Nov 6, 2008 : Web Host Accused of Hijacking Sites

📅 November 6, 2008 - According to a video report by FOX News on Monday, California-based web hosting provider Global Internet Solutions (gisol.com 👉 Total Reviews: 13
🙌 Average Rating: 1 / 10
👍 Good Reviews: 0
👎 Bad Reviews: 13
👈 Official Responses: 0 -> hostinger.com) has been accused of "hijacking" its customers' websites, amongst other questionable business practices.


The web hosting provider has been placed in the hot seat for its unethical business practices, including overcharging customers at least 20 times more than what the hosting plans are supposed to cost, as well as blocking clients from their websites after they've complained about the discrepancy.

Gisol was founded in 1998 and says on its website's "about" section that it has "grown to become a leader in the web hosting industry." It offers personal and business-targeted hosting plans at "a fair price without hidden costs and straight-forward information." Gisol's website also says it has also been "recognized and ranked as being a leader in domain name services' quality of customer care and ease of use."

The company's website also features $5.95 per month "no limits" hosting plan that offers unlimited disk space, bandwidth, emails and databases with a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee.

To a new customer, unfamiliar with the different types of web hosting plans available online, a package like Gisol's sounds pretty appealing. However, "unlimited" hosting packages have had a certain stigma attached to it - many would argue there is no such thing as true "unlimited" bandwidth or data transfer offering from hosting providers without some sort of catch - and should've raised some red flags.

In the FOX report, the reporter talked to three of Gisol's customers that were "victims" of the hosting provider's rather controversial practices.

Tim Nguyen, who had a website featuring his home inspector business with Gisol, told FOX that his credit card had been charged over a thousand dollars after initially signing up, but when he called to inquire about the charges, the company "cancelled" his website.

Steve Golden, another client who used Gisol to feature his "rain barrel" business, said he was partway through his contract when he received an email from Gisol requesting he renew his agreement. When Golden refused, he says his website "disappeared."

And Frank Randall, who hosted his music business with Gisol, said he was charged over $1,800 on his bill and when he complained to the company about the overcharge, he was "locked out" of his website. Gisol then proceeded to auction off Randall's domain name.

When FOX tried to get a comment from Gisol at its headquarters in Los Angeles, the video showed the reporter questioning two of the employees about being unfair to clients, but receiving very little response. The next shot has the reporter running after the two employees, yelling after them "Why are you running if you have nothing to hide."

Although it's unknown whether any resolution has been brought about from this investigation, a quick search on Google seems to reveal that this may not be the first incident of Gisol upsetting its customers.

Gisolclassaction.com (gisolclassaction.com) features a group of previous customers trying to file a class action lawsuit against Gisol, while GisolSucks.com (gisolsucks.com) has been set up by previous customers to "warn" potential new clients against the hosting provider.