Official Gridhost thread

[Gridhost]

Let's have look. Do you have a ticket ID for me please?

 

[Solitude]

Let's have look. Do you have a ticket ID for me please?

Unfortunately not. I can't create a ticket haha. Oh wait, you mean for the merging. I will have to look at home.

I wasn't able to try it again last night. Will try tonight and if I don't come right then I'll send you my details.

 

[Gridhost]

Yeah I was referring to the one you spoke of here: "I was hoping the two could be merged but that ticket was closed"

You can PM me the details too. I can search for it using an email address

 

[Solitude]

[MENTION=84156]Gridhost[/MENTION], just a heads up. Even now with 1-grid your ticket system is not working correctly. Let me know if you'd like me to send you examples.

 

[1-grid]

[MENTION=62071]Solitude[/MENTION] - That would be fantastic yes. Never heard of anything from the others so if there is something that needs to be looked at then the sooner the better. Will wait on those examples. Please PM this account.

 

[Solitude]

[MENTION=62071]Solitude[/MENTION] - That would be fantastic yes. Never heard of anything from the others so if there is something that needs to be looked at then the sooner the better. Will wait on those examples. Please PM this account.

Thanks, have sent you a message. You can also maybe contact a mod, get your name red, get this thread locked and start a new thread for 1-grid.

 

[1-grid]

Details received. Will have a look at that shortly. Thanks for the tip as well. Will get onto that soon

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Ok, where do I start. We had a WebAfrica hosting account for a site that has been under construction for ages. The account has been running for 6+ years. Because it's not an active site, I haven't been watching it closely so I missed the Gridhost switch emails.

Fast forward to a little over a month ago. We are switching bank accounts so I log into WebAfrica and change the account to the new one, not realizing that the hosting now has a completely different login. A debit order goes off the old account at the end of last month so I assume that the debit order had already been submitted. Fast forward a month, Gridhost now take money off the old account that is not supposed to be in use any more. The debit order bounces so they charge an extra failed debit order fee and proceed to debit the account again a few days later which also bounces. Obviously, they charge the failed debit order fee again.

I noticed this and tried to figure out what is going on. I search back through my emails and notice the grid-host split email. I then log onto the grid host site at which point it tries to confirm my debit order. I do a bit more searching. This is a blow by blow of the situation:

1. They send out an email on 28/9/2017 stating that "we have decided to split them into two separate businesses: Webafrica (Getting people online) and Gridhost (Getting people noticed online) to help us give you the attention you deserve.".
2. They refer to a blog by the CEO that states (https://www.webafrica.co.za/blog/big-hosting-move-message-ceo/) - "If you pay via debit order: yes. You will be required to digitally accept a new debit mandate – this will be presented to you when you log into your new Gridhost Client Area. Please note, if you have done this already in your Webafrica Customer Zone, then you will not be required to sign it again.". I never signed this mandate.
3. Fast forward to this week. When I signed into Grid-host, they displayed the message with the mandate that I needed to accept. This mandate included the following text (there is a lot more):

"You have chosen to pay for your 1-gid Services via Debit Order", a whole bunch more text, then, in gray, behind the red dialog. "This signed Authority and Mandate refers to our contract dated ("the Agreement"). I/We hereby authorise you to issue and deliver payment instructions to your Banker....." and later "I/We understand that failed debit orders will incur a charge of R50 (incl. VAT)"

So let me get this right. Grid-host / 1-grid (a separate business according to their email) have been deducting money from our bank account without our permission or a signed mandate for over 6 months. Grid-host have also charged us a fee for a failed debit order that we NEVER agreed to, which is part of their terms that we NEVER agreed to. Wow, just wow. Of course, I should have checked out the emails. But that's completely irrelevant. This is a breach of the PASA agreement.

I have wasted enough time over such a stupid amount. I was fighting with them over the principle but it's a complete waste of my time so I am paying the amount now and will contact everyone who we have referred to WebAfrica (a lot of people) and advise them to cancel their accounts because of the risks associated with dealing with this company and WebAfrica.

Support is an absolute nightmare. They just ignore questions and keep closing the tickets. I am still waiting to the person on chat to show where we signed the agreement.

What a joke. Everyone beware. Use this company, and WebAfrica for that matter, at your own peril. Now I must just decide if I want to waste my time contacting the banking ombudsmen or whoever deals with this sort of stuff.

 

[UssOP]

So if I read this correctly, and apologies if I did not, you are blaming 1-grid/gridhost for an eff up from WA?

" 'Please note, if you have done this already in your Webafrica Customer Zone, then you will not be required to sign it again.' "

You state that you never signed this. WEB AFRICA's system should have a log showing who did. Whether it be you or someone in WEB AFRICA doing it for you on your behalf. Since this digital mandate was "signed" BEFORE the move, 1-grid/gridhost takes it over as per the agreement "you" made for the services under WEB AFRICA which is now under another name. If you want to complain then I believe you should be crying in front of Web Africa's door instead of coming here and stating that 1-grid/gridhost is in the wrong. Not to mention, this could have been dealt with way in advance if you managed your email account.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

So if I read this correctly, and apologies if I did not, you are blaming 1-grid/gridhost for an eff up from WA?

" 'Please note, if you have done this already in your Webafrica Customer Zone, then you will not be required to sign it again.' "

You state that you never signed this. WEB AFRICA's system should have a log showing who did. Whether it be you or someone in WEB AFRICA doing it for you on your behalf. Since this digital mandate was "signed" BEFORE the move, 1-grid/gridhost takes it over as per the agreement "you" made for the services under WEB AFRICA which is now under another name. If you want to complain then I believe you should be crying in front of Web Africa's door instead of coming here and stating that 1-grid/gridhost is in the wrong. Not to mention, this could have been dealt with way in advance if you managed your email account.

No. I never signed the new digital mandate at WebAfrica either. They displayed that to me when I logged in a month or so back to change the banking details. Well, I did sign accept it at that point but it was only a month or so back when I changed the bank account. A long time after the split.

 

[UssOP]

No. I never signed the new digital mandate at WebAfrica either. They displayed that to me when I logged in a couple of months back to change the banking details.

Then WA would be the one you need to speak to. It only makes sense. In the blog, WA mentioned that if the debit order was signed with them then there would be no need to sign it again. I know that I HAD to sign the form in the gridhost customer zone because I kept being redirected to it. I couldn't do anything else until that was read and accepted if I was set to debit order. If that never happened to you then I can only think of the mandate being accepted prior to this split taking place. Keeping in mind that they can probably only help you with confirming the date and who accepted the mandate since they don't deal with hosting related things.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Then WA would be the one you need to speak to. It only makes sense. In the blog, WA mentioned that if the debit order was signed with them then there would be no need to sign it again. I know that I HAD to sign the form in the gridhost customer zone because I kept being redirected to it. I couldn't do anything else until that was read and accepted if I was set to debit order. If that never happened to you then I can only think of the mandate being accepted prior to this split taking place. Keeping in mind that they can probably only help you with confirming the date and who accepted the mandate since they don't deal with hosting related things.

You only got the mandate if you logged into their site. I had no need to log into the customer zone. It's a dormant web site that has been under construction for ages. We were just paying it monthly as a debit order until we got around to dealing with it. Our other sites are hosted with Amazon and Rackspace. I haven't logged into WebAfrica for ages (+2 years) and only logged into the Gridhost customer zone for the first time last week.

My guess is that Gridhost never even checked who signed the mandates. They just assumed that they were all signed and started debiting people.

Ultimately, you can ignore everything else. The net result is that Gridhost were deducting money from our account without any authorization to do so. They also charged us a penalty fee for a bounced debit order despite us never agreeing to those terms. All of this completely ignores the fees that we incurred when they charged the account.

 

[UssOP]

Sooo why don't you try PMing your details to the guy/girl here or on Facebook? I have seen lots of examples where assumptions from customers are BS. Personal experience included. Contact him/her, get your account attended to, move to another company thereafter with all your recommendations like you said and everyone can be happy.

 

[SYNERGY]

TBH, I've always received competent service from Gridhost. Ex Serv customer.

Think I have over 20+ domains with them.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Sooo why don't you try PMing your details to the guy/girl here or on Facebook? I have seen lots of examples where assumptions from customers are BS. Personal experience included. Contact him/her, get your account attended to, move to another company thereafter with all your recommendations like you said and everyone can be happy.

I have had to deal with some c..p at the bank because debit orders going off an account that was supposed to be winding down, along with the the fees. I have been trying to sort it out for the past week, with support taking more than 2 days to respond to tickets. I have spent over an hour on chat with them. They just ignore what you say in the tickets and close them as "resolved". It's the most frustrating company that I have had to deal with. Why would I waste more time PM'ing another person? For R369 (excluding the charges that went through over the past 7 months)? It's not worth my time. I have also seen situations where the "truth" comes out later and the client isn't quite truthful. That's not the case here. All I can post is an screenshot that I took the other day when I first logged into their site to prove my case. But there isn't much point. My post here was to warn other people. I have already moved on. I am happy. Not with Grid-host, who along with WebAfrica will never see another cent of my business. I have spent a lot of money with them in the past. It's not my loss, it's theirs.

All they needed to do was apologise and credit a few invoices and the issue would have been resolved. That's what customer service is all about. When someone has spent many 10's of thousands of rands with you, you do your best to resolve the issue.

Screenshot (look at the agreement commencement date):

 

[SpiderMonkey]

TBH, I've always received competent service from Gridhost. Ex Serv customer.

Think I have over 20+ domains with them.

Well, that's surprising after my experience. Perhaps they respond to requests in line with the current monthly spend. Our account is much smaller now than it was in the past.

 

[UssOP]

Just so you know, that commence date will always change. The form stays there even after "accepting" it the first time. Mine is still visible at the bottom of the page and I bet it will show today's date. Not really ideal but whatever. Signed is signed.


Still kinda comes down to you not looking at your email in time and the possibility that this mandate was signed while still with WA.

 

[SYNERGY]

Well, that's surprising after my experience. Perhaps they respond to requests in line with the current monthly spend. Our account is much smaller now than it was in the past.

Maybe. I've often found out, that if you want anything done: Pick up the phone. Applicable to most companies in S.A.

 

[1-grid]

Sorry to hear about your issue SpiderMonkey. Like UssOP mentioned, the debit order mandate was probably accepted back with Web Africa if you did not accept this on our platform. I do recall a time where WA customers had to download a debit mandate after entering their details either upon signup or afterwards via the customer zone. The digital mandate was only introduced later but I don't know how they managed those customers who have done so manually i.e. were they excluded or was everyone required to sign the online form.

Wrt the form you see in your customer zone with us, it will remain there and the commence date will keep updating for those who has to update their details to something else. The debit order would need to be signed again should it change. Nonetheless, at the end of the day you need your query resolved. You can PM your account details and we can assist as far as we can. If we need to direct you to WA for anything then we will let you know.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Maybe. I've often found out, that if you want anything done: Pick up the phone. Applicable to most companies in S.A.

I would normally have called but I am temporarily out of the country and they only list an 0860 number which I couldn't call.