Do I have a story for you about bandwidth!

On October 17th I receive a phone call from Dave, an old high school buddy. He is asking why the site went down. He is referring to the old space. You see I have been planning it to shut the old space down but I was going to wait until the end of the year as I was trying to figure out what to do with the other domains plus some people were still using it and I was trying to give them time to find new space before the door was shut.

Anyway it is peculiar that the site would be down so i go and check and sure enough there is a notice saying that account has been suspended. I am assuming that the it is a simple billing misunderstanding... I recently have been getting all my accounts and billing address switched to my new address. I log into the account and staring back at me is a bill for $6,122.38!

"holy crap!" That’s about the only thing my mind is allowing me to think. I can feel my heart pumping in my chest... actually I can hear it. It's pretty much the only thing I can hear at this point as Dave's voice sounds like a mosquito buzzing in my ear. I somehow manage to collect myself long enough to tell Dave the situation and that I will get to the bottom of this.

I get off the phone with Dave and start a frantic search for contact number for the web host. It just so happens it is 4:45 pm on the west coast and the billing department will be open for another 15 minutes. Joy. I call the web host company's number and punch in the billing extension code. Straight to answering machine. "!@#$"

I hang up and call again, same number, same extension, same result. "!@#$"

I then call technical support. It rings three or four times then drops me into a voicemail. "!@#$"

Fine I'll call sales... what are the odds that sales is in on Monday? Zero cause I got the voice mail.

I start to process over. I start looking at what caused this massive bill. Two things... on October 2nd there is a charge for $451.69 for 79.7 Gigs of bandwidth; and then on October 17th, the mother of all charges, a bill for $5,640.74 for 1.7 TBs of data!

1.7 terabytes of data over 15 days! That is 113+ gigs a day. That’s like downloading 350 DVDs. There is no way there is anything like that on the server.

I start to check my email accounts... obviously I would have received a notice from them that I was going over my bandwidth allotment for the month on a daily basis... nothing.

"Hello, tech support this is Marvin." Oh my god I got through! I am so dumbfounded I actually got through that I am a stuttering idiot for about ten seconds. I collect myself and begin to tell my tale to Marvin. Marvin sounds as old as me and it is obvious that he is trying to be professional but when I mention 1.7 terabytes you can definitely hear him take in huge breath of air. I am sure Marvin is thinking "oh !@#$".

Marvin tells me there is nothing he can do about it tonight but says I should call billing... he assures me someone will be there to get my call if I call right now. I hang up, hit speed dial, punch in the billing extension Marvin gave me... answering machine. "!@#$"

I call again, same number, same extension, "Hello Billing".

It's Marvin. I am now very worried. Marvin and I talk for about another 15 minutes. We agree that this is a situation that should be looked into and Marvin assures me this will get forwarded to the admins and should be resolved by weeks end.

YEAH RIGH!

It’s now Friday of week three and I just found out they haven't even looked into this issue yet! I have been calling and sending emails for three weeks with no response from this company.

I have scheduled an appointment with a lawyer for next week because at this point it is looking like I am going to need some representation or at least some advice.

yeah i figure if that is the case. And if so then i should not be responsible for the bandwidth usage.