MidPhase.com

Thought people at large might be interested in the case I just filed with the Better Business Bureau about my experience with MidPhase.com.


Case ID #94041067
Purchase Date: 9/18/2005
Purchase Total: $183.35
I purchased a hosting account with an addon "DevPack". While I did receive an activated account with access to administer the account via cPanel, I found myself unable to make permanent changes to any of the features I had paid for, whether in the basic hosting account or in the DevPack addon.

I cancelled my account twelve hours later, frustrated that I had to go through their customer support team to make basic changes to my account. I submitted my cancellation request through the MidPhase.com website on 9/19/2005.

Upon cancellation, I received a phone call from Dan (Ushman, I believe, though he didn't announce his last name during the phone call) asking why I had cancelled so soon. I explained my frustration with the midphase user interface, that I hadn't been able to achieve anything that I needed to do and that the work had been of a somewhat time-sensitive nature. He agreed, that midphase was having trouble with their web administration feature and that I wasn't able to do what I wanted to do, but that they were working on fixing the problem, and asked if I wanted to wait for the fixes. I opted to continue with the web host I had switched to on cancelling my account.

Next, I received the following email on October 3, 2005:

From: Cancellations@midphase.com <cancellations@midphase.com>

To: Cheryl Brummer <cinediva@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 3, 2005 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: [#219186] [ support ] [ cherylbrummer.org ] Cancellation

Hello,

I just wanted to let you know that your account is now closed with us. If you registered a domain with midPhase, and would like to keep the registration, please reply to let me know; otherwise, the domain name will not be renewed.

Thank you for selecting midPhase, and best of luck. Please keep us in mind for your future web hosting needs!
Your refund was $143.40. DevPack is not refundable.

--
--
Dan Ushman
General Ops & Billing
midPhase Services, Inc. - #1 Recommended Web Host!

Phone: 312-386-1640 x227
E-mail: dushman@midphase.com


Reading this, I was irritated that nearly $40 of my original payment was being refused refund, when the services I paid for were never successfully available to me for use.

I responded with the following message:

From: Cheryl Anne Brummer <cinediva@gmail.com> Mailed-By: gmail.com

Reply-To: Cheryl Anne Brummer <cinediva@gmail.com>
To: "Cancellations@midphase.com" <cancellations@midphase.com>, billing@midphase.com, dushman@midphase.com
Date: Oct 3, 2005 11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [#219186] [ support ] [ cherylbrummer.org ] Cancellation

Sorry for the double email. But I just reviewed my original order receipt and I
expect to receive a full refund for the DevPack. There is no excuse
for keeping over $40 of my money for a service I used for less than a
day, more than two weeks ago, and which caused me enough stress for me
to cancel my order less than 12 hours after placing it.

More fundamentally, my reason for cancelling was that the DevPack was
not working. I was unable to add add-on domains even with the
"assistance" of your customer support representatives. It is
unreasonable for you to refuse me a refund for a service that you did
not provide.

Your website advertises a Risk Free Guarantee, and I took you at your
word. However, if this doesn't mean that I actually get 100% of the
money I paid to you, I will be happy to share details of my experience
with potential customers and the internet at large.

If you are unable to take care of this request for me, please direct
me to the staff member at midPhase who can.

~ Cheryl

Receiving no response to this message, I called MidPhase.com and spoke to a representative named Mike, who told me he did not have the authority to handle my request. I was transferred to Mark Choi, who told me that he felt that midphase billing services had handled my request appropriately by refunding my hosting fees - that DevPack was non-refundable and that I would not be receiving a refund for it.

I explained one last time that I never received successful access to the features included in DevPack because of the system problems MidPhase was experiencing with cPanel, and that I continue to request a full refund for services I didn't receive.

He refused again, and I asked if I could speak to his supervisor. He responded that he owns the company. I expressed shock to learn that he would be willing to hang the reputation of his company on $40, and he told me that he would talk to Dan (the representative who sent me the first email response included above) about my situation and get back to me.

I would like the remainder of my payment to MidPhase, a balance of $39.95, refunded to the card I used to pay them.