When I got home from work last Monday, there was a certain message on my answering machine. I almost deleted it, thinking that the thick-accented garbled mumble was another wrong number from some woman from India (I seem to get a lot of those), but there was something about it that was too..."precise" in its mumblings. I listened closer, and considered it might actually have to do with my Feature Price situation, somehow.
The next day, I called the phone number from work. There was some reference number within the answering machine message, but apparently I didn't make it out properly and it took a bit for the man with whom I was talking to figure out why I called.
Actually, it wasn't that long before he took me off hold and filled me in on the details. My dispute against Feature Price had run into another snag. According to this new person, I should have checked in within 60 days of the dispute, and not 180 and certainly not so delayed as I actually did. He estimated I had, at best, a 25% chance of getting anything back.
What they needed from me now was for me to fax a complete collection of every correspondence I had with them. I let him know this was a lot of e-mails, and he confirmed: "Send it all." He suggested it was critical that anything which clearly displayed that they owed me money and/or intended refund/credit me somehow would be especially helpful. Copies of anything that showed their refund policies would also be helpful.
At the end of the conversation I wondered to myself why it was so difficult to collect the money when there was no one around to counter my claim, but I guess when Feature Price went out of business/was bought out their ownership of the delinquent finances might be in question. Who was actually being disputed against at this point?
I mused aloud at how devious Feature Price's cancellation policy was, claiming it was required that the bill go through completely before it could be contested. That seemed to strike a chord with my dispute rep., acknowledging that it was very likely a calculated time delay tactic on their part.
I have a couple of days off coming to me, and this Independence Day weekend is a long one for me. I need to make sure I collect all the info that the dispute reps need. Feature Price stole money from me, and I want it back.
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Jonathan commented at 2:02 PM on July 5, 2003:
The idiots at Feature Price also own a telephone company in Florida called Edison Telephone. Well, they didn't pay their last bill to Sprint (their own telephone/data backbone), and now anyone using Edison Telephone has no phone service.
Also, since Atlantic.net just bought out the resources from Feature Price, they were still using Feature Price's backbone, which -- hey! -- is no longer working, because, as noted above, they didn't pay their Sprint bill.
So Feature Price is still continuing to haunt anyone who still stayed on after the Atlantic.net purchase. These guys are malicious plucks.
Nobody commented at 3:48 PM on July 5, 2003:
It looked to me like Atlantic.net basically bought Feature Price's web hardware and client list without technically buying the company itself. Basically, any account that Atlantic now owned due to this deal was "cancelled" except for the 2 free months. Unless you signed up (again) with Atlantic.net, you could kiss your months-to go or years-to-go Feature Price subscriptions goodbye. I bet it ended up being pretty much the same with Feature Price phone company/Sprint situation.
FS commented at 12:32 PM on July 18, 2003:
free lunch is tasty... isn't it?
what, nothing on your plate?
freelunch.com=no such domain.
funny to complain when others are doing their best.
where's your hosting company?
yeah, i didn't think so.
they have costs too, you know.
stop being an a**hole and maybe your complaints will be answered.
stop being an a**hole and maybe your $$$ returned.
Jonathan commented at 9:50 PM on July 19, 2003:
Hey, that's pretty stupid, there, FS. I know that you're pretending to be Fathi, but I know you're not. Is that Travis I smell?
Nobody commented at 2:08 PM on July 21, 2003:
"free lunch is tasty... isn't it?"That would be something I'd ask the people who worked at Feature Price at the end, since they were the ones getting free money without providing adequate (or often any ) service.
"they have costs too, you know."
Right, and that's why I was paying them for the services they were contractually obligated to provide. And yet they refused to honor this contract.
stop being an a**hole and maybe your complaints will be answered.I do not believe my money is going to be returned. Feature Price was mismanaged to the point where they had to close shop and sell off their assets. I was extremely polite and cooperative for months, and that did me no good. The people at Feature Price taught me a valuable lesson: If someone doesn't provide you with all that you are paying for, IMMEDIATELY put in for a dispute. If you wait you're only setting yourself up to get screwed by them.
stop being an a**hole and maybe your $$$ returned.
I'd like to suggest that you are the asshole, if only that you came to my site to spread the hate where I certainly haven't sought you out, have I? But, since we're sharing, FP, in the spirit of full disclosure I'd like to share your IP address with the folks here: 65.30.242.35. A reverse DNS lookup leads me to CPE-65-30-242-35.mn.rr.com, but I'll stop right there. The lesson hopefully learned here is that you can't expect to post anonymously on my site.
But, on to more rationale business.
Jonathan, I don't believe that "FS" is Fathi either, because he's working elsewhere with his own company nowadays and would certainly instead promote the positive aspects of his new company.
By the way, my compiled "Feature Price problems" documentation was 135 pages of e-mails. And that doesn't include the phone calls or web-based help incident submissions that also didn't lead to positive resolution to the issues.
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