Once again, more hell from globat.  This time, I get the following email from out of nowhere:

On Monday of this week, we sent you an e-mail with our new GloVault(tm) product upgrade offer that also included 3 free months of Web hosting and a price-freeze guarantee all for just $49.95. There is nothing you have to do to participate in this upgrade. It is all being done automatically! You will receive notification when you can use the wonderful new features of GloVault and your account on file is charged the one-time $49.95 upgrade fee.

If, by any chance, you have decided NOT to take advantage of this upgrade offer and the 3 free months of Web hosting, please click on the link below before midnight on August 16, 2007:

https://www.globat.com/optout_gv.php[actual link redacted]

(If link does not work, please copy and paste the entire link into your browser)

Thank you again for being a loyal customer.

Best regards,

Lou Rio
Vice President of Operations
Globat.com
(877) 245-6228 for US Customers
(323) 874-9000 for International Customers

This business practice of having an opt-out upgrade is so wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start.  But let me start by saying that I didn’t get an email on Monday, or Sunday, or Tuesday for that matter.  I love the part in the email where it says, “It is being all done automatically!”, with the exclaimation, as if this is a great thing.  What a joke.

Since I didn’t get the supposed email on Monday, I didn’t even know what this GloVault was to see if maybe I really did want it, and that it really was a good deal for me.  Like any normal customer, I looked on their website.  I looked, and looked, and couldn’t find anything.

So, I called their customer support number, which was included in the email from good ole’ Lou.  I pushed “2″ for customer service and waited on hold like usual.  When the guy answered, I simply asked him what this GloVault was.  He said, go to “Products” then click on “Add-on” on their website.  I was already in front of my screen with the globat website open so I followed his instructions and told him it wasn’t there.

The customer service guy tells me that GloVault allows for “very large special files” to be saved and it was too technical for him to explain to me.  He also reminds me that if I had bothered to read my terms of service, I would know that there will be opt-out upgrade offers.  Hmmm. Thanks for reminding me that I’m a stupid dumbass for signing up with globat.

Now, I asked how I could get more information on this wonderful GloVault and he tells me to call the sales department because “they come up with these ideas.”

Okay.  “Please transfer me,” I say to the guy.  “Sorry, but you’ll have to hang up and push 3.” he replies.  Oh great.  They want me to wait on hold again.  Nice customer service.  I literally say to the guy, “Thanks for your help,” in the most sarcastic way that I know how, and hang up the phone.

Now, I call globat again and press “3″ for sales this time. I only have to wait on hold for a short time and get a sales guy.  I ask him what the GloVault is and he tells me that it’s just more disk space for my hosting account.  I tell him that I use less than 1 percent of my space right now, and he tells me that I don’t need it so just decline the offer.

So globat again wastes my valuable time with stupid opt-out upgrade offers that their own customer service reps don’t even know what it is.

It’s absolutely amazing that with so much competition for web hosting, globat continues to treat their customers like trash.  I have to put the fault all the way to the top.  Whoever the CEO is, does not know what the words “customer service” means.  This type of bad service comes down from the top.

I was stupid enough to continue my service for another year a few months ago.  What a mistake that was.  Luckily, this blog is on godaddy.

Update:
After posting this complaint, I had to laugh when I saw the CEO’s blog about customer service:

http://www.benneumann.com/archives/2007/05/customer_servic_1.html

I have to admit, the sales department did pick up the phone pretty quick.  Now, if Ben would just realize that automatic upgrades that you have to opt-out of is not something that people want, he might actually figure out what customer service really is.

After loading up on thousands of MP3s, movies, downloaded pr0n, old VHS conversions, and copies of DVDs, I finally ran out of room on my 160Gig hard drive on my HP Media Center.

Realizing that Microsoft is coming out with their Windows Home Server later this year, which HP and other OEMs will produce hardware for, I wanted to wait a little longer. Unfortunately, the space crunch really got bad and I had to break down and get a NAS (networked attached storage) device right now.

After looking at the Imoga, Maxtor and Buffalo, I decided on the 1TB TeraStation Live from Buffalo because of the built in RAID (0, 1, 5, or 10) feature. It’s more expensive than the other ones but I didn’t want to worry about backing up a 1TB device to a… I don’t know what.  The RAID feature allows for bad drives to be swapped out when a LED warning light comes on.  Nice.

Also, the front panel LCD is a nice touch and shows the status of the device, and even the RPM of the fan.  The lower front literally opens up to reveal the 4 hard drives which can be removed without screw drivers.  They really thought this thing through.

Setup was easy and all I did was plug it into my UPS, connect the Ethernet cable to my router and it was working automatically. Like a network router, you access it’s settings via a browser and you can pretty much set it to do anything you want, including automatic backups.

 You can also connect 2 USB 2.0 devices, including external hard drives or printers. The only catch is, if you connect an external hard drive, it is in read-only mode until you re-format it using the unit.

The TeraStation also comes with a bunch of other features that help with media serving, including interfacing with iTunes and other Buffalo devices for streaming media to your TV, and such.  I’m primarily going to use this devices as a storage and backup device so I haven’t checked those features out yet.

The device comes with a backup software called Memeo, which basically allows you to backup your computer in the background to the NAS (or any other drive).  It’s nice because, unlike some backup software that schedules the job at a particular time each day, this software always watches for files that need to be backed up automatically.

Another side benefit is, when I bring my laptop home from work, and it connects via WiFi to my home network, it automatically saves my work wireslessly to the TeraStation. Now, I don’t have to connect my external USB hard drive to backup the laptop.  Since I was too lazy to backup my laptop most of the time, this feature is worth the price by itself.

Hopefully, I’ll never need the backup features, or the RAID feature but now I feel ready for anything.

Ebay has gone heads up against craigslist.org by opening a U.S. version of their Kijiji free classifieds website. There are very few posts on there so far in the Los Angeles section, and unless they start some type of big marketing campaign, it doesn’t look like they will put any kind of dent on craigslist.

But then, I thought myspace was one of the worst designed website I’ve seen. Look where they are now. Actually, I still think it’s one of the worst designed website I’ve seen.

With the iminent strike looming over it’s head, I remembered a patentable idea I submitted to Ralphs several years ago, which I’m sure they have promptly filed in their round filing cabinet.  In case they are reading this, please implement this idea to make our lives better, instead of causing suffering with strikes.

So here is an open letter to Ralphs:

First, update your website so that Ralphs Club members can login and create a shopping list. There should be a mobile version for iPhone and PDA users. All family members should be able to login using their own username and choose either their own private shopping list, or the global family shopping list. You can add to the shopping list from home, work, school computer, or even your browser enabled cell phone or PDA.

The Ralphs website currently has recipes online. The user should be able to automatically add the ingredients from the recipe to their shopping list, minus items they already have.

When a family member goes to any Ralphs, they will go to a kiosk at the front, swipe their Ralphs Club card and get a printout of their shopping list, with the aisles listed next to each item, sorted by distance from the entrance. This way, a family member can go to any Ralphs, even an unfamiliar one, and be able to find the items quickly.

Also, if another family member has already printed their shopping list elsewhere, but not checked out at the cashier, a warning will show on the shopping list, and on the kiosk screen to let you know that somebody else is also shopping right now and you may need to call them to coordinate your shopping.

And finally, when the shopper is finished, they swipe the Ralphs Card at the cashier and all the items that were purchased will be automatically removed from the shopping list. This way, if a spouse goes to Ralphs later that same evening, they don’t have to worry that somebody else had already bought some of the items from the shopping list because the printout will show only the items that still need to be purchased.

So what’s in it for you, the multi-billion dollar corporation? Well, other than increasing customer satisfaction and thereby retention, you have new ways to track problems in your store. For example, if you find that many people who have a particular item on their shopping list, do not seem to buy it at a particular store, the item’s shelf positioning may have to be checked. If many people seem to have similar items on their shopping list, group these items closer together. The list is endless. So what’s in it for you? Profit.

All of this could be implemented basically all in software except for the kiosk with printer at each store. If implemented correctly, perhaps you would make billions more, then be able to pay your union workers more money, then there would be no strike. Think about it.

A little company called Stardock has an utility called Multiplicity which I use all the time. Basically, it’s a program that allows you to control multiple computers using just one mouse and keyboard, via your network connection. If you have a home or office network, and you use multiple computers, this is the product for you.

To use, all you have to do is move the cursor off the right side of the screen (or left side, depending on your configuration), and the cursor moves on the second computer. Once there, your keyboard is “connected” to the second computer automatically.

I find this to be more useful than having 2 monitors on one computer because you have a separate computer doing it’s work without having to share resources.

You can also share the clip board. For example, if you are looking at a website and want to put that on the second screen, just highlight the URL, type ctrl-C to copy, then move your cursor off the screen to the second computer, open the browser, and ctrl-V to paste the URL, and now you have the same website on the second computer.

Normally, I put my laptop next to my desktop and use it as a second screen. I can do searches, watch video or do other things on the laptop, while I do my real work on the desktop screen. Nice.

I found this really old ad in the April 1985 issue of Profiles Magazine (a magazine for Kaypro users). I wonder if Bill got a free subscription to WSJ or if he got paid in cash. How much would it cost to get him to do an ad today?

As if google didn’t already have just about everything under the sun, they now have business applications (like spreadsheets, word processing) online for free.

Moreover, they allow each person in the business to have their own webmail and POP email address using their own domain name. Yes, it’s all free.

They have instructions at google.com/a on how to setup your email. Each email address has 2Gigs of space. You have to have access to your CNAME record and be able to modify it to be able to use this feature. You can still pick up your email via a POP app like Outlook, as well as get your email on the road via their webmail interface.

The webmail interface looks pretty much identical to the regular google mail interface. I signed up for it for this website and it seems to work just fine.

So let’s see. You get free webmail and POP mail, using your own domain name… for free. Hmmm. That’s what I love about the Internet.

Always up – probably true
fast – not the customer service
easy – certainly not the customer service

What a nightmare.

Currently, I use 3 different hosting companies. Each has their pros and cons. One that I use is a local company called globat.com. I pay by the year so I don’t have to deal with them very often.

First some background info. When I first signed up, they were supposed to send me a refund, but I found out after the fact that you only get a refund if you use your credit card, and not if you use paypal. Funny how they forgot to mention that. Anyway, in my second year, Globat changed their programs around and offered a cheaper plan than what I had, with more features, including 1,000 Gigs of disk space (instead of the 5 gigs I had).

So I called them and the catch was, I had to pay $40 setup fee. But after doing the math, it turned out to still be cheaper anyway, AND I got more features. So I decided to go ahead with it. When I was signing up, I found out that even though their front page says, “$6.95 / month,” what they don’t tell you is that you have to sign up for 2 years to get that price.  Oh well. Even at the 1 year price of $7.95, it was still cheaper than my old plan.

So everything seemed to be good.

But today, I tried to login and got a message that I didn’t pay my invoice. The invoice was for the $40 setup fee that I had paid back in May and thought it was taken care of. Obviously, it wasn’t.

So I called customer service and everything seemed okay. They confirmed that indeed I had paid and they would credit it towards the invoice. Next, they had a new invoice for the following 12 months.

But there were 2 charges on the invoice that I needed removed.  The first was for unlimited sub-domains, which was included free with the new plan, and the second was the yearly domain registration. Since I had moved my domain to godaddy.com, I should not have to pay.  All this seemed obvious to me, but not to them apparently. In any case, the customer service guy told me that he could not remove these extra charges, and that he would transfer me to sales.

Sales?

You and I know damn well the sales department can’t help me but before I can say, “WTF?”, on I go to sales. The guy in sales sounded like a true car salesman. Anywoo, as expected, he sends me right back to customer service. Luckily, I got a lady that knew a little more about how to help me, and indeed managed to take the charges off. Yes!

But this is after being on with them for 57 minutes. Yes, I know the exact time in minutes because I have Vonage which tells me the exact length for each and every call.

After hanging up, I try again to pay the invoice. When I tried to pay by my prefered method of using paypal, I get an error message saying that my credit card was refused. Interesting, since I wasn’t using a credit card. So I call customer service again. This time, only for 5 minutes. She told me I have to use a credit card now because apparently, it turns out they no longer accept paypal. Strange how the screen showed paypal as my prefered method of payment anyway.

Okay, I’m getting tired of this bullshit so I decide to pay by credit card to get it over with. I enter my number and press “pay.” Another error message. I call back customer service, this time it’s just 1 minute. They tell me that my mailing address doesn’t match my credit card address. I tell them that it’s my personal credit card so the addresses are different. She tells me that in order to process my request, I have to temporarily change my address, submit the payment, then change the address back.

WTF?! What year is this again? Let’s take Amazon.com, for example. They allow you to have a billing address, a shipping address, and a separate credit card address. Yes, 3 addresses. Globat has one. Are these guys just learning to use the Internet or something?

As you may have surmised, this experience didn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about globat.com. In fact, I think I’ll start figuring out my plans on moving to another host.

Everyone that’s read my blog knows how I hate myspace, but I use it to keep in touch with my friends.

Well, they just added the dumbest feature I’ve seen on a website that’s supposed to be worth over $600Mil. I guess they finally noticed that people were changing the design of their myspace page, so they added a profile editor. Their link says,

Check out the New MySpace Profile Editor NEW!
Now powered by Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer

I understand they have to make money with advertising. That’s okay with me. The part that’s insane is, after you design your new profile look, you get a screen that says,

Congratulations! You just created your very own customized MySpace profile! To complete this process and save your changes, click the ‘COPY’ button to grab the below code and then click the ‘PROFILE EDIT’. Paste the code at the bottom of the ‘I’d Like to Meet’ section. That’s it. Woo

Woo!? Woo my ass. You mean it took this long to come up with code that tells you to copy and paste some HTML code into your profile… you mean the exact same way people have been hacking their myspace page since the start!? You gotta be joking!

You may have heard that Jobs decided to port Apple‘s browser, Safari, over to Windows XP, and Vista. I’m not a Mac user so I wanted to see how good Safari is and downloaded the updated Beta version 3.0.1 (which supposedly fixes some security flaws).

Sounds good in theory but after installing, it comes up with no text in the browser. Not even the usual menus like “File”, “Edit”, etc. Okay. I downloaded the “lite” version without QuickTime so I try again after uninstalling. Second try, same as the first.

Hmmm. I guess that’s why it’s a Beta version.