name is Tyler Thompson, Senior Public Relations Manager for WebHostingBuzz.com. I would like to respond to your complaint directly so that we may resolve this situation.<\/p>\n

            First, in your initial contact with Lena, you were informed that your coupon was not for the package you ordered. Without waiting for an explanation, you immediately noted that you were going to contact the BBB. Our customer service representative correctly identified that this was a situation that should be referred to management for further handling. When we tried to resolve the situation amicably, you immediately resorted to calling our CEO a jerk. In both instances, you jumped to negative conclusions before we had a chance to resolve your issues. Had you given our team a chance, we could have come up with a compromise that would be acceptable for both you as a customer and us as a company.<\/p>\n

            Your posts on this thread make me wonder if you didn’t create this situation intentionally and maliciously to try to get free hosting from our company. We take customer concerns and inquiries seriously, but when your customer starts name calling games, what else can we do?<\/p>\n

            Third, I would like to point out that with Matt’s last reply, he was actually following company policy. Since we are a carbon neutral host, we make every effort to be good global citizens and improve our environment wherever possible. From our company’s carbon neutral policy:<\/p>\n

            Quote:
            \nWebHostingBuzz Carbon Neutral Policy
            \n“WebHostingBuzz takes being green and the environment very seriously. Unlike most of our competitors, we are green because we want to be and not because it looks good as a marketing tactic. It’s often the little things that make a big difference and for a long time, we’ve recycled as much of our office waste as possible.”<\/p>\n

            Therefore, your excessive complaints about an issue that was easily resolved at the first level of customer support is killing trees and we feel it is our responsibility to the environment to correct that. By Matt wiping his ass with your BBB complaint, we are successfully fulfilling our obligation to Mother Nature to use her fruit to the furthest extent possible. It is our moral obligation to reuse and recycle excess waste coming into our offices, and by doing so, we are also reducing the number of trees killed by toilet paper production.<\/p>\n

            His comment was not meant to offend you, but to make you feel good inside for working with a company that takes the environment so seriously.<\/p>\n

            In fact, as a result of your complaints and the carbon produced throughout the world to propagate it throughout the Internet, we have decided to make it right with Mother Nature by making an additional $100 donation to the International Tree Foundation so a tree may be planted to replace the carbon generated by this thread and your BBB complaint.<\/p>\n

            We challenge you to do the right thing and match our donation 100%. You can make checks payable to The International Tree Foundation and mail it to Donations, International Tree Foundation, Sandy Lane, Crawley Down, West Sussex RH10 4HS.<\/p>\n

            Thank you for your time and moral concern for the Earth.<\/p>\n

            PS: Blackberries clearly win. You guys must not have seen the thing flashing after it was dropped in the water – it was the coolest thing ever.<\/p>\n

            __________________
            \nTyler Thompson
            \nSenior Public Relations Manager
            \nWebHostingBuzz.com | Shared, Business, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated Hosting
            \nWebHostingBuzz Hosting, Marketing, Secuity and Technology Blog<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

            Robert has yet to respond to our challenge to match our donation to the ITF.<\/p>\n

            After this whole ordeal, CEO Matt Russell found this same person to be hosting a site which leached large graphics<\/a> off of a major hosting provider, hostnine.com, and made an announcement on WebHostingTalk. Funny enough, the graphics were changed very quickly, early on a Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

            Let this be a lesson to all of us in the web industry. We can turn negative situations like this into a positive by replenishing our environment for the abuse it takes as a result of such frauds. To the best of our knowledge, we are the only hosting provider that has such a policy, but we would love to hear from others who choose to implement this policy.<\/p>\n

            official-policy<\/a><\/p>\n

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