watch dodogg MAXIMUM PC TAKES A BITE OUT OF BAD GEAR
FUZZY MATH
A dog pound full of readers barked that the Dog
used some bad math in his February column that
took iPodMechanic.com to task for its handling
of Esther Wheat’s iPod repair. To sum up, the Dog
called iPodMechanic.com on the carpet for recy-
cling Wheat’s iPod without giving her a chance to
reclaim it. The Dog also chided iPodMechanic
.com for not honoring its 180-day warranty policy.
The problem, readers pointed out, is that the
dates the Dog reported (December 8, 2006–June
16, 2007) add up to 190 days (or 183 or 191,
depending on which reader you ask), which is
just outside of Wheat’s 180-day warranty.
What went wrong? Rather than breaking out a
calendar and a pen (which is difficult for someone
with paws), the Dog relied on an Internet time
calculator, which either had a burp or, possibly, the
Dog got distracted by a Frisbee and entered the
wrong dates. Wheat, who did receive a replace-
ment for her recycled iPod, maintains that the dates
iPodMechanic used for her warranty period are not
correct, that she was within the 180-day period,
and that the warranty was not the main issue con-
cerning her experience with the company.
Although the Dog stands by his assertion that
iPodMechanic.com erred when it recycled Wheat’s
iPod without giving her a chance to get it back, he
obviously erred on the warranty times and apolo-
gizes to iPodMechanic.com for that error. Woof.KILLERPINGS.COM KILLED
We have been renting Halo game servers and a
TeamSpeak voice chat server from KillerPings.com
for the past two or three years. The pings were always
some of the lowest and the service was excellent; our
primary Halo server has been ranked in the top 10 in
the world for quite a while.
Back in mid-November, we paid for another three
months of service. Unfortunately, only a day or two after
that, many customers’ servers went offline (including
ours), reportedly due to a massive hardware failure. I
figured, “Fine, that could happen to anyone.” Becauseof our past good experience
with KillerPings, I trusted that
the company would fix the situ-
ation, even though it was taking
a long time and its customer
support seemed to be too busy
to respond as quickly as it used
to. Over the following several
weeks, KillerPings moved some
servers to its “partner,” Art of
War Central, but said the billing
would remain with KillerPings.
Our server has not worked since
the move, and I suspect it is
because of a misconfiguration.
But that’s not the worst of
it. Around 10 p.m. on January
1, 2008, all servers still hosted
by KillerPings went offline, and
the company’s website says
it has been suspended by its
ISP. Happy New Year, indeed!
Several customers have
posted on various forums that
KillerPings packed up and disap-
peared, taking everyone’s money.
Other customers report that the contact information
has been changed, but a Google search for KillerPings
pulls up an unofficial support page put together by
customers. Someone mentioned that PayPal has a
claim process that allows you to recover your pay-
ments. I tried this, but since my claim was placed 47
days after my payment, PayPal automatically closed
the claim (PayPal’s site says you should file a claim
within 45 days). Still, I emailed PayPal support asking
them to reinstate the claim, but I don’t know if they
will do anything.
What happened to KillerPings? And more
importantly, what recourse do we have at this point?
Are we out the $130 we paid KillerPings back in
November or is there still some way to recover it?
— Rob ZerrRob, after much gum-
shoeing, KillerPings.com’s
disappearance is still a
mystery, but the Dog has
discovered that the com-
pany has left perhaps afew hundred customers in the lurch.
On New Year’s Eve, one of the owners of
KillerPings, Chuck Lowney, showed up at the com-
pany’s Chicago co-location provider, Gigenet.com
and began disconnecting its servers.
An employee stopped Lowney and police
were called to the office as well. About
15 servers were left in place as collateral.
KillerPings.com, according to Gigenet.com, is
behind on its bills to the tune of about $26,000.
According to Steve Phallen, owner of Art of
War Central, his company had agreed to take
on some of KillerPings.com customers after the
company had a hardware failure. Phallen said
he had also been in talks to buy KillerPings
and was prepared to cut a check when the
company simply shut down and all of its cus-
tomer data was lost.
“We would have liked to have added it to our
business,” Phallen told the Dog. “We don’t know
what happened, but the whole thing just sort of
fell apart over there.” Phallen says he doesn’t
understand why the owners of KillerPings.comKillerPings.com left its employees and customers hanging
when it mysteriously shut down on New Year’s Day.Our consumer advocate investigates...
Remedial Math KillerPings.com Goes
Under Norton’s Three-User License
Chanel, watchdog of the monthGot a bone to pick with a vendor? Been spiked by a fly-by-night
operation? Sic the Dog on them by writing watchdog@maxi-
mumpc.com. The Dog promises to answer as many letters as
possible, but only has four paws to work with.16 MAXIMUMPC | MAR 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Our consumer advocate investigates...
Under
Chanel,