I ordered a logo from GotLogos.com on April 20th. On the order form, there was a check box for "Free Year of Web Hosting from Globat.com - Get 100 GB of space, 1000 GB (1 Terabyte) of Bandwidth/month, Unlimited Emails, Shopping Cart and much more from Globat.com! This award-winning package is valued over $95 and is yours free! Take advantage of this incredible FREE offer now! Free!". There are no asterisks, no further details anywhere on the page, and NOTHING that indicates that GotLogos.com will be passing your personal information and credit card information on to a third party company, without your authorization.
Well, apparently, that is exactly what happened. Not only was my credit card number and other personal information passed on to Globat, LLC, but Globat, LLC actually CHARGED my credit card for the full "free" year of hosting, plus a setup fee. That gives a new meaning to the word "free", which they conveniently use FOUR times in the offer description.
As soon as I saw this charge from Globat, LLC on my credit card (within a few days), I called the company to complain about this and demanded they remove it, since this is blatant credit card fraud. They said that they put in a "ticket" on my account for this, and that I would hear back from someone guaranteed within 24 hours. Well, 3 tickets later, including a "high-priority ticket", and several days later, my patience were gone, as nobody had even so much as responded to my calls, tickets, or e-mails... And no credit was issued.
I even e-mailed the company's president directly, Edward Gaa, explaining this entire situation. Apparently... Even he didn't care to give me a simple response. After I started telling them that I was going to do a chargeback on my credit card (costing them more money... Chargeback fees, credit rating, etc.), as well as file credit card fraud charges against them if the charge wasn't refunded by a certain date (a few days later), they finally issued the refund... Weeks after I had initially brought this to their attention. They didn't do this by the deadline I had given, but I was too busy to file the charges at the time... But I'm doing all of this now, because of what happened today.
I had requested them remove ALL of my credit card and personal information from their system at that time. Obviously they never did this, as today I got another shocking e-mail, with their sneaky intentions to commit credit card fraud yet again. Here is part of the e-mail:
"Dear Frank,
In 10 days from this date, we will be providing you with an upgrade to our new product, GloVault (tm), at the low cost of just $49.95.
As your trusted host, we strive to provide current and relevant products and services to maximize your experience with us. It is our pleasure and honor to host xxxxxxxx. Globathosting.com and appreciate that you continue to give Globat.com the opportunity to serve your Web hosting needs.
Since we began our upgrade program, we have received lots of feedback from our customers who only heard about these upgrade promotions too late or through a friend. Many customers then suggested that we utilize an automatic upgrade process along with some form of an additional incentive to initiate these upgrades. Well, we have listened to your feedback and we are ready to act!
= = = Introducing GloVault = = =
Great news! Upon review, your current hosting account qualifies for our automatic upgrade option to our new GloVault product. With GloVault, you will have a dedicated storage space to upload and share your files, no matter how large the file size!
[long description of service removed to save space]
= = = Important: This Is an Automatic Upgrade = = =
As one of our most valued customers and based on our customer feedback, we are absolutely certain that you want to take advantage of this opportunity.
For that reason, we will automatically upgrade your current hosting package to include GloVault and charge the $49.95 upgrade fee to your account on file on 06/08 unless you specifically tell us not to upgrade you by clicking on the link at the end of this e-mail.
As part of this amazing upgrade, we will also lock in your current account pricing. As a "Thank You" for taking advantage of this upgrade, we guarantee that you will keep your current hosting price and will not be affected by any future price increases for as long as you keep this account with us."
So, they're automatically charging ALL customer's credit cards for $49.95 each if each customer doesn't, within 3 days, tell them not to (assuming they are even around to receive the e-mail in that 3 days). What right do they have to do that? (And what a desperate attempt to get revenue!) If I decide one day that I'm going to offer some service to my customers for $49.95, and I say that I'm "absolutely certain that you want to take advantage of this opportunity" and charge their credit card without their consent, I imagine I'd end up in jail for such an act!
Anyway, my patience have run out a long time ago with this. They shouldn't even HAVE my credit card to charge, and they deserve a class action lawsuit for this, if not to be shut down entirely.
So, I'm filing this with several web sites such as this site and similar sites, along with a class action lawyer, the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Fraud Information Center, the California State Attorney General, and media sources. I want to make every consumer possible, aware of this company so they don't fall into this same trap. Illegal as it is, it's still often tough for an unsuspecting consumer to dig their way out of something like this, once they fall into it.
I noticed several similar credit card fraud cases on this site and others, so feel free to post replies with your experiences here.
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