It took about a day for ServerPronto to reply that my cancellation request has been accepted. It looks like I'll be off the hook next month.
Maybe I got lucky. Maybe all the complaints come from people who didn't send the correct documentation. Maybe ServerPronto has made an effort to improve lately. Whatever it is, I can't complain.
I'm on to larger hard drives, faster processors, and bigger bills. It was great while it lasted, ServerPronto. Thanks.
I've had a server at ServerPronto for almost four years. I had one of their "Starter" servers, and it worked well for what it was. I learned a lot managing my own server, and I never had a problem with the hardware or the network.
But now it's time to move on, and I'm a little worried because of the trouble I've heard other people have had trying to cancel their service.
It seems that ServerPronto has a habit of ignoring cancellation requests and doing everything to be unhelpful in the cancellation process.
The cancellation form in itself is daunting. They require a lot of information, stuff that I don't like sending to anyone. My driver's license, and front and back of my credit card. If anyone working at their company decides to use my card for a online shopping spree, they have all the information they need.
But I've filled it all out and sent it to them, as I documented in this video. I'll document the response I get from them as soon as it comes.
Crap happens, and it just happened to iContact.com
I've had a Google Apps Gmail account for a few years now, and I really like it. I never get spam, the large capacity is great and the interface and features can't be beat.
One of those features is a catch-all email address. That is, you can set up your email to receive all mail directed to any user at your domain. If you own example.com, you could have tom@example.com, dick@example.com and harry@example.com all come to your inbox.
Why would you do that, though?
One reason is to determine if any company you give your email address to leaks your address to other parties.
For example, you sign up for untrustyshop.com with the email address untrustyshop@example.com. If next week you notice a lot of advertisments coming to your inbox sent to untrustyshop@example.com, you know that untrustyshop.com has somehow mishandled your email address.
So I've been wondering why I was suddenly getting spam at two unique email addresses at my Google Apps domain. After a more detailed examination of previous messages to those addresses, I noticed both were sent by iContact. A Google search confirmed my suspicion that iContact.com's data had been compromised.
It seems, they lost their email list to hackers. They try to bury it in a bunch of other good-intentions drivel in their blog, but the key sentence is "Based on the information we have, the subscriber email address is the only data affected."
An embarrassing exhibition of incompetence in your professed area of expertise can't be good for business.
On the other handle, the great Google itself has had trouble recently with compromised data.
Security is hard.