From: Bill Price <billcdi@deltanet.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 95 23:46:10 PDT
Subject: GET EVEN: Realm Internet Systems
Message-ID: <45480r$8oo@news2.deltanet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Hello to All,

I was recently ripped-off by Realm Internet Systems (realm.net) of Newport Beach, 
CA. They offer extremely poor service and are quite unprofessional.

They have lied to me at every opportunity and I would enjoy teaching them a small 
lesson in etiquette. Brief history: I signed up on March 28th, 1995. Their 
documentation revealed that I 'May or may not' be billed for the entire month if 
service was established close to the end of the month.

I phoned and inquired as to what criteria was used to determine the billing period. I 
was assured that I would not be charged for the remaining two days - They lied!

They billed me for three months use and a set-up fee. One months billing was a 'last 
month's' fee. They ignored most all requests for assistance or information and their 
system malfunctioned often.

I informed them of my planed three months travel to Russia and inquired about 
having my mail forwarded. They said no and suggested me to Telnet for retrieval. I 
asked about a reduced semi-active account rate and they reluctantly agreed to 
revert my account to a shell account for $15 per month (PPP was $35).

They did not do this and continually charged me $35 in my absence. As I had 
allocated only sufficient funds on my charge card for the $15 charges, the available 
balance was soon exceeded and Realm Internet Systems cancelled my service.

I begged them to reinstate for one month until I returned (they had credit owed me 
for overbilling and last month's fee) - they refused! When I returned from Moscow, I 
mailed them a check immediately for two months usage (one week for charging 
charge card as payment would not post immediately).

They reinstated my account for one month. Their system was unoperational for two 
weeks and they refused to acknowledge the problem. After many frustrating hours 
trying to diagnose my system, I finally reached a technician who admitted they had 
a problem.

The problem was never fixed and the receptionist was having a wonderful time 
taunting me and placing me on hold after each five words or so that I could say. I 
finally threatened to physically visit their office and resolve the problem. 

The owner came to the phone and would not reveal his name. He laughed at me at 
suggested that I @$*& Off. They refuse to refund the $115 owed to me. 

I signed up with Delta Internet Services in Anaheim,CA. They are a first rate 
company. Too bad I did not know of them before. Well, the point of all of this 
(thanks for you patience) is that I want to let other subscribers of Realm know they 
are not alone.

If anyone in your group could somehow obtain a list of <realm.net> subscribers, I 
would like to mail each of them a description of my problem and suggest they 
consider Delta Internet Services.

I will pay a modest $50 cash for this information. You may provide me anonymously. 
<billcdi@deltanet.com>.

Thanks,
Bill Price