Companies to AVOID as you succeed in your FASTLANE...

[MJ DeMarco]

FitBit by Google. Been through 3 of them, every device failed in the warranty period, or just a few months out of the warranty period. They were nice and replaced two of them, but after the third, they stopped and suggested I buy a new one with a "discount code of 35%!" -- sorry, I don't replace one lemon by buying another.

 

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[Caminsky]

Probably not relevant to most on here, but for any lawyers, learn how to play Westlaw and Lexis against each other. For the uninitiated, Westlaw and Lexis Nexis are the two main legal research sites used by U.S. attorneys. While others exist, they don't compare.

Unfortunately, these sites have a business model similar to your cable/internet provider. Lock you in on a teaser rate and slowly jack up the price. The good news is that, in my experience, they will play ball. So haggle with them. Make them fight for you like jealous lovers. Then at the end of your term, betray them for the other site (if they give you a better offer).

 

[Shonda]

Gladly!

I used PayPal for nearly 20 years. They recently turned to trash. This was before they threatened to steal $2,500 from user accounts for "misinformation."

In early 2022, PayPal placed multiple holds on my account for unclear reasons. They made me jump through the most insane hoops to get my account unsuspended and to unlock my cash. Shortly after they did it the first time, they did it again with the same client and made me jump through similar hoops.

After that, another client sent a payment for copywriting services. PayPal showed the money as available in my PayPal account and allowed me to withdraw it to my bank. Then something happened with the client's bank and the money didn't finish processing from them to PayPal I guess. PayPal then opened a dispute, demanded I return the money, and billed me a $15 fee for the service. I contacted the client and found out they were not in dispute and that there was an error with their bank. So only PayPal had a problem, and they decided to make it my problem and bill me for it. I returned the money to PayPal and paid the fee. Then I told them to f*ck off and deleted my account. After that I made this video.

I replaced PayPal for client work with HelloBonsai.com.

Siteground web host is another service that has degraded over the past several years. They ditched Cpanel and went with their own internal set up. Their customer service dropped off a cliff. They increased their prices to double the rates of similar services. To top it off, they made simple tasks (like turning off rebills for all domains) hard as hell (by requiring you individually turn off rebills for each domain one by one and by clicking through multiple pages to do so each time). When you have hundreds of domains... it's a problem.

Earlier this year I took my domain names and moved them to Namecheap for way less.

This morning, Siteground billed me for a domain I didn't want to renew. I asked for a refund. They've processed refunds for accidental renewals in the past. This time they said no. Can't do it. I said fine... My hosting is set to renew next month for another $320, so I'll take my hosting elsewhere.

Over the past 8 years, I've paid out tens of thousands of dollars to Siteground for services. But they were willing to lose a customer for just $17.99. So now I've officially moved to ChemiCloud.com and will never use Siteground again.

I'm tired of these shitty companies treating their customers like crap. I'm done with it. From now on I'll vote with my money and move my entire business elsewhere.

So, they did the same thing to me I was also a faithful Paypal user 15 years and did everything through them, however, it was $1227.90, they are trying to fraudulently scam me out of.

First, I started having my app built March 2022 in Freelancer from some over sea's programming scammers that I paid a extremely large amount of money to, in the amount of $15,000.00, those programmers, started robbing my programming and asking me to send extra payments confidently through PayPal, for my advisors with draw system outside freelancer, 3 separate times, plus for a couple other things that I already paid for in freelancer, well it was my first time with freelancer and had worked 10 years to finally build my online company for services with a app, I didn’t realize it was against freelancers policy to send money outside freelancer, well the programmers were trying to rob the programming, they even tried to sale my code to my advisers after, freelancer got involved got my app code back, I turn the programmers into FBI in July big huge formal report, and ask for my money back from Paypal Credit at the end of May. Only 2 transactions, they kept taking the programmers side when I had a overwhelming amount of proof, I was being scammed, it took 2 days to go back and go through 15 months of contracts and what not, I ask PayPal credit if they know the scamming programmers, more than once, as when they are in USA they are in the Philadelphia area and have a office in New Jersey and New York. But also, the over sea’s customer support as well. I asked them that about 5 times.

I go on to hire different programmers to do maintenance in freelancer, so freelancer can see fully, what the programmers did to my coding and they can help me get the app functional. I load freelancer with $4000.00 for tickets contracted with the new programmers from my citi-bank, which that bank is what I used for the app, however, I have a $4500 credit limit in Paypal Credit and now my citi bank and other cards are maxed out almost, so I just load my wallet with the $1,227.90 which wasn't contracted yet just in my virtual wallet, as I needed some other stuff like app spread, commercial material and things like that, so I uploaded it just for extra money in my wallet, 2 hours later I don't realize it, but they return the money. I notice when freelancer wallet was missing the $1227.90 on Aug 15, so I called them, pretty upset as its time consuming, they tell me Aug 7 I called them and did a fraud report on that money, they had closed that account and opened a new one, gave me a provisionary credit (meaning they covered the return money and never received it back but it was a lie, that is how I found out that they did the fraud in my name), I noticed the money gone in my freelancer wallet, that’s how I knew they did the return. I could have just withdrawn the money, I didnt need to do a fraud report. So I think that everything's fine even though they did a fraud in my name, claiming I did the fraud report when they clearly did, taking advantage of the fraud I did turn in from Jan 2023 to May 2023, when I realized the first programmers were taking me for a ride. which had nothing to do with freelancer, as I never asked for any money back from freelancer, only the programmers themselves. However, they received the money back and I thought that was the end of it.

Well, the morning Gaza and Hamas hit Israel they forwarded the $1,227.90 to the new account, saying I now owe that money, I never had access to, I call again, they said you called it as a fraud, we talked to freelancer and you owed it, which was a lie, my programmers are finishing up the $4000.00 worth of work now, that was just extra funds in my wallet. I ask them again if they know the programmers that are scamming and hacking their customers’ accounts because by then, I had researched and realized a lot of Paypal Credit users, where getting hacked and the hackers where buying things online and paying for it with Paypal Credits customers’ accounts, then they would close the account with the dispute and open a new one, then 2 months later forwarding the balance to the new accounts and making it's costumers pay for the hacking and fraud.

The FBI did a release last week, saying if you were hiring remote IT's for your app or website chances were those IT workers were paid to scam Americans in the USA to pay for the terrorist weapons, it was a long drown out scheme. They took the $1,227.90 out of that new account early morning the day Gaza attacked Israel Oct 7, 2023. I believe they knew the programmers and were doing inside jobs at Paypal Credit to commit fraud. As, they also have programmers and overseas workers, however, through talking to the fraud department and manager there, the workers in the USA department is involved as well. This is a breach of their privacy act, interfering with our business contracts with other people, disputing things fraudulently, to scam us and keep the money. We need to make people aware and even get together and talk to a lawyer about a class action lawsuit, as it wouldn't be the first for the bank that owns them being sued for fraudulent behavior. Be careful and aware with them.

 

[MattR82]

Express VPN. Charged me for another year after I disabled auto-renewal. Have since seen the same complaint from others.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Express VPN.

Oh man, I had a horror story from them a few years ago. Everything that advertised was false, and I went through hell trying to get a refund.

 

[MattR82]

Oh man, I had a horror story from them a few years ago. Everything that advertised was false, and I went through hell trying to get a refund.

They were bought out 2 and a bit years ago. For me it's been a really unreliable product too.
Re-enabling auto renewal behind a customers back is a level of scummery I really wouldn't have expected from a company that size though.

 

[The Sandman]

Gusto for Payroll.
Zipbooks for Accounting.

I love Zipbooks and its a local company here in UT. Gusto is vastly improved from QB Payroll, which was once, Intuit Payroll.

Are you still happy with Zipbooks? Seems like they've been having problems lately. Mine hasn't imported any transactions since last month. They say they're having issues with a backlog of transactions and are working on it, but I'm starting to wonder if I should look at alternatives.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Are you still happy with Zipbooks? Seems like they've been having problems lately. Mine hasn't imported any transactions since last month. They say they're having issues with a backlog of transactions and are working on it, but I'm starting to wonder if I should look at alternatives.

Yea, it's pretty sad to see all the problems they've had recently. I'm gonna stick with them and see if they can sort it out. I really like their interface, but if the connections fail to work, it sort of ruins the experience.

But yes, if these anomalies aren't fixed before the end of the year, I'll have to start looking again.

 

[The Sandman]

Yea, it's pretty sad to see all the problems they've had recently. I'm gonna stick with them and see if they can sort it out. I really like their interface, but if the connections fail to work, it sort of ruins the experience.

But yes, if these anomalies aren't fixed before the end of the year, I'll have to start looking again.

Looks like they've finally got it working again. Had to have them delete the connections, reestablish them, and then recombine them. Annoying but at least it's working.

Side note: maybe I'm old but when dealing with online tech support I don't need to see gifs. It feels unprofessional and I just get more annoyed. It seems to be a company culture as all 3 people I've communicated with did it.

 

[MattR82]

Add HP to the list. I remember hearing a few years back about the printers that won't work with aftermarket cartridges, but it's so much worse than that.

Have a HP printer that also has a scanner? Well... not if you're out of ink. No ink, no scan... How the hell have I not heard of this till now lol.

Then there's HP Instant ink, where even if there's ink in your printer, you won't be able to print if you go over your allotted amount of pages.

No problem - don't subscribe to their crappy instant ink then. But in order to use the included cartridges, you HAVE to join or it won't let you use them.

This guys channel is fantastic. He's also the guy behind the grayjay app (which is about to get him completely banned from youtube lol)..

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACX_VfsjkZA

 

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