Unbelievable: Will not refund 1 year payment after less than 24 hours!

[kenlaws]

I received an email from Fluid a couple of weeks ago asking me to consider coming back. As a former customer, I had a fairly good experience with Fluid, and decided to give them another try.

I chose the Deluxe AHA hosting package and, seeing that paying for a year at once would give me two months free, I chose that option. Oddly enough, my bill was $300 instead of $250 as listed in the pricing table. I figured perhaps the $50 would be taken off after the initial transaction.

Well, I used it for an hour or two and quickly discovered that this just wasn't going to meet my needs, that I would need to go somewhere else and get a dedicated server again. So, I clicked the refund button in HSphere and also opened a trouble ticket explaining why I was leaving.

Now I get a message that because I paid for a year, it's NON REFUNDABLE. That's right. I used it for less than 24 hours and I'm being told that I'm out $300.

After multiple back-and-forths with Gamaliel Waney, I'm being offered a VPS, but still no refund.

I don't want a VPS. I just want my money back. For something I bought less than 24 hours ago. Are they really going to hide behind the 10 pages of dense legalese in the service agreement, or are they going to do the right thing?

[FH-Dave]

The right thing is for both parties to fulfill their contractual obligation. When you enter a contract with us, we have all the intention to fulfill our obligation to you. And I am sure you would expect us to do so, in order for you to get a guarantee for the service you purchase. In return, we also expect customers to do the right thing by fulfilling their obligation to us as well.

Per our terms of Service, our 30 day money back guarantee voids when customer signup with longer term contract. The 30 day money back guarantee is only offered when customer signup with monthly billing.

[kenlaws]

Really? The 30 day guarantee doesn't apply to people willing to try a long term commitment? That's absurd. Are you really hurting that bad that you need to defraud people like this? And let's be plain here. This is fraud. This is deliberate deception. You're hiding behind legalese to take people's money. Did the management here come over from a cell phone company?

Your responses are only getting me more upset. I want my $300 back. I have no intention of contributing to the well-being of your teetering company.

[FH-Dave]

If our Terms of Service says one thing and we do another, then it will be a fraud. But how can it be a fraud if you have agreed to our Terms of Service? We don't even force you to agree to it.

From our Terms of Service, which you have agreed to:

V. Money Back Policy

Fluid Hosting is proud to offer a thirty-day unconditional money back guarantee to all Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, and VPS Hosting customers. This thirty-day unconditional money back guarantee is offered to allow customer to try our service with full confidence. Customer may request for account/service cancellation during this 30 day period. Upon such request, Fluid Hosting will terminate customer's account/service and give customer 100% refund. Once the account/service is terminated, Fluid Hosting will neither be responsible to provide any data archive to customer nor maintain backup of customer's data. Customer also agrees not to hold Fluid Hosting responsible for any data loss due to this account/service termination.

The thirty-day money back guarantee starts on the day when the customer account/service is started. The day the service start is the first day on this thirty-day money period. Thus, if customer account/service is activated on January 1st, then customer may request money back as long as the request is filed on or before January 30th.

Our thirty-day money back guarantee only applies to customer with monthly contract. Customer who initially signs up with longer contract will void the thirty-day money back guarantee offer. We strongly recommend customer who would like to try our service not to enter a longer contract initially. Monthly contract is available for customers who wish to try our service and benefit from our thirty-day money back guarantee offer.

All money back must be requested by sending an email to billing@fluidhosting.com which in turns will send a confirmation email with a ticket number to customer. It is to be assumed that if customer does not received confirmation email and ticket number, then Fluid Hosting never receives any email sent by customer.

Our thirty-day money back guarantee only applies to Shared Hosting, Reseller, and VPS customers only. It does not apply to Collocation and Dedicated Customers.

We do not differentiate customers and we apply our Terms of Service to all customers alike. This is especially true once you have gone public with this.

[kenlaws]

Yeah, you guys must have come from a cell phone company.

Let's be clear: I received my account setup email at 5:36pm on Monday. I pressed the handy "money back" button at around 8:00am on Tuesday morning. A little under 15 hours had elapsed. Your sense of customer service tells you the proper reaction is to keep my money - a year's worth - and tell me I'm SOL. Dave, how does that fit in with your signature?

[FH-Dave]

Hi Ken,

From where I come from, we take a pride on anything we do. If I sign something, I will make sure I do what I promise to do. That's also what I offer our customers. A guarantee that customer will always receive the kind of service we have agreed to deliver. I think that fits nicely with my signature.

I will close this forum now. If you have any issue with your account, please open a ticket and we will work with you to resolve any issue you may have.

Thank you.