A beware thread

[StephanieCordray]

Accu web hosting . com(you can put it together if you really want to look them up buti refuse to give them an inbound link) uses a lot of shady tactics to get well placed in the search engines, one of which is to list pages and pages of other web hosting companies that are set up like outbound links but actually lead nowhere. To the unsuspecting it makes a lot of companies look like they are out of business.

They have also claimed to have been in business longer than they have... unless they were doing it from offline. I can find no record on them dating past June 2003 yet they claim to have been in business since 1999.

Any company who uses these kinds of tactics to hook customers in I would never recommend. If they are dishonest on their site, they will dishonest in their business dealings... Sorry, that's just the way I feel about stuff like that.

[StephanieCordray]

It's places like this that give all web hosters a bad name... GRRRRRRRRR.

[Vaelor]

Originally Posted by StephanieCordray

They have also claimed to have been in business longer than they have... unless they were doing it from offline. I can find no record on them dating past June 2003 yet they claim to have been in business since 1999.

An offline web hosting business? {chuckles} Now I've heard everything... =D

Although, in all fairness, I've been in business since 1998, but you won't find any records of my company online prior to 2000 - because when I first started running my own business, I was doing hardware tech support, and then even when I did get online, it wasn't under my current URL for the first couple of years anyway.

So, technically, that company may have been in business since 1999, but they may have only been trading under that name, or in the web hosting business, since 2003. It's a tricky little play on words, but could be legit.

But you're right, sounds dodgy as hell to me. Like the internet needs more shoddy web hosts! Yech.

[StephanieCordray]

No kidding, I can't see being a hosting company since 1999 without being online but I can't find records that far back.

As for the other part of that, they have treated about 2000 other hosting companies in the US the same as we have been. Not as many in other countries but they have "links" for a whole lot of companies. 116 pages for US companies alone.

[ian]

They have also claimed to have been in business longer than they have... unless they were doing it from offline. I can find no record on them dating past June 2003 yet they claim to have been in business since 1999.

The domain whois is one way of verifying that claim, cant claim to be in business since 1999 if the domain was created in 2003.

[StephanieCordray]

Originally Posted by ian

The domain whois is one way of verifying that claim, cant claim to be in business since 1999 if the domain was created in 2003.

They do claim it whether they can or not.

[Vaelor]

Originally Posted by ian

The domain whois is one way of verifying that claim, cant claim to be in business since 1999 if the domain was created in 2003.

On the contrary Ian, as I was saying above, I registered my business, Fifth Dimension Computing, in 1998, but I didn't register my primary domain name, www.fifthdimensioncomputing.com, until 2000. I was, however, still in business prior to that date.

It's possibly that they were trading under a different business name, or at least a different domain name, prior to 1999 - and considering their apparently shady business practices, I'd say that would be fairly likely. If that's how they run their operation, chances are they change their domain every couple of years to avoid all the hatemail they must get. I know I would if I chose to operate like that!

Or, of course, it could just be a lie. {shrugs} I know personally though, if I was just going to flat out lie about something like that, I'd at least say I'd been in business since 1992, or something. Make it worthwhile - the difference between 2003 and 1999 doesn't really seem worth it to me. {shrugs}

[Vaelor]

Originally Posted by StephanieCordray

As for the other part of that, they have treated about 2000 other hosting companies in the US the same as we have been. Not as many in other countries but they have "links" for a whole lot of companies. 116 pages for US companies alone.

Oh, you were actually one of the companies they did this to? Man, no wonder you're not happy about it!

What steps have you taken to remedy the situation? I can't think what one could do in a situation like this, if they're refusing to fix it. Obviously it's just a deliberate broken link, but it's not technically libel or any similar thing where legal action could be taken, or at least threatened. I wonder if their upstream provider could be convinced to take action against them? Unfortunately it seems to be one of those things that's ethically wrong, but not really illegal in any way. =/

I'd be curious to hear how this pans out, if anything further happens. Keep us posted Stephanie!

[StephanieCordray]

Originally Posted by Vaelor

Or, of course, it could just be a lie. {shrugs} I know personally though, if I was just going to flat out lie about something like that, I'd at least say I'd been in business since 1992, or something. Make it worthwhile - the difference between 2003 and 1999 doesn't really seem worth it to me. {shrugs}

LOL

What steps have you taken to remedy the situation? I can't think what one could do in a situation like this, if they're refusing to fix it. Obviously it's just a deliberate broken link, but it's not technically libel or any similar thing where legal action could be taken, or at least threatened. I wonder if their upstream provider could be convinced to take action against them? Unfortunately it seems to be one of those things that's ethically wrong, but not really illegal in any way. =/

I think the proper term for what they are doing is doorway pages. It's against Google's TOS. Not sure if they are doing anything about it or not... prolly won't unless I see a significant change in that site's search engine ranking. MSN search says they don't care. As far as I know, you're right, it isn't illegal but is certainly unethical. If they are unethical in one way, chances are they are unethical in others.