GrodsCorp is taking an age to load today for some reason. An email has been sent to the hosting company’s technical support department and it is being duly ignored. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal before too long.

UPDATE (4.40pm): And we’re back! Seems that a stats plugin I had running (Wassup) decided overnight to cause a bit of hell. No apparent reason; just felt like it.

Regular GrodsCorp reader(s) might have noticed that GrodsCorp has been offline for the last two weeks. A fairly solid argument could be made that the internet was a better place during that time but I’m sure one or two people (my parents) would’ve missed their semi-regular dose of GrodsCorp in their RSS readers.

Sit in a comfy chair and get yourself ready for a good old-fashioned rant.

Last year I cancelled my hosting package with Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company, moving GrodsCorp to a new host that has so far been sensational. When I cancelled the hosting package with Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company I specifically requested that the company continue to send me invoices for the ‘grods.com’ domain name.

Long and short of it: they didn’t.

Excuses ranged from “computer forgot” to “you told us not to.” I didn’t want excuses, I just wanted my freakin’ domain name back. Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company told me that the name was in the deletion period and I would have to bid for it once it re-appeared on the open market. I insisted to Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company that the name should be in the redemption period, meaning that I could redeem the name for a fee; a fee, I might add, I suggested that maybe they could pay.

After days and days of relentless emailing and telephone calls somebody at the support department of Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company put down the skittles and Red Bull, paused their World Of Warcraft game, investigated the true status of ‘grods.com’, and discovered — surprise, surprise — that the domain name was redeemable.

The utterly incompetent and totally useless employee of Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company conceded on the phone that his ragtag collection of neanderthals, trading as Hosting Shop, were at fault and that Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company would pay the $170 redemption fee. 30 minutes later I receive an email from the boss of the company reneging on this offer and demanding that I pay the fee.

A phone call to the ACCC and a letter of demand later and the boss of Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company still wouldn’t budge. Because time was running out before the domain name hit the open market I was forced to pay the fee. Advice from the Queensland Office of Fair Trading suggests that the legal costs involved in recovering the $170 make the process unviable. However, a formal complaint has been made to the ACCC alleging a breach of Part 5 Section 74 of the Trade Practices Act requiring that traders offer their services with due care and skill.

Basically, the manager of Australia’s most overpriced, utterly incompetent and totally useless hosting company, Jon, is an incompetent, unethical scumbag. If you want to tell him so yourself go ahead: jon@hostingshop.com.au.

So GrodsCorp is back, $170 poorer. Normal broadcasting will now resume. As you were.

I’m moving GrodsCorp over to a new hosting provider sometime in the next 48 hours so if you’re having a problem with the website just cross your fingers for me and try again later.

See you on the flipside.

UPDATE: Done!