Netfirms positive review #9471 by Frank (fkc8091@y...) on Mar 2010
Netfirms got a positive review on and one official response on
Frank ( fkc8091@y... )
We have been hosting with Netfirms since March of 2004. It started out as a decent relationship, with only occasional problems (email issues or server timeouts). As time went on, they offered more features without additional cost - very nice. However I do have a few particular issues that I feel could have been handled better.
Firstly, the price of $10 per month for the Business service is a little on the pricey side, considering that much of their competition offers more for less.
Secondly, about three years back, our club photo album was accidentally erased. They refused to retrieve what would have ultimately been about 10Mb of photos, many irreplaceable, from their daily backups.
Thirdly, they have instituted an automatic renewal program which does not notify the site owner of the impending renewal. On top of this, they renew 9 days before the renewal date.
On this third point: I manage this Netfirms site for our social club. They received a charge to their card, out of the blue, because neither they nor I was ever notified that the renewal date was impending. They were not happy. When I brought this to the attention of Netfirms, asking that they refund the charges until the club could determine what to do, I was told that we can cancel our service if we like, and that would refund the money.
I received no apology. Not for the charges, not for the failure of notice, not even for the inconvenience to the club. On top of this, I am now being told by the club that there are additional charges being made.
They say three strikes and your out. This is my third strike. I have had a long-standing relationship with Netfirms, even if their email system was garbage. I am offended that, although I have brought them steady business over the last decade with this club and other clients of mine, I am being handled in such a manner. I understand that business is business, but customer service (or lack thereof) is a whole other thing.
Firstly, the price of $10 per month for the Business service is a little on the pricey side, considering that much of their competition offers more for less.
Secondly, about three years back, our club photo album was accidentally erased. They refused to retrieve what would have ultimately been about 10Mb of photos, many irreplaceable, from their daily backups.
Thirdly, they have instituted an automatic renewal program which does not notify the site owner of the impending renewal. On top of this, they renew 9 days before the renewal date.
On this third point: I manage this Netfirms site for our social club. They received a charge to their card, out of the blue, because neither they nor I was ever notified that the renewal date was impending. They were not happy. When I brought this to the attention of Netfirms, asking that they refund the charges until the club could determine what to do, I was told that we can cancel our service if we like, and that would refund the money.
I received no apology. Not for the charges, not for the failure of notice, not even for the inconvenience to the club. On top of this, I am now being told by the club that there are additional charges being made.
They say three strikes and your out. This is my third strike. I have had a long-standing relationship with Netfirms, even if their email system was garbage. I am offended that, although I have brought them steady business over the last decade with this club and other clients of mine, I am being handled in such a manner. I understand that business is business, but customer service (or lack thereof) is a whole other thing.
I would like to take the time to respond to your review. While I can't speak specifically as to what happened a few years ago with your photo album, I can assure you that if we were not able to restore it for you then it was because it was simply not available or accessible. We would not flat out refuse to restore something if it was available to us. Daily backups is not a service that we have offered in the past.
Regarding the automatic renewal, this is a service that has always been in place at Netfirms. We do provide the ability to our clients to have automatic renewals disabled by contacting our customer care department.
We send out automated emails at 30 days, 15 days and 7 days prior to expiration/automatic renewal of a product at Netfirms and in some cases we also have one of our customer care reps call our clients directly. We never bill our clients without notification first.
The email notifications and calls are made to whoever is listed under the Billing Profile for the account here at Netfirms. It is everyone's own responsibility to ensure that the contact information contained within the Billing Profile is up to date. If the club's credit card was billed for the services it's because that credit card was used to purchase the servers and was stored in the billing profile.
The automatic renewal policy is mentioned in our terms of service which is agreed upon at the time of signup. We do process the automatic renewals 9 days in advance in order to provide everyone with extra time to renew in case the automatic renewal fails for whatever reason. If we waited until the very last day, and the credit card happens to be expired, the hosting account would be turned off. To avoid those situations we process them 9 days early. if there's a problem with the billing it gives us enough time to contact the client directly and inform them BEFORE the hosting account is turned off.
If you no longer want to receive automatic renewals for domain names, you can turn those off from directly inside your Netfirms Control Panel.
If you want a refund for the charges that appeared, and it's within 30 days of when the charge occurred we can refund it to you, but keep in mind that if that charge is refunded and it puts the hosting account past due, then the hosting would be disabled until a new payment is received.
If you have any questions or concerns you can contact us directly and refer to this review page.
Marketing representative (flora.chan@netfirms.com, ).
Regarding the automatic renewal, this is a service that has always been in place at Netfirms. We do provide the ability to our clients to have automatic renewals disabled by contacting our customer care department.
We send out automated emails at 30 days, 15 days and 7 days prior to expiration/automatic renewal of a product at Netfirms and in some cases we also have one of our customer care reps call our clients directly. We never bill our clients without notification first.
The email notifications and calls are made to whoever is listed under the Billing Profile for the account here at Netfirms. It is everyone's own responsibility to ensure that the contact information contained within the Billing Profile is up to date. If the club's credit card was billed for the services it's because that credit card was used to purchase the servers and was stored in the billing profile.
The automatic renewal policy is mentioned in our terms of service which is agreed upon at the time of signup. We do process the automatic renewals 9 days in advance in order to provide everyone with extra time to renew in case the automatic renewal fails for whatever reason. If we waited until the very last day, and the credit card happens to be expired, the hosting account would be turned off. To avoid those situations we process them 9 days early. if there's a problem with the billing it gives us enough time to contact the client directly and inform them BEFORE the hosting account is turned off.
If you no longer want to receive automatic renewals for domain names, you can turn those off from directly inside your Netfirms Control Panel.
If you want a refund for the charges that appeared, and it's within 30 days of when the charge occurred we can refund it to you, but keep in mind that if that charge is refunded and it puts the hosting account past due, then the hosting would be disabled until a new payment is received.
If you have any questions or concerns you can contact us directly and refer to this review page.
Marketing representative (flora.chan@netfirms.com, ).
76 out of 79 users found this review to be helpful!