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GVO Review
To understand GVO, you need to know something about its founder and CEO Joel Therien.
Joel is an internet marketer and a fitness buff. 7minuteworkout.com is Joel's fitness website, and right on the homepage he's advertising his 'opportunity'. He has recently started Pure Leverage, which is supposed to help people get leads and generate sales, but seems to me more like a pyramid scheme. Also, he's come out with some new master marketers course.
In my opinion, the Pure Leverage stuff is a scam. However, the GVO hosting works well enough. My issue with the company was when they could bill me for some services, but not others, they suspended my main hosting account, which they had in fact received payment for. Their response to my closing the PL account (which had billing problems) was to close my entire account. Very not kosher in my opinion.
If you want basic hosting services, GVO is pricey. However, the package I started with included a 500 name auto-responder/bulk mailer service, and there were a few other nice extras as well. The mail services alone were worth the price of the hosting.
Their customer service and support varies. It is the reason that I am considering switching hosts. With the changes to my core business, I don't feel comfortable referring customers to them, nor using them to host a reseller account. I feel that the CEO, Joel Therien, is more interested in creating new marketing projects than running a hosting company.
For what its worth, GVO started out in Canada, and then moved to Texas. As far as I know, they do own their own server farm/data center in San Antonio. They are a very popular hosting company for internet marketers, and host some of the bigger names in the industry.
Overall, I was satisfied with the service from GVO until the billing issue arose. However, with the continuing expansion of non-hosting services/products, I feel that the company is losing its focus, and unless you're an IM'er with deep pockets, they don't really care about you. If all you want is to host a simple site, there are better and cheaper hosts. However, if you want to start a small email list or campaign as well, GVO is still a good choice.