Hi everyone, I do apologise that this is my first post, but I am so really angry. My name is Kerry and my boyfriend has an account with Hostgator.com for over 12 months, (always paid before invoice was due).

This can be proved. I don't even think there was a dispute. Anyway, in August, Rich (the account holder) had a nasty fall, we took him to the doctors which to cut a long story short turned out to be a heart attack, doctors wanted to keep him in for tests etc.

He has been really sick leaving me to run the business and bring up the kids all on my own.

I emailed Hostgator regarding the fact that our account with them is overdue (Sep 10th & Oct 10th) and explaining this would be paid this friday as it's the day that Rich is out of Hospital.

The CC is in Richards name and I am not willing to comit fraud

I emailed Ben and explained that they would receive payment Friday. This is the responce I received.

Hi, I read the email, did you have a question? Can you please login and pay those as he is more then two months behind,

I then sent back that I didn't have authorisation and would rather wait to Friday so Rich could do it, I have very little knowledge being a full time mum.

Anyway after several emails, Hostgator asked me to commit credit card fraud by just using his card, showed no meanings to help me once, I explained we would pay Friday and promised they would see the payment.

I did explain that Rich will sort it, he wants to get home but I want him to do what the hospital says.

I also asked Ben to just wait until friday and he agreed. Today the account is suspended, which shows what a waste of time it was spending 2 hours emailing them

I know some people dont pay hosting, but surely a customer who has paid for over 12 months on time without any problems could be given the benefit of the doubt????

I said I could email them proof. No good.

They just don't want to help me. I am going out my wits here, I would like everyone to know, after all we could all have this happen to us and wouldn't of been nice for me to have come on here (and I would of) to say thanks for helping me.

I have also received some very very rude messages, if it helps my case, I can post the sent and received emails.

I really want people to know that customers dont mean nothing to them, your not important.

I hope that you understand that Richard was so happy with them for their services (hosting uptime etc) but this is enough to make me join Richard in Hospital.

What happend to looking after the customer Hostgator?

Welcome to WHT Kerry! and sorry to hear about Rich.

Anyway, if he had stay 12 months with hostgator, I am sure the owner or some superior can give him a chance. Maybe the one you are talking to don't know Rich that much.

Maybe try to call them? So they would feel that your account is important to you and you are serious about it. I am not saying you are not... but who knows :-)

GoodLuck Kerry!

It is s said story, but I think it's time by now to move on. You should get a written permission of your friend to use his CC to pay the money due to Host Gator.

WEll Kerry again sorry to hear about Rich. Your account might have been auto suspended due to non payment !

You should call the person who promised you about non suspension. I think all web hosts should react little politely in medical emergencies.

Hi everyone, firstly thank you for the kind wishes. I will pass these on when I see Richard today.

Secondly, I would like to make a special thank you message to someone called "Andre" who works at Hostgator.

I have been speaking with him for over an hour, he was friendly, approachable, kind and has now resolved this for me.

Thank you to Andre & hostgator. As I do say, sometimes things are out of our control and 90% of us are honest customers and pay our bills month after month and less than 1% of the time we may need a little extra support but Hostgator came good.

Thank you hostgator. Thank you again for all your wishes. God bless you all.

I am glad to hear it has been solved. Thumbs up Host Gator.

Kerry,

Very sorry to hear what has happened. First, I hope your husband starts feeling better and can catch up. As far as HostGator, that sounds really fishy. Being 2 months behind is not too great, but having a strong enough reason as you did helps the situation. Atleast its all resolved now.

G' luck!

Glad to hear that the issue was solved to your liking Kerry, despite the initial problem. Perhaps Ben could have tried to be more understanding, but for some reason he might not have believed you. As you can imagine, customers who for some reason don't want to pay anymore, can and will come up with all kinds of elaborate excuses.

Good luck to you and Rich! I hope he'll get well very soon. If there's anything good that comes after trying moments such as the ones you're living now, is that we should have been more grateful for the things we had, and try to learn from that.

thanks everyone, I do understand that some people do make excuses not to pay. That's probably why there defences were up. I suppose I can not blame then.

I think that the worst thing was the fact that we had never missed a payment in 12 months, (in fact we had always paid early) and since we hadn't made any complaints, maybe Hostgator should of given us the benefit of doubt, especially as I was asking for 4 days, not like months. Anyway, I am not going to slag Hostgator off, I can see their point, I am just happy that Ben and the team at Hostgator have given me a couple of extra days.

It means I don't have to deal with customers through an already trying time. Thanks everyone, your support messages have been great ;)

We have no problem extending a 2 month past due invoice a few more days if someone is in the hospital, but we are going to ask questions. I'm sorry if us asking for information got you upset.

All we wanted to know was a few things...

1. Why you couldn't pay it if you were running the business for him as he requested.
2. If you were his 50% partner why you couldn't use your own card.
3. Obviously you were in constant contact with him for the two months if he had asked you to take care of things with us why not ask for his authorization to use the card.
4. You said " he is fit" If he was fit and well he could call us himself and pay over the phone.

It is extremely rare to find anyone that is not going to suspend after two months of past due invoices. (suspensions are automated) All we wanted was a few questions answered before we turned you back on and instead you came here to bash us before answering.
We're very happy that your boyfriend is better and we are sorry for anything we did to upset you. If you could please request to have this thread title modified to something else that would be very appreciated otherwise the title will have a damaging effect towards our company forever.

Hi Hostgator, I did already request that once I had apologised on this forum. WHM will confirm this.

Again, without being rude, the last thing I am going to do with my partner after a heart attack is say "oh by the way pay hostgator", to be honest other things have been on my mind.

As soon as he was well enough to take light discussion I mentioned a little about the business.

Hence so I could email you. Anyway, I asked you for more time, this has now been agreed, and I am truly grateful.

I would like to apologise, I am under a lot of stress, I believe maybe you could of handled things slightly better by being a little more understanding.

As for coming here to post, I did that simply because I was on the understanding that you wouldn't suspend my sites, you would wait until Friday at the latest.

If my intentions we're not to pay I wouldn't post this. I'm not here to slag of your services. My partners rates Hostgator as a very reliable and honest hosting company.

Infact his words were "send an email over to hostgator" they are a nice company, I am sure they will be okay if you explain I will pay them.

We aren't in this to damage you, and I do promise I send an email to WHM with the reasons for my change being that you resolve my issues.

I couldn't edit as it was more than 15minutes sinse I posted it.

Anyway, once again, thank you.

I completely understand and agree hosting should be the last thing on your mind. I'm glad we were able to help you and if there is anything at all I can do for you please let me know. I would be happy to remove those invoices for you so that you would not need to pay them ever. (I know how expensive medical bills can be) Just send me an e-mail if you wish to take me up on that brent@hostgator

Brent that's really sweet of you. I feel guilty that maybe I had handled this all wrong now.

It's just with brining up 2 children, running the house and trying to keep the business ticking has been more than a challenge for me, I just couldn't of faced those calls from customers asking why their sites were suspended etc. I panicked.

I promise you I have emailed the forum moderators and asked them to change the title. It's not deserved, and not just because of your really kind offer.

I did this after speaking with Andre, who really is a credit to Host Gator.

You are a really good company, I suspect you have to be careful and I probably just felt the world crash once I saw the sites suspended with only a few days to go and after I thought it was all resolved when I spent 2 hours emailing your billing team last night.

Anyone reading this making a decision about hostgator, I am not saying this because of their offer, I have posted this above just to prove this but

"hostgator are a really reliable company, after all, we wouldn't of been with them for 12 months if they wasn't."

Kerry

Greetings kerry and hostgator team ..

Glad to know that humanity still exists .. not because of Brents offer, but being such a reputable host and still trying to understand the possible problems, is what I think to be a very generous act.

Gook luck kerry and your family in the best of your health. Hostgator has once again proved to be one of the best hosts available ! Good luck to you Hostgator as well :)

All's well that ends well :)

Hostgator seems to handle the issues well. Good host in deed.
Kerry, I hope your boyfriend will get better soon. Hang in there.

You can't hardly blame a host for being cautious with sensitive info.

Fraud is a big problem these days. Hosts that have been around a while hear all kinds of stories.

Originally posted by WebHostingGuru
You can't hardly blame a host for being cautious with sensitive info.

Fraud is a big problem these days. Hosts that have been around a while hear all kinds of stories.

Yep .. its just one of their professional skills, and everyone here has a right to maintain their professionalism.

Originally posted by kerry Hewitson

Again, without being rude, the last thing I am going to do with my partner after a heart attack is say "oh by the way pay hostgator", to be honest other things have been on my mind.



Not to reopen old 'wounds' but I just found this thread interesting... it seems everyone overlooked the fact that this account was TWO MONTHS past due.

Rick took a fall, it ended up being a heart attack (sorry about that) and the hospital kept him for tests. So you're saying he stayed in the hospital for over 60 days to do tests? It sounds like the invoice was already past due before he went to the hospital.

But if the case is he was in the hospital for TWO ENTIRE MONTHS, then asking him to make a toll free call to approve a charge was not unreasonable.. I know if I was in the hospital for that long of a time I would be MORE worried about not knowing what was going on with my business.

I'm not jumping on you here but obviously you have left out some information here... even though HG came through and you have left positive feedback, I think it's important to know why the whole story wasn't told and why no one needs to take one side or the other without knowing all the facts.

I know I don't know all the facts, but the ones presented in this entire thread still don't add up and HG lost money just for PR.

thesmallguyshost,

Good point you brought up, I guess we will never know the full truth. Best regards to Richard.

Glad your issue was resolved Kerry :)

Hi, just thought I would clear this part up, Rich fell ill at the end of August, we missed the invoice due on the 10th September and the next invoice was due 10th October.

Just to update everyone, we are not out to fraud anyone, we have been with hostgator for 12 months.

We also have a smaller reseller sinse the day we started but we pay that one annually in advance so that one was covered.

To bring everyone up to speed, me and Richard didn't accept the invoices to be wiped altogether, we have worked with Host Gator to arrange a way we can pay them back in 2 intallments. That's because (a) we pay our way
(b) we have lost financially but arn't prepared to let Host Gator lose money, after all they have been terrific sinse Brent realised.
(c) we cant help natural events. It could happen to anyone I am just grateful that Richard is still with us, after all, I could of handled losing the sites, the important thing here is Rich, well to me anyway.

Richard was in hospital 42 days altogether, he is home now and is recovering well, thank you for everyone who has sent messages of support.

I would like to thank Hostgator for their support, we look forward to repaying you and I would like to Recomend Hostgator for being what they are, a truly reliable, good hosting company.

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but this thread sure brought home to me the need to review and update my contingency plans, making sure key people in my organization has the ability to address things like this as the need arises. Thanks for that!

Glad all is well now Kerry and tell Rich we're glad he's doing better.

Hang in there.. I'm sure you'll have more customers than you know what to do with before long :)