Hello. I'm MR NASH from theweekly.co.uk. We've been with Hostingplex for 1.5 years and suddenly they've become a shower of dunces.

Hostingplex shut down our site without warning and are holding hostage our files, e-mail, logs, records and so on. They've made it clear we won't see any of these files ever again unless we pay them $150. They've accused us of spamming. We don't and we didn't.

Now, obviously you're thinking, "Pffft -- exactly what I'd expect a spammer to say," but here's the thing: we're innocent and can prove it.

What's the problem then? Our every request to Hostingplex to supply details of the supposed spam has been ignored; our every submission of exonerating evidence (and it's pretty good evidence, corroborated by Spamcop and, er, Hostingplex) has been ignored; our every request for access to our files has been ignored; our every CC to Kevin Moonlight has been ignored; they are, you're getting the point here, ignoring us.

Well, strictly that's not true. They *are* replying to our "support tickets" now and again when they feel like it, anything up to 11 days later, but every single one is a variation of, "LA LA LA, WE'RE NOT LISTENING, LA LA LA $150." (If you know about the system you may be amused to learn our hostage site is still classed as "Level 1 Support," despite our best efforts to interest anyone senior.)

This has been going on for 30 days. (Yep, Hostingplex cut us off and have been holding our files hostage for a month. Incidentally, this is in direct contradiction of their own T&Cs, which talk about "immediate investigation" and "may restrict access" when spam accusations fly.) We've tried e-mail after e-mail, forum PM after forum PM, fact after fact after fact. The result? "LA LA LA, WE'RE NOT LISTENING, LA LA LA $150."

So now we're telling you, Hostingplex customers and potential customers, what they've been up to. We've -- demonstrably -- done nothing wrong. It could be you next.

"But MR NASH," you quiz keenly, rubbing your chin with a doily, "where *is* this evidence? Where *are* these facts? Whither this demonstration of which you speak?" I ruffle your hair with a ladle.

Everything can be found in our exhaustingly comprehensive dossier of the affair, which you can read at http://theweekly.co.uk/dunces/ . You're advised to bring a cup of tea and a big cushion.

Thanks for pointing your eyes.

wow cool

i believe it they are horrible here

it's cheap hosting for a reason

they have cheap technical support

and since they are in canada they also dont support or are part of the bbb

stay away from this dump

Hmmm very interesting.

I read the whole thing. I agree with you on the fact that IF you were actally spamming then they should give you evdience of this spam.

From what I am aware of the situation there were thousands of exim processes being created on the server by ghostie's account.

As far as the reference to spamcop: I do believe that was dubious and a mistake on our phone representatives' part.

The original poster was provided his backup a few weeks ago as requested and we consider the issue to be resolved.

__________________
David J.
Hostingplex Support

Hello folks. That'll teach me to give up checking the various forums after six or so weeks where this has been posted waiting for some word from Kevin Moonlight. I only saw the new replies ten minutes ago by chance while housekeeping.

In a rapid summary, I spotted halfway through 7/12 David's unexpected return in this thread and, remembering him from yonks ago as a swiftly helpful chap, PM'd him quietly.

True to form, he had a working archive version of the site uploaded *by the end of that day* but forbore from commenting on what had happened outwith his stewardship.

I was hoping to keep things under wraps until the CD was irreversibly in my hands (the archive is wildly too huge to download by dial-up, so a chum posted a copy) because I fully expected that if Kevin Moonlight or "Andrew Vimto" realised David was helping out instead of yawping "LA LA LA $150 LA LA LA," thus giving the lie to their claims the data couldn't otherwise be recovered, they'd delete the (unconfirmed as complete) backup and we'd be back where we started. Of course, we've been scuppered by the seasonal post and I'm still hanging around the wafting letter-box -- and now the die's been cast by this surprisingly reactivated topic.

So, in the interests of fairness, thanks again to David for his sterling work as I said in the PMs to him; but this is exceptionally far from resolved. The goggle-boggling throwaways in the reply above --

and

-- info I've never before seen in any shape or form -- demonstrate that Hostingplex DO know what happened and HAVE KNOWN ALL ALONG but clearly kept silent because their accusations were DEMONSTRABLY GROUNDLESS ("Our technicians detected your account sending SPAM on our network resulting in a blacklist being placed on our IP address by spamcop...") and they, I dunno, couldn't be bothered mentioning it because they were distracted by a wasp or something. (Incidentally, nobody phoned anybody anywhere, so I don't know what that's about.)

It's blaringly evident that the backup exists because of David's PERSONAL professionalism, not Hostingplex's COMPANY imbecility. (Remember, we heard nothing whatever except "LA LA LA $150 LA LA LA" until David happened to join the support department -- which occurred SIXTY-EIGHT AND A HALF DAYS after we were cut off without explanation.) And, y'know, I can't wait to examine our logs and see what these all-new never-before-suggested nebulous "exim processes" might be. E-mails from a popular, confirmed opt-in mailing list that's been running for at least five editions on Hostingplex over the length of our 1.5 years with the company, perhaps. Or maybe spooky ghosts in big hats, or someone from Spamcop who can be implicated again repeatedly without existing.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Ghostie,

While I wasn't here during the ordeal I can assure you Kevin would not terminate user's over nothing.

I've worked with Kevin for almost two years and each and every time we've dealt with an abuse issue generally I would be the one calling for the account to be suspended.

Kevin on the other hand has always been well beyond fair in all cases.

Now in this case, as previously mentioned I do believe the spamcop references to be incorrect.

However there is no question in my mind that the hundreds of exim processes referenced by Kevin (in the ticket) were correct.

I have previously requested an official response direct from Kevin to your posts elsewhere on the net (Primarily WHT) and hopefully he'll join us this evening to respond!

Enjoy your holidays as well.

Note: My apologies for referencing Al as a 'phone representative'. He's primarily a phone based representative. He tends to answer a few support tickets here and there. In this case I believe he got 'spamcop' a tad mixed up with 'blocklist'.

We were added to a blacklist as a result of the outgoing mail sent from your account but there was no addition to spamcop from what I am aware.

(Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as noted earlier I was not here during the situation the thread references.)

__________________
David J.
Hostingplex Support

I appreciate you weren't here when everything happened, but it's clear you possess info that's been withheld from us, so tragically you're in for a big bunch of questions. Of course, any sensitive replies can be PM'd or kept in the "support ticket."

The first and most obvious question is, please explain exactly who at Hostingplex has told you this info and when they did so.

Please supply details and evidence of these "exim processes." (NB: Kevin Moonlight has at no point participated in any way whatever, except to approve by his silence of everything Hostingplex have done to us.)

Please explain exactly what Al's job is at Hostingplex.

Please supply details and evidence of this blacklisting, including the blacklist involved.

Thanks. Incidentally, the CD arrived yesterday; I've been examining it for clues, but nothing's yet leapt out.

Ghostie,

The information I've provided you was not intended to debunk any of the previous details given to you.

My conclusions regarding spamcop are based on your contact with them, not my own.

With that said the facts are:

The account was caught spamming -- there were several hundred exim processes caught running as your username.

The rest I'd consider null points. It's unacceptable that the issue took as long as it did to resolve and I provided you your backup in return for the delay you endured.

__________________
David J.
Hostingplex Support

I have no idea at all what this means. (Hence, for example, asking what it means.) We run a (conf opt-in etc etc) mailing list, which openly and unsneakily e-mailed the mailing list subscribers in exactly the same way it's previously e-mailed the mailing list subscribers for at least five editions while at Hostingplex. Mention of "exim processes," whatever they are, is -- literally -- the most information I've ever been given.

There's obviously a detailed record somewhere of what happened (no doubt carefully indexed and saved as part of the T&C-required "immediate investigation"). It seems only fair I see it. For one thing, if there's a suddenly disastrous bug in the Mailing List prog, obviously I need to know where so it can be fixed. The records would provide valuable clues.

I couldn't disagree more. We've been accused of spamming -- a serious accusation. At no point before your appearance had ANYONE at Hostingplex provided ANY DETAILS WHATEVER so we could establish the facts, despite repeated requests and a *lot* of work of on our part trying to find things out externally. Every question I've put has been pertinent to this. (For instance, I'd like to know what Al's job is because he repeatedly demonstrated no interest in answering any of my questions. Is this because he's not really a tech support bod at all? And knowing which blacklist our IP appeared on would be an important step in finding out why the blacklist was imposed. And so on.)

Once again, a large thank for the archive; you've been fantastically helpful. But nothing's been *resolved.* I don't know anything more than I did when our site was killed off. I don't know what happened. And it's perfectly clear that we only have our data because you happened to come back. Your PERSONAL efforts do not reflect Hostingplex's COMPANY behaviour. I want to know exactly what occurred that led to Hostingplex killing off our site. Nobody can learn from anything without the facts.