Sometimes you have an experience with a company that is just so bad and so surreal, and this happened to me with x9 Internet hosting. Maybe they just had a bad day, or maybe they're always like this; I don’t know. What I do know is that their sign up procedure is very lax, and allowed me to make a payment without providing details *they said* were a requirement of their terms and conditions. I thought it was a fairly easy process; click a few buttons and click ‘pay now’ with PayPal. Yet they processed an order without what they considered essential parts of the order.
After making the payment via PayPal through their site nothing happened; no confirmation from them, order number, receipt or anything. It was only through the PayPal receipt that I knew the money had been paid. After searching their site for a contact form or email address I did contact them, after which I felt that the procedures they had in place were not as secure as they should be and I was uncomfortable with the situation, security wise. I probably should have contacted them through PayPal but I have had so few problems with PayPal that the thought never entered my head.
I informed them that I wanted a refund. They agreed on a refund but specifically asked me why and I told them I had security concerns with their procedures and the age of the software or web site scripts they were using, whereupon they tried to say that as they had my money and I did not have their service I was a possible scammer. They then told me that the holes in their sign up procedure which allowed it to happen were somehow my fault. I must say it's the first time I have been blamed for being a customer. After which it was a case of the matter was closed and I shouldn't email them again otherwise they will charge me an administration fee.
Naturally the refund did not appear in my PayPal account. Wary of contacting them direct lest they invoke the ‘fee’ I contacted PayPal to resolve the issue of the refund.
As I said at the beginning, surreal.