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  1. #1

    I am unhappy with Hostgator

    I was never overly happy with Hostgator but I paid my money and stuck with them. Recently my experience has changed for the worst.

    I tried to access my web site via my browser and got a message that the site couldn't be found. Tried again a few days later, then again a few days after that. Upon calling Hostgator I was told that they forgot to automatically renew my registration and that my option was to select a new domain name! In other words all my business cards, invoices, letterheads , email addreses were now incorrect and had to be changed.

    I asked that they refund my renewal fee and the 2 months that they charged me for my non domain and cancel my account. I was given a refund but then things got evem worse!

    I changed hosting companies and started the process of redoing the web site and changing emaill addresses, business cards, etc. Recently I noticed another monthly charge from Hostgator for a domain I don't have. I emailed and after much back and forth I was told that according to the Terms of Agreement I had to fill out a cancellation form for a domain I no longer have and which nobody ever told me about.

    Despite the fact that they screwed up my domain and despite the fact that I was charged for a domain name I no longer had and despite the fact that no one ever said " Remember, according to our Terms you have to fill out a form" they are adament that the monthly charge remain. They insisted that all I had to do was fill out the cancellation form and I would get no charge for July.

    I gave up and filled out the form. Instead of getting a notice that my cancellation was honored I then get an email asking if I'll give them another chance they'll give me a month for free. They further said that the cancellation would not be effective until I responded to the email and provide the last four digits of me PayPal account. Are these people that dense?

    I responded in stronger terms saying I'm with another company. I detailed the problems encountered and sent off the email reply.

    I get another email asking me to reconsider and now they'll give me two months for free and the cancellation won't be effective until I respond once again with the credit card's last four digits.

    These people are truly unbelievable and despite dealing with online problems for years this is the worst experience that I have encountered. If anyone is even thinking of going to hostgator be afraid. Be very afraid.
    Last edited by sirius; 06-18-2007 at 12:18 PM.
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  2. #2
    That sounds pretty bad, but I have used hostgator for a few sites and have always found their support very good. Unless hundreds of other people now appear to say that they had the same problems, I'd say you've had some very bad luck with how you were dealt with. Have you tried talking with their owner? From what I've heard he is pretty good at sorting out issues when they arise...

    From their website "Our owner Brent Oxley is at your disposal for any problems you may have. While Brent might not be reachable by phone all the time you are welcome to request your ticket be assigned to him for the extra TLC you deserve!"

    Might be worth a try...
    Joolo.com - Your piece of the web
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  3. #3
    Even though you filled out the cancellation form, the account was never really cancelled?
    ReliableSite.Net LLC - Offering Enterprise Grade Dedicated Servers Since 2006 [New York City metro / Miami, FL / Los Angeles, CA]
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Huddersfield, UK
    Posts
    1,490

    * Welcome to WHT

    So when you signed-up you opted for a free domain with them?

    I don't understand why it took you so long to realise that something was possibly wrong. For you to be renewing, this must have been going on for at least a month and your domain was still not working.

    I think you should have contacted them earlier as it could have been remedied the same day it was noticed with the first domain / account you signed-up for.

    If you cancel you do have to fill in the easy cancellation form, all you do is put a few pieces of info and it will be acted upon within minutes.

    No matter how many accounts you signed-up for each one requires a cancellation form.

    I'm sure forum member hostgator.com will be along soon. He'll require you have the support ticket id # so he can look back.

    He'll get it clarified and resolved.

    You gotta give it to HG, they sure don't wanna loose you
    ┣▇▇▇═─√v^√v^√♥
    - Proudly Hosted By: DTS-Net
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,785
    That's very interesting they continued to offer mroe free months of service.

    Now I'm a little confused here last 4 digits of your paypal account? Then you go on to say the last 4 digits of your credit card the next time? So I'm wondering did you actually supply the last 4 digits originally or not?

    I imagine this is a safe guard to make sure the right user is cancelling the account.
    Tony B. - Chief Executive Officer
    Hawk Host Inc. Proudly serving websites since 2004
    Quality Shared and Cloud Hosting
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  6. #6
    I have user hostgator before and i can say they are one of the worst hosting companies in the world!
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    California
    Posts
    12
    i think u have very bad experience with host gator
    i dont believe you
    cause i have seen the hosting reviews site showing host gator at the top
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  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Six Degrees From You
    Posts
    1,079
    i have seen the hosting reviews site showing host gator at the top
    Sorry but that means nothing
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  9. #9
    Im very sorry to hear about your bad experience with Hostgator. I have a reseller account with them for around 4 months now and have found them nothing but great. I cant imagine then asking you for the four digits of your paypal account, surely you mean your credit card?

    Any host here will tell you that it is your responsibility to read the TOS's and you have no-one but yourself to blame for not reading them.

    As the last poster pointed out im shocked you waited so long to try and remedy the situation, if my website was down i would be straight on the phone to find out why, not waiting a few more days to see if its up again, thats just mad.

    I hope that you can get everything sorted out
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  10. #10
    I'm at another hosting company. Why talk at this point?

    I couldn't get support on phone after waiting and waiting and am working in field.
    If I were to cancel on my own I would have read how to do it. and discovered the canecellation form. They, in essence, cancelled me and by agreeing to refund my money I assumed, incorrectly, that was all I had to do.
    Regardless if I waited too long or didn't think that I had to do something else it still misses the point that they're still giving me grief.

    Thats the other thing. They want a paypal account and I told them I don't have one so to facilitate things I gave them last 4 digits of the account they use.

    It wasn't acted upon within minutes. It's been about 3 days and I still don't know what has been done. Want me to forward the emails from them? I didn't opt for a free acount. I paid monthly for it.
    Last edited by sirius; 06-18-2007 at 04:44 PM.
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  11. #11
    OK, at this point I'm honestly not quite sure whats going on but posting it in about 10 parts isn't helping...

    Do you feel they owe you money or are you just pissed that they made a mistake? If you feel they owe you money then take it up with their boss as I said earlier. If you are just pissed then fair enough, it sounds like they made a mistake but I'm not sure what is to be gained by posting repeatedly about it - you (kind of) made your point in post one.
    Last edited by Joolo; 06-18-2007 at 01:25 PM.
    Joolo.com - Your piece of the web
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    texas
    Posts
    1,333
    hi gerry863,


    Can you provide me with your ticket number on your domain problem? Every now and then someone makes a mistake and a domain doesn't get registered. Sometimes it's the customers fault for having open invoices. Other times it's completely our fault because someone forgets to hit that final checkout button. Here's the thing though....

    If a domain isn't renewed and expires it can be renewed anytime for an entire month. So basically if it was expired for 29 days on the 30th day it can be renewed for the same price that it was originally bought for. It's sounding like it was expired with your site not working for over a month before you noticed and contacted us.

    Did you put a cancellation ticket in when you first wanted to cancel? I'm sure you can understand why we can't guess what accounts we should and shouldn't cancel.

    What is your ticket number on the new cancellation you put in? We started a new retention department a few weeks ago that's been a work in progress. We try to talk to everyone on the phone to save them and if we can't we cancel the account after trying to save them via email. It's a mixed road some people are beyond happy we contacted them and stay and others are furious and just want to cancel their account. What your saying really doesn't make sense about the 4 digits on your paypal, and you definitely shouldn't be asked a few times if you want to change your mind.

    I'd love to get this all straightened out for you, and for what its worth I'm very sorry for the problems you have had.
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  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    texas
    Posts
    1,333
    inx2net can you provide the domain you had with us for verification purposes? Thanks!
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  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Six Degrees From You
    Posts
    1,079
    I have been using HostGator for a couple weeks now as offsite back up for some important files and I have to say so far so good

    Sorry you had problems when canceling, I hope I don't have the same problems.

    Paul
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  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Sweden
    Posts
    1,061
    Quote Originally Posted by inx2net View Post
    I have user hostgator before and i can say they are one of the worst hosting companies in the world!

    How about writing a review of HG instead of flaming them without any facts.
    -Mr Bister
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  16. #16
    I wrote a long response ( more aggravation) and to add more insult it was lost because I was asked to log in again to this site. I have records of emails and a chat session before the ticket number which is LFW489808 that start this all out. Please make sure that I'm not charged for July, please make sure that I am finally cancelled, and donate the $9.95 to the Christmas party fund.

    I felt that I was cancelled by my losing my domain through Hostgators fault and made it clear I was doing business with another company. I really don't see your point "I'm sure you can understand why we can't guess what accounts we should and shouldn't cancel." If I had 15 accounts with three domains each it would be very simple ( or should be ) to cancel the former bargercorp one. I was charged for a renewal that didn't take place and for access to that one domain that didn't exist in my account. I was charged again in June for access to a domain that I didn't own anymore and couldn't access (this all started off because I couldn't access it). The following chat session and email started it all on May 31:
    Chat Transcript
    info: Please wait for a HostGator operator to respond.
    info: Welcome to HostGator Live Chat! You are now chatting with 'Cody'
    Cody: Welcome to HostGator, how may I assist you?
    Gerry Waterson: any reason why barger corp doesn't show up when I type in URL?
    Cody: One moment please.
    Gerry Waterson: might be related but I can't sign onto SiteStudio
    Cody: The domain expired on Apirl 10th. If you send an email to sales our admins can renew the domain for you.
    Gerry Waterson: but hostgator keeps charging me for it and I think they charged for renewal
    Cody: I see the charge did go through. Please send an email to sales and the sales admins will fix that.
    Gerry Waterson: I just did but that kinda sucks in any event
    Cody: I apologize for the trouble.
    Gerry Waterson: ok, not your fault thanks
    Cody: You're welcome!
    Cody: Thank you for using HostGator Live Chat. Your opinion is very important to us. When closing the chat, please take a minute to fill out the brief survey that pops up so that we may continue to improve our customer service and support.

    IT ALMOST LOOKS LIKE I CAN GET MY DOMAIN NAME BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
    THE EMAIL ON THE SAME DATE
    I was told that my domain (bargercorp)expired on April 10th. I have been charged 9.95 per month and am pretty sure I was charged for the domain renewal since one months charge recently was higher than others. What happened?

    SALES RESPONDED:
    Gerry,

    I'm very sorry it looks like there was a problem with the automated renewal for this domain name, which has let it expire.

    Please let me know a new domain to register for you and I'll register it as well as add 3 months credit to your account for the inconvenience.


    I RESPONDED:

    A new domain? What's wrong with Bargercorp? It's on printed business cards and other things.

    ALSO I RESPONDED:
    I have decided to go with a different hosting company. If you would be so kind as to credit my debit card account or send a check for the renewal fee and the months I was charged since April 10th I would be very appreciative. Let me know when you will be doing this. Also make certain I'm not charged in the future. I probably won't be able to use the bargercorp domain name at the new location.

    After that you can read the ticket emails: It all there, the being held hostage until I responded one more time, the PayPal mystery ( I don't have PayPal), the ridculous attempt to offer pennies when I lost thousands,...
    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    hi gerry863,


    Can you provide me with your ticket number on your domain problem? Every now and then someone makes a mistake and a domain doesn't get registered. Sometimes it's the customers fault for having open invoices. Other times it's completely our fault because someone forgets to hit that final checkout button. Here's the thing though....

    If a domain isn't renewed and expires it can be renewed anytime for an entire month. So basically if it was expired for 29 days on the 30th day it can be renewed for the same price that it was originally bought for. It's sounding like it was expired with your site not working for over a month before you noticed and contacted us.

    Did you put a cancellation ticket in when you first wanted to cancel? I'm sure you can understand why we can't guess what accounts we should and shouldn't cancel.

    What is your ticket number on the new cancellation you put in? We started a new retention department a few weeks ago that's been a work in progress. We try to talk to everyone on the phone to save them and if we can't we cancel the account after trying to save them via email. It's a mixed road some people are beyond happy we contacted them and stay and others are furious and just want to cancel their account. What your saying really doesn't make sense about the 4 digits on your paypal, and you definitely shouldn't be asked a few times if you want to change your mind.

    I'd love to get this all straightened out for you, and for what its worth I'm very sorry for the problems you have had.
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  17. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    3,587
    the ridculous attempt to offer pennies when I lost thousands,...
    sure... if the website really was that important to you why:

    1) put it in the hands of an overseller
    2) only acted after one month of doing nothing
    3) only checked your site once or twice every three days and responded after a few checks? If it all really 'made you loose thousands' you just weren't having this problems because then a dedicated service team would support your oh so important business.

    And whats up with that paypal digit story? Wanna know my last 4 digits of my paypal login? it's ".com" like in 99,99% of other paypal users....
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  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Six Degrees From You
    Posts
    1,079
    If you really were making "thousands" from your site then why were you not with somewhere like Rackspace and not on a $6 overseller?

    If it was the fact that you lost "thousands" by having to have your stationary redone then I am sorry but you were mugged. Where I come from a simple edit of the origionals, you did keep the origionals?, costs at most £60 to £70 for an hours work. The printing is the expensive thing and even that would only cost about £300-£400.

    Paul
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    3,587
    And there was no need for this all if TS would just re-register his domain within one month for God sakes...
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  20. #20
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    1,169
    Quote Originally Posted by amygdela View Post
    sure... if the website really was that important to you why:

    1) put it in the hands of an overseller
    2) only acted after one month of doing nothing
    3) only checked your site once or twice every three days and responded after a few checks? If it all really 'made you loose thousands' you just weren't having this problems because then a dedicated service team would support your oh so important business.

    And whats up with that paypal digit story? Wanna know my last 4 digits of my paypal login? it's ".com" like in 99,99% of other paypal users....
    Its not cool to be a buzzword trendwhore! Hostgator has, historically, had a very good reputation and I see no reason not to choose them. While a month of hold time seems suspect to me, he certainly could have lost money, especially if the domain name has been printed on stationary, business cards and the like. Furthermore, prospective clients could be turned away if his site is down when they go to access it.
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  21. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    texas
    Posts
    1,333
    Gerry did nothing wrong guys. I looked into the situation and this was 100% our fault. Thank you for working with me Gerry, and again I am truly sorry for the trouble we put you through.
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  22. #22
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Six Degrees From You
    Posts
    1,079
    Quote Originally Posted by taylorwilsdon
    Its not cool to be a buzzword trendwhore!
    Where are they being a buzzword trendwhore?

    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com
    Gerry did nothing wrong guys. I looked into the situation and this was 100% our fault. Thank you for working with me Gerry, and again I am truly sorry for the trouble we put you through.
    Glad to hear that it has all been sorted

    Paul
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  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    Gerry did nothing wrong guys. I looked into the situation and this was 100% our fault. Thank you for working with me Gerry, and again I am truly sorry for the trouble we put you through.
    Brent, the President of Hostgator, graciously called me and was very understanding of the situation and very generous in trying to make amends. Mistakes were made and I'm sure that he will correct them. I have a much better attitude towards his company and unfortunately he can't be everywhere to handle all miscues. Had he been able to deal with this sooner I'm, sure I would still be with his company.

    For all you that questioned my veracity in this matter I can only say that I run a small business and set up the site myself for infomational purposes. The site was important to me. I'm in the field most of the time and have lately been putting in long hours and it just happened to be when all this started so that I didn't check the site as I usually do. No one from my group told me about any problems so I'm not certain if I lost any customers. I did notify Hostgator within minutes of finding out, not months. My costs for redoing cards, forms, invoices, packing slips, labels did go into a few thousand. I don't have the expense sheets in front of me but for those who doubt it I'd be happy to forward them and perhaps they'd pay for them.

    Brent, however, to his extreme credit offered to pay for them.

    I would recommend what someone in this posting suggested, unfortunately after the fact, and try to contact him as soon as possible if a problem seems to be developing. He can't for long respond to all emails but I'm sure he'll try.
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  24. #24
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Phoenix, AZ, United State
    Posts
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    Quote Originally Posted by gerry863 View Post

    Brent, however, to his extreme credit offered to pay for them.
    wow.
    drew@slicie.com - Vertical Scaling Servers
    30 Minute Backups - Pay for what you use
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  25. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,379
    I'm honestly flabbergasted. I'm glad the op was able to work it out with hostgator, but what's with attacking him just for writing a negative review when most others seem to be having a positive experience? Why rip apart his review and ask all sorts of questions questioning its validity? I think it's extremely rude... Someone had an honest negative experience, and just because some others have a positive experience is no grounds for calling someone a liar.

    Glad it worked out though.
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