This isn't easy to write... and I apologize if this is the wrong place.

A while ago I decided to move my website (non-profit/no advertising), off of Yahoo who's prices had risen to much. I found through Hosting Assured a company that was rated well, and offered great pricing. That Company was Totally Hosted.

http://www.hostingassured.findmyhosting.com/

According to Hosting Assured it was rated at 83% which is higher then almost everyone else. I bought into it, placed an order, and after a delay I was getting transfered over.

I signed up for a $10 a month plan, but after an incident where their site went down and I had considerable issues getting my site transfered, I was offered a whole year at their largest package for about $80. Great offer, figured I was just lucky. I took it, pay pal the money, and figured I was set.

Then their site went down, wiping out all of my work. Not a problem, I had a back up. Then they were "hacked". Lost it again. Same deal as before. Then they had a spammer send 50,000 emails from their server. Finally their CPANEL license has expired.

I have spent the last week trying to contact them, and all I was told was that I had to pay my other bills I owed them first. I didn't owe them a dime, by mine and their records. They still haven't gotten back to me yet.

Now I don't want to jump to conclusions yet. My site is still up, but the new URLs I asked them to register are in THEIR name not mine, and don't point to where I ask them to. In the past when I contacted Samuel Barr I recieved a prompt response, and he has fixed the problems. However, this CPANEL issue seems to be just sitting there. I can't get any of my e-mail, and I access any site controls, although the payment site still works. He has all but abandon the forum at his website.

http://forums.totallyhosted.net/


I am not sure what to think here. I want my other two URLs, and I would like to give Sam the benefit of the doubt. But right now I can't afford another expensive switch to another host provider. So I am to some extent stuck (at least for another few months).

Any advice here?

please check for totallyhosted and samual barr, ben hawker, and other pseudonyms he's used by using the search function above. You will come to some conclusions on your own as to what you should do.

I was afraid someone would say something like that...

TW, I have EXACTLY the same story!!! I have two sites hosted and it was registered by Mr. Sam. There's something FISHY, Mr. Sam has dissapeared somewhere and no one seems to solve this Myestry. I am not jumping to any Conclusions and still hoping he will appear from nowhere with some Valid Explanation. Servers are still working and I am crossing my fingers will remain working :) Since Mr. Sam taken care of the registration, he is the one can change the nameserver info. So if the servers stop working and Mr. Sam dissapear permanently then I think I will be Screwed of my site names too.

I PRAY that we won't be screwed out of our URLs. I have ONE in my name but I had transfered it to his $9 a year name reg program. The other two he hasn't changed into my name.

I am hoping he comes back with something. There must be a way for me to get my domains from him should things have gone wrong. I think I will pay for the security of a better name register

Originally posted by Total Waste
I PRAY that we won't be screwed out of our URLs. I have ONE in my name but I had transfered it to his $9 a year name reg program. The other two he hasn't changed into my name.

I am hoping he comes back with something. There must be a way for me to get my domains from him should things have gone wrong. I think I will pay for the security of a better name register

It is a definite pain to get domain names in these cases, but it is possible. Contact the domain registrar with some details for how to begin.

i suggest shooting an email over to the company through which he registered the domain, explain what's going on and see if they can do anything.

Thanks for the advice. I will get started on it on Monday...first buisness day. Drives me nuts that I will have to do this. I don't want to have my domains stolen. I wonder if I can report this to the FBI or some other authority if it comes down to that.

Well, I contacted the e-mail address that my site's contact is listed as. It was a guy who Samuel Barr was trying to transfer Totally hosted to. I asked him for a little info on what was going on. I am hoping he replies.

Dang. :|

Originally posted by Total Waste
Well, I contacted the e-mail address that my site's contact is listed as. It was a guy who Samuel Barr was trying to transfer Totally hosted to. I asked him for a little info on what was going on. I am hoping he replies.

Hopefully Mr. Sam is still Planning to come back to totallyhosted.net and not Running away :D

Sorry to hear about your host. If you are going to transfer your domain I would sugest using godaddy.com . In my opion they are the best for domain registars. The name stays in your name, not somebody else. Good luck getting your domains back and I wish you the best luck.

Sorry to hear about that. Good luck finding a new host there are still some legit ones out there.

I used registerfly myself. but godaddy is cheaper, and one of the biggest. And ... they are cheaper than the 9$ you said you paid (7.99) so frankly I see no value getting a host to register on your behalf. and I will never agree to letting it be register in the host name and not my own, since that almost indicates ownership, and you will be stuck with the host if anything goes wrong.

Well, the CPANEL is back up. I can't wait to hear from Sam.

Yeah, I registered a domain name through TH too. I found out they actually registered it through RegisterFly.com. I contacted them yesterday through their live chat, and they said I had to get "TH Mystery guy(tm)" to "push" the domain name from his to mine (an account I had to set up with RegisterFly just to talk to their support staff.

It seems that even though I got him to change all the contacts on the domain name to my name a while back, I still have no control over the actual name. :(

I already contacted Trading Standards after they disappeared recently, but dropped it when they came back and seemed okay. Now I'm thinking it might be time to drop them an email again...

Tk, who's getting really annoyed looking for a new host... Is there anywhere that hasn't got a horror story lurking in the bg? (I think I'm getting a little pessimistic now)

I spent a few hours talking to the guy who runs Eryxma. He seems a lot more legit. That's where I intend to move my site. I am not going to bother trying to get my money back from Totally Hosted. It's not worth it. I just hope I can get my domains.

http://www.eryxma.com/index.php

I was leaning towards AlwaysWebHosting.com because I don't want to pay a year in advance.

Do Eryxma allow monthly payments?

Tk.

Their site looks great, and the packages are very generous... but it would make me nervous at this point to get into any kind of pay for a year at a time contract for hosting.

With as many hosting companies are folding left and right, the last thing I want to deal with is another failed host and trying to recover possibly lost data, and dealing with the possible loss of capital that was paid in advance that a host that goes out of business cant provide.

Let us know how it goes though...

Yeah, actually, Eryxma does look gooooood!

But it's the year-pay thing, altho I've just worked it out and it's only about £75 (ish!) I think I could pay that out...

I dunno. Somebody help me coz I've spent two days straight looking for a webhost now!

Tk, need sleeeeeeeep!

Looks like if you get into the Private Hosting (under shared) and sign up for the big package you can do monthly at about $11.50 a month.

Pretty cheap.

Well, the TH forums are down. Can't blame him for doing so since everyone on there was ticked off beyond belief. I hope I can get back my domains.

Oh oh! Last time the TH Forums went down, Ben disappeared and Sam came back out to play...

I think I'm heading to Eryxma too. Just trying to get them to answer another support ticket.

I really don't wanna pay a setup fee.....

Tk, who's migraine is just getting bigger...

Hi,
As I said in my other thread today (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92951) I am not here to scam or steal from anyone and I want to work with your guys to resolve these issues. I would prefer to do it via email or pm and you can update this thread as we go along (simply PM me and I will give you the email address).

Lets work on it so that everyone comes out happy.

Thanks

P.S The forum is back I was upgrading it to version 2.9.9

Originally posted by THBen
Hi,
As I said in my other thread today (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=92951) I am not here to scam or steal from anyone and I want to work with your guys to resolve these issues. I would prefer to do it via email or pm and you can update this thread as we go along (simply PM me and I will give you the email address).

Lets work on it so that everyone comes out happy.

Thanks

P.S The forum is back I was upgrading it to version 2.9.9


Finally. Good to hear from someone. I think some explination is in order. It might go a long way.

I am still waiting for my money. Every deadline is missed with some sort of excuse.

I'm still waiting too...
I see the forum's are taken down again...

it seems to me findmyhosting.com and hostassured.com are a total ripoff. they claim to be the only host directory and rating service that is not affliliated in any way with any host, but how come so many "good" hosts they recommend turn out 2b like this? another example hostdepartment.com is rated 87% by hostassured which is even higher then totally hosted but again a screwed up host.

Hello,
Its never easy to start an apology post and I have made a few already but simply writting I am sorry isn't enough. When I started Totally Hosted I went in blind and although I may have had the technical knowledge to run the business I didn't have the business knowledge on maitaining a business and thats where I made a massive mistake.

It may have been that I didn't refund peoples money or that my service was down for lengthly periods of time and I now thats no way to run a business.

I want to clear my name and show people that it was business decisions I made, not to intentionally "con" people out of their money. So the main reason for this post is to say I am sorry and that I agree people are entiiled to their money back.

The Plan
Now that I have closed Totally Hosted I need to get some employment to enable me to pay back those people who didn't get their money back who where owed it.

I intend to pay each and everyone of those people. true it might take me a while but I will do it.

If I owe you money please email me at samuel@totallyhosted.net along with how much I owe, which service you purchased. I really know who the people are I owe money to but I would just like to get a collection of emails together so I can calculate exactly how much I owe and how long (depending on what my new job's salary is) it wil take me to pay people back.

At the moment I do have a job lined up but due to the posts on the board this has put a small halt on that job. Hopefully as poeple accept my apology the new job wll come through and I can start with repaying people.

I do stress, please do not post your comments to me here on this board but direct any communication to me at samuel@totallyhosted.net.

Thanks for taking the time to read the post.

Thanks!