No comment on this bi-partisan issue PowerStroker?

Stoma got pissed when we told him his 3 word post werent cutting the bacon. I mean having the forum filled up with BS is not the way I roll. Needs to be BS of substanance at the very least. Much like your Maddow rampage I have to merge all them fuckers into one thread and move it to the MB-TP area.

I don't even know why I am bothering, but the work involved in setting up another forum is now justafiable given the current companies efforts to deny a backup of the forum. It is one of the reasons I have been hessatant to put the CD's up here along with all our truck footage, and trust me I have about 10X what we used to have.

Something has to be done now, that is for sure. At one time our website and forum hosted out of the shop as we had licences for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, but the format was difficult to navigate and while the security was A1 it was often times a little slow with regards to log on. Once logged in it cooked, and it really offered a lot for the advanced user. Heck we even gave some of our early administrators their own Desktop on the server. Granit these were friends and family, but it really was pretty cool.

We went with this setup shortly after getting fucked by BenzWorld.org aka VerticalScope. The fact that we needed something launched right away is why we went with this platform. Since the move I started hosting our web site and such thru a hosting plan rather than my own server. AT&T is saying they are dropping fiber for the new television service around here so I may get a free install when they upgrade our TV. I still got the ole' Enterprise server box chilling.

What really burns my fucking biscuts are these greedy bastards not giving up the backup, making me having to manually cherry pick all the post and re-build the user accounts. When a company decides to take payments without authorization, it's time to move on, you can no longer trust that company. Spark-Lit and activeboard.com have poor customer service given the fact I have been trying to have this over billing corrected since JULY 2010!

It might take me a few months to get it done, but I think it's in the best intrest of everyone don't you think? Ill host whatever platform I go with on our currently rented monthly hosting plan and try to merge it with the server once they get out here to put our blocks fiber patch in.

It's way overkill, but the plan for the internet, TV and such includes a static for almost the same cost as I am paying for monthly hosting.

I can tell you one thing, I am only going to rebuild my stearling users accounts. I will even weed out most of my useless crap. I would like to keep the politics area for the simple fact that it's great to look back on.

I may ask for your help rebuilding the Ford Forum, but I have never edited anyones post but Stoma's and that's only because we made him a moderator and changed peoples post including my own, one of them he modified to read as if I was calling myself an asshole, so we had to return the favor.

I am posting up the corrispondence from Spark-Lit tonight for all to see, as at this point it's war and there really is no turning back.


-- Edited by Administrator on Sunday 7th of November 2010 09:03:11 PM

Sounds like they're trying to screw you Rex. I'd find another company.

Just be sure to archive all of our little discussions for future generations to enjoy.

It seems we have reached an accord with Sparklit. They will be sending a back up, and maybe even some Sparklit ball caps and t-shirts for the kids.

RE: Unauthorized charge.    [Incident #598384-18838]
Category: Accounting Browser/OS: Internet Explorer 7.x (MS Windows XP) Date Created: 2010-11-06 19:58:54 Last Updated: 2010-11-15 12:08:30 Reply Email: autotrend@sellc.us	Elapsed Time: 8 Days 17 Hours 10 Minutes Priority: Urgent Status: Open

from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-06 19:58:54	It has come to my attention that spark-lit has processed an un-authorized charge to my VISA debit. I am always very careful not to authorize the automatic payments and really for the entire time I have been paying for this forum I have NEVER authorized automatic payments. This has got me VERY upset that you feel Sparklit can just help themselves to money in my account. I will talk to my bank Monday monrning and ensure that you folks can no longer make charges on this card. It appears you folks can not be trusted with card information and I will have to get a pre-paid visa to pay you folks from now on to ensure you can not abuse it. I should also mention that nothing has been done to curb the abuse with regards to the amounts of impressions I am getting charged for. In addition I need to you clarify to me what I am paying you folks for, as I have asked to have all my forum information sent to me for the purpose of having a recorded back-up. I also need to know who owns the content on this webforum because it appears I am being ripped off in more ways than one. I am very unhappy with the level of service I am getting. I suggest you perform or I WILL! Rex
from: Sparklit Support - Brendan posted on: 2010-11-08 11:24:02	Hi Rex, Q: Why are there charges on my credit card? A: Per our membership agreement Section 4 Payment: You agree to pay Sparklit any set-up fees and recurring subscription fees listed on Sparklit's website for the Service Plans you select. Completion and submission of any Service activation form authorizes Sparklit to charge the credit card specified in your registration for all such fees and any related taxes corresponding to the selected Service. The charge on November 6th for $12.94 was for your monthly service fee from November - December 2010 of your Activeboard (Forum) subscription. Q: What am I paying sparklit for? A: Your Activeboard subscription with Sparklit allows you to create an unlimited number of forums (or messageboards). What you are paying for is premium bandwidth (Tier-3 Peer 1 with multiple POPs worldwide) Sparklit to keep the lights on, servers running and the software working.. (for example, if you get a surge of traffic, we need to be able to handle all the requests) Q: What about my abuse claim? A: The only metric you sent regarding your abuse claim was your GoDaddy image stats, which is not a valid metric for measuring traffic for a given period. Your Activeboard page views are incremented by 1 each time a person views a page, this is the most accurate form of measurement. Q: Can I have a back-up of my forum? A: Activeboard was written to handle thousands of forums on a set of clustered servers. Your data is stored efficiently so that we can serve web requests fast with fewer servers. We typically don't provide data backups to customers, but I can provide you with a backup of the data on your forum for a service charge of $20. How can we help you make you more satisfied with our service? Cheers, Brendan Sparklit Support
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-08 12:00:22	I am going to report this taking of money without authorization as a fraudulent charge. Furthermore I have proof that I have disputed this bill and many others since June. Brendan, you come off as a 1st class smart ass. Who is your supervisor? Do you have a direct number for the person in charge there? Spark lit has lost its privilege to have my credit card information, and in light of your lack of consideration I am going to send this and all other communications to the proper authorities. I have already started my complaint, so keep up the fine work. I request that you send me the details of what authorization you were given to take money from my personal account. I NEVER authorized automatic payments. You now have a charge back coming your way.
from: Sparklit Support - Brendan posted on: 2010-11-08 12:46:16	Hi Rex, When you signed up for your Activeboard subscription, you agreed to our terms of service (which you can read here: http://www.sparklit.com/agreements.spark?agreement=membership). This type of contract is called a Clickwrap (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickwrap) and it is a commonly use contract with web service companies. This clickwrap agreement authorizes us to collect monthly fees from your credit card. I don't understand how we have lost the privilege? Cheers, Brendan Sparklit Support
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-08 12:54:09	If you read the prior complaint from 7-31-2010, I paid you folks some $70+ dollars and informed you that I disputed any further charges. In addition I made sure the auto-billing feature was turned off when submitting my card information. I stated clearly for that card to be used for a ONE TIME PAYMENT, and not to be assosiated with the account. You folks have abused your authority to process payments and I am also attaching this and he 7-31-2010 communication as proof we in fact disputed any future charges. If you do not see what you are doing wrong, then Ill just leave it up to my bank to handle the process.
from: Sparklit Support - Brendan posted on: 2010-11-08 14:06:54	Hi Rex, Sorry that I missed your statement regarding further charges. The statement that you would dispute all further charges was actually made on 2010-10-24. These monthly charges are for your Activeboard subscription, we will continue to bill you each month until cancellation per our membership agreement. We can go ahead and refund the charge we placed on your ONE TIME PAYMENT card if you would like to place the charge on a different card. If you wish to continue your Activeboard subscription, I would advise that you do not dispute these charges. Cheers, Brendan Sparklit Support
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-08 15:37:11	I do believe there is a credit owing to me. I have logged a valid dispute. I in NO WAY authorized you to take a payment from my account, and never ticked the box that read "Use this card for future charges". I light of the fact we have records of the dispute, your stealing of money from my account will be reported. Furthermore you seem to be using deceptive business practices by failing to tell me just how much we are billed for overages. You have already stated that you would back date the new plan 3 months yet never stated what savings or the balance would be. Rather than working it out you took money, even though I never authorized it. I think you fail to realize that the amount you are charging me is insignificant at this time. It will not change the fact you took from me without authorization. I have asked several questions as to what I am paying for. You claim that I am paying for hosting. If I am paying for hosting, then where is MY DATA that you are getting paid to host? It should be available for me to download. If you are threatening and or trying to extort me with your statement of "If you wish to continue your Activeboard subscription, I would advise that you do not dispute these charges." I suggest you think twice, as you have failed to fulfill my customer service issues to my satisfaction. I will not tolerate this level of service. I request once more you get me in contact with the manager of your organization.
from: Sparklit Support - kendall posted on: 2010-11-09 13:46:41	Hi Rex, Our system is set up such that your card will not be billed if you did not check the box to allow it to be used for future charges. The same card has been used for payments on the following dates. You will note that no charges were put through on the card for a significant period of time between the first and second transaction, due to this box not being checked: 2010-03-02 12:51:05 2010-10-06 14:26:44 2010-11-06 12:48:39 You were automatically billed the recurring charges on 2010-11-06 because the card on file is currently indicated as one that should be used for rebilling. Nevertheless, we have offered to refund the latest charge to your card, and change its type to one time payment so future charges are not added. Please let me know if I should notify our billing department to proceed with the refund. Regarding pricing, all of our current plans are listed here: http://www.activeboard.com/pricing.spark On your older, 10,000 views per month plan, overages are billed at $0.50/1000. This is listed on every invoice on which overage charges occur. When I offered to backdate the plan, I held off on calculating the exact savings while waiting to hear back from you. Please allow me to provide some calculations. I offered to backdate the plan to the following periods: July 2010: 32,350 August 2010: 28,240 September 2010: 22,018 October 2010: 22,479 November 2010: 25,985 The charges would be corrected as follows: July 2010: $16.13 corrected to $11.63. Savings: $4.50 August 2010: $14.07 corrected to $9.57. Savings: $4.50 September 2010: $10.96 corrected to $7.95. Savings: $3.01 October 2010: $11.19 corrected to $7.95. Savings: $3.24 November 2010: $12.94 corrected to $8.44. Savings: $4.50 Your account would receive an immediate total credit of $19.75. Future months would be billed at $7.95/month with overages at $0.50/1,000. If you would like to continue with our service, this can be effective immediately. You are not strictly paying us for hosting. We offer a hosted, free version of ActiveBoard as well. In addition to priority support and premium bandwidth, the following features are provided with a subscription: http://www.activeboard.com/feature_matrix.spark We provide backups of forum data for a one-time fee of $25. Regarding disputed charges, please see our Membership Agreement, Section 4.5. Credit Card Chargebacks. If you are unhappy with our service and do not wish to continue to use it, you can cancel your subscription at any time. Your forum will be downgraded to the free version of the product, with all information intact. Cheers, Kendall Sparklit Support
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-11 01:25:04	In all of the years that I have used and PAID for this service I have NEVER allowed you to auto-bill me! NOT ONCE! The most recent charge was in fact un-authorized. Additionally, I am not comfortable with you wanting to charge me $20 or even a $25 one time fee to have backups of my forums data. This is wrong on every level, and I would expect to be furnished a copy without charge. Several details have been left out with regards to exactly what data will be contained in this backup. Will it include all posts, users and forum data? What format would it be in? How would it be transferred? If I decide to part ways with sparklit would I be able to delete the forum in its entirety? I certainly will not allow any advertisement revenue to be made on my postings, and I think I speak for everyone else on my forum when I say this. The underhanded business practices and the lack of a back-up facility are major issues that make me feel like Sparklit is taking advantage of me, and doing nothing to prevent the abuse that is going on. I am interested to know how my forum was able to jump 20,000 impressions and maintain it for the past 5 months. It's quite clear what is going on. I only have (1) ONE active member. The amount of time I am having to spend addressing this issue makes me feel like things will only get worse in the future. I am pretty sure your chargeback policy does not supersede un-authorized withdrawals initiated by your company. Given the fact I had disputed the charges, and we were actively in negotiations, the un-authorized withdrawal was another form of Abuse in of itself. I am not quite sure I can trust Sparklit. I feel like I may be better off hosting my information on my website. Given the fact you folks want to charge me for my forums data, and you fail to even tell me what would be included in the backup, and most importantly you took from me without permission, and doing very little to nothing to prevent abusive impressions, I cannot seem to let it pass. You please explain to me how a forum with (2) TWO active users, one of them MYSELF, can generate 38,000 impressions? Please note, you were not authorized to take funds from my account. I have never signed or agreed to any automatic authorizations, so you should refrain from EVER trying to take from me again without my permission. This means don't you EVER take it upon yourself to auto-bill me. If I make the forum private, will people still be able to make abusive impressions by simply viewing the login page? Given the fact that I am still un-satisfied with the level of service, my complaint remains OPEN and I will leave it up to YOU to do the right thing with regards to the money you stole. Keep in mind I have 30 days to file with my bank an un-authorized charge. You should also think LONG AND HARD what you’re asking with regards to charging me for a backup of my forum data considering how many YEARS I have been a customer. Also take the time to really think about how two active members can generate 38,000 impressions and get back to me promptly. I will no doubt need to know what all is included in this backup and what format it will be in. I have no problems paying the $25, however just know that having to do so will bring out business relationship to an end. Rex
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-13 09:26:26	I would be most interested in a responce to my reply above before the end of the day Monday. Rex
from: Sparklit Support - Brendan posted on: 2010-11-15 11:33:21	Hi Rex, Q: What.. no backups? A: Unfortunately forum back-up downloads have never been a feature of Activeboard, I'm sorry if our features page misled you before signup. Q: What format will the backup be in? A: The backup will be a SQL file with all posts and users. Q: Why are you charging me for a copy of my own forum's data? A: We aren't charging you for the data, it's a service charge because we have to get one of our techs to sign onto a system, extract your data, upload it to a secure location and ensure that it can be downloaded by you. Q: What about Monthly fees charge? A: If we refund the charge we made to your card, how do you intend on paying us for the Activeboard service you are using? Q: If I leave Sparklit, will my forum remain intact? A: This is your choice. You have a right to delete your forum whenever you want. Cheers, Brendan Sparklit Support
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-15 11:56:11	Tell you what... Agree to give me a back up of my forum without charge, keep the money that was taken from my account (Making sure that this card is NEVER auto charged again) and change my plan as indicated above to the new plan with the credit for the back dating ($19 and some change), and possibly throw in some Sparklit ball caps or t-shirts for the kids and we can resolve this issue. Of course the ball caps and t-shirts are not required, but would be nice. The very idea of having to pay for my data back-up angers me. Given the fact that over 80% of these backed up postings belong to me should merit some consideration. It's not like I am asking for a backup of a 100,000 or 1,000,000 post forum. I require a backup in order to feel comfortable going forward. I do not wish to pay for a backup of information that I have paid you folks to post in the first place. Can you understand where I am coming from? Do we have an accord? Rex
from: Sparklit Support - Brendan posted on: 2010-11-15 11:59:30	Hi Rex, We have a deal, we'll send you a backup right away and i'll put you on the correct plan. I also placed you on our cheque payment list so you won't be billed automatically. You can just go through and make manual payments. I will send details for downloading the backup to your email address: autotrend@sellc.us before closing today. Let me know if you have any questions! Cheers, Brendan Sparklit Support
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-15 12:03:47	Tell you what... Agree to give me a back up of my forum without charge, keep the money that was taken from my account (Making sure that this card is NEVER auto charged again) and change my plan as indicated above to the new plan with the credit for the back dating ($19 and some change), and possibly throw in some Sparklit ball caps or t-shirts for the kids and we can resolve this issue. Of course the ball caps and t-shirts are not required, but would be nice. The very idea of having to pay for my data back-up angers me. Given the fact that over 80% of these backed up postings belong to me should merit some consideration. It's not like I am asking for a backup of a 100,000 or 1,000,000 post forum. I require a backup in order to feel comfortable going forward. I do not wish to pay for a backup of information that I have paid you folks to post in the first place. Can you understand where I am coming from? Do we have an accord? Rex
from: SELLC posted on: 2010-11-15 12:08:30	I think I may have just submitted a duplicate response by accident. (Refreshed the page). I am glad to hear we have a deal. I look forward to our continued business relationship. Rex Stellar Enterprise LLC, Michigan 734-250-4449

I especially like their own admission that they are finding new ways to jack up their customers billable impressions,

Quote from Sparklit representative above- "Finally, we re-did our URL scheme in July, which resulted in a few forums being indexed a bit more heavily by Google. For most forums this was not an issue, but it looks like yours may have been hit a bit harder. I'm willing clear 20,000 impressions worth of overages to compensate in this case, which is probably far higher than the actual number caused by Google. It will take an even 10$ off your bill."

So I am under the impression that had I not said nothing I would have had to pay $10 extra for their actions/errors? It's high time we took action.

What?

No one has anything to say? I assume everyone wants to have some advertisements?

Not even a word from PowerStroker?

Nothing?

So you think we 70,000 view per month cool?

Really? We are that damn good huh?

Tell me about it PowerStroker!

Every 6 months it feels like I have to argue with a Democratic congress over their run-away spending. I swear to gawd it's like Acorn went under and went to work for Sparklit aka Activeboard. It's like we got people visiting this site from beyond the grave! Dead men surfing!

Now Sparklit has less than 5 days to work out an agreement before the site goes viral with ads, and to make things worse they swear they want to help, however after being given two diffrent email addresses to send my corrupt forum backup to all of them have bounced back! LOL It's not a good sign when your forum hosting company has email addresses that don't work! Oh sure they talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk.

I am told that the reason it's taking so long to get my backup is because the President of the company is on vacation! LOL Sounds more and more Democratic don't it?