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VPSDime VPS Dime Refusal to remove personal information, Delete server data if late, Rude Nationwide
Had service with VPSDime for 1-1.5 years. One month I was unable to pay on time so they terminated removing all my data of the server I was renting. This was my fault for being late, but should be noted to potential client's that do not wish to have the same happen to them.
I contacted and requested to remove my data/personal information. I was told that they do not remove personal information and that it is used for tax purposes (so why not remove it when it's tax purposes have been exhausted?). The contact Alex Wacker was rude I'm not sure how these people stay in business. I would think it is a normal concern to not have a company store your personal information especially when you have used your credit info to make payments through them.
I will attach the email responses and my request so that everyone else can get their own opinion and hopefully prevent someone else from giving them information or loosing their data.
Here are links to screenshots concerning the issue.
IMAGE: My request to remove information.
IMAGE: Response regarding my request.
http://postimg.org/image/ybzzklw2b
http://postimg.org/image/in5kdioir
5 Updates & Rebuttals
Let's move on I will look into removing this report
#6Author of original report
Wed, March 16, 2016
All in all severian VPSDime did do me great. You are correct in saying they extended the period for me when I requested over paypal removing the guest feature and the fact I did not want to add the card I used for the service to paypal. The only problems I had was when I called it silly to remove the data and about upgrading. I did receive many emails reminding me to make payment that is also true. The real problem I had was with Mr. Whacker's approach.
I will look into removing this report completely, but let's move forward I have no hard feelings toward VPSDime and don't want to continue flaming the company out of respect for the polite responses I have received after the fact.
Response to owner
#6Author of original report
Wed, March 16, 2016
As I stated it was my fault that I was late. I would have posted the whole conversation as challenged by the owner below if I had not been 'bluntly' removed from my account when I was asked if I wanted my account removed in which I never said to that I did indeed want that. It's okay no big deal Olivia @ the company wrote me a email and I'm over it. Olivia is a very professional representative of the company.
I would welcome the owner to post the whole conversation from start to end. I was never once told "after x period of time we will remove your personal information", but instead the 'blunt' responses and remark about 'paying customers' (even though I had been a customer over the course of 1-1.5 years or so. I guess my measly money in this person's eyes was not worthy of respect or politeness.
I can also update this report with my sincere responses to Olivia and as you will notice when you give someone respect you get it back. I did not plan on replying to this until I received a update (after of course I had attempted to make things right on this report)
Main reason I wrote this response:
In the owner's reply to my original response they stated that they request all new customers to read the TOS. Funny to me that the terms of service stated the following (about personal information being removed) and just to make things easy I will post the emails to show how that turned out:
Myself
Cancellation:
You must submit a cancellation request from Your authenticated client area to cancel Your service with Us. You may cancel Your service with Us at any time for any reason. We do not accept cancellation requests by email, support tickets sent via unauthenticated means, or live chat. We do not grant exceptions. All account credits will be forfeited at the time of cancellation. You may request that We delete all of Your personal information at the time of cancellation.
VPSDime Response Email
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not maintained. Please use our ticket system instead.
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Hello,
Yes that is correct. In order to properly cancel your service you need to submit a cancellation request. This makes sure the service goes down when you are aware and signals to us that you want to end your service. This does not mean we keep your data forever if you do not pay us or submit a cancellation request.
At the same TOS link:
"Our services provided on a rolling subscription basis. You may choose the subscription term when You order from Us. Thereafter, Your service will indefinitely renew on the anniversary of each term until cancelled as descried herein.
Our automated billing system runs daily at 12:00am CST (-8 UTC).
We bill two weeks before the invoice due date.
We will send a payment reminder the same day that the invoice is due.
We will send invoice overdue notices on the first, second, and third day an invoice is overdue.
If You do not pay the invoice by the 4th day after the invoice is due, We will suspend Your service and a late fee of 10% of the invoice will be issued. You will be notified that Your service has been suspended.
If You do not pay the invoice by the 7th day after the invoice is due, We will terminate Your service, without notice. Upon termination, Your service data will be irrevocably deleted.
It is Your responsibility to ensure that steps are taken to receive all email communications from Us, and to keep track of due dates for Your services. We will not offer compensation for service downtime stemming from suspension/termination if You do not keep track of service due dates"
--
Alex Wacker
VPSDime Team
Follow us @ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vpsdime
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Ticket ID: #412716
Subject: jkracing
Status: Answered
Ticket URL: https://vpsdime.com/viewticket.php?tid=412716&c=x7CU3iYd
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Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not maintained. Please use our ticket system instead.
Myself
VPSDime Response Email
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not maintained. Please use our ticket system instead.
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My mistake I thought this was a different ticket in my last reply.
As mentioned earlier, we are legally required to keep the information for many years.
As for the TOS, that refers to the closing of account. It doesn't fully delete the information.
We will update the wording to be more clear.
--
Alex Wacker
VPSDime Team
Follow us @ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vpsdime
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Ticket ID: #412716
Subject: jkracing
Status: Answered
Ticket URL: https://vpsdime.com/viewticket.php?tid=412716&c=x7CU3iYd
END
Here is my response from Andy Whacker after I stated that he could be stubborn or rude about removing my personal information that I would seek legal advice:
Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not maintained. Please use our ticket system instead.
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Hello,
We are not a Canadian company, nor are we a U.S. company.
Threatening legal action will get you nowhere. As you insist on going that route, we will make no further comment.
--
Alex Wacker
VPSDime Team
Follow us @ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vpsdime
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Ticket ID: #412716
Subject: jkracing
Status: Closed
Ticket URL: https://vpsdime.com/viewticket.php?tid=412716&c=x7CU3iYd
serverian
Other,USA
Thank you to the customer
#6REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, March 16, 2016
I see that Olivia made things right.
I'd like to personally thank you for your understanding as well.
We work really hard to satisfy our customers, comments like these will only make us work harder and provide more quality service and it's joyful to see that we have come to an understanding.
VPSDime makes things right
#6Author of original report
Wed, March 16, 2016
Today I received the following email. After this response I regret that I filed this report in the first place. Please disregard and it seems VPSDime as a whole is a worthy company with people who care. The person who I will not mentin who took the time to write this response went out of their way to make things right. I accept their apology and apologize myself.
I WOULD recommend VPSDime.
Kenny,
This ticket has just come to my attention. I'm really sorry for the rude replies on this ticket. Please be sure that we'll take the necessary steps that noone ever receives replies like these.
The support staff who replied this ticket did not have the necessary information to handle it.
Please accept my sincere apologies and if it would make it up to you, I'd be more than happy if you accept a one year free VPS hosting service as an apology.
If you'd like, I can remove your account information from our online databases as well. (Offline should stay for at least 3 years due to the examples of necessities I've mentioned below)
Please note that we must keep a copy of the customer information due to many things such as taxes, fraudulent activity, criminal activity, court orders, etc. I'm sure if you think it that way you'd understand.
serverian
Other,Clarification
#6REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, March 16, 2016
I'd like to clear the allegations regarding this report.
Removal of the service/data:
Our terms of service (https://vpsdime.com/tos.html) is pretty clear about the payment terms:
"Our services provided on a rolling subscription basis. You may choose the subscription term when You order from Us. Thereafter, Your service will indefinitely renew on the anniversary of each term until cancelled as descried herein.
Our automated billing system runs daily at 12:00am CST (-8 UTC).
We bill two weeks before the invoice due date.
We will send a payment reminder the same day that the invoice is due.
We will send invoice overdue notices on the first, second, and third day an invoice is overdue.
If You do not pay the invoice by the 4th day after the invoice is due, We will suspend Your service and a late fee of 10% of the invoice will be issued. You will be notified that Your service has been suspended.
If You do not pay the invoice by the 7th day after the invoice is due, We will terminate Your service, without notice. Upon termination, Your service data will be irrevocably deleted.
It is Your responsibility to ensure that steps are taken to receive all email communications from Us, and to keep track of due dates for Your services. We will not offer compensation for service downtime stemming from suspension/termination if You do not keep track of service due dates"
When someone signs up with our service, they are asked to read our TOS and then mark a checkbox that confirms that they have read and understand it.
Our TOS states that if a payment is 7 days late, then our automation software terminates the service as defined in our TOS. This is pretty clear. It's not hidden anywhere.
Furthermore, we also have a 3 day grace period after this 7 days to give our customers more time to handle the overdue invoices. So, our system terminates the services that are 10 days overdue with billing.
Yet, we extend billing dates to any customers who contacts us and let us know that they need more time to pay their bills. We have never turned anyone down. Even the ones who asked for this courtesy service multiple times, such as the customer who has opened this so called "ripoff" report. That's right, the customer has contacted us many times for us to allow them more time to pay their overdue invoices, and we have done it every single time. If they had contacted us for this last one as well, we would have been more than happy to do it again.
Request to remove personal information:
We are obligated by many law to store information for the services we provide for a certain amount of time. This is due to the taxes, requirements for the tracking of criminals, etc. As a web hosting company, when we receive a subpoena, we have to prove that we are providing a service to an end customer who may be responsible for the crimes which occured from the IP address(es) we provide to our customers.
We do not store any financially sensitive data. We do not store any credit card info. The only information we store is the IP address that the customer has signed up to our service with us from and contact information as well as the accounting entries such as transaction date, amount, etc.
Rudeness in the ticket replies:
While I agree that the language used in the ticket responses by our staff member is blunt, I can guarantee that our staff member has never wanted to offend the customer even after the threats of public defaming (The customer has not included their own replies in this report so, it's not shown that he has threaten us with it if they can't get their way). We will however, work harder to make sure not to offend any of our customers in the future.
Final Words:
While I agree, there is no way to keep everyone happy in any business, I believe that we are doing a d**n good job to satisfy our customers and provide the best service as humanly as possible for their money.