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| ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! It's official, Winfire Closed down shop at 3:15 pm on 2/27/01. On 2/26 all temp employees were recalled by their agency and the following day (today) rumors abounded about how we were closing shop.
I thought to myself...oh it's just hysteria, and even at 3:00 one of the higher ups told us to return to our desks if we were scheduled to work, and the rest of us to return in the morning...I believe the phase was "business as usual"
Much to my chagrin, I received a phone call that we were to report for our final paychecks in the afternoon and that Winfire and it's sister Octive Technology ceased operation.
So, all you peeps out there waiting for pending escalations and callbacks, or waiting for modems or waiting to get provisioned, I would suggest you go to cable Inet access.
DSL is ****** from the word go, the phone companies can't handle the demand, 3rd party providers run by megalomaniacal, snotty little rich kids with delusions of Internet millions that thought starting a DSL would be an interesting capital investment for daddy's money can't make a sound business decision even if the family jewels depended on it.
I saw classic freshmen mistakes that even a first year BizAdmin major could spot from a mile away. I sat there and dished out the bullshit "corporate" responses to idiotic mistakes made by the so called "experts".
So, all of you that signed up with Winfire, I apologize to you for putting up with the far from stable network, the modem shipment problems, the bullshit excuses, the long wait on the phones etc, etc, etc ad infinitum. Believe it or not, there was a large group of us people at Winfire that the rest of the corporate goons thought was full of crap, they never believed us when we tried to give them information on what was going on from the end users standpoint. We really tried to help our users, because we all at one point were on your end...getting dicked around by some faceless corporation. It's funny, when we first started out, posts about us on DSL reports were pretty good. As time wore on, the official corporate position was to keep people away from DSL reports because of the bad press....
But, just remember all you FreeDSL users out there, you got what you paid for....caveat emptor.
To all my fellow Winfired buddies, I know this comes as a total shock to all of you as it did me...Some of us were former Flashcom and ASI people and I feel bad for us having to endure this shit again. Hey, at least it wasn't a long drawn out thing...Thank god for that. Well peeps, let's keep in touch. If I get in anywhere else, I'll keep you guys in mind.
Thanks for being such a terrific team to work with, I'll miss all of your smiling faces, your friendship, your words of encouragement and
To our end users, we all apologize for all the crap you were subjected to, and please understand we did our best because we really believed in our company.
I almost forgot, when you call the 800#, you'll get a message that says "Thank you for calling Winfire, our call center is experiencing technical difficulties, please call again tomorrow" Do yourself a favor, don't bother....you'll not get through tomorrow, the next day, not ever...Spend the time rather, and get yourself a new carrier.
Peace Love and Harmony, maybe I'll see ya all out at the unemployment office!!! Or perhaps at the next DotCom deathpool. Hey, ya know what, we need to put together a pink slip party....
[text was edited by moderator] | |
|  | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! That confirms the rumor from www.f**ckedcompany.com then. It says that employees were told to come by tomorrow to pick up their last pay checks. That's sad. I signed up for WinFire DSL but decided not to go through with it. Good thing. | |
| | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! I signed up when they first came out about a year or so ago, they weren't going to be available in my area untill this past Dec/Jan. I ignored the cancelation notices too, luckily. I would have lost the $200 for the modem. I called them to ask if different DSL modems would work so I could buy it elsewhere, but they said no, theirs is proprietary and you HAVE to buy theirs. I'm glad I didn't. | |
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| Anon | What do paying customers like myself do now? Will our connections be suddenly disconnected without notice? | |
| | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! I believe you'll be transfered to another company,,, but the price on the other hand is a whole other deal. Who knows if you'll get it for that cheap.
Anyways, Having worked there myself. I just wanted to say it was a great job, I learned alot and helped alot of people. Of course mabey 1 in 20 will come here to say anything,,, dsl reports has basicly become a flame arena for the chumps that either have a f*cked up Operating system, inside wiring issues, or the phone company messed up and the isp gets blamed for it. Either way. If you find yourself ordering dsl (from anyone!). Expect the worst, because DSL itself isn't the answer to world peace.
I cant tell you how many people expect the world from a free service. Its sad. Winfire was really a great company, and I enjoyed working there alot. However every rose has it's thorn. At least now I have a excellent resume for my next job from the promotions I gained while working there. So, Anyone got a question about dsl they've always wanted to hear the truth about? lets hear it,,, free tech support :P | |
| | | | Anon | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! Thanks for the reply. Winfire Cust Serv was certainly hit or miss, but I have to say I did some "straight shooting" tech reps that gave me honest answers such as admiting when it WAS Winfire's problem and that they were expanding too fast.
Anyhow, do you happen to know whether they will keep service "on" while our accounts get transferred over to another company? Any insight would help.
As of now, still a recorded message on the toll free line and no announcements on their homepage either. | |
| | | | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! Right now that is really uncertain. I would think that they will, but as you know the unstability of the network in certain area's could prove me wrong.
Personally if I were you, I'd switch to something like speakeasy or Earthlink. You really get what you pay for. I know that speakeasy makes it really easy to get an ISP switch which only takes about a week for them to take you under there wing.
But anyways, Im leavin to go get my check,,, wish me luck  | |
| | | | | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! This sucks, I finally get Winfire DSL at 1.5 Mbps, but it's not 1.5.. but anyway. I had it for about 3 weeks and NOW WHAT!!! I am posting this message on the 28th of february and I still have it, so what is going to happen to ME! I don't want to wait another year just for anther company thats is slow to get me broadband!!!! WTF!! SOME ONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MY CONNECTION! | |
| | | | | | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! You'll eventually get whats called an ISP switch, who its going to go to, I have no idea. I dont think anyone does at this point. But I'll tell you now, it'll take up to a week I think for them to switch you,,, once they do. | |
| | | | | | | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! oh cool, you think I will have to pay more, and whats about my 1.5 megs per sec? | |
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| | Anon |  Will our connections be suddenly disconnected?
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| | | | | Re: Will our connections be suddenly disconnected? i can say that i was one of the "few" customers which I would say was relatively pleased with winfire... that's right folks, I was happy with my service.. I paid $21.95 for AOHELL and got crappy service with lots of busy signals, and for $20 with winfire I got 388/110 !!! now that's hella good in my eyes.. Being the internet freak I am I can no longer live without dsl so if it is a necessity I may (if absolutely necessary) pay for the full priced dsl.. Winfire really did try to give some good service, and besideds port blocking it was great! Downloads were 150 k/s for me with a program called download accelerator pro, almost all the customer support guys I talked to were really cool as well.. I like to be nice to customer service and not be a prick becaues they were doing us a favor by giving us free/cheap dsl! I currently am still online with freedsl and will be savoring every minute of it.. hopefully i'll be able to keep the service at the same price.. (my mom is only willing to pay $20 so i'd have to take a job to pay the rest ).. ok enough of my ranting now.. | |
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| | Anon | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! ********************************************************
In my opinion Steelburg had a good Idea.
But a few things ended up killing his Idea:
1. Started growing too fast. Instead of starting small, get 1 or 2 areas turned and successfull, he went after all the major competiors.
2. Failed to give enough resources to Tech support. This resulted in poor CS,and TS. Talk about a bunch of Pissed of people. And when escalation ticket were drop to corporate, people were promised callbacks--that never happened. We could install and troubleshoot modems, but if they line wasn't turned up or there were problems, they were going to have to wait.
*****************
This would have succeeded:
1. Start out in 1 or 2 areas, such as Atlanta and San Francisco.
2. Make sure you have the network infrastructor was setup
to approximately 500 to 1000 at start (this is per area).
3. Make sure the software has had most of its bugs worked out.
4. Besure to have all deals with the LEC's worked out and how all line related problems will be escalated.
5. Have all necessary tools for tech support and customer service. The This incluedes the tech's abiblity to escalate critical issues for resoltuion, whether it be with the LEC or NOC.
6. Have a firm rollout plan. If your not going to be in a certain area then say so. IF your plan is to go one year in 1 or 2 cities, then tell the customers. Bascially start local before going national. That way you can learn with a smaller # of people, and expand within these cities. IF everything goes well there, you can go to other cities, especially if the reputation is good.
Winfire never seemed to have a good reputation.
************************************************
Before Winfire had there own Customer Service center,
they had all that work done by a Third Party Company
named Cl******ic (Microsoft, and Bellsouth & Covad DSL
are handedl through them along with other big companies).
At the end of the Summer CL Pulled the rug from under Winfire by terminateing the contract as Winfire had
failed to pay several million dollars in labour (exact figures unknown).
We knew before CL even dropped winfire that they wouldn't last very long into 2001. And we were right.
*******************************************
For the Tech's in the california office, I don't know how well the main people listen to compaints, but from the main letter, it seems as though you guys had some trouble.
I comisurate with your situation, and wish you all the best of luck.
FreeDSL---Get greedy--Get Screwed!
***************************************** | |
| | | | Anon | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! I am really concerned regarding this matter. I just got my freedsl modem about a week ago. I have been using dsl for about 5 days now. I was having problems logging on, but now I'm connected using winfire again.
I dont know what to do. I think it would be very unfair for them to charge me $200 bucks for using dsl for a week. Also, if they are going out of business, what is gonna happent to my account ? Will I have to pay (give back modem) ? Will they transfer me ?
Or should I just go ahead and call the bank to avoid any charges on my credit card.
I really need some advice, because I'm confused and dont know what to do. In advance, I thank to anyone who provides useful info/advice. | |
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| | Anon | I just got up on Winfire a couple of days ago. Can I stop payment on the stinkin $200. modem that is now a paperweight? They wanted to ding me $200. to cancel (which I had no intention of doing )haven't they breached the agreement by not allowing me to use service for 13 months? | |
| | | | | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! I was smart with thisstupid company...ii did not buy my modem from shitfire i got is on ebay for 80 and the dsl pacacer for 20 bucks.I cant believe they made me suffer though tech support from november to january with no DSL AUTHETICATION i finall get it working and now they close down.....will they give me my 30 bucks back of am i now screwed by winfire.I am definaly screwed with the free service.boy now i need money to get cabe THIS SUX!!!!
Andrew Calcutt
SCREWED BY WINFIRE | |
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| | Anon | Chicago ..SERVERS MUST BE CUT OFF> 11:17 AM | |
| | | Anon | Come on what did you expect. Did you really think Winfire was going to be around that long. If you guys are smart; if you live in the Bell South area call them and signup. If you got the Complete Choice Program its only $40.00 a month with free Tech Support. If you are really smart sign up for Pro install and pay a one time fee of $150. Then everytime you need a Tech at your house no charge. IF you go self install its $150 everytime a Tech comes out. | |
| | | Anon | I had signed up for $19.95 service from Winfire...just received ADSL modem from Winfire, only to find out that they've gone under...I did not attempt to connect it and am not out $, just time and frustration, at this point. I'm hoping I cannot be charged, since I have not connected. Where do I send the modem, if I were to return it? My phone line is activated for DSL, but apparently only Winfire, now defunct, can legally use it. Talk about DSL limbo.
Ted | |
| | | | Anon | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! Right now it's Sunday 12:15am, and I'm connected using winfire. I had had problems logging on for about two days, but now i can loggon with no problems. So, I dont know if this will be ok or not. I hope it's like this for a little while more at least ... meanwhile, enjoying my downloads 
P.S. come on people, give up the hostility, if it's going down it's going down, if not then fine too. Just enjoy life | |
| | | | Anon
| Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! So what in the world is gonna happen ?? As of now, the service is very unstable. Sometimes it connects me, and other times takes forever without success.
Should we keep using the service or just wait and see what happens. I got the service activated about a 2 weeks ago. I been using it for about 5 to 7 days. Should I keep using it ? Or should I wait and see what happens ?
At this point, I dont care if they transfer me to another company, even if I have to pay the $40 something a month for DSL. Now that I experienced the crappy $20/month DSL service, I only care now that I get transfered to a good DSL company, even if it means $40 a month.
Winfire has not said anything about what's gonna happen, so what are we gonna do meanwhile ??
p.s. I cancelled the credit card I used so they cant charge me, but I dont really know what's gonna happen. I wish they would just say something already instead of having us just like this, CRAP !!!
[text was edited by author 2001-03-05 04:20:58] | |
| | | | | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! What happens to someone that just signed up they took my credit card number but nothing ever happened they never even pre qulified my line? What is going to happen? How can I cancel? | |
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| | | Anon | mortimer... is that you? So far I have been connecting all weekend. I am assuming they will continue service as long as possible. Fortunately, even though I am under contract for 13 months, it appears that they are billing me monthly. Now if they go bankrupt, and can longer provide me with service, they shouldn't be able to bill me any longer right? | |
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| Anon | I read your post with great interest. I'm glad to see that someone in the place understood some of the "freshman" mistakes. DSL is a viable product. Your commentary about 3rd party providers is right on.
No concern for customer service-interested in making a big name for themselves - loading up the system with crap - you name and these folks did it. The premise of the Octive system was sound - poor execution - poor understanding of the environment - private infighting when bigger issues were looking them in the eye. Classic case of a poor management. The 20 that remain there today - are the cause.
I'm going right back into the DSL game. Folks - stay away from anyone who offers - free - free - and anyone who can't answer a phone in a reasonable amount of time. If they didn't build the phone system WHAT makes you think they built the systems to install your line any better?
It really isn't the phone company's fault when these poorly run firms don't pay the bills. | |
| | | I've been told I will get my service installed within 30 days every time I call. I've been calling every month for almost a year now. Maybe if they decent customer service or were just honest with customers, they would still be in business. By the way....I still don't have DSL. Guess I'll have to pay a "real" company for it. | |
| | | | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! You wanna know a little something?
Winfire "has" ordered your line,,, they order it right away. But you wanna know why you were being held up? Your PHONE COMPANY! The loop has to be ordered from the phone company first. Without that, the ISP cannot do ANYTHING.
Having worked there myself, I see this kind of thing happen very often. Someone order dsl, wait several months. and get nothing as a result or find that dsl is not possible in your area. People ordering dsl have the misconception that dsl is the answer to world peace and that it is guarenteed bandwidth. ITS NOT! ADSL is in no way shape or form guarenteed. SDSL from "certain" providers will guarentee a 80% of the speed/plan you order.
And you wanna know why some dsl company's can have you up and online in under a month? Because they sometimes host their own equiptment within the phone company's cage. And you know what that means? MORE MONEY.
Put it this way, If you didn't understand anything I just said. Mabey this will clear it up for you.
If you got 10 thousand dollars and you buy yourself a nice little compact car. Sure you got a great economy class vehicle, But If you compare it to the 100 thousand dollar Viper or Ferari or somthing of that sort. Your paying for performance. All those little details that make it "worth" 100 thousand dollars. You sure as hell should not expect Ferari performance from your little ford escort. If you do, then thats your own fault for being that ignorant. Enuf said.
People, dsl is very sketchy so to speak. If you have excellent line conditions, a good central office, and a decent ISP AND most importantly, you are "under" 10 thousand ft of that central office. You should go for dsl. Any exceptions to those rules, EXPECT PROBLEMS! | |
| | | | Anon | Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! Call your phone company, (by dialing 611, or pressing 0 four times) and ask for a distance check. if your are within 10,000 ft your good for DSL. if your over, you can expect a lot of problems. Personally, I would look into Idsl that can reach 30,000 with 144k. | |
| | | | Anon | I have had the DSL Service here in Atlanta since your inception phase I recieved the Free modem and free service. All this was pretty good for a person that is used to dial up. I am wondering if I will get reconnected through someone else or should I not hope on that?
Email me at h_harshaw@yahoo.com and tell me why they folded up. Can I expect to be routed somewhere else. Hey I also was wondering why my Modem light still is green even though the DHCP cannot be reached. | |
|
|  hgf
@205.184.x.x | why r they still charging my credit card??? | |
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| | Is this true ?? Or is it just some joke ?? I just got my DSL modem from winfire about 3 days ago. And I'm running DSL right now.
If it is true that they went out of business .. what will happen to current customers who have the service ? | |
| | | It was just a matter of time. They had terrible customer service. I can't remember how many times I attempted to get in contact with somebody and never got a single reply. good riddance. | |
| | | Wow,
I'm a former Rhythms/Winfire worker and I wrote almost the same letter to my manager about what was happening. I remember him saying "honesty does not count for anything." I fought for the customer on other teams until Rhythms managers would literally stand over my shoulder and tell me to start billing customers who had canceled their orders. I can't say as I will miss but about 3 Rhythms workers.
Keep in mind that these snot-nosed rich kid managers could be facing some serious criminal charges for their alleged roles in defrauding customers and investors. | |
| | Anon | I knew it was too good to be real...Free DSL!!! I've been getting email from Winfire every week about them going to cancel my order if I didn't respond. Guess what...I didn't respond, it's like throwing out the Publisher Clearing House junk mail. | |
| | | yah i read the post and ppl are sayin that we are gonna be switched but my friend got billed like 3 times in the past month and im sure he cant do anything to get the money back except to call the cc company and tell them the situation (they should be understanding) but should ppl block winfire from charging their cc because if they started billing me a couple of times and i cant reach any customer service to work it out at winfire im basically screwed, unless i do the above but is blockin winfire necessary? that's the question | |
| | | I totally agree with what you said;
"So, all of you that signed up with Winfire, I apologize to you for putting up with the far from stable network, the modem shipment problems, the bullshit excuses, the long wait on the phones etc, etc, etc ad infinitum. Believe it or not, there was a large group of us people at Winfire that the rest of the corporate goons thought was full of crap, they never believed us when we tried to give them information on what was going on from the end users standpoint. We really tried to help our users, because we all at one point were on your end...getting dicked around by some faceless corporation."
I worked tech support for Winfire through a contractor which will remain nameless and that is exactly what we had to put up with. No one told us anything or either fed us a bunch of lies to give to the Customers. I saw some of our best agents let go for attempting to stand up and fight on the Customers behalf. I was happy when finally droped Winfire but I still felt sorry for the customers who were going to continue to be dicked. Us here at Tech Support did the best with what we had to work with and the false promises given to us from above. The only thing that mattered to Corp. was not how many Customers were working but how many more they could get with there misleading offers and word games. To the former employees who put up with the Shit....Take care. | |
| | | Well, this is certainly unexpected and unfortunate news. I was one of the very first FreeDSL users, having tested for them when they started up in March 2000. I even wrote a review about it way back when, although you'd have to dust off the archives to find out about it. I only had the service until July, when I had to move to a non-DSL area, but if I were still in Atl, I'm sure I'd still be with Winfire/FreeDSL.
Believe it or not, FreeDSL was actually the only company willing and able to push my line through BellSouth to get it "qualified." Mindspring couldn't, Bellsouth themselves couldn't, only when I signed up for FreeDSL did the tech come by the next day in the van to climb up the telephone pole. And from that moment on, FreeDSL was rockin. I had many interactions with the engineers there at FreeDSL while they were testing the service, and they were all great and knowledgeable guys. I truly thought they had something going. Unfortunately, another thing called the AlanGreenspan&Co had to screw up the party for ALL of us...but we won't even go into that (6 rate hikes in 1.5 yrs...didn't they learn in freshman econ that it takes at least a year to see the effect of just 1 hike?!?!?! Please Cisco, come back). Basically, it was a great idea that probably had piss-poor timing.
To all the folks at FreeDSL, thanks for the ride. It was certainly fun while it lasted and you definitely have at least one immensely satisfied customer in me. Best wishes to you all. | |
| | | This is sad, i finally got my dsl and so far is working great and now they are out o'biz. Sigh...it has only been 2 months what am i going to do? As for right now i am still getting my connection and how long will it last? i guess i will find out soon. Thx to all the customer service staffs, ever though the wait is long but u guys were very nice, sorry for ppl who still on the waiting list, GOOD BYE MY WINFIRE.... | |
| | | I just got a call from Winfire and they told me that my telephone line was finally qualified for DSL and that they had a one time offer for the people in my area.
Premium DSL for only $29.95 with a 2 Year Contract
They pushed me to give them my Credit Card number, I am going to SUE their asses!! | |
| | Anon | == Smiling, that is what I am doing right now because yourself as well as other people who dogged Flashcom, left a company, who if I am not mistaken is STILL STANDING! ! !
I am an EX FLASHCOM employee, however I am not one of the bitter people who have nothing better to do then come on DSL reports and hope for some poor sap to come along and feel sorry for them. (Pathetic, I think so)
Don't tell me, you obviously were let go from Flashcom(oops did you make it THAT obvious that you were and EX Flashcom employee)because the company had to make cutbacks right? WRONG you were probably one of the people who sit on INSTANT MESSENGER all 8 hours of your shift gossiping and talking about this or that all day, and they knew you weren’t doing anything progressive... Please end your whining as soon as possible, I know that Flashcom for a fact, still has people employed there. These are people who weren’t on some special list or who didn’t have to kiss ass, because their work showed their ability to step up and kick ass when needed.
You made the decision to leave the company, as I did. I am now part of a team of great people in my present job, and do not regret the Flashcom experience one bit.
I wish I had more positive things to say in this posting, however when someone at my present job pointed this out to me, I couldn't help but to laugh and to try and guess who wrote this and I can almost bet money, just by the verbage used in your post, that I know who it is..Anonymous hmm well maybe that works for some, but it wouldn't take a brain surgeon to figure out by process of elimination who it is..
Have a great day =)
The Mole | |
| | | Would i have to pay the dsl modem fee if i cancel the freedsl service now? | |
| | Anon | Looks grim for companies other than the telcos. I may be wrong but it seems like it will come down to DSL being Telco only service. Dang! | |
| | Anon | Wow, day 2 of the sell out.
Seems like just another day when I heard a rumor Winfire was going down. I immediately tried to use up my sick leave and vacation time, but that was to no avail. Time to take a lil' vacation before hunting for another job. Keep tabs on one another and see you all in the unemployment office.. *haha* | |
| Anon
| dude. thanks for lettin the peeps out there know. i for one really appreciate it when people like u let others know whats gonna happen ahead of time. before i read this i thought winfire was juss goin through a little >> im assuming you used to work there since ur talkin about how all the employees got fired... damn i wish i hadnt ordered winfire dsl back then... did u know i ordered it in early november and didnt recieve my modem until february 27th? thats 4 freakin months! if u find any other good deals let me know yea? aznskaitah@aol.com i dont want anything that costs 40 bucks like pac bell and verizon.. i paid only 20 for winfire.. and im hoping to find another place for 30 or under.
[text was edited by moderator] | |
| | | Winfire went out a short while ago and I am still connected! This is cool. Anyone know how long this will last? | |
| | | Here is my story, I got their e-mail notice saying the dsl kid was gonna arrive at 02/12/2001, but It never did. I called their customer service. They told me they will call the ups for varification and promised it's coming. A week later, instead of the dsl, an e-mail announcing winfire's undergo had come. Now, they have charged me $200 for the modem that I didn't even recieve and the service they never gonna deliver... what should I do? Is there anyway I can get the money back? | |
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