In reply to Anna Jaworski.

@Anna — "I wonder if other VA hosts have been reluctant to come forward to write anything here because they’re embarrassed to — given the negative tone generated by the original post."

It's a bit of a stretch to say my post is negative. I just wrote about my experience and the fact that costs are not explained up front. It's definitely one of the few posts about VA that can be found on the web, given that you are commenting on a post written in 2006.