Complaint Review: Cyberwing Communications - Nationwide

In his rebuttal to my original report, Shawn White states, "I find it disturbing that ANY customer would attempt to harass or stalk any of our personnel."

I have said it many, many times, and I will say it again, using all caps like Shawn loves to do: I AM NOT A STALKER. I HAVE NOT MADE ANY PHONE CALLS TO THEM. I HAVE told what I believe is the truth about their organization and business practices so that others can avoid being victimized (is this harassment?).

I have plenty of documentation to support my claim that Mr. Wayne Bridges and Shawn White himself have harassed, threatened, and intimidated me, and Wayne Bridges himself even alluded that "you should be careful what ya put on a domain record", which I took as confirmation that he called my house in the middle of the night. The conversation leading up to the phone call also supports my contention.

Shawn White states, "We are more than happy to provide verified copies of our telephone communications calls to any authority figure (police department, lawyer, etc.) for the date/time in question, however we will not provide such information to any customer or any other request."

In other words, Cyberwings is unavailable by telephone to handle refund requests.

Phone records prove nothing... Mr. Bridges could have made a call from anywhere, and at that time of night, he was surely at his home. Furthermore, you claim that your new data center is located in Virginia, and Wayne Bridges and other staffers have made it well-known that Wayne resides in Maine.

Shawn White states, "All of this over a company that was running GREAT for 13+ months and then had 3-4 weeks of issues and technical difficulties."

Over four weeks of solid downtime is more than just "issues and technical difficulties", and I think most would agree. It is a breach of what was offered and agreed to when the money was accepted.

Shawn White states, "WE ARE an internet company."

Duh.

Shawn White states, "We HAVE offered a REFUND or REBUILD option to EVERY customer - no customer barred out."

Trouble is, they offer, but they just don't deliver.

Shawn White states, "Short of calling each customer up personally, all 3,000+ of them, we are doing everything in our POWER to ensure that everyone get a REFUND or get REBUILT (with additional services free of charge). Everyone that has chosen to be REBUILT with our services is being given at least THREE months and some as many as NINE months of free services as a reimbursement for the 3-4 weeks worth of time that we have been having technical difficulties."

With some of these customers spending as little as a dollar and some spending as much as $1300+, why waste ANY money calling them? Just send the refunds when they are requested. As for your "REBUILD" option, you conveniently left out that you lost everyone's precious data, so what are you offering to rebuild? Furthermore, as I stated before, it was not 3-4 weeks of technical difficulties. It was over a month of SOLID DOWNTIME after your service providers shut you down for non-payment because, as you lamely claim, they weren't delivering the services that you were being billed for.

Shawn White states, "Surely, even you, can see that 3-9 months of free services in response to 3-4 weeks of technical difficulties is a very generous & fair response."

If I was ignorant enough to choose your "REBUILD" option, I would still not consider that proper reparation for the loss of my entire site. And what about when it happens again?

Shawn White states, "We could do what most other DOT COM's have done, turn around and walk away, but that is not our goal."

Turn around so they can slap the handcuffs on you. Walk away probably isn't an option.

"As a company we decided to rebuild our data center in a new location, with internet lines that were 8-12x faster than our lines in our previous data centers, with brand new faster servers, and, during the rebuild process, offer ALL customers the chance for a REFUND or REBUILD."

He keeps talking about this refund, and I'm still waiting!

Shawn White states, "All customers have been informed that ALL PAYPAL refunds are being processed by hand, by postal mail, and will be POSTMARKED by August 9th, 2002."

That's because PayPal froze their account, which doesn't have any money in it. And as for using the U.S. mail, is he going to add mail fraud to the list of interstate crimes he has committed?

Shawn White states, "With our issues ONLY starting on 7/1/02, and our servers not even going offline ntil 7/8/02, this issue is truly less than one month old, it is disheartening to find that some customers, only a select few, choose to try to depict this situation as one that has been going on for months and months. Ridiculous."

I'm sorry, Shawn...I was mistaken. It has been two days short of a month. Just remember, though...from July 4 to July 8, there was a serious bandwidth restriction that caused timeouts every time a person would try to view a Cyberwings-hosted site. Furthermore, you had my money on the first day I received my service, so why is it acceptable for you not to reciprocate on the first day the service was shut down?

Shawn White states, "We have over 3,000 clients, 16,000 websites, and we are a very upstanding company."

Correction, Shawn. You HAD over 3,000 cllients and 16,000 web sites. Contrary to your claims of 7%, most people are wisely choosing to try take the money and run. Most of your clients would now agree that you should be "upstanding" in front a judge.

Shawn White states, "We offered EVERY CLIENT a REBUILD or REFUND option."

Actually, Shawn, you must be forgetting that my helpdesk account mysteriously disappeared the day after my refund request was entered. I know you have assured me that the ticket still exists, but I know for certain that the account doesn't and therefore am only able to monitor the ticket you claim exists through email. I've waited long enough for you to make good on your offer of a refund...SEND THE MONEY NOW!!

Shawn White states, "We are happy to report, and can/will back this up with hard facts if necessary, that 93% of our customer base has chosen to REBUILD and NOT REFUND."

I'd like to see that verifiable proof you were referring to.

Shawn White states, "That shows, right there, that Cyberwings has done something right in building our company, in building our community, and in maintaining our services."

And what a community it is!

Shawn White states, "Every business encounters problems from time to time - especially in the struggling DOT COM world."

A company that exists solely on the internet is non-existent if it isn't there. That's a far bigger issue than encountering problems.

Shawn White states, "Cyberwings is no different, but we are fighting tooth & nail to rebuild or refund every customer who asks for either, and move on. That's fair, legitimate, and above board of us to offer."

You have promised, so now deliver.

Shawn White states, "As for the complaints that have been filed with 'agencies', I have personally responded to each and every one of them tht I have been notified about and each and every one of them is in CLEAR receipt of responses. I have letters from a few of these agencies thanking me for my personal response & attention to the matters at hand."

It would be rude of these agencies not to thank Shawn for his reply, since they will book it into evidence.

Shawn White states, "I believe Cyberwings HAS handled the situation in a very professional and above board manner."

I don't.

Shawn White states, "It disturbs me that a customer could not follow the PUBLISHED procedure for requesting a refund, let us do our work and respond within the timeframes posted."

Number one: I DID follow your published procedures - even all three times they changed. Number two: It would be much easier to let you "do your work and respond within the timeframes posted" if you DID respond within the timeframes you posted. Besides, I'm not waiting for a response, I'm waiting for my MONEY.

Shawn White states, "It disturbs me that ANY customer would try to dig up personal information on employees of ANY company, including ours, and try to contact them and their families, etc. in an effort to try to get 'back' at a company who is trying to do all of the right things by way of our customers."

I guess it doesn't disturb you when your employees do so, then.

Shawn White states, "In ALL of our refund requests we are asking that customers provide basic contact information in case we need to contact them for any reason. During this entire REBUILD and REFUND process we have not have found a reason to contact ANY customer voice. We would like this customer to provide proof that it was a Cyberwings personnel member."

How about you provide proof that it WASN'T? As I stated before, phone records are not "proof".

Shawn White states, "It's ridiculous to think that anyone would accuse ANY company of calling their house at 11pm at night, especially Cyberwings. We do not provide telephone support and RARELY have telephone contact with our customers - and certainly not with Mr. Nick Saunders who has been persistently stalking & harassing our staff members, one or two in particular."

Again, I have not stalked or threatened anybody, and by the definition of most people, I have not harassed either. Is telling the truth about Cyberwings' business practices harassment?

Shawn White states, "Again, as I've responded in other 'rebuttals', Cyberwings is rebuilding, and this makes

some people very angry that we have enough determination & faith in our own DOT COM business to do such a thing. REBUILD, REFUND, and move on. That's our plan, our goal."

A staffer of yours has confirmed that this "REBUILD" process has been put off by at least a week and is therefore a fairy tale that I want no part of. SEND MY MONEY.

Shawn White states, "We are happy to report that 93% of our PROJECT has been REBUILD, and less than 7% has been REFUND. That shows something right there."

Um...that you don't know how to calculate percentages? I'm sure this is a lie. Provide verifiable proof of these percentages.

Nick

Lake Havasu City, Arizona

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