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I’ve been a victim too.

In Dec 2006, I signed up for a 36 month hosting package for around $200 with “free” domain name and “free whois privacy”.

In Dec 2007, I received an email from Gisol saying my card had expired and my domain needed renewing. I tried updating the expiry date, and adding a new card, but it still said expired. I emailed them, so they sent me a link to a page on gisol.com to pay for the renewal. All looked OK as after inputting my details it went to a page saying thanks for your payment. I realised that I didn’t get a confirmation email for the transaction, so emailed them. I didn’t receive a reply.

In mid Jan 2008 my website disappeared. I emailed them to ask why. At 0130am UK time I received a call from “Aaron”, saying that my domain had gone into redemption and my account had been shutdown. After a lot of obviously frustrated talk, I agreed to opening a new account which would cost me $42 for 3 years. HE confirmed several times that $42 in total would be all my card would be charged. He also said afterwards that I would receive a refund of $87 for the original contract.

He directed me to a page where I could sign the new contract. This is very difficult using a mouse or a touchpad. Anyway after about 4 attempts, which he said was because Visa wasn’t accepting it, he said it was ok, then put the phone down!

I got an email immediately saying thank you for my payment of $718.20!

I rang my bank immediately after the phone call. They were very sympathetic, but said they couldn’t treat it as a fraud case as I had done business with them in the past and supplied my card details to them. A dispute was filed with Visa International. What Gisol replied with to them and my bank is total and utter FRAUD! I have proof to prove that it is fraud. I thought that they were pretty watertight, the way they have everything covered, with contracts and verbal agreements etc, but I believe they are getting a bit desperate about the amount of chargebacks they are getting and haven’t really thought through what they are doing this time. It’s NOW going through the Fraud Dept of my bank and Visa International. I hope the evidence is stacking up and they get sent down very soon. It can only be a matter of time.

I did the usual like emailing, ringing, trouble tickets etc but of course no help/reply. My domain didn’t come out of redemption as they said they would, and of course it was owned by them, not me. I’ve managed to get it back now which is a relief, as I have paying clients advertising on there. I temporarily ran my .co.uk version, but it wasn’t ideal as search engines listed my .com version. It’s been down for about 6 weeks while the redemption/deleting process went through. I managed to get snapnames.com to get it back for me the instant it became available.

At the beginning of Feb 2008, I sent an email to all the usual addresses, and also to [email protected] This was entitled “You have been reported”, and informed them that they had in fact been reported to all the relevant authorities and the UK Press etc.

At around 0130am that night, I received another phonecall. The representative from Gisol was apparently the same person who had rang me a couple of weeks before, but was this time calling himself Brian. He was ringing because he was concerned that I had reported them. I corrected him by informing him that I had written in the email “yet another person” had reported them, not specifically me. I also asked why he was ringing as I knew he had ripped me off and he knew he had ripped me off. This seemed to anger him, and another person (from their “legal?” dept) joined in the conversation. Basically they were trying to get me to admit that I had agreed to the amount charged. Obviously I admitted to no such thing. The conversation went to and fro for a while until I mentioned that I would do all in my power to let as many people know not to use their company as I possibly could. The “legal” representative said that it was obviously becoming a libelousconversation and I should check with the lawyers in my country! At this point I laughed at him, and they hung up!

My bank has now refunded me the fraudulent charges. They would have left it there I think, but I am so concerned about this problem that I have asked them to take it further. After informing them of the scale of Gisol’s activities, they agreed to take the matter to the police.

I can only urge everyone affected to dispute/chargeback the charges, report them to as many agencies (LA Attorney, California Attorney, FBI IC3, Federal Trade Commission, BBB, local police, press, TV etc etc etc) as you can.

Don’t be scared. Let’s do it and get them sent down!!!

Reader’s Comments. (16)

• 1

  Jeeni | 06 Apr 2008 9:29 amThank you for starting this site!

• 2

  chaplain | 21 Apr 2008 10:20 pmI too have had major problems with GISOL just today I received a billing notice for just under 75.00. I was not even on line at 4:00 am, and canceled my domain name and services from Gisol in 2005; after I could not install or correct anything on my web page.

  Gisol also “lost” my internet pages by the time I canceled.
  Only a stonewall website was ever published.

  So how come in 2008 I get a billing statement from GISOL for the next year (for a canceled account) when I was not even on my computer at 4AM this morning?

  This is all news to me, thank you for sharing others experiences.

• 3

  dc | 09 May 2008 7:07 pmI am another victim and just want to share my experience with you guys…

  [Comment moved to this post]

• 4

  Van Bogaert | 10 May 2008 6:26 pmcan’t we contact a television station, and let them record this whole scam of Gisol?
  And what about contacting PC Magazines?

• 5

  Mike | 12 May 2008 2:49 pmVan Bogaert,

  Please do all you can to contact everyone you think fit. If enough people do it, the more chance there is of someone picking up this fraud.

  Please see Jesse’s post about contacting LA TV Stations here.

• 6

  R D | 15 May 2008 6:43 pmHi…I too had some problems. I haven’t used their service in years. YEARS! I just got charged $71.40 out of the blue… [Comment moved to this post]

• 7

  Fred Wilson | 19 May 2008 4:27 pmI too have had major problems with GISOL (otherwise I would not have posted here).

  They were my hosting company for several years – until…
  [Comment moved to this post]

• 8

  Gary | 20 May 2008 9:49 amTo all who post here. Please email me your names and contact information. I am going to do whatever it takes to do something about our situation. My email address…

  [Comment moved to this post]

• 9

  David From Florida | 25 May 2008 12:35 amMy Bank folded and did not fight for me.

  I signed up for the $7.95 a month and was charged the $1798.20 like several of you. I had used a debit card (stupid) and found out my account was emptied and in the red! I called the bank to cancel the debit card immediately and contested the charge. The bank temporarily put the money back into the account while they “investigated”.

  They got a similar letter from Adam and to cut a long story short decided to let Gisol off the hook & come after me for the $1798.20

• 10

  Ricardo Garcia | 27 May 2008 2:05 pmI’m another victim of Gisol. On May 2007 I signed up for a simple plan for one year ($7.90 month), Gisol charged me $465.00 (ilimited plan for 3 years) and they charged me twice ($930). I contact them by email (around 30 emails), fax, phone but I couldn´t get a solution. My bank company could refund me one of the charges but I had to pay the other. And gisol canceled my account. After 30 emails more during two months, they gave me the service, but just for one year. On May 2008 they canceled my service again. They don’t want to answere the bunch of emails I already sent them. This company doesn’t have ethics, resposibility. They are just a bunch of thieves.

• 11

  capric | 26 Jun 2008 1:20 pmHi,

  I think more such websites should be started, the same issues what you have faced with Gisol, I have faced with one of the other hosting comapnies, that’s webwerks, they operate by the name of dataclarity.net and , this is a web hosting company from india, with the most idotic support and the poor quality of service, and there are many other clients that have been fooled and the sales team seems to be filled with Big time Frauds , who would promise you anything , big big lies, for selling their worst hosting packages. Please be alert about this company, and i came to know from another of their clients, who has now become a freind of mine, that they also run some other hosting comapnies with different name, Alerting all peple, Please please be aware of these frauds. they can cheat you at any point of time.

• 12

  Kris | 29 Jun 2008 5:40 amMy site was suspended from Dec 25, 2007 thru May 18, 2008 for non-payment as stated by GISOL support techs. I requested my money back, as they were in default, they had my money, I had no web site. I contacted the AGO of California and the BBB. GISOL sent nonsense replies, insomuch as they denied the site was suspended? anyway it is now back up. I am still requesting a refund due to their deceptive practices, non-existent customer service, and false advertising, 24/7 support.

• 13

  Arturo Rodriguez | 14 Jul 2008 3:59 pmThis is a brief history of my problem with gisol (check at the bottom what gisol responded after several e-mails I send them):

  You charged me $238.50 WITHOUT MY EXPRESS CONSENT to renew my old account even when I TOLD YOU I WANTED TO CANCEL THAT ACCOUNT!, so I DEMAND A FULL REFUND since I WAS SO CLEAR in my request and I don’t have to give you any further explanation why I wanted to cancel it SO JUST DO IT AT ONCE and there is NOTHING you can do to change my mind.

  Arturo Rodríguez Torija

  — On Fri, 6/6/08, troubletickets[at]mygisol[dot]com wrote:

  From: troubletickets[at]mygisol[dot]com
  Subject: Reply: Account problem #239989
  To: artechihuahua[at]yahoo[dot]com
  Date: Friday, June 6, 2008, 1:53 PM

  ======== CUT HERE =========
  Your support request was answered:

  Created: Jun 5, 2008 8:09:18 PM
  Last Mod: Jun 6, 2008 2:52:26 PM

  Assigned To:
  KP Konard(KP Konard)

  [Jun 6, 2008 1:31:57 PM]
  Q: Hi, I’m sending you the same message again since it’s not been
  responded as yet and I need a positive response to it, so I’ll be waiting.
  Also I’m sending you the proof of you received my last claim:

  I’m trying to cancel my account, and the system doesn’t allow me to do
  so and only shows a message that says:”Internal Error, Tech support Was
  Notified”. As a proof of I’m saying I’m sending you a copy of the
  screen I received and grabbed dated for my own protection.
  I WANT TO CANCEL THIS ACCOUNT (user: artechih) RIGHT NOW, NO EXCUSES, thanks.

  Arturo Rodriguez

  ======== CUT HERE =========
  This is a receipt that your ticket was successfully received:

  Created: Jun 5, 2008 8:09:18 PM
  Last Mod: Jun 5, 2008 8:09:18 PM

  ——————————————————-

  [Jun 6, 2008 2:53:34 PM]
  A: Dear Customer,

  Thank you for using the Online Support Agent at Global Internet Solutions.

  Please let me know the reason of cancellation of hosting account.
  Is there anything can we do on our part to change your mins?

  If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to reply to this
  ticket.

  Regards,
  Technical Support Department
  Global Internet Solutions
  A GISOL, Inc. Company

  http://support.gisol.com

  ——————————————————-

• 14

  ANGRY FORMER CUSTOMER | 24 Jul 2008 8:17 pmI was a former customer of GISOL who has a simular story.
  December 2007 my site went down & a “contact GISOL if you are the administrator of this account.”
  I called and they tell me the “control panel is no longer in use and that I need to sign a new agreement. I explained to the woman I was talking to that I have an e-mail showing that I paid through April 2008 and my subscription has not expired. She assured me that this would be an agreement for the control panel only. So, stupid me signs the agreement. I get an e-mail stating “Thankyou for your payment of $1798.20″ I immediately call back but get the run around. LONG STORY SHORT… after several calls, e-mails, posting to tech support and billing through my control panel etc. I cound not get a reponse. I STILL have my documentation including printouts of my postings to my control panel. My credit card company is not backing me up. “You have to take it legally to settle this.” Despite the fact that I have never used this new control panel and acted immediately to resolve the issue.

  I am pissed off and want to know what actions this group is taking. I have my letters I have written, e-mails, printouts of postings to tech support etc.

• 15

  another ANGRY FORMER CUSTOMER | 29 Aug 2008 2:49 pmi have the same problem as ANGRY FORMER CUSTOMER . They just charged me 1780$. ridiculous amount for hosting. I called the my credit card company, they are trying to help me out. i told them anything from gisol , i won’t pay.

• 16

  Viny | 13 Sep 2008 2:27 pmGisol is a fraudulent company, DO NOT SIGN UP with Gisol!!! I have also a serious problems with Gisol too! I had a basic plan and told me to sign up to Business plan in order to solve an issue with sql query, my dabase username is denied by their Unix server, they keep saying that is a username or password issue, which is absolutly not (I proofed it)
  So once I sign up to Business plan, they charged the credit card of $1,798.20 and transfer account to new business server two days later, The problem was still the same and datbase user still denied!! I asked a Refund right away! And I can’t beleive what I’ve heard on the phone when I was talking to a ‘Steve’ which said he was a manager:
  “- you’re not going to refund you our server works properly, it’s an issue with you script”
  So I said I want to be refund because I can’t use you server.
  They told me over the phone:
  “- WE’RE NOT GOING TO REFUND YOU, THIS IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! YOU WANNA BET?”

  I’m really pissed off and I really don’t know how to get my $1,798.20 back!!!
  Please, any advise will be very welcome.

  DO NOT GO WITH GISOL, SOON OR LATER, THEY WILL ROB YOUR CREDIT CARD MONEY!!!