Thursday

Held Hostage by Uplinkearth

Uplinkearth is my server/site provider or whatever. I don't really understand any of it...but I pay my money every year to keep my Marcyphotos.com site up and working. That is all I know. A few weeks ago I decided to wanted to move this little blog to my own domain (will be Marcywrites.com) and to the Wordpress platform to have more control over layout and photo size. So I contact a person who does this sort of thing, and give her every single username and password I have for my domain, the server, my blog etc. She e-mails me to tell me she cannot get Uplinkearth to add my new domain to my profile. So I agree to contact them. That is when the hell began. Here is the sequence.
1. Use the Live Chat feature they promote-and I am told 'you can not make that change on-line, you need to call support number' (now this is an INTERNET company. Why on earth CAN'T I do this simple change on line?)
2. Call Support number. Wait 35 minutes. I am disconnected
3. Call Support number again. Wait an HOUR and half. I give up...
4. I go back on line and e-mail the company.
5. Call Tech number and beg to be transferred over to Support. They refuse and tell me to call direct.
6. Call Support number again. On hold for close to 2 hours. I carry the phone with me around the house on speaker....Tucker accidentally hangs it up. I cry. I actually CRY.
7. Back on line. E-mail every e-mail address I can find online. Every department.
8. Find an obscure fax number from press release online. I fax them the following:
" I am desperate. Whoever receives this fax...please help me"
I am a hostage. This was note to the outside. Still no one calls. No one e-mails.
9. Find a contact number for an executive for their parent company Luxmovera. I call his extension. I leave a message. I then call and use about 20 random extensions until someone answers. I explain my frustration. The guy is nice. But HE can't help me. He actually suggests I call SUPPORT number. I cry. He then gives me a 'special' direct number and tells me to call in the morning.
10. Stay up till midnight to try and call their 24/7 support line. On hold. Falling asleep. Give up.
11. 7:00am come downstairs and dial 'special number'. Man answers. He wants to know HOW I got his number. I explain whole story. He is MAD. But not at me. At his company. I think this may have been the darn CEO for all I know. He hangs up. Takes care of everything. Calls me back 10 minutes later and says it is all taken care of. I tell him thank you of course and hang up. He calls back again to tell me he just doubled checked my profile himself and he wanted me to know it was all really fixed. I say thanks again.
So it is over. My hostage ordeal is over. I made it out alive. But I am worse for the ordeal. I am stunned a company can treat its customers like this- and yet in big bold letters have "24/7 Support!!!" on their home page. LIES. all LIES. And I can not switch providers since I just paid my annual fee.....I would lose it.(unless uplink will refund me...are you reading this Uplink?) But I can ASSURE you I will switch when this year is up. Oh yes I will......until then..... Upyours-Uplink.....

12 comments:

Candid Carrie said...

You are their best advertising. Re-do your post and use their real name in the title and several times in your post that way anyone who googles the company has an opportunity to find out about your experience.

I dread automated phone call systems!

Amy said...

um...holy cow is all I can say! If it was me I'd personally write to their company and the CEO and complain in details. It sounds ridiculous all the rigmarole you have to go through. I'm a website designer by trade and when I had my own domain name and used wordpress changing anything around to do with it was a 5 minute job. Shame on your internet company!

Ann Harrison said...

Oh Marcy this sounds way too stressful!
(I realized that I was holding my breath when I finished reading!)
I'm glad you got through, mark the day of the switch!

Victoria said...

i miss the days when you called a company and a live person answered and transferred you to another live person - this is so ridiculous what you had to go through and companies wonder why they lose business - hmmmmmm.... don't have to a brain surgeon to figure it out

V

Rachael Elisabeth-Cahours Acklin said...

Don't worry, we'll take them down. *evil plot commences*

Anonymous said...

What a NIGHTMARE. But I want to know WHO YOU GOT THROUGH TO?!?!

Note to self: Do not mess with Marcy.

Gina said...

UGH!!!!
(I loved that- Upyours-Uplink!! hahahahaha!!!)

PlungerGirl said...

I use GoDaddy for my domains/hosting and HIGHLY recommend them. there are some confusing bits on the website and they annoyingly try to sell you *helpful* tools, but the customer service is excellent. Plus you can get all sorts of discount coupons to get cheaper fees.

I can't believe I'm posting this. Totally LAME.

Anonymous said...

Please Help Me! Please Help Me!

I just found your blog.... I'm stuck in this predicament.... its been 3 months.... No one answers the phone... no one answers the emails... Uplinkearth have my company's domain.... I am going to cry also.

I dont know what to do.

I just want access to my domain... so I can do a domain transfer.. but my domains admin contact specifies dns@uplinkearth.com, not my email... so i can't transfer it!


As I write this I have been on the phone for 45 minutes (its 3.30am here in Australia)... its an international call.... The music just stopped... and ive been disconnected.

Your blog has given me a glimmer of hope with that phone number.. Can you please... (I beg)... please... let me know what it is..

I think your my only hope. I wont mention where I got it from.. but I need to make contact.. somehow...
This is my business... my livelyhood... Im stuck.

Please email me...

brewskos @ hotmail . com

(obviously no spaces in the email)


Thank you, please help me!
-Simon

Anonymous said...

I'm going through the same hell, right now, UplinkEarth is Terrble. I'm on hold right now, been on hold for an hour and this is the second call. Here's the events. I might as well right it all down, cuz they still have me on hold of course.

1. They sent me an email saying my domain would expire in 10 days and to go to UplinkEarth.com to renew.
2. First of all there is no place on UplinkEarth that I can renew, or at least find a place to renew.
3. I contact chat, chat tells me I have to call. Call 1, wait wait, wait. About 45 minutes and give up.
4. So I decide I'm going to just register this with my good company, 1and1.com. They tell me I have to get the Authorization Code for the domain from Uplink Earth, Craaappppppp. Call again and am still on hold.

Summary, This is absolutely the worst company I've ever dealt with in hosting. Not to mention, that they screwed up their security, and one day I notice all my domains were pointing to some Hacker's site.

Now being the nice guy I am, I tried to stay with this company, knowing that they were hacked, and thought I would stay with them through the turmoil. Well now it is just worse, their whole enviroment is differnent than anyone else. No Cpanel, Domain Manager is on a differnt site, that noone knows about unless you call and wait for hours. By the way I'm still on hold.

Summary, If I wanted to jump through hoops for the sake of security, at least put the hoop close to the ground. This company is terrible, and the sooner someone picks up their phone, the happier I am going to be, to get out of it. Still waiting on hold...la di da, If I hear another PBS song from that cd for eletronic instruments, I'm going to puke. You know the one from that commercial where all the instruments are virtual electronic adaptions of guitarts, strings, etc.

Still Waiting.... Oh well, back to my hell. Needed to Vent

Anonymous said...

If this helps anyone: here is the site they gave me to use as a domain manager. No, they haven't answered my phone calls, I just dug this up from my other hell episode about 2 weeks ago.

access.enom.com

Evidently they outsourced their domain manager service, and didn't bother to tell any of their customers. but it looks like I can only change the DNS settings. How the heck I renew, (not with them) and get the domain authorizatin code, I have no idea.

Anonymous said...

I would like to follow up on my earlier post. (I am Simon above.)

I ended up gaining access to my domain after about 2 months of telephone calls.

All the departments refused to help, they would divert me to another department, or would ask me to call back, or told me they'd email me. I was even hung up on a few times when the person I was talking with didn't know the answer.

I ended up completely closing my account with them over the phone, twice. I was asked to put it also in an email, which I did (and never got a response from).

The billing stopped, thankfully... until about 8 months later when It started again. Not only where they charging me, but they were charging something like $100 a month, when my old account was at about $200 - $300 per year. At this point I tried to call then and email them. No answering of the phone at the billing department, and all other departments refused to help me. I told the other departments that billing never answered the phone, and they said it was not their problem. i asked for managers, or names of anyone, i was told they wouldnt tell me. I was hung up on. I begged the other departments to pass a message to billing, they refused.

At this point, I decided I must be involved in a scam or some sort. I did a lot of research, and tried to trace down who owns the company... It was sold to hostopia, who then on sold it, who then old sold it, who then on sold it.. very difficult.. if you want to get anywhere with your problem.

I ended up contacting the local US embassy in Australia (my home country) and informing them of the problem, I contacted the FBI and made a complaint, I contacted various state departments and filed complaints in the US (in the states i was guessing they existed in). I contacted a lawyer and then contacted my bank's fraud department showing them all correspondance with all the other US departments, and filing official fraud complaints. I also told them to google the company and read all the other people who are suffering with the same issues.

The fraud department said... "Sir, dont worry, we know its difficult for you to find these companies, but we do this on a daily basis, leave it to us".

Well, a week or two later I got a call from the fraud department, Sir its all done. We have the money back in your account.

Supposedly, the bank convenes with the bank of the other company to make contact (although dont take my word for this).


Uplinkearth emailed me and informed me my accounts were closed.

Finally, I can close off the problem for good.