Buyer Beware

[ClanBanzi]

I have been with this company for some time. As a general rule despite how popular the Mods and options you put on the server it is not picked up well by most steam accounts. My clan could play Dust2 for 2 hours and only see maybe 2 or 3 fresh faces. The admin panel they use is superb, their customer service is lacking. I had my CC# stolen in July (no fault of counter-strike.com) and made arrangements to update the new number when recieved.

Fast forward to today, I received a call from Pete threatening to shut down my server if he did not talk to the CC holder immediately, due to an over sight the bank made in disputing charges made by the thief. My Bank said that The CC holder had disputed GameData.com's charges. A simple error that could be fixed easily. Mind you Pete had not separated with any monies paid to him yet and nor would he as we would have taken care of the bank ASAP. I do understand Petes concern as he is running a business. I was more than a little surprised by Pete's attitude given Pete is who I talked with and made arrangements through when the # was stolen. Especially given 2 billing cycles have gone and been paid
since with no issues and the charge being disputed was prior to the CC# update. Given that I could not produce the CC holder immediately his intent was to shut us off. I told him that I would have that person call him tomorrow and straighten things out. I also told him that if they were shut off I would no longer do business with counter-strike.com any longer given the amount of business I have done with them and what was going on now. In fairness to Pete he did offer to turn them back on and speak to the CC holder tomorrow, but whats the point. They had already been turned off , I have already paid for this months bill and I get a whole lot of attitude despite The record.

Fact: As soon as I knew the CC# had been stolen I contacted counter-strike.com and Informed them of what had happened and how I was going to fix it (Update the CC#)

Fact:I have always paid on time and in full.

Fact: I rented 2 servers and a Vent Server and wanted the billing to take place on the same day for them all and it took more than 2 months to accomplish that.

In closing I would like to say if you choose to rent here there are some nice positives about the servers good stable connections for example and moderately good tech service would be another. Beyond that given my experiences here I have chosen to take mys business elsewhere and suggest you may want to do the same.

Thanks
Eric

[Pete]

Eric,

I'm sorry for your account being disabled, but I simply asked to talk to the account holder when calling you. I certainly did not "threaten" to shut down your servers if I did not speak to the account holder. You seemed very upset when we talked on the phone and I believe you may not be remembering the events correctly. I was calling to verify if the charge back was done mistakenly or not since your account showed to have been an account that has been active for quite some time. I informed you that your account had been suspended because of the charge back. I let you know that it could simply be re-enabled, if you wanted to keep your account. You refused and told me to keep the account disabled and at your request it was deleted.

In no way was Counter-Strike.com responsible for this mistake. Once there is a dispute made to a credit card company the account is immediately disabled to avoid fraudulent charges. If you dispute a charge, I do not believe any company would keep your account active after that. You filled out the charge back that specifically said you did not authorize the transaction with our company. Our company name and charge was hand written on the report, so it was not a simple mistake where someone accidentally checked the wrong box when creating the report. We can send you a copy of the charge back so you can see that our charge was specifically selected as being an unauthorized charge by the account holder. The charge back had nothing to do with a mistake by your bank. By filing a charge back, you immediately suspended your account. You could have had your account simply re-enabled, but you refused.

When your credit card was lost you asked for an extension on your invoice until you could receive another card. We gladly gave you several more days after your invoice was due until you could pay. I believe we have done everything we possibly could do to provide you the best customer service experience and accommodated you in every way possible during your time with us.

Thanks,
Pete

[ClanBanzi]

Pete,

I feel you also are having a tough time remembering the events of the call. You were not and did not come across exactly as being "Nice" when you called my house about this issue. I do not necessarily blame you for "suspending" the account, However given the communication between you and I in the past on the theft issue and other issues (Both on the phone and via e-mail) that your demand (Threat) to speak with the CC holder immediately or this account would be (In your words here< not used on the phone to my recollection)"suspended" was uncalled for.

My refusal was based on you attitude with me on the phone, why would I want to continue? You asked to speak to the Account holder, you said to me If I cant speak to her right now or else..... You had already shut off the servers by your own admission on the phone, It was "policy" to "suspend" based on the claim, I understand that. But then all of a sudden you can turn the servers back on?? why bother. Believe it or not it was a small mistake made at the bank either by the bank or the card holder. There was over $5000 dollars in charges made from here to Cleveland and into Michigan that were disputed. It has spurred quite a problem. So In a mound of paper work at the bank and writing this and that covering well over 100 disputed charges could there have been a mistake? When you called had the Bank already taken back the money? or were they waiting on your investigation as to whether or not you would be coughing up the cash so to speak? Had you also not been paid via a new CC# in the next 2 billing cycles with out trouble from the same Bank?

So when you call an account that IS in good standing, and say "If I dont speak to the CC holder immediately your account is suspended" given all the communication we have had, why turn them back on. I feel the server should not have been shut off or suspended when you called and they already were. I feel that given the way it happened was rude. Never have you not been paid. I have spoke to you on the phone occasionally and e-mailed you as well. I am not inclined to continue to do business when I am approached this way. It is your policy to suspend immediately when you get a charge back, Fine again I understand that. Given the history though I would have thought it would behoove you to look before you leap.

I feel it is a shame that it came down this way really. It was rude, I do not intend to be treated this way over a simple and honest mistake period. If you had called and they had not already been turned off maybe things would have turned out differently. I do appreciate all the help I received on the servers and dealing with the extension made to update the CC#. Again I feel your approach and "suspension" of the account was "rough" given the mitigating circumstances. In short, If this is the way I am treated then I can go elsewhere and spend my money on servers. Also lets not forget this "dispute" did not affect the 2 billing cycles that you were paid in full for. Which by the way The servers suspended per your policy were "suspended" after being paid in full for this months billing. So essentially you suspended an account that was and is paid in full as of the 23rd of this month. Why wouldn't I be angry, you were paid for this month, you have my money, you were paid in full for the servers on the 23rd and now they are suspended??? I would give some thought to it Pete, put yourself in my shoe and see how upset you would be when approached in this manner? If ya want to talk it over some more you have my number.

As for a copy of the dispute, send it if you like, I would like to see it. Im sure I will see it tomorrow.

Thanks Eric

[Pete]

Once a transaction is disputed the credit card company immediately pulls back the money from our account until the situation is resolved, which means at that time you are one month behind in your payments. Typically, if one charge is disputed, then the bank/card company will flag the other transaction as fraudulent and attempt to recover every transaction. This is why accounts are suspended. Suspension is only temporary and can be resolved with a single click to re-enable your entire account, so I believe you may not have understood the situation correctly.

Again, I did not threaten to speak with the account holder and I'm uncertain how I could have been mistake as coming across that way. If I did come across as you claim, then I would like to apologize for that, but I do not believe that could have been the case. I simply asked to talk with the account holder, which is the person that should be talked to since they are the ones disputing the transaction. Once you identified yourself as the spouse of the account holder I was more than happy to talk with you. At that point, since you felt it was our fault for your account being suspended, you were already upset and mistakenly took your account being suspended as a "threat" and "rude," which is simply a common practice since you were not current on your payments. You were called immediately after the account was suspended to resolve the situation. Once the situation was resolved, we could have easily turned back on your account, but the suspension was necessary and common policy until it was resolved. I'm uncertain how else we could have satisfied you.

I'm sorry about the problem that happened with your credit card, but we did not cause the situation and the error was not on our side. I would suspect that this must have been a terrible ordeal for you and understand that you may be upset over your credit card situation in general, but I feel some of that frustration may have been directed towards me and our company when we may not have been to blame for any mistake. I feel that we even went way out of our way on several occasions to make sure that you were taken care of. We made every effort to resolve this with you.

I will send you a copy of the dispute so you can view for yourself that the dispute was hand written and specifically targeted our company's charge as fraudulent. This means that it was not the fault of the bank.

I hope you are able to find another provider that will be able to provide the same level of service that we have given.

Thanks,
Pete

[Pete]

I also believe you may not understand how serious a charged back is. By filing a charge back you sign and notorize a legal document that can bring criminal charges to the person who made the transaction. This is a serious legal matter. We take fraudulent charges very seriously and have protocals in place that are followed in these matters. If someone steals your card and charges something online, it's our responsibility to terminate their account immediately to prevent them from taking advantage of us and you. It's not common for something like this to happen by mistake. I'm uncertain how that could happen. If someone is filing something this serious with their credit card company or bank, then it's unlikely that the person did not go over the information very carefully before following through with something like identifying transactions as valid or invalid. With this in mind I believe suspending accounts immediately is a perfectly reasonable course of action.

Thanks,
Pete

[ClanBanzi]

I do understand the seriousness. What happens tomorrow and the Fraudulant charge claim is taken care of and you get your money back, agin putting you in position of being paid that money back and my invoice having been pain in full as of the 23rd?

Thanks
Eric

[ClanBanzi]

By the way, Thank you for sending the Document. I see the signatures are of the card holder. Not that it makes a difference the person who wrote the disputed companies in the alloted spaces is not the card holder. You would have no way to know this. Either way you will be credited your money back as it was and is an accident. My question still remains. What of the money spent from the invoice paid in full that was suspended?

Thanks
Eric