ServInt Have Ripped Us Off - Is This Normal? - Knowledgebase

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ServInt Have Ripped Us Off - Is This Normal?

Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-18-2016, 11:51 PM
Our company has had an account with ServInt for years now, prepaying annually to get a 10% discount on our dedicated 4 core, SSD cloud server. We terminated our services with them recently, moved hosts, and still had $1800+ in our account ($1500 approx for refund after final month withdrawn). They notified us that it would be refunded to our paypal account in which we paid, yet they haven't. We've contacted them, now 4 times, since Sep 10, which was the closing day for the account. No response. They won't reply to email or contact through their website. Living in Australia presents some challenges for normal hours and phoning, but I guess that will have to be the next step. Has anyone experienced anything like this from this company? I honestly thought they were reputable, yet they have now closed our account, after I sent them a screenshot of their support person stating they would refund the leftover monies from the support ticket closing out the account. The impression I can only ascertain at this time... is that they're cutting us off from any communication and stealing our money, which I really don't get, but that is the jist of it 9 days after account termination. If they sent me a message saying the payment is scheduled for a certain day... that would be something, but zero communication. Are ServInt in financial trouble or something? I'm somewhere between frustrated and astonished, at present. Last edited by anthonyparsons; 09-18-2016 at 11:55 PM.
Posted by net, 09-18-2016, 11:55 PM
If you have $1800+ with them, I am sure you can afford to call. Just showing how eager you are in getting your refund :-)
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 12:04 AM
It was never about "affording" to call, it is merely another inconvenience to call them, Australia to US, considering the vast difference in times. We sleep, US work hours. Vice versa. Unsure of your comment, otherwise.
Posted by MechanicWeb-shoss, 09-19-2016, 12:18 AM
It's kind of unfortunate when you do not receive the expected service and some convenience from a company you had a relationship for years. It is confusing. A refund is mostly a convenience offered by the provider, that says no hard feelings, we'd love your business again. Unless otherwise, there is something that might encourage them to stop the refund.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 12:34 AM
Yer... that is what I'm wondering too. I would honestly expect a company to contact us though, if something arose that they deemed would no longer be committing the refund they stated for our credit with them. Honestly, I'm not sure whether they can keep it... because it isn't for an actual service, it is literally credit, in lieu, that they hold which provides an overall 10% discount on the monthly cost. Their response was quite clear, to me: They asked why we left, and I wrote them the reply... which was really that they were just too expensive now compared to what seems to be a market normal, being about half their price for SSD cloud. Even the Net person above, looking at their packages, and they are a bit over half as much as what ServInt charge. They used to be really good for the value of what you got vs dollars paid, but the industry has changed and they are now seriously expensive for what they offer. They took away a whole lot of their customer support, wanting more $$$ for that too... and well... we left and found services cheaper elsewhere, and got more as a result. I just honestly never thought a company like this would be so negligent in customer support. I really hope a phone call goes better. If not... then I guess I need to start learning about who to contact in the US about this.
Posted by MechanicWeb-shoss, 09-19-2016, 01:18 AM
That sounds like a plan to me. You should keep your resources on hand. At the same time, try to make contact with them and keep records of any such communication.
Posted by HostWithLove_Cody, 09-19-2016, 01:40 AM
You might want to censor the screenshot as your personal details are shown there. If they had not been providing you any update on the refund progress via the support ticket, I would suggest reaching out to the company via social media platforms like Twitter, etc... sort of give them a push to react.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 01:48 AM
That's ok, my wife and I are publicly online via our names, so not an issue. Actually hadn't thought of that... thank you, will go and do now.
Posted by Mike_A, 09-19-2016, 02:03 AM
That sucks, if it's been this long and you haven't received a refund, I'm glad you made a thread here. Usually when a company is named publicly to show their shady (****** is a better word?) tactics it usually speeds things up. Best of luck to you. I'd never recommend pre-paying on a yearly term for dedicated servers no matter what company or how reputable they seem to be. VPS/shared hosting is a different matter since it's cheaper, but you're spending much more.
Posted by A2 - Alex, 09-19-2016, 03:39 AM
ServInt is quite a large company so if the funds in your account is eligible to be sent back to you, then I wouldn't imagine they would cut off communication like that. Their business / reputation is worth a lot more than $1800 after all. I'd try social media as mentioned above. Honestly, for that amount I think it would be worth trying all options and staying online during their business hours to give them a call. They can't really ignore you when you're on the phone to them.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 04:26 AM
Thanks A2 Hosting. Yer... I've never had issues with them, and all of a sudden this is going to crap real fast, and I just don't understand why. I used content from my tickets and such, that I had snap shotted, in my emails... and my portal access is now removed too. I don't understand how such a small sum can be such a big issue to communicate with me over. Yer, I'm going to try phone tonight. Will be a late one... but I figure the same, and if they hang up on me, then I guess something is really wrong. If not, hopefully they give me some logical answer to what is happening.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 04:49 AM
I really have to stop looking around online... whilst I don't put a whole bunch of weight in random angry posts (everyone has angry customers), one graph scares me a little, and one comment got my attention to be quite factual, relating to their increase in VPS pricing when the rest of the industry is lowering them... well... slashing them, actually (one big reason I moved hosts). The big drop... was where they changed their customer support, from memory... wanting an extra $100 a month for customer support.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 09:11 AM
Well... lets see what happens. I got through to them, but billing still isn't in yet... but they know I am atleast serious. When you send an email, get no response, go into the portal and take quotes of ticket information to send, to verify the agreement, then get locked out of the support portal - to me that isn't coincidence. So got through to their sales, had a lovely lady called Catrina who was very helpful, took me quite seriously, and is passing on all the relevant details to billing, hoping they simply had some sort of oversight issue, made a mistake, and process the refund IAW the agreement in writing made via tickets prior to contract termination. There was a promise made by myself, that I have within my capacity to enact... but for now I will stick with the belief it was oversight and a mistake... and they meant to honor their word. I will see soon enough within the next 48hrs. Thank you for the advice and guidance as given -- honestly this has been a little daunting.
Posted by whmcsguru, 09-19-2016, 01:53 PM
Something like this is really going to leave a black mark as far as servint is concerned. They're a pretty large company, there's absolutely no excuse for not doing what they said they were going to do, or requiring you to call them. If you placed the order online, there should need to be absolutely zero interaction via any other method. None. Companies need to start respecting their customers (or in this case, former customers). It's absolutely ridiculous that one has to inconvenience themselves simply for the pleasure and whim of a business, no mater how large, or small.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 05:37 PM
Well, awoke to a nice email reassuring me that my previous emails had gone into spam, and that the refund will be actioned before the next billing cycle on the 21st. So a day or two, fingers crossed. Even though coincidences have occurred, I am happy that a positive resolution is happening, and they are sticking to their written word that was agreed via ticket prior to account cessation. Happy here. I thought it was just me who thought this. I thought online ordering was meant to make things fast, convenient and easy, and that ticket systems allow direct resolution.
Posted by SenseiSteve, 09-19-2016, 05:56 PM
Well, it sounds like this may be resolved after all. Please let us know if they follow through. Good luck to you, sir.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-19-2016, 09:43 PM
Awesome, they followed through now and refunded the credit I had with them for the remaining months of the prepaid year. Thank you everyone for your help and wise words here, seriously appreciated.
Posted by Nnyan, 09-20-2016, 04:28 PM
Glad to see that it worked out. Just my two bits here but I really stay away from yearly payments.
Posted by anthonyparsons, 09-20-2016, 05:48 PM
Thanks, yer... I won't ever be doing it again. A little nightmarish in getting it back.

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