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Barco R

1 reviews | Active since Feb 2019

12 Feb 2019, 19:36

Hetzner not getting involved in a case where their Reseller is holding a client hostage for a domain.

Hetzner is playing it safe in getting involved in what should have been an easy Domain transfer.

Their Reseller Brendon Potter from Betternet.co.za and Voicecall.co.za who operates in Bloemfontein is refusing to transfer our domain. We have no contracts with Betternet and all our accounts are up to date. We've also given proper notice in email, whatsapp and in person to his techs. And to be honest the service we've received from Betternet on a hosting level has left much to be desired after their servers got hacked.

Brendon quickly moved his servers from a Sentora server supposedly on a VPS to Hetzner who is now protecting him in what can only be called ********* behaviour as he holds our domain hostage.

As the Upstream Service provider I expect that Hetzner would reason with their resellers when they are being unreasonable. And in fact that they at some point should step in when things get truly ridiculous.

To their credit I would say that they have managed to bring Brendon Potter to the table after he has ignored all our communications for over a week. Since we can't call him as he has no published number.

I am keenly awaiting Hetzner's co-operation in this matter. But time will tell if Hetzner is as good as they claim even if it means losing R75 annually because of a bad reseller.

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Replies (3)
Xneelo
Xneelo's reply12 Feb 2019, 21:18
Official
Hi Barco,

Thank you for escalating this matter for our attention. We empathise with your struggle to get this issue resolved and will make every effort to try and facilitate a smooth transition between our customer and their client, while ensuring that all the correct approvals via authorised communication channels are attained to protect all the parties rights.

We don't condone domains being held hostage. Our reseller code of conduct discourages this practise, however we are not party to any agreements that exist between resellers and their clients and do not have any legal jurisdiction over the relationship.

Please be aware that domain transfers which require contact updates can take 5 days to process at the ZA Central Registry.

One of our Service Managers will be in touch with you tomorrow to see how we can further assist to get this matter resolved as swiftly and amicably as possible.

Kind regards

Hetzner 

BR
Barco R's update13 Feb 2019, 08:47
Reviewer Update
Thank you for your Response. This post is as a result of the outcomes of my communication with Hetzner account managers yesterday. I understand that you don't contract with clients directly. Betternet's agreement with us is essentially a month to month verbal agreement. Hetzner is empowering Betternet as a reseller to act unreasonably and *********ly in this matter. By aiding and abetting Betternet, Hetzner becomes complicit in his offense in withholding access to the our intellectual property without any grounds to do so. As the upstream supplier I very much hold you accountable when your Resellers misbehave to this extent. Brendon Potter ***ner of Betternet) has declared publicly to your Account managers that he has no intention to transfer regardless of the communications he has received from the client and the fact that their accounts are up to date. This clearly demonstrates his intent to hold this domain ransom as has happened for the past week. As a result I feel that Hetzner should do a little more than discourage ********* this practice. I'll await your feedback in this regard.
Xneelo
Xneelo's reply13 Feb 2019, 08:51
Official
Good Morning Barco, 

A Service Manager will shortly be reaching out to you per telephone to discuss the resolution of this matter. 

Trusting that we can resolve this together with you as promptly as possible. 

Kind regards

Hetzner