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Avoid Exigent at all costs (AU)
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Avoid Exigent at all costs (AU)

KrisKris Member
edited February 2013 in General

So a few months back, against my better decision a worker of mine spun up a VPS at "EXIGENT ENTERPRISE" a company ran by John Wooler (who previously owned Exodux, and pulled the same scam under the name "Web Splash" from searching on who exactly my guy signed up with)

The VPS speeds were terrible, maybe 100 KB - 200 KB/s out of the country, at best. Finally, a 'multi-day' data center move was coming. Formal cancellation letter sent to their registered WHOIS on AURegistry, and signed up with RansomIT (amazing, but for another thread)

A cancellation notice was sent to them via email and letter (they said no email on their website after no reply, so it was sent to their registered WHOIS address) via post.

The server's been down since the end of november for non-payment November after a 1st "overdue" invoice was sent - Okay, mail to Australia takes 2 weeks.

One more invoice in December, then they stopped. I figured they received the letter, and got the hint over the desire to cancel the VPS (beyond the fact you could not email them or call to do so)

Fast forward to yesterday, when I'm sent a letter demanding 70.00 AUD (10.00 for two invoices, plus 25.00 per invoice) on a 10.00 VPS server, or I'll be forwarded to a collections company, with $480 dollars added. Not a chance.

When showed the extremely long winded / daft TOS, I explained I did not sign up for the account, It was provisioned on behalf of me, but I did pay for it - Asked them to check IPs, as it as provisioned by a staff member in another staff - nothing. Told them they were formally given notice it was an invalid debt, and any further letters should go to my lawyer. John kept emailing back saying the debt would have to be "finalised"

As per my lawyer, I never had a contract with them, nor did my remote worker - they never mailed my company (or the worker who signed up) any contract, 'nor did he mail them a contract. From their ToS below.

As mentioned in their ToS: "For services that require a contract, the completion of a paperwork application form will be required. This application form must be signed by the person/entity that is applying for the service. This paperwork must be delivered or mailed to the postal address that is advertised on our website and received by us within 7 working days."

Nothing was sent to their postal address except a formal cancellation letter, which John claims they never recieved, besides sending it to their "valid" WHOIS registry address.

John Woller (scammer / "CEO") of Exigent seems to have a niche for doing this in terms of false collections I'd rather pay a lawyer in Australia to deal with this, and maybe the local forms of better business bureaus, etc. than pay his scam of an operation: WebSplash, HostMyWebsite (took over and ruined) Exodux / now Exigent

http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/web-hosting-australia-2/hostmywebsite-cancel-before-committment-11022.html

Seems like this is common for him / their MO to make money Any suggestions? Even for future clients who may mistakenly order from Exigent.

Avoid at all costs. The VPS was terribly slow, no support replies were ever received - and months later you get a threatening letter. I messaged them as instructed as I knew this was an invalid debt, but their "CEO" aka one-man-band of John Wooler did nothing, no attempt to understand the issue, just a "pay us 70.00" or have it collected with $480 added because the VPS has been running until now.

From ping / checking it was down, it's been down since November, so no "resources" were still being used.

This 70.00 is apparently 2 months the VPS was shut down, plus 50.00 in late fees.

--- Exigent Extortion Email ---


Our records have indicated that we have made several attempts to contact you regarding the outstanding amount owed on your account with Exigent Enterprise. 

As we have issued several notices to you to help resolve your account from being in arrears, we will now be forwarding your account to our debt collection team to resolve the outstanding amount owed to now finalise your account with us.

The total amount owing: $70.00AUD

The total amount outstanding must now be paid within 4 working days.  Fail to make the payment will result in a debt collection fee of $480.00 being applied to your account so that your account is finalise by our debt collection team.  Further more, not finalising your account can be noted on your credit history by our debt collection team.

If there is an error made on our part and payment has been made, please contact us so that we can resolve this matter immediately.


-- End John Wooler Scam -- 

I would have been happy to pay the two months that they didn't receive the cancellation letter, regardless of the server being shut down already, ol Wooler was having none of this.

I'd rather fly, see the bastard in person in court & pay for that instead of paying Mr. Wooler of Exi-Scam another cent.

If anyone knows any good legal resources / government bureaus that handle these issues in Australia wold be welcome. My lawyer can only do so much practicing in the US.

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Comments

  • Check Whirlpool and other forums. It's a known fact.

  • Any links?

    I'm honestly just angry. No mails since December, then this rolls along.

    I email back to explain the situation, hoping to make some deal with the provider / explain "No, I didn't click your previous checkbox, a remote staff member of mine in another state did" - Nothing but what could be a boiler plate template of "piss off and pay, or pay $480 and we'll harm your credit"

    Looking into the guys name, he previously states he's in "Sales" in that other forum, but LinkedIn has him named as the CEO. Clearly full of shite in that old thread.

    Another thread popped up : http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1173675

    Interested in the Whirlpool forum post(s) - If I'm going to spend this money, It's going to be taking them to court, even if it means hiring a lawyer in Austrlia.

    I wonder if their connection / bond with bandwidth providers is strong enough for them to continue with them once this becomes a criminal investigation.

    I can understand if the server was up, and no cancellation notice was sent in - But it was sent via post, after they reuse to answer any emails. After the 1st payment wasn't made - my 3rd party monitors let me know the server was down / un-reachable.

    Finally thought I'd checked out of Exigent / the Hotel California, but it seems this is just beginning.

    I'll pay to fly down, go see him in person, to be brought to court with the proof I have - rather than paying this scam of a company one more cent.

    After reading a few of the threads, less angry that I'm not the only one who's dealt with John @ Exigent's rude demeanor.

  • @Kris http://bit.ly/Wogiid
    Really, never heard of them, but it so easy to check their bad history with just googling them.
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1715077 (more links by Lenny Pepperidge there)
    Even here some bad comments with this collector scam history: http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/exigent-aud5-95-512mb-openvz-vps-in-australia/
    Why are you so worried about them? Just ignore them, they have no legal reasons to ask money from them. Just a typical ransom scam.

  • @nstorm said: Why are you so worried about them? Just ignore them, they have no legal reasons to ask money from them. Just a typical ransom scam.

    Credit ratings. In their first email, they threaten to send an additional $480 to a debt collector.

    These guys have no regard for the actual law of ToS you signed up with, and will be hard to prove.

    I don't want some Aussie scammer who's been under 4 company names to mess with any credit history, which I've been building up for years.

    If it wasn't for the wording that was reminiscent of 1&1's "debt collection" emails - I would have disregarded it.

    I replied, as an error was made, and wanted to settle it, but was greeted with an attitude, no help or regard for the situation by John Wooler.

    If anything, hopefully someone sees this thread and avoids going through this hell over a 10.00 VPS that was any which way but stable.

    On the other hand, I switched to RansomIT who had a LEB expired plan (and reactivated it) and couldn't be happier.

    How Exigent still exists (then again it's his 4th company name) is beyond me... I'm just beyond words at the audacity of that "collection" email, let alone the attitude of the "CEO"

    Thanks for letting me vent guys, just needs to get this utter shite off my chest.

  • KrisKris Member
    edited February 2013

    @DomainBop said: Any links?

    Oh wow. I didn't realize it was that big a form or wide spread. Some more searching to do, I'll be registering a domain & hosting it in Iceland to give future victims a heads up.

    Thanks

  • @Kris said: Oh wow. I didn't realize it was that big a form or wide spread. Some more searching to do, I'll be registering a domain & hosting it in Iceland to give future victims a heads up.

    As said it's a known issue. Exigent is a budget brand with virtually no support and many other issues. It's why it's so cheap.

  • @Liam said: Shocking. I always wondered how they could offer so much bandwidth. Stick with @oliver and you'll be fine :)

    Agreed. He's friendly, charges less, has better bandwidth and peering. And 100% less extortion notices. :)

    Before their DC move, Exigent's network was about as stable as CityNet's during the riots - and the multi-day data center move was the final straw.

    Couldn't speak to it after, but they could peering on par with NAC now and it still wouldn't be worth it, having to deal with that twit of a "CEO"

  • Yes I second this. Ive tried melb/syd/bris. Terrible support. Always the nothing wrong at this moment. 2 mins after 5 drop out. Silly bunch.

  • OliverOliver Member, Host Rep

    I won't comment on the OP's issue but just wanted to say thanks to those with positive feedback/recommendations. :-)

  • The ACCC won't touch individual complaints, they only act if they get multiple complaints/see a "pattern".

    One of the state Fair Trading/Consumer Affairs departments might be more helpful.

  • If you have never had a contract with them, then I cant see why you have to cancel anything?

    I still have few VPS;s with them but find the VPS performance is very ordinary with CPU wait time often above 50% due to disk IO.

    Many little outages which they claim are due to DDOS attacks

  • KrisKris Member
    edited February 2013

    @epaslv said: If you have never had a contract with them, then I cant see why you have to cancel anything?

    I have no clue. Luckily my main client is a US based lawyer who would love to get this guy into a US court by any means necessary after reading the email, no cost to me.

    This goes any further or he takes up anymore of my time - let alone trying to collect on these bullshit fees, I'm taking Exigent / John Woller down, by any legal means necessary.

    Already working on a blog / collecting links and evidence. (Thanks 1984 !)

    No more scamming numerous customers and threatening with 50 dollar fees added on cancelled accounts, followed up with threats of $480.00 and collections.

    Not to mention there was never a contract, no policy agreed to, and even by their own ToS, no contract was setup.

    Total and utter bullshit.

    I had problems running a barebones DNS server on their "network" - Then again I do think they are multi-homed.

  • @Kris, don't worry, no proper collection conpany will accept an unpaid bill without an autograph somewhere or the collection company would break the law.

  • @Kris anyway, they are down under and you aren't, right ? Just pipe any email from them to /dev/null and move on with your life.

  • OliverOliver Member, Host Rep

    @unused said: they are down under

    That explains it! They're all a bunch of criminals down there! ;-)

    J/k :D

  • @Oliver said: That explains it! They're all a bunch of criminals down there! ;-)

    Well, for most at least descendants of ! :D

  • Sounds like he is taking pointers on running his business from 1and1.

  • @Kris I feel for you but your friend should of done some research first...

    That being said, the 400GB for $10 should of been a tip off, bandwidth over here in Australia is expensive .. very expensive the servers are probably offshore anyway.

    This guy is obviously a crook and why he still has a company is beyond me ... Fair trading Australia should be able to help you, they take things pretty seriously and the threats of them getting a debt collector onto you should help your case and move things along a bit quicker.

    But really you are in the US I hardly doubt they will get a debit collector, some of the others mentioned to move on and I agree, if possible try a charge back on the charges they put on the card.

  • jon617jon617 Veteran
    edited February 2013

    Hey, I received a similar nastygram from Exigent! I tried their service for a couple months, then cancelled. After I received the cancellation confirmation email from them, they continued to send me bills for service with dates after I cancelled. Strange, but figured they would eventually catch on. Last week I got an email similar to yours, saying they are referring me to collections plus $480 in fees.

    I prefer not to deal with this, so thinking of just ignoring it. Seems like they messed up in your case and mine. If they think they can effect my credit for service fees AFTER I cancelled, they are going to lose.

    That being said, I'm having flashbacks to a 1995 Simpsons episode, where Bart visits Australia and is immediately arrested on a past offense of racking up an Australian's phone bill, and sentenced to the "boot." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_vs._Australia Yikes! I'd love to visit Australia someday, and I don't want to get booted! :-)

  • OliverOliver Member, Host Rep

    Maybe they are sending out a bunch of these types of demands at once?

    See here:
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2063423

  • KrisKris Member
    edited February 2013

    Yup. Unfortunately for Mr. Wooler and his Exigent Scam, I have an extra server un-used at 1984, a bit of free time, and I'm pretty good at SEO (full time job)

    I'll spent $480 worth of my time creating a website & letting the world know )or those who are looking for a review of Exigent) to stay clear of the company and Mr. Wooler.

    Depending on the ticket, he labels himself just someone in sales, but is truly the CEO of this scam operation.

    This twit tried to extort the wrong person.

  • You go gurl.

  • I have crossed paths with John also. I believe you give hime too much credibility. You cannot add debt collection costs to a debt. You can only seek costs for legal fees after a successful win in a court of law. Only idiots will pursue a court case internationally for a few hundred dollars and on it's merits the whole issue should have been to simply ignore him.

    Today I terminated a service within 24 hours of signing up due to a series of comical errors, incredible mishaps and the usual "stuff happens with computers" excuses. I received a full refund. In short I simply highlighted to POS John that I would disclose the contents of the ticket transcript to the rest of Australia via webhosting forums in order that they judge him on the merit of his own words.

    He shit his pants and coughed up instantly.

    Exigent is an organisation run by a delusional manipulative insecure degenerate. Don't fear him.

  • I had a VPS with Exigent in June/July. Cancelled it after 3 weeks. Zero billing problems.

  • SplitIceSplitIce Member, Host Rep
    edited August 2013

    You know you could just use the cancellation form on their site, its instant and would have saved you all this grief. Not that I am justifying their behavior but I have had 3 VPSs and 2 dedicated servers (now I have 1 VPS and 2 servers remaining). Never had any billing issues even during multiple cancellations.

    The odd downtime on certain links, poor international speeds (20-40mbit, but then again this IS Australia and thats 2-4x what I get at home). I have noticed, but its never concerned me... it is a budget host for budget things. I was actually impressed that I got a call for any custom configuration requests after ordering the dedicated servers, they seemed friendly and knowledgeable.

    Mind you if anyone snail mails me a cancellation letter to my whois / business address from overseas it would probably take almost a month before it gets processed, I wouldn't be surprised if its the same or worse for most large companies. Internal company processing delays are to be expected (e.g re-mailed from the arrival address to the right place etc).

  • We've dealt with Exigent, and therefore John & Ben, for some time now. Our experience does not echo the hasty and negative sentiments expressed in a number of the posts on this page.

    Over the period of dealing with Exigent we have purchased and cancelled quite a few servers. There's never been an issue. We continue to this day to run a business which, in part, relies on their services and infrastucture.

    As time goes by the options become more affordable and it would seem from our own business experience that they do strive to offer a good product.

    This even extends to them taking the time to ring us on a couple of occasions without being asked, simply to make sure that some momentary issues are understood and resolved in a professional manner.

    After running a string of our own businesses over the last thirty years experience tells us that many times those who rush to judgment in these kinds of forums are often the perpertrators of their own issues through simply not spending enough time to understand the situation in which they place themselves.

  • KrisKris Member

    That's odd - Everyone seems to have a problem, and usually John Wooler goes on a PR clean up when he posts on WHT (first time here is it?)

    It's funny - I've heard shared customers being forced into Business plans they didn't ask for, charged for more expensive plans - and then get the BS collection from John once he's short on cash.

    Basically - Avoid Exigent Hosting in Australia if you're looking for proper hosting, and not slap-dash services from an Aussie scammer. There's already a great Australian VPS host (minus the extortion) on his forum. He's been banned from Whirlpool for numerous accounts, and is known for these tactics.

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/web-hosting-australia-2/normal-behavior-16261.html#post98392

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/web-hosting-australia-2/disgusted-exigent-my-options-13780.html

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/web-hosting-australia-2/exigent-13119.html

    So you're either Wooler, or one of the few outliers to the shady operation that is Exigent. Place makes CC look ethical.

  • spekkspekk Member
    edited August 2013

    maybe it's not his fault, it could be his evil twin sending the e-mails

This discussion has been closed.