The Lycos Affair

This domain name has been out of circulation from February 18 till May 10, thanks to the spectacular hosting services of lycos.co.uk.

By May 9, Lycos Webcentre Support service and I had exchanged more than 40 (forty) emails, spent half an hour on the phone, and my email service and my website had already been suspended for nearly three months.

Here's what happenned...

When I purchased their hosting and domain name services with a credit card registered in Spain, they failed to let me know that a few months later, payments from outside the UK would no longer be allowed.

When they implemented the above mentioned changes in their payment system, failed to notify customers abroad.

When I attempted to upgrade my package with a database and got error messages, they repeatedly failed to spot what the problem was. Many emails were exchanged regarding this problem.

For some reason, on February 18, they decided to block my account (even though it expires on July 4). In response to my complaints the only thing I kept receiving were emails from them saying that payment would be possible then. But it wasn't.

Finally, in March 17 they realized that the problem was that they didn't accept payments from abroad. They told me, but still didn't unblock my account.

Despite my insistence, the domain name pointing to my website in their server remains inaccessible and my email blocked. Another month went by.

I kept sending them messages urging them to resolve this unbelievable situation. They always responded. Some times it feels as if it's actually a person writing the message. Others, they seem somehow automated. Like the last three or four. They are all:

Dear Mr Ferrer
Thank you for contacting Webcentre support,
Unfortunately I have not yet received any feedback from the responsible department.
I will re-check with them if they have already completed the investigation and I will try to chase your case.
As promised I will send you a message as soon as I have received any feedback.
Please do not hesitate to contact us in the future if you have any further queries.
With kind regards
--
<some guy's name> - Support Team
LYCOS
Service Center

So I moved

Yeah, to neathosting.net, a web hosting service recommended by my good friend Sonny. The service seems good, and there's lots of useful features for about the same price.

But my domain name still pointed to the Lycos server, where the web space I have paid for is not accessible.

Now, according to my registrar (networksolutions.com) to get my domain to point here, where the web is working, I need to talk to Lycos, as "it's attached to a wholesale account handled by them". Oh my God. Man, what a mistake when, grateful for the free web hosting with PHP they offer, I decided to get their Starter Package which includes web hosting and a domain name.

I wrote to them asking for guidance but they never answered.

A few days later, on friday 7 May, I told NeatHosting's Mark da Silva. He said he'd look into it on Monday. And by Monday 10, my domain name was pointing here. I don't know how he did it but he did it. And quickly as well!

The services I purchased from Lycos.co.uk expire in July 4. They must not fear my renewing them.