Are you a current customer of theplanet?
I will pay you to switch away from theplanet! (and I don't care who you switch to). If you are a current customer and thinking about moving elsewhere, contact me and I'll pay your moving cost up to $500. Why? Just because I really dislike how they treated me. To take advantage of this offer, just contact me (jc @ thisdomain.com).  This offer probably won't last forever...

Are you thinking about using theplanet?
So you are looking for a hosting provider and thinking about The Planet...

As someone who has run several internet focused companies, I can tell you that service is one of the most important criteria when selecting a provider. I've worked with a few providers and I am personally very disappointed with the service provided by theplanet.com, and want to urge you to look elsewhere when making a selection.

I can provide several examples of bad service, the most recent one that pissed me off is with their billing department. One of my companies was aquired by a larger company so I didn't need the servers providing service anymore. I called Theplanet to close the account, and was told I need to open a ticket to close the account. Ok, fine.. I dug up my login details and logged in and opened a ticket requesting the account be closed. Because I don't use the email accounts associated with the account, I asked them to email me or call me if they needed any additional information to close the account. I didn't hear anything so I assumed the account was closed as I requested - we had already shutdown the servers so there is no easy way to tell. To my surprise I was billed for $468 dollars the next month. I logged back into the account and found they closed the ticket and never contacted me outside of their system. No problem, I'll just contact them and explain what happened and they'll reverse the charge - right? They refused over and over to credit back saying it was my fault even though:

I had called to close the account I had submitted a written request to close the account through their ticket system as I was asked to do I had shutdown our servers I had provided my contact details asking them to contact me if any further action was required I had been a loyal customer for several years I have spent tens of thousands of dollars and hosting several companies with them.

Regardless of fault (I assert it's their fault for not contacting me), they should be willing to extend a small amount of flexability to a customer of several years!

This incident has zero financial impact on me personally since the bill is paid by someone else - I just feel a strong need to warn people away from their service. Now, not only am I moving all of my other servers and accounts elsewhere, I'm going to actively and publically boycott theplanet by buying advertising space on google and other places.

Update: I found out my second request to close the account failed and they are continuing to charge my credit card. Apparently if you have multiple servers you must cancel each one individually, even though the like you click on says clearly "Cancel Service".

Thanks for reading...

Jonathan Clark

Since posting this, I've helped numerous people move away from the planet.   For example:

"Jonathan, thank you so much for sending me $240

thank you for honoring and keeping your word.

it was the nicest xmas gift I got to be compensated for leaving the planet, in fact it was such a nice payment, I'm thinking of now moving my second dedicated server away from the planet.

Sincerely, Mark"

I've also been contacted by a lot of people who have similar experiences:

Jack writes:

Here's an email from me to them on April 14 th ..

I canceled the service on April the 1st - 2009 -- As you can see by the ticket below . I was told by Stephanie C that she would forward the ticket to the proper location . PERIOD -- This contract was canceled on April 8 -- confirmed by my sales representative. I do not believe that any reasonable person would disagree that I canceled on April the 1st. I believe this is an attempt to essentially take another months rent from me based on a semantics trick. I have sent the planet a lot of money -- and by most standards I would be considered a good customer. I want the $1451 back ASAP -- I will continue to press this issue until you do the right thing.

I am requesting that my bank dispute the charges made April 14th. I have been told that BB&T can dispute the charges and I will be entitled to further evidence that you have a right to take the money -- See the comments by Stephanie C below --

Please advise as to whom I might contact regarding this situation . You have over drawn my checking account and I plan to bill you for the over draft fees.

I am not normally a difficult person -- but I have paid considerable dollars to the planet -- and I am not going to just toss $1500 out the window because you say I did cancel using the proper procedure when you own personnel agreed to forward the request to the proper location . In reality -- this is just bad business on your part as you know from my tickets that I tried to cancel the contract numerous times.
 

On July 14th I got this billing adjustment :

7/14/2009 12017 NONE NONE Service Credit 5791392PLNT ($319.00) 1.00 $0.00 ($319.00)
7/14/2009 12017 NONE NONE Service Credit 5791435PLNT ($269.00) 1.00 $0.00 ($269.00)
7/14/2009 12017 NONE NONE Service Credit 5791436PLNT ($269.00) 1.00 $0.00 ($269.00)
7/14/2009 12017 NONE NONE Service Credit 5791439PLNT ($269.00) 1.00 $0.00 ($269.00)
7/14/2009 12017 NONE NONE Service Credit 5791449PLNT ($325.00) 1.00 $0.00 ($325.00)

Which adds up to $1451 .. But the same bill said :
Totals
Previous Balance Sales Tax Payments Balance
$156.00 $0.00 $156.00 $0.00

But I had no freaking previous balance .. Just another RIP .. You do not get a previous balance when they charge your credit card.

I am going to follow up on that now -- I was so pissed at them that I let it go.

I called them repeatedly .. I had 10 tickets regarding the situation before they did a damn thing.

good luck ,

Jack
 

Borg writes:

Thought I would share that we are also very unhappy with them. We have published the support tickets to the web showing they charge for back up but never can produce them when needed. Not one of our back up requests were ever fulfilled and they are not refunding the charges for the failed services, except in part. Here is the evidence: http://208.69.126.185/

I published this for distribution to the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Agency, the Better Business Bureau, and to share with people I know who are in the industry and hopefully save them the trouble I went through. Also for documentation purposes as we are going to close the account soon.

Jeff writes: 
Sorry you had to go through that... seems like you're not the only one. Look at webhostingtalk :)
 

Paim writes:
We are currently Moving a server from theplanet to burstnet

they are severely over pricing with no *ucking support and they are also shutting down servers for one silly email complaint that came from no where

I persuaded the my client to move away from planet at any cost :),

Now we have ordered new servers with burstnet and are doing the migration .

i just want to congratulate the kind of effort you have put in

PS. I am Web Developer so incase your not kidding about your 500 deal..i can get my client whos moving to contact you!

yes, I'm serious :)

Webhostingreviews.com:

These guys are bordering on fradulent - zero customer care
I had to stop using the account because they changed code on my .htaccess file without my permission.

This could have been due to maintenance on their part... OK - then the problems begin.

In order to close your account - you have to log in. EXCEPT - the system will not let me log in. I write software, so I do know how to request a password, login and change. EXCEPT - it will not let me chage it.

So, you call tech support - wow! they send you to a message center - no answer - imagine that.

You email - customer service - no answer you email tech support - no answer.

Call "customer service" and they tell you they can't stop billing - imagine that!

This is a scam - these guys are unreputable - I have spent hours and hundreds of $$ (dedicated server) with no support, no help and billing.

Finally had to file a fraud charge with VISA - but the charges keep growing at $200 a month - no one to complain to...

Meanwhile - I can recommend RackSpace - class organization - their c loud servers are the best! Love them
 

I canceled my account on October 2nd with them and requested a full refund for the month of October. They said that they will not give a refund because the server (hardware) was operational even though the software was messed up. Now, from the original install and setup of the server it did not work. They would not fix it nor would they reinstall the OS without a charge. I am not sure but it seems like bad business to me that they treat customers like this. What is the most important thing here is that I canceled the account on October 2nd and am being billed for the month of October of which I am not using because the server is still broken.

I ordered the server on the 2nd and got the server on the 5th. I canceled the broken server account on the 2nd and was billed for the next month.

My recommendation would be to not use The Planet for any hosting needs. They ripped me off and several other people I have talked to and read about.
 

From webhostingstuff.com

http://www.webhostingstuff.com/comments/ThePlanet-19704.html

This guy's server was "reclaimed" and all data on it was erased after he was 6 days late in payment!  wow!    I had the same problem, the credit card associated with on of our servers expired and we didn't know about it.  The result:  your server gets shutdown almost instantly.   You would think theplanet would at least try to reach you by telephone first.