Friday, July 4, 2008

It's YOUR fault John Hood disabled comments on the official blog

John Hood of Streamload/Mediamax/The Linkup has posted the following comment to this blog explaining why he disabled comments on the official blog.

I note that NO explanation has been given on the official blog as to why comments were disabled and deleted.

--John hood johnh@thelinkup.com said...

for the record, i turned off comments because it just a constant negative spiral downward. we aren't even advertising for new users so saying that we're trying to avoid scaring them is ridiculous.
the blog was full of bickering between posters and people spreading half truths. to say there a lot of sharing of information is a joke.
to say that there's now no way to share your views is a joke too. i'm going through the names here and a great many of you have my email address and have written me.
another joke and one particularly offensive to me is that you never hear from support. hogwash. we answer 84% of our emails within 24 hours. to say that i drop in and say everything is rosy is also a joke. i gsve accurate information and took alot of abuse in return. i never said anything that wasn't true or sugar coted the facts. finally to say that we're billing people for our service is the biggest joke. we haven't charged anybody in quite some time.
if you guys change your tone and use the blog to make constructive criticism, stop abusing each other and lose the sarcasm i'll turn the blog comments back on.
finally, yes i realize that this migration has been difficult. i can't believe anyone thinks we're doing this on purpose. we're doing the best we can.

---
So there you go people. 'Change your tone'. Mr. Hood has spoken.

37 comments:

Luzo Orbit said...

Personally I think there is a lot of wisdom in the expression: "Don't attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity or incompetence."

Mr. Hood says: "we're doing the best we can." If this is really the best that this company can do, then I don't believe it should be trading. To claim they can provide any sort of functioning service to paying customers is malicious because they are not up to the job and they know it.

It doesn't matter that they are not advertising. Their website still encourages people to sign up, with claims like:

"Premium subscriptions starting at just $5.95/month!

- Highest storage capacity and unlimited bandwidth.
- Great value."

That to me is misleading advertising. It isn't great value. This company cause heartbreak through losing files and is quite likely in breach of data protection laws as it has been reported here that other people's personal files have turned up in their account. That was raised on the official blog in an attempt to identify the real owner - Mr. Hood deleted the comments.

As for Mr. Hood's claim that he gives accurate information, I recall a promise that links to Mediamax hosted files would be maintained, at least until December 2008. It should have been permanet because none of us asked for this rebranding. Whatever, they have not worked since Mediamax was closed down in April. There has been no response as to why, or when this will be resolved, in response to comments left on the official blog.

From past experience it wouldn't surprise me to hear nothing on this topic until Mr. Hood pops up in December and says their commitment to maintain the links has expired.

John, this is as constructive as I can be. You have blown any credibility you may have had from your past apparent willingness to engage with users through this blog.

My message to you is you change your tone if you want to recoup it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry John....sorry I gave you my money expecting the service you advertised in return.

Sorry for annoying your customer service with my stupid emails everytime your service didn't work.

Sorry for slating your company in my blog....I don't know what I was thinking writing such a pack of lies.

Sorry for asking for my money back that you took while the service didn't work.

SORRY I EVER HEARD OF YOU!

Iceage said...

Following on from my last post.

I still find it strange that 'he' posted here, and not on their own blog.

The TLU site is up and working. It's the blog that has not been updated.

If something constructive were to be done, then I would be expecting them to post at least a message saying the blog is under review. Posting here if it was him shows that this company really does not know what a business is. But I won't go into that as it's been covered so many times.

Luzo Orbit I would be interested in hearing if he does email you back stating whether it was him or not.

An other point I do not like. Is when 'he' said "finally to say that we're billing people for our service is the biggest joke. we haven't charged anybody in quite some time."

Well I have a year subscription and I asked you in a mail specifically about this. You did not respond to my mails and I had to send it to CS. They told be no refunds. I asked for months given back in Lieu/kind and/or option and that ignored.

So yes as a matter of fact I am being charged every month as a year subscriber.

My question had always been quite simple. When can I have access to my files?

If the answer is "sorry, but they were lost, destroyed or whatever.Please note in our terms and conditions we are not responsible in this case" Then fine say it. But please say it so that I can get someone on the other side of the world to pull out a DVD of my personal backup and have it sent to me. I need my files one way or the other.

Luzo Orbit said...

From: johnh@thelinkup.com
To: luzoorbit@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:44:46 -0700
Subject: RE: Your posting to TLU users blog

Thanks for the biased heading on the post. You're just proving my point.Thanks to that I won't be responding to any comments.

Regards,

John Hood
Director, Customer Support
The Linkup
http://www.thelinkup.com

Anonymous said...

I still find it strange that 'he' posted here, and not on their own blog.

That is par for the course for the Streamload/Mediamax/Linkup team.

Even the president has posted in the comments of various blogs, and numerous employees as well.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad Luzo posted that because he IS proving my point. The heading on his post is just meant to stir things up. His comment that I "have spoken" is sarcastic. His statement about the TLU supporting links is a half truth. Yes, there were issues with existing links but that's because they the files that were in users hosted section were some of the last to migrate. We OBVIOUSLY still support embedded links.

Further, Luzo Orbit has never written me or Support with anything constructive. He's never participated in a conference call with us even though we repeatedly invited him. Funnily enough, EVERYONE who was invited and who participated was a user of Luzo's old MediaMax blog, but Luzo himself refused to participate. The same is true for Tom Bassett. My point here is that he's not trying to do anything constructive here. He's just here to try to bring TLU down. Fine. But just say so Luzo. I'd ask Tom Bassett to do the same. Don't hide under the pretense that you're trying to provide a forum where people can get information.

I won't be a party to this blog. So this is my last post here. If the rest of you would like to discuss issues with me you can contact me by email. If you'd like to have conference call I can arrange that too.

Luzo Orbit said...

John, I think the title of this post is an accurate summary of what your comment - reproduced in full without editing - was saying.

I kept my personal views in a separate comment.

You are wrong to say I have never contacted customer support. I have done so using my account name and have had my posts to your official blog ignored.

You are wrong to say the purpose of this blog is to bring The Linkup down. It is to provide the forum which you refuse to provide. You will have noticed this blog fell silent when you were accepting comments and I specifically suggested to poster here that they post to the official blog not this one. Fat lot of good that did them because you didn't reply to the comments and have now deleted them so there is no historic record.

The original Mediamax users blog was set up specifically because your Mediamax blog did not accept comments. Users need a place to share experiences, particularly as the postings on your official blogs are so outdated and the replies from customer support are often useless (not just my view, but the view of many posters here).

It seems to me you have no interested in engaging with your customers, despite what you post above, and look for excuses - blaming others - to try to justify your refusal.

If you don't like this blog, switch comments back on your own. If you think what people say is inaccurate, then post information people can believe. If you don't like complaints, sort your service out.

And my Mediamax hosted links are still not working despite your promise that they would be maintained. I posted about this on your blog and had no answer. You comment above: "Yes, there were issues with existing links but that's because they the files that were in users hosted section were some of the last to migrate. We OBVIOUSLY still support embedded links." My files are already in The Linkup. So OBVIOUSLY your system is still not working. Just check out the links on my blog:
http://luzoorbit.blogspot.com/.

People are mad at your companies because of what YOU do and don't do and because of your repeated claims that things are fine when they are not. It is was not the fault of this blog. It is your service or lack of it.

Unknown said...

Mr. Hood,
You have just proven with your immature tantrum post that you are not fit to act as 'Head of Customer Service' of any company, much less TLU.

As I have posted before on the official blog, TLU's attitude that we, the customers, are supposed to just suck it up and play nice while you destroy our links, lose our files, and take our money is head-slappingly stupid. WTH is wrong with you as a person? You are NOT doing a good job, you are DOING YOUR CUSTOMERS A MAJOR DISSERVICE THAT IS POSSIBLY ILLEGAL, and you just can't seem to understand why we are upset, angry, and are venting about it. Awwww, did we hurt your wittle bitty feelings? Suck it up yourself and put on your big-boy underwear. You and the rest of TLU have done and continue to do a CRAPPY JOB, and the word is spreading. We have every right in the world to be as upset as we are concerning how we have been treated by this company.

NO, you do NOT answer emails (do we need to send you flowers along with the email before you will answer?) and yes, you are continuing to bill us for non-services. I paid an annual subscription in October 2007 and have had no use of my account now for more than 2 months...and counting.

I agree fully with luzo orbit when he states, "if this is the best you can do, then you need to shut yourselves down", to paraphrase. You are frauds and the biggest joke on the Internet right now.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Hood and his company is disgusting.

I used to be mad, but still pretty laid back about this situation. But then I started to read their many excuses.

Now, whenever I have a spare minute or two, I search the net looking for discussions of Mediamax, Linkup - whatever, and, if the site allows comments, tell the truth about this company who WILL LOSE YOUR FILES if you let them. Do a simple Google search for "Tom Bassett" and "Mediamax" if you're interested. And language isn't a barrier for me - I don't care if they're Chinese, Italian, Swedish - if they're promoting Mediamax, I'll go on their and tell them the truth in their own tongue.


Everyone - you're not gonna get your files back, and unless you've got thousands of extra bucks lying around for a lawyer, you're probably not gonna take it to a court of law. So spread the word about Mediamax, Streamload, Nirvanix, Linkup - whatever name they're calling themselves. Let people know what happened to you.

We can't make them give us back our money or files, but at least we can prevent others from entrusting them with THEIR money and files, and in the process, take away their livelihoods (aka subscription and/or ad monies) until they start being honest with us and themselves.

Anonymous said...

Tom, the days of this lot been honest are long gone.

They have made excuse after excuse and then have the gall to try and pass the buck on to their own paying customers.

Let's get one thing straight about Mr Hood's response -

It isn't the customers who have lost the files.

It isn't the customers who made a mess of the migration.

It isn't the customers who don't tell people what's going on.

It isn't the customer who are charging their own credit cards and not getting a service back.

And another thing that is been over looked -

Let's not pretend all this mess is a new thing, because it isn't, it's now been going on for coming upto 3 years so a lot of people are fooling themselves if they thing this is going to be resolved just beacuse they change their name and start moving files around again, because it isn't.

Oh and John, your excuses and retorts are now bordering on pathetic, you deserve everything you get and more.

Dave.

Iceage said...

It says a lot about this man and company to even have posted here. Let alone the way he did. I get the idea that this guy and this company are just a bunch of kids who started something and had a bit of roll away success with it. Then during the crunch time couldn't handle it so well.

They don't take me as business types at all. Just juveniles. Yes some of the comments on the TLU blog were juvenile too. But then again maybe the people posting were under 18. Then again many of them could have just been pissed off customers who were effected either financially, emotionally or personally by the outcome of your company's migration.

I certainly do not recall seeing anyone being insulting. Yes people did say it was a bad service etc. But really. Why don't you but up a disclaimer at the top of each post saying no bad mouthing etc??? IT's a copy and paste and would not have taken much effort. In line with that. This is an independent blog here, so we can call you an asshole and your company a bag of shit. You can't stop that by turning off your comments when you feel like it. It's called freedom. And if this blog goes down. Another will come up.

Why didn't you ever create a TLU Forum for registered users??? Not a hard thing to do these days. But then again you people cannot up date a blogsite these days. You're telling the world your site is down???

Your business sense truly is juvenile. Does anyone have photo's of these guys??? I seem to remember something about them and a dog before???

Anonymous said...

Iceage - They are not juveniles at all -

Steve Iverson - CEO -

http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveiverson


Mike Corrales - Marketing -

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikecorrales

Josh Monson - Ex Engineer -

http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshmonson

Patrick Harr - Ex CEO - Now with Nirvanix -

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/33B/068

Iceage said...

Juvenile in the mental setting that is so.

http://www.thelinkup.com/Contact-Us.aspx

Hmmmm...... Can we play eye spy here and guess the progammer???? Or John Hood??????

Oh and the quote of the day "We’re a group of Internet-addicted computer nerds that love making great applications and providing fanatical customer support"


Hmmmmm Juveniles

Anonymous said...

OK you win mate LOL!

Iceage said...

And what was John Hood saying about bickering between users on the blog. I see nothing but joviality and good humor amongst us here!

See we can laugh at things like TLU's photographs and lies :-)That is laugh between ourselves and not with TLU. Because the fact remains TLU have still screwed up, and that Dog's testicles are larger than anyone in TLU's for not coming clean in the manner so often described here.

But seriously, who in the hell would put staff photographs up like that? Not even a hint of photoshop or the like. Very amateurish

Unknown said...

As a female I mean no disrespect to any of my fellow male TLU victims, but age frequently has nothing to do with maturity when it comes to men, particularly the category that labels itself 'computer nerds'. There are plenty of them pushing 40 years old who still think, dress, and behave as if they are still in college. Wouldn't be suprised at all if John Hood and everyone else at TLU fits that description...except they appear to be incapable of "making great applications" and suck majorly at "providing fanatical customer support".

Iceage said...

I think that was a point we were making. Looking at their photos on their official site tells a lot about the 40+ males you are refereeing to Katie. BTW The person who deals in their accounts section is a lady, as is the one who deals in their legal emails.

Erm... a couple of ladies pictured on their site too... probably the ones mentioned above ;-)

Anyone know which photo is John Hood??? :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi all

I don't seem to be able play any files either mp3 or wmv although I can upload and also download i see the official "Blog" says that it is down but that was over a week ago.!
Dare I say "Is it just me? "

Iceage said...

Mark, I would suggest you have a read though some of the posts here and on the official TLU blog to get an understanding of the current situation.

Essentially they have closed off their blog to everyone. And are having a temper tantrum because customers are pissed off they have lost their files, and put private material into others accounts etc

Anonymous said...

In April I posted on the former mediamax users unofficial blog as "SomeoneWhoReallyHatesMediaMax". I've now updated my nickname ;)

I received an email today with a notice that Streamload had cancelled my subscription. This was under the old old $44.95/year pricing. This came out of nowhere and totally confused me until I realized it probably meant they had finally got around to completely killing the old Streamload/MediaMax accounts.

So I went to log in to TLU, which I haven't done since my previous post above, and found that they had me listed as being subscribed to the new "Plus" account. With, of course, even more caps on storage etc than before. (Amazing how my buying power keeps shrinking with these guys without me having to do a thing. It's like magic! ^_~)

I found about three and a half files (I'm being sarcastic here, but offhand without counting I'd say the total number of files I found in my new TLU account was less than 10) in my account. None of them were particularly important to me, and all were very small sized files.

All of my other thousands of files (and gigs thereof) are gone. (Not counting the ones I already deleted myself in disgust - I still left quite a few as "test cases" to see how well they would live up to their "migration" promises.)

The editable options on the account seem to have shrunk even further, too. With Streamload one could view one's billing history, payment amounts, change one's personal and billing info, etc. With MediaMax this was cut down somewhat. Now, with TLU, I can't even *view* my billing info. I can't even find a way to shut down my account if I want to! Remarkable.

Fortunately I've used PayPal with them all along, since I foresaw the possibility of a day like this coming. I'm stuck with my current subscription till next year, but once the re-up comes, if they try to charge me automatically without my permission, I'm going to scream blue murder.

So far as I can see, TLU is not just continuing the horrible, fraudulent, downright EVIL practices it began when it morphed into MediaMax, it's actually getting WORSE. As witness John Hood's recent comments. I don't know what to make of what he says. I have never had a single support email replied to, so apparently I'm in the miniscule 15% that doesn't get responded to "within 24 hours". Try YEARS!

Well, I can only laugh at myself for being a sucker all these years. The joke is that I barely ever even used the download allowances I was given, I simply used Streamload as an online backup for my personal files. And now they are all gone. All my personal computer backups, gigs and gigs worth of personal data and work data.

And, as someone else kindly pointed out, TLU is perfectly safe because I have neither time nor money to bring a lawsuit against them, and even if I did, I probably don't have any legal grounds to stand on, given their ToS which I agreed to.

So all I can do is curse them and wish that they are done to as they have done to us.

I hope they get their just desserts someday. Very soon. A lifetime in jail wouldn't be too much!!!!

Anonymous said...

"we answer 84% of our emails within 24 hours"
In my experience the average answer time is two weeks.

"we haven't charged anybody in quite some time"
I was double charged earlier this year, emails to support and billing went unanswered for 4 weeks, I eventually had the extra charge reveresed by my credit card company.

"we're doing the best we can"
Maybe that is not good enaough.

McB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
McB said...

A new file that is not mine has turned up in my account. (For those who don't know I have/had a very large number of files in my account that are not mine. See my previous posts on this blog.)

The file is 8.9 MB, it's in my FileManager folder, and it's called:

fc5246fd1c157a6cae7780276e9b48e4[1].flv

It was uploaded 4/14/2007.

I'm just laughing at it all by now...

Iceage said...

Can we have a poll to ask how many people got what percentage of their files back?

Me 0%

Or maybe a poll to see if we think TLU is going to go bust over this?

Or maybe a poll to ask how many people would like to visit their offices in California Personally...

Anonymous said...

Well there it is on their own blog, in black and white, "thank you and goodnight from mediamax/the link up!"
and
"Get all your stuff by August 8th "(sic!) Ha ha ha you've lost most of it !
Does anybody have recommendations for a similar service ? preferably one that is more reliable!
I really don't mind the cost just something that I can store mainly my teaching MP3s and a few videos but hotlink to them with their own url just changing the host www.tlu etc etc
thanks for your help and thanks Luzo and others for some entertaining reading over the last 2 years!

Unknown said...

MediaMax / The Linkup is closing
We regret to inform you that we will be closing The Linkup service on Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.

The Linkup is no longer accepting any uploads or new accounts, and no further charges will be made to your credit card. After August 8, your account will not be accessible, all your personal information will be deleted (username, billing information, history, etc), and your files will be deleted. Please download any files that are in your account that you wish to keep before Friday, August 8 at 5:00 pm PDT.

It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to The Linkup as we had expected, and as a result cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements. This is a very disappointing outcome for us, and we know it has been a frustrating experience for many of our customers.

We are very sorry that we have not been able to rebuild our service as we had envisioned. We sincerely appreciate those of you who stuck by us and held out hope for the return of a great service, and apologize that things did not work out better. And also a special thanks and apology to those developers who have been developing applications on The Linkup API that can no longer be supported.

Sincerely,
The Linkup Team


Hardly surprising. Knew this would never work when even the TLU mover didn't work. Download your files by Aug. 8th? Yah, right. What files. There's nothing there TO download.

CSyL said...

Well, finally it all came to an end. It's not sure what we all wanted, but I'm pretty sure it was what most of us were expecting. The nightmare its not over tho. I dont trust this guys will actually delete our personal and credit card info. Im changing my credit card just in case and I advise everybody to do the same.

Yeah, thanks to Luzo and all the other posters who kept this blogs up and running during this time, and all the people who kept track of SL/MM/TLU.

So long SL/MM/TLU! Rest in peace, along with our files. I just hope I never have to do business with John Hood nor anyone from TeamLinkup ever again.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

You could say that I'm feeling *almost* relieved that they are closing and that they *say* they are not charging any more cards as I was worrying that they would attempt to charge mine anyway.

So I guess we will see in a few days whether that's true or not.

It's a shame that they didn't stick to Streamload. I still miss that place, even though it had it's fair share of problems.

Iceage said...

Well I've been saying it for a while and now there it is.

PEOPLE, I also said beware of new company's. We all learned a big lesson here. Read the ToS and anything else twice.

Check who is working there. If anyone there has a name remotely like the ones at SL,MM or TLU you know what to say.

I would like to know what happens to the year subscribers??! Refunds??? Considering the company I doubt it.

Like it was said before TLU MM management did not do a good job. Period. Then they treated paying customers like scum. Like we said before it's not 5 years ago. A lot has changed. You can't push people around anymore. This is an example of what people can do on the internet in terms of the bad things TLU have done. And the good things the members of this forum and others have done.

NEVER FORGET WHAT HAPPENED HERE!

Anonymous said...

This is fantastic news, I am absolutly delighted to hear the news that The Linkup are closing.

To everyone that blooged about it and to everyone who went out of their way to cause them as much trouble as possible - guys we got a result!

I hope we never hear form Steve Iverson again.

Dave -
http://partyoflife.wordpress.com/

Well done people!

Anonymous said...

Prediction:

I predict they will resurface under a new name. That's the pattern - screw over customers, get a bad reputation, then change their name.

OR:

The employees may simply saunter across the street to their sister company, Nirvanix, and run THAT one into the ground as well.

I didn't want the company to close down. I wanted them to fix their problems. If I were the company, I'd have not shut down, but simply said "Hey, you know what, we lost you files, we tried to get them back but we can't. Here is a voucher for a few months of our new service, TheLinkup.com." Instead, I guess, they felt the need to close the company. But again, I predict we haven't seen the last of them.

Anonymous said...

If anyone knows please provide email links for steve erikson and johnhood. I'd like to get my refund.
Also, are emails now end in @thelinkup.com or still @mediamax.com??

Unknown said...

Do you think we could buy the servers and hire someone to get our files? I am really desperate.

Iceage said...

They don't reply to emails. Only support if you are lucky.

I would say they have their sister company buying the servers. Hmmm, where's their privacy statement again. CIVIL law... anyway.

Yes I imagine you will see a new storage company spring up somewhere soon too. Anyone know of a site that reviews NEW storage companies?

ALSO, ADMIN: As people are asking, and I am quite sure that come next month TLU will take down the blog site etc, that when people who don't know it's gone (again) go looking they will find this place. I would suggest a list of alternative storage companies and our reviews experiences could be listed somewhere here??

Anonymous said...

You're all correct of course. I never should have posted that comment. I was angry and frustrated at being personally attacked. I still stand by everything I said, but I shouldn't have used that tone or used the word "joke". For that I apologize.

Iceage said...

Was that John Hood? Last time they were signed in Differently?

It's the first time I can recall an apology that actually sounded genuine.

John. If it was you. At least from my own perspective. I think that if an apology like that had been made a long time ago, instead of the defending TLU and excuses etc,. Then things might have been different. An open admission of losing everyones files etc,. might well have been a better approach than the one that was made. At least from my own perspective. Yes there would still be some very angry people out there, but then I believe there would have been some saying 'well at least they seem to be telling us everything, and being honest'. Hindsight...

That's just my own personal opinion, and I am sure it will have its detractors. And if TLU or John does not get what I am saying, then do a chronological breakdown of all the comments you have made on TLU and here. It should back it easier to comprehend what I have written then. It comes with the territory of customer support to be attacked I am afraid. I worked in a multinational in a similar position, not nice. But then that was the job, so I just had to smile and not take it as personal, personal, just as work related.

Still wonder if it was him though?

AVP said...

This looks like a highly juvenile company who is totally clueless about their business plans and about the customer interaction quality.