I’ve received this comment from Candice at CI Host:

C I Host attempts to collect overdue accounts and unpaid balances from current and cancelled customers. After exhausting all in-house collection resources, C I Host has retained a third-party collection firm, Fidelity Management. If you receive correspondence from Fidelity and you feel that this is in error, please first contact Fidelity Management at (818) 991-4220, P.O. Box 6024, Agoura Hills, CA 91376. After you have contacted Fidelity, and the issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you may contact C I Host at billing@cihost.com.

C I Host

Thanks for commenting, Candice. However, it would be helpful if you would read the substance of the complaints, instead of using a generic response in all cases.

You see, what everyone is complaining about is that you guys had our phone numbers, credit card numbers, addresses, and all other required information for 4, 5, or even (in my case) 6 YEARS, and your company never attempted to collect on any alleged debts.

Now, years later, your company sells its “bad debt” to Fidelity for probably 10 cents on the dollar, and Fidelity gets to try and bully your former customers.

You say that “After exhausting all in-house collection resources…” you’ve retained the services of Fidelity. Sorry, sweetie - everyone who’s pissed off at CI Host never heard ANYTHING from ya’ll until this fiasco.

I appreciate that your company is trying to do damage control after an insanely terrible business decision, but this just isn’t going to cut it.

Believe me, the readers of my blog and I will be thorns in Fidelity’s side, leveraging the full protections provided by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. It’s unfortunate that your company decided to do this to its former customers, because you’re the ones taking the heat for this fiasco.

I welcome any further comments from both Fidelity and CI Host on this issue - just try to avoid boilerplate responses, ‘k?