NewsGroupDirect shoddy service warning

I just figured this was worth a warning. I am seriously annoyed by this.

The last week of August I signed to yearly NewsGroupDirect using their $65 per year deal. For the first two months I had it as my secondary usenet account as I already had a 3 month Thundernews account which I used as my main account just to get rid of it and then keep NGD as my main after that..

So probably I downloaded in my first month around 250GB at most. The same the second month. Then in November as Thundernews was gone I set this as my main account and downloaded around 1TB (but likely much less as NGD was terrible for incompletes and needed to use a whole load of my fill servers all the time as highwinds have automatic takedowns). This month so far downloaded around 200GB.

And as a result totally out of the blue I have got this message from them

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Hi there -

I wanted to let you know that we have had to close your NewsgroupDirect account. The reason is simply that you have been using an extraordinary amount of bandwidth, which is costing us a significant amount of money. We're losing too much money on your account to be able to keep you on board. I hope you understand and I want you to know that we regret having to make this decision.

We will be refunding your last payment (or a pro-rated portion if you paid yearly), so at least you aren't out any money as a result of this action. Give us 2-3 business days to process the refund.

If you would like recommendations for another usenet provider then let us know and we'll be glad to help you out.

Again, I'm sorry for any trouble that this will cause you.

Best regards,
Ferdinand
NGD Support

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My first thoughts were, you could have done this last week when I could of got a Black Friday deal with someone else. Idiots. Needless to say I am not happy about this in the slightest.

This is pathetic as I really did not use that much. Yes I have used a lot compared to a monk. But as I have absolutely slaughtered SunnyUsenet, Thundernews and Astraweb, which all were either on a par or cheaper and they never complained.

So I would say avoid Newsgroupdirect unless you want to have your account closed abruptly.

Somewhat obviously, they've been taking 'lessons' from US broadband/wireless/younameit folks in revising the dictionary definition of 'unlimited' to fit their needs for mansions and italian/german/whatever sports cars.

About 5 seconds of basic review would show anyone that this outfit is part of 'highwinds', very probably the worst usenet provider in the 35+ year history of usenet.

BTW, I utilize about 5TB/month of usage on Astraweb, and that's with a rather pitiful speed ISP connection (but it is truly 'unlimited' so far, and I pay top dollar for the 'privilege').

I would say that anyone doing 'due diligence' on any provider would, again, quickly figure out that this is HIGHWINDS and run screaming from their keyboard.

Thanks for the feedback.

NewsDemon is known for such practices as well.

Can they reverse block account?

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Originally Posted by AnthonyG

I just figured this was worth a warning. I am seriously annoyed by this.

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Good post, thanks.

Usenet servers say they are unlimited but I can say with for sure. The unlimited is used up digging for the real gems. I don't know how you guys don't get frustrated every day. If it not the Crooks, its the almost crooks that want your money. I have spent hundreds of dollars on Usenet services and I can tell you one thing for sure. It is still safer to search for people you know and deal with them instead of trusting any file that comes down the pipe.

Seems everything "unlimited" is turning out to not be....

I've been with NGD since July '13 on their $9 unlimited+vpn special. Not sure how much I usually download but already hit 150GB this month half way through. I haven't had any problems with them and it barely touches my backup server. And considering how little I pay, you would think they would be extra strict with me.