Another cookie, please!

One of the very first things I learned with my first computer was from a friend who stated that “cyberspace is a dangerous place!”.  It most definitely is just that.  And, for many reasons.

The days of plugging-along with MS-DOS are long past and many of us have survived many Windows OS upgrades, choosing even to avoid a few.  Today, various social media apps rule everyone’s daily schedule and, given the current political climate, these internet gathering spots for friends have turned into cold war zones with opinions firing back and forth from everywhere in the universe.

And then there are the scammers who lurk in the web shadows.  Trolls, most of them.  We’ve all dealt with these characters who slither out of nowhere with a comment or request.  They gather personal information where they can and often present a clear and present danger to unsuspecting individuals.  Some of the worst are associated with websites; hosting providers and web designers for starters.  Where am I going with this?  Read on.

Last November, my former hosting provider, HostGator, along with its partner company, SiteLock, hit thousands of clients with a “security/malware” scam in an attempt to force clients into contracting with SiteLock for an indecent amount of money in order to “remove said malware” and for continued website security.  If site owners chose not to comply, websites were shut down.  Mine was one.  I immediately cancelled my hosting services and advise anyone dealing with HostGator to tread carefully!

It gets better.

On Facebook, I belonged to a group called “The WordPress Support Group” and one of the administrators of the page was the woman who assisted with my initial web design years ago.  I shared my situation with group members and this woman advised me to contact her to discuss getting my site up and running again.   That…was last December.  Discussion, payment of requested fee, followed by explanations from the designer regarding two personal situations which caused understandable delays.  Then…nothing but hollow delay tactics…claims of sending me emails which I never received and, after that, no response at all to any communications.

Last week, I shared my grievance on that same Facebook group page.  No names were mentioned, just an overview of the issues at hand.  Shortly after, I was banned from the group and from the web designer’s personal Facebook space but not before finding out similar experiences from many others who dealt with this individual.  Rather than make a very bad wrong, right, this woman joined the ranks of too many other internet trolls who thrive on defrauding people.

The worst part of it all was trusting this individual to do the right thing based on previous experience.  Situations happen and can affect anyone but, when you are running any business, the failure to keep the lines of communication open sets the stage for an adverse reaction from any client.  It became time for the proverbial gloves to come off and I set the necessary wheels-in-motion to deal with this nightmare. 

The best part of it all is that…I’m back!  After waiting more than seven months, all it took was just a few days after reaching out to the right person to get me back in the bloggle again!

I am beyond grateful!