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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    199

    Hostican.com Worst hosting and false advertising

    I stake my reputation on this complaint that they seem to not care about. My client ordered about 10 websites and static ips. Hostican.com has an order form which asks about static ips and they had to be called 2 months later to be asked "Where are our static ips" Additionally, if you order a dedicated server from their order form, they will take your money and not tell you there are no servers in stock until you call them to find out where is your server. My client lost money and was not refunded for all of the issues that they had.

    On top of that, the only reason i recommended this client to hostican.com is because Denis Motova personally guaranteed to me that he would handle any issues in order to get my bulk sales on shared hosting. Not only did this greedy hosting company take my clients money they refused to pay me commissions as the affiliate. Falesly advertising $90 a sale and then reporting $70 a sale. Denis said "i will talk to my board to pay you." Then never paid.

    Stay away from this company at all costs. They steal their ideas from other companies (I have proof.) They steal content, they steal client and affiliate money and they have lost their registration with the BBB and do not respond to complaints. I spoke to Denis on the phone for almost two hours and have witnesses that will testify he said he would honor our agreement. This guy is far from a gentleman.
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
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    199
    If they do not resolve my issues by 5pm Central on Friday, my clients will be forced to file 42 chargebacks. Not something I recommend unless you have no other options when dealing with a web hosting company. The chargeback rules state that you must try to resolve the issue with the merchant first which the merchant i.e. hostican has been unwilling to resolve at this point. Have refused to refund the client on their own and have refused to pay the affiliate for leads, as well as not paying the affiliate for the amount advertised on their affiliate signup page. Bait and switch on multiple levels.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    639
    Wow, that isn't good. Hopefully, you will have better luck in your next host.
    bihira.com | 10+ Years of Web Hosting Experience!
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
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    I have a better partner to send my clients to, I just wanted everyone to know about the crooks out there. Affiliates, web hosting companies, and customers should be aware of what makes the industry bad.
    Mariehosting - Wordpress hosting Experts web hosting Get a website you will love. Affordable Wordpress web design

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    6,884
    Sorry to hear about your troubles with them. And thanks for letting us know about it. I think if they are not proving to be helpful a charge back would be the next step. I hope they work with you in resolving the issue, if not move with another.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Earth
    Posts
    94
    Hope everything will be solved soon and thank you for the warning! Some hosting companies cheat their affiliates by using their own custom affiliate systems and not rewarding them properly for referrals or marking them as "fraud".

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,124
    HostIcan, never heard of them before, but I do have some questions?


    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    Falesly advertising $90 a sale and then reporting $70 a sale. Denis said "i will talk to my board to pay you." Then never paid.
    I only see a $70 / sale commission listed @ http://www.hostican.com/company/affiliates.php ? Was this some special arrangement you had with them?


    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    they had to be called 2 months later to be asked "Where are our static ips"
    Why would you wait 2 months?



    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    Additionally, if you order a dedicated server from their order form, they will take your money and not tell you there are no servers in stock until you call them to find out where is your server.
    That seems wrong... on a side note, https://orders.hostican.com/ doesn't load for me.


    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    My client lost money and was not refunded for all of the issues that they had.
    They have a 30 day money back guarantee, so maybe try that? What were the issues anyways?


    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    Not only did this greedy hosting company take my clients money they refused to pay me commissions as the affiliate.
    What was their reason for not paying? Was it past their 30 day wait period?


    Looks like you're not alone though:

    http://www.theskykid.com/random/host...-program-scam/
    http://www.bbb.org/richmond/business...d-va-21017360/

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    199
    $90 per sale was changed because I complained about it after they tried to tell me all my sales were $70 a sale. False advertising is still false advertising... This is a classic case of bait and switch.

    I am the affiliate at the end of the day, my clients had to tell me they never got their static ips.

    The issues didnt get noticed by my client until they did an audit over 60 days later. These orders were placed in February so after calling 5 times a day yes the site has been updated since because of the costant complaining. But is ok I have screenshots.

    They told me they were not going to pay me for my sales after it was beyond my clients TOS to cancel. So the client had a service they could not use and had to move to another more reliable host lost a lot of money and I lost my commision because they don't know how to run an affiliate program.

    But thats ok im putting up a new site to warn others. hosticannot.com
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Canada
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    2,124
    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    I am the affiliate at the end of the day, my clients had to tell me they never got their static ips.
    But did they try to contact hostican's support?

    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    The issues didnt get noticed by my client until they did an audit over 60 days later.
    Well, I don't care at all for hostican, but if their client (not yours I'd say since you're an affiliate, i.e. referral sales) doesn't say anything for 60 days, how are they supposed to know the client is having problems?

    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    They told me they were not going to pay me for my sales after it was beyond my clients TOS to cancel.
    Can you rephrase? I'm not sure what you are saying.

    Quote Originally Posted by solarblunet View Post
    So the client had a service they could not use and had to move to another more reliable host lost a lot of money and I lost my commision because they don't know how to run an affiliate program.
    I think your client should take some responsibility too if they did not attempt to contact hostican. Of course, if they did and were ignored, that's a different story.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    199
    Yes sir, tickets calls excuses. I mean how do you build a 50 million dollar datacenter and not have 10 ip addresses ? How do you not have ip address for almost three months ? I even had to intercept to try to help the cusotmer out. At the end of the day they are mad at me I personally recommended this company, after talking to the "CEO" for two hours on the phone in front of the client. Yessing me the whole time that they could meet my needs. and then to not pay me. ??? WTF
    Mariehosting - Wordpress hosting Experts web hosting Get a website you will love. Affordable Wordpress web design

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,124
    Well, I hope your client gets things resolved. Good luck!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    I only see a $70 / sale commission listed @ http://www.hostican.com/company/affiliates.php ? Was this some special arrangement you had with them?
    This is their commissions policy:

    HostICan offers one of the highest commission payouts in the industry. Affiliates will receive $70 for the first 4 successful sales and then $90 per successful sale. Commissions are only paid for qualifying and approved sales.
    http://www.hostican.com/company/affiliates-faq.php

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    3,455
    Im sorry for this but I have read on blogs and for personal experiences from other Affiliates that it seems they are not the only ones that do this. Big companies that pay tons of money per sale for their Afillites sales like the gator company and the number one company, both which promises big money which they would not recover even if the client stays for 5 years or more years seem to do this.
    There systems is different. They pay, but not everything. They pay like 50% of all their sales and invent excuses on the other sales, like the client clicked another affiliate link after yours (which you can never prove) in case you know the client, or that the client cancelled their service in case you dont know it. Or that they where fraud.

    I have heard allot of people that had to receive thousands and the company then made all types of excuses to pay them or reduces their commissions in a big slice. So if you send them 10 clients for 100$ per commissions but they just ended approving 3 of them then they did not paid you 100$ per sale but 30$. Usually hosts with unlimited gimmicks will not have a problem doing gimmicks with their affiliates programs as well. Just like they know unlimited is just a magic marketing word their big 150$ and 300$ per commission is as well. This a new type of trick to get tons of back links from blogs and other people that would never do a single commission. Its like overselling. If only 1 uses 10000 GB transfer per month we kick them out, we dont care, because the other 1000 clients are happy. Same for affiliates. If one actually makes 5000$ in sales we kick him, at least we have other 1000 that only make a buck a year. Since not a single company, law or government regulations control hosting services of affiliate payouts or anything that is related to Internet business it seems its the wild west regarding who is the best, bigger, most unlimited, biggest payouts, etc.

    My best suggestions to the consumer is to use common sense.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    3,455
    Quote Originally Posted by ldcdc View Post
    This is their commissions policy:



    http://www.hostican.com/company/affiliates-faq.php
    "Commissions are only paid for qualifying and approved sales."

    Guess who decides which order qualifies for approved?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Guess who decides which order qualifies for approved?
    It'll always be the host, of course. And they will always be better prepared to err in their own favor. But, I don't find it unlikely for a lot of these hosts to really be faced with high amounts of fraud, and, since many of them are really low quality, refunds due to customers taking advantage of the money back guarantee.

    My best suggestions to the consumer is to use common sense.
    In this case I would say that we're talking about a business to business relationship, even if often times the affiliate is also a consumer.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Earth
    Posts
    8,154
    It clearly says $70 commission on their affiliates page, if you get over 4 sales for them that's how you get $90 per sale.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
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    "if you get over 4 sales for them that's how you get $90 per sale." Where did you see that information ? That means they owe me a lot more i sent them 40 sales and they paid for count it guys 0. If you dont want a bulk affiliate don't sit on the phone with him for 3 hours getting free web hosting consultation and then not pay the affiliate. 40+ chargebacks is gonna hurt you a lot more then you not paying,

    <<snipped>>
    Last edited by bear; 10-28-2010 at 12:52 PM.
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  18. #18
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    Jan 2005
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    Chicago
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    I sent my collection agency after them, next is an FTC complaint, BBB complaint and monday morning is chargebacks.
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    199
    From a weekend response: I'm sorry to hear of your problem. I know Denis and have had dealings with them in the past that were totally above board, and I'm surprised your situation ended up this way.

    I am curious, however: What ideas did they steal, and what is your proof? And what content did they steal?

    Answer: Hostican has been stealing ideas from other hosting companies from some time including but not limited to word for word knowledgebase content that I personally wrote, company newsletters sent out to clients and used in marketing (witnesses), and talking to me for three hours about how to run a hosting company.

    Denis is one of the most "not above board" people in the industry. Not only did he personally guarantee me he would pay before the project started, he guaranteed it on the day it was suppose to be paid. Then had an excuse on the delay and finally why they didn't want to pay. 40 sales is 40 sales. Period. My sales are very valid. No other hosting company had issues paying for the sales in our split test to recommend the right hosting provider to my client who had a lot of sales to give the proper hosting company. We have already resolved the client issue and they have the right partner(s) now so we don't need any offers. But I wanted everyone to be aware the hostican will promise you to offer a lot of things and then never deliver. I'm still waiting on my IP's :-P
    Mariehosting - Wordpress hosting Experts web hosting Get a website you will love. Affordable Wordpress web design

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    199
    Don't send emails like this if you will never respond to affiliate tickets. I have three unanswered tickets: #TWP-913256 #ETC-714006 #ABE-243150, I keep leaving voicemails as instructed by "brad" who seems to be the only person working there, when asked for a manager he says "I'm it." When calling another department he is also "IT". How do you build a datacenter and have no staff ?

    "I just wanted to let you know that I am now back to being the affiliate manger at HostICan! I was transferred over to another position within the company about 6 - 7 months ago, and I was replaced with another affiliate manager. It seems that he did a very poor job of managing my key accounts. I was re-tasked back to being the affiliate manager just recently and apologize for being out of contact for a while. I wanted to get back in contact with you, since I'm back at the helm of the affiliate program, and wanted to reconnect with my most loyal affiliates, and get everything brought up to speed.



    I have been working with one of our programmer and have revamped the affiliate system and also added a lot of new banners. These changes are based on the feedback I have received- so please let me know what you think of the changes and feel free to give me your feedback on this. Additionally, the new affiliate system ensures that there are no more retracted commissions for visitors that didn't complete the order process successfully.



    You may get logged into the affiliate system by clicking on the link below:



    [deleted]



    I apologize again for any issues that you've faced with the affiliate program, so I want re-connect with you and get things back on track. Let me know what your thoughts are, and once again, thanks for all your support prior and current.



    Kind Regards,



    Denis Motova
    "

    The affiliate manager I had before was nice, answered calls and handled customer service. Denis is worse, how is he managing things better. How do you get shifted around in your own company? You do a bad job here, so the board puts you there instead. That sounds like your on your way out the door buddy. The only thing you got left to do is answer these emails. Maybe, maybe not. You seem to be doing a bad job at that too. WHY send an email to all your affiliates if you are not going to actually do the things you say you are going to do for them ? Take your leads elsewhere this company apparently does not need your sales.
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  21. #21
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    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
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    Has anyone actually talked to a manager at this company ? I think Bradley is the only guy there. If anyone has any advice on how to handle this situation it would be greatly appreciated. The fact that they think they can take your customers, not service them, not refund them and not pay their affiliates is just taking money to the bank. Will 40 chargebacks even affect their credit card processing ?
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  22. #22
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    Oct 2002
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    EU - east side
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    Will 40 chargebacks even affect their credit card processing ?
    It might. In any case, it could cost them something like $25 times 40.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Chicago
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    Their "management" stated "your clients accounts are up and running". The client never received their static IPs, so to client perspective the sites are not up and running. Since you have static IPs on your order form you are legally bounded to actually provide the service that was ordered. The client is ready to file a chargeback. And if these accounts are up and running then you are stating that they are legitimate accounts and should have been paid for the web hosting affiliate lead. You cannot have it both ways. Why is there no check and balance at all in the hosting industry? How can hosting companies promise to pay you for leads, you send them leads and then they do not pay, with no repercussion ?
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  24. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    171
    I have never used Hostican, but from what I can see via their support and website, it doesn't look like a professional or even half decent web host.

    If I were you, I would simply leave Hostican and find a better host to be with!

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    Why is there no check and balance at all in the hosting industry? How can hosting companies promise to pay you for leads, you send them leads and then they do not pay, with no repercussion ?
    General contract law still applies. At the end of the day, only a court of law can bring real closure to such disputes. Unfortunately, the sums involved and the distances, don't always make sense for a lawsuit. You end up with one more "learning experience" in your life, and a bit of public venting that will hopefully protect others from suffering a similar fate.

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