Avoid Layered Technologies

[Peter]

I would strongly urge anyone to steer clear of Layered Technologies.

Last year (or possibly the year before) I was a customer of theirs but I was hacked and lost control of the server. I requested that layered technologies reinstalled a hard drive (the primary hard drive) and reconnect a secondary hard drive which contained a backup from before the hacking. After they had finished I tried mounting the secondary hard drive to no avail (the system didn't even see it). They looked at it and concluded that the hard drive had frazzled (it was working 100% before their changing of the primary hard drive.

I would hazard a guess that they either broke the hard drive during their repairs or they had wiped the hard drive during the install of the OS on the primary hard drive and were trying to cover up their mistake.

Anyway having lost the data on the serer I canceled the contract and did not pay for the repairs, however the time left on the renting of the dedicated server outweighed the repair cost.

This morning I received a letter from a company called Amer Assist demanding that I pay $50 to them for an outstanding balance. Needless to say I will not be paying.

 

[Kate]

It looks like there is room for improvement in their security policies too
http://www.texasstartupblog.com/200...ies-hacked-clients-urged-to-change-passwords/

Perhaps I would reply with a polite letter just telling them that they are not in a position to demand such fees for less than outstanding service.
And I would enclose a peanut for their work

 

[Peter]

lol ironically the letter I received is dated the day before those stories broke, maybe they should concentrate on securing their servers/software instead of chasing money that they really have no right too.

Does anyone have any idea of American law. according to the letter I received if I do not respond within 30 days refuting the claim I owe money then they claim that is admitting I do owe money. Here in the UK that is certainly not the case. Also they seem to suggest (although they do not come out and say it so I presume a scare tactic) that it has gone to court, wouldn't they have to inform me it was going to court before it went?

Also the cheek of them claiming that I have to send a letter to them refuting, they did provide an envelope but postage has not been paid so they seem to think I should pay up to $3 to refute what in my eyes is a fraudulent claim of debt.

 

[Robert Allen]

According to my personal tutor at college, who made a report about the whole issue of copyright, told the class that normally the person who has the best lawyer wins. I don't know whether this is the case in web hosting fees, however i agree with you, i think that you should not pay the fees. If anything, LT should compensate you for your loss.

Rob

 

[Camron]

It looks like there is room for improvement in their security policies too
http://www.texasstartupblog.com/200...ies-hacked-clients-urged-to-change-passwords/

Perhaps I would reply with a polite letter just telling them that they are not in a position to demand such fees for less than outstanding service.
And I would enclose a peanut for their work

I heard about this as well, thousands of client's passwords and server information were leaked to hackers. If you read it on WHT, many people are claiming to have their credit card being charged without them authorizing it, obviously being done by the hackers.

If you were a previous customer, your data would also be in there. I would recommend logging in and removing all your personal data, as it still may be vulnerable to the hackers.

 

[Peter]

i have tried logging into their systems but I have limited access. I have asked whether my details are still on file but as of yet never received a response.

I noticed all of my posts (including about the defective repairs) have been deleted from their forum, my username shows as never made a post when I know I definitely posted about it.

 

[Peter]

Just for a matter of closure. I have been in contact with the billing department at Layered Tech and they have agreed that I am not liable and have canceled the supposed debt.

 

[hostparlor]

I have been with a reseller of layeredtech for about 2 months and i have had no problems. They are fast to respond to support and there servers are quite well. I will continue to use there services. I do have to ask one thing, everyone always reports only bad things they find about other peoples services. What about the good things? People only see bad aspects of a company and all the sudden get amnesia for some reason. Im not at all saying that you have not had a bad experience with them, but everytime i see a review i see one sided stories. It is very unfair. I like it when i find a review that at least has one of the opposite side of the story involved in it

 

[Peter]

I tis somewhat hard to say anything good about a company that loses all the data on a hard drive they are not even meant to be touching and a company who gets debt collectors on your back for money you do not owe.

 

[loko123]

thanks for all this info, Layered Technologies will be out my list of possible servers i could get in the future. a company that can not keep secured private information is not to be trusted.

 

[hostparlor]

Well i guess everyone is entitled to there own opinion but in my opinion layeredtech is a very good server distribution company!

 

[Frikkle]

I am currently using LayeredTech, and the servers are incredibly slow.

My database just disappeared, my site isn't really loading, and I wouldn't be surprised if I were getting hit by a DDoS attack right now...

 

[unspecific]

It's a crap company to work with. Like you said, steer clear.

lol ironically the letter I received is dated the day before those stories broke, maybe they should concentrate on securing their servers/software instead of chasing money that they really have no right too.

Does anyone have any idea of American law. according to the letter I received if I do not respond within 30 days refuting the claim I owe money then they claim that is admitting I do owe money. Here in the UK that is certainly not the case. Also they seem to suggest (although they do not come out and say it so I presume a scare tactic) that it has gone to court, wouldn't they have to inform me it was going to court before it went?

Also the cheek of them claiming that I have to send a letter to them refuting, they did provide an envelope but postage has not been paid so they seem to think I should pay up to $3 to refute what in my eyes is a fraudulent claim of debt.

This letter is probably photocopied? Produced in Microsoft Word with Mail Merge! :yell: