But recently when IX Web Hosting started backing out from their published offerings (see details in next pages), I thought of trying out ipower.com. I registered for an account, but there was no email confirmation about the readiness of the system on completion of online account creation. This was a surprise to me as I always get an email with all the required information from IX Web Hosting, once an account is created. May be a good anti-spam policy of ipower.com. Anyhow, I had to document the user id and other login details by myself for future use.

Bitterness of ipower.com

Now I am into reality. I uploaded one video file and linked it to my website. Gosh!! The download speed is always less than 512 Kbps (64 KB/s). At the same time, I am able to download files hosted at IX Web Hosting at a speed of 2Mbps, which is the limit of my local connection speed (the connectivity speed between my computer and my ISP).

I was sure my customers in countries like U.S. will get annoyed with a download speed of 512 Kbps when they have a connection speed of upto 8 Mbps. So I decided to contact the live support of ipower.com to know if it is a temperory problem with their network or it is the standard.

We are into the second negative point of ipower.com. Whenever I try the live support, I am always in queue with an average waiting period of 15 to 30 minutes. Again, this is not the case with IX Web Hosting, where you will never find a queue.

Now comes the role of customer support executive. After my wait for 30 minutes (yes.. I decided to wait), I got an agent to hear me. But he/she was in haste and closed the chat from his/her end without answering me satisfactorily. This is definitely something that I cannot accept as I am a customer of ipower.com and paid in advance for their service. For a better understanding, I am including the chat transcript here. To avoid any personal insult or misuse of specific information, I am masking the identities. Also the chat is slightly edited for spelling mistakes.

Chat-1 with ipower.com Live Support

Mr. X: Hi Mr. Z, I apologize for the wait time. My name is Mr. X, how are you today?
Mr. Z: Good Mr. X..
Mr. X: How can I help you today?
Mr. Z: Do you have any choking in your network?
Mr. X: No.
Mr. Z: Could you please right-click the below link and choose 'save target as' to see the download speed:
<---------------URL----------------->
Mr. Z: Please let me know what speed are you getting.
Mr. X: To protect your account from unauthorized changes, can you please verify for me the answer to the Security Question:
Mr. X: ===============
Mr. Z: ************
Mr. X: Thank you for the authentication.
Mr. X: I am already able to down load the file.
Mr. Z: yes.. but what is the speed?
Mr. Z: I am getting only like 40 KB/s
Mr. X: It is 58.3 currently.
Mr. Z: Is that normal for your service?
Mr. Z: Because, from other providers, I get like 180 KB/s
Mr. X: The download speed may vary because of traffic on our servers.
Mr. X: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Mr. Z: but you didn't finish to move on that fast...
Mr. Z: I wanted to know the normal speed provided by your service (in normal load circumstances..)
Mr. Z: This information is vital for me to decide on going for a refund..
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.

30-Days Money Back Guarantee

With all these experiences with ipower.com, I decided to go for a refund. Yes.. in all the pages of ipower.com, you can see an image offering '30-days Money Back Guarantee'. Only when I decided to go for money-back, I noticed that there is no link in their site leading to the details of how to request a money-back. (But later I found that ipowerweb.com has a page explaining their Money Back Guarantee, though doesn't say anything on how to go about with.) So with hesitation, I decided to contact the live support again. As expected I was on wait for 30 minutes before getting an agent to chat with me. This time I got a different person and he had to be nice with me as I was asking for a refund. Here is the chat transcript:

Chat-2 with ipower.com Live Support

info: Welcome to IPOWER! You are number 11 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 26 minute(s) and 53 seconds. We apologize for the wait time. Please hold for a site operator to respond.
info: We appreciate your patience. All operators are currently assisting other customers. Please continue to hold and we'll be with you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please be prepared to answer your Security Question when we begin chatting. To enhance our security protocols, we'll need you to provide the answer to your Security Question at the beginning of our conversation. If you have not yet set your Security Question and Answer, please log into your account now to set it up. Thank you for waiting.
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
info: You are now chatting with 'Mr. V'
Mr. V: Hi Mr. Z, I apologize for the wait time. My name is Mr. V, how are you today?
Mr. V: How can I help you today?
Mr. Z: Hello Mr. V.. I would like to know how I should go for a "Money-Back" Request?
Mr. Z: Is there any specific link or page for that?
Mr. V: Could you please let me know what exactly you are experiencing?
Mr. Z: Sorry.. I am asking for the procedure to request the "30 Days Money Back".
Mr. Z: Are you asking why I am going for a "Money Back"?
Mr. V: Yes.
Mr. V: Could you please let me know why you wish to cancel your account?
Mr. Z: Mr. V.. There are 3 reasons. Not sure if you have enough time to listen. (Which is one of the reasons.)
Mr. Z: 1. Your network doesn't provide a download speed more than 512 Kbps.
Mr. Z: 2. There is always 15 to 30 minutes wait period for live support (indicating shortage of staff).
Mr. Z: 3. The live support staff is in haste and closing the chat section from their end without answering me satisfactorily.
Mr. V: Due to heavy traffic, customer’s chat will sometimes be put on hold for longer than usual. I really sorry and would like to apologize for that.
Mr. Z: The 1st one is the main reason. So I would like to go for a money back.
Mr. V: Okay.
Mr. Z: No probs. Mr. V. It has nothing to do with you personally.
Mr. V: Can you please hold while I look into this for you? I should have some more information regarding your issue in 2-4 minutes.
Mr. Z: sure no problem.. Even I have the chat transcript that shut me down.
Mr. V: Thank you for holding.
Mr. Z: no probs..
Mr. V: The download and upload speed depends on the internet connectivity.
Mr. Z: ok.. I have 2 Mbps
Mr. Z: in actual
Mr. Z: and I get upto 180 KB/s from other providers while 50-60KB/s from you.
Mr. V: Unfortunately, we do not have any limit as such and the normal speed to upload and download the files is 100 kbps.
Mr. Z: But isn't it very less when comparing that users in US has upto 8 Mbps download speed?
Mr. Z: When users have 8 Mbps connections they expect the sites to deliver files in that speed.
Mr. V: Okay.
Mr. Z: So Mr. V, could you please direct me to your "No questions asked-30 days Money Back Guarantee"?
Mr. V: Okay.
Mr. V: Can you please hold while I review your account and get back within 2 to 3 minutes?
Mr. Z: ok.. no problem.
Mr. V: Thank you for holding.
Mr. V: I really sorry to hear that you wish to cancel your account with us. Is there a specific reason why you are canceling your account? Perhaps, if I knew why you were canceling we could work something out so that ipowerweb could better suit your needs.
Mr. V:
Mr. V: In order to discontinue your services we will need for you to contact our Billing Department at 1-888-511-4678. Our Billing Department is available Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM Eastern Time.
Mr. V:
Mr. V: Once the account gets cancelled we will issue the unused portion of the hosting package.
Mr. Z: Thanks Mr. V. I shall give a call.
Mr. V: Yes.
Mr. V: In order to discontinue your services we will need for you to contact our Billing Department at 1-888-511-4678. Our Billing Department is available Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM Eastern Time.
Mr. V:
Mr. V: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Mr. Z: That is it, Mr. V. Thank you.
Mr. V: Thank you for chatting with us. Please feel free to contact us at any time. We are available 24x7.

I am yet to give a call to the Billing Department of ipower.com at the time of writing this. I shall update this section once I get the money back.