Kazix / Fatnetwork / "Mark" And "Jacob"

A year ago I started up a website for me and some friends. By the end of last year ( December ) the website had died and I knew that I ( being a broke college student ) wouldn't have the funds to pay for a renewal.

I contacted Kazix and told them I was having trouble figuring out how to cancel my account and asked if they could do it for me or inform me how. I received the following email on Dec 18th 2007:

"Sir,

As soon as the hosting is about to end. You will get notice from our billing department.

-- Regards, Mark Senior Administrator fatnetwork.net/"

I figured this email would tell me how to cancel my account if I did not wish to renew it. I never received such an email.

I found out Friday that my banking account was over-drawn. I thought this was through my own error, but when I looked closely today, I noticed it was because 2co.com, the third-party billing company used by Kazix/Fatnetwork, had charged me for hosting renewal and had caused my account to go negative.

I sent them an email informing them that I had asked back in December for my account NOT to be renewed and that they had in fact went ahead and renewed it anyways. I requested that they reimburse me the charge of the domain, hosting, and overdraft. I had wrongly thought that my domain name was processed through them as well.

I received an email from billing@fatnetwork.com saying:

"Your domain is not registered by KAZIX – only hosted
See WHOIS by yourself
The respond you got not from us – from GoDaddy – your domain registrant

( Who is removed )

You never requrested a cancellation from us – blame yourself for over drafting, you should know where your account hosting with
I’ll refund the charge of $44.99 and cancel the 2CO subscription as well as your account with KAZIX– that’s all I can do for you"

I wasn't really expecting them to reimburse my overdraft charges ( really, why should they pay for their mistake that harms others? ). And I fully admit that I did honestly forget that my domain name was registered by my husband and not by Kazix. What did surprise me was the tone of the email. I did use the Kazix's contact form on their website to request that my hosting be stopped. Why would I contact Go-Daddy if I had completely forgot that they were the ones in charge of my domain? If I hadn't contacted Kazix, why did Mark send me an email from fatnetwork in response to my request to cancel my account? Yeah. Someone was just being rude and snippy because they didn't want to admit that they made a mistake.

I sent a reply back to the rude man and informed him that I found his email to be very rude and not a good way to handle customers. I also informed him that I did use the contact page on Kazix's website and that I fully knew who my hosting was through.

I received this email as a reply:

"I’m sure you have some other things to do Saturday night – not only be rude
I’ve responded you( from home, because billing is working only Mon-Fri )
I’ve refunded your charge immediately
I’m very glad you are not our customer anymore
Have a great weekend
Jacob
Billing Department"

Me and my husband were both floored when we read this. Who would handle customer support this way? I couldn't believe that he would have the gall to call me rude just for me pointing out his own rudeness. Then of course there is the nice touch of "I'm very glad you are not our customer anymore." Could you imagine someone in retail or any other face-to-face business practice saying this to you?

You know I didn't leave Kazix because I found it to be "bad." I just left it because of my own financial reasons. I had some technical problems with them before and found them to be helpful. If I hadn't experienced all of this, I probably would have recommended them to others and used them again. Now? I seem them as a shady group of characters who care more about their customer's money than they do about their actual customers.

As I see it now, they obviously did not want me to cancel my hosting with them and obviously wanted to renew my account for the money. What about my say in not wanting their services anymore and wanting to keep what little money I had left in my checking account? It didn't matter.

Stay away from Kazix and Fatnetwork. Let my bad experiences be your warning.