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  1. #1

    Hostgator accepted my order and then booted me out

    Signed up with hostgator earlier today.

    Paid with paypal, received account info and later a email stating that they don't accept orders from my country unless paid by wire transfer for one year in full.

    Has anyone had the same issue?

    Van
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    Never heard of that...pretty weird. If they are doing that I would say run for your life for a new host.

    Plenty of them to choose from. Good luck!
    <<< Please see Forum Guidelines for signature setup. >>>
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  3. #3
    Yes sound weird I know, spend 45 minutes on live chat to get a decent explanation but no luck.
    Last edited by VanTheMan; 01-11-2008 at 04:40 PM. Reason: typo
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Paid is paid, seems to me.
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by The Hosting Team View Post
    Paid is paid, seems to me.
    Thats what I thought, the thing is now I have to wait 2 days to get my money back from paypal and I have to pay bank fees to my cc provider for payment and refund.
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2005
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    Where are you from?
    (I will hate to be in that situation)
    Got Fused?
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    texas
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    I'm guessing your account is either from China or South Africa. We've decided to stop taking orders from a few countries unless paid by wire transfer.

    We can verify with a copy of credit card, id, phone call etc, and more orders end up being fraud then good. It's crazy how sophisticated the fraudsters have become.

    Send me a pm with your domain and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.
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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Siropel View Post
    Where are you from?
    (I will hate to be in that situation)
    South Africa
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    I'm guessing your account is either from China or South Africa. We've decided to stop taking orders from a few countries unless paid by wire transfer.

    We can verify with a copy of credit card, id, phone call etc, and more orders end up being fraud then good. It's crazy how sophisticated the fraudsters have become.

    Send me a pm with your domain and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.
    Thank you will pm you shortly, but surely this should be mentioned on your site and/or on the order form.

    Any assistance will be appreciated.
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    I'm guessing your account is either from China or South Africa. We've decided to stop taking orders from a few countries unless paid by wire transfer.

    We can verify with a copy of credit card, id, phone call etc, and more orders end up being fraud then good. It's crazy how sophisticated the fraudsters have become.

    Send me a pm with your domain and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.
    I have send you a pm as requested. Hoping to hear from you soon.
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  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Posts
    320
    I would think that something of this nature should be blocked from their order system.

    For instance if the IP or address or phone or (whatever criteria is chosesn) of the person placing the order is within either of the 2 countries listed they get redirected to an explination of why they can't order.

    Hope they get this sorted for you, mate.

    ene
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    I'm guessing your account is either from China or South Africa. We've decided to stop taking orders from a few countries unless paid by wire transfer.

    We can verify with a copy of credit card, id, phone call etc, and more orders end up being fraud then good. It's crazy how sophisticated the fraudsters have become.

    Send me a pm with your domain and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.
    If that is the case, you shouldn't accept the order or at least put some reminder that you do not allow orders coming from those specific country.

    What a shame! How about those respectful and honest business man who live in China ?

    Oh well, it is your choice and business :-)

    To the OP: I recommend you to look for other host. There are plenty that is more stable and reliable.


    Net
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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    I'm guessing your account is either from China or South Africa. We've decided to stop taking orders from a few countries unless paid by wire transfer.

    We can verify with a copy of credit card, id, phone call etc, and more orders end up being fraud then good. It's crazy how sophisticated the fraudsters have become.

    Send me a pm with your domain and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.
    I find this unacceptable as what is wrong with South Africas. We don't have any issues with your country. i do business with paypal all the time and the fact that paypal except me what give you the right to discriminate against South Africans. We pay in dollars and my credit card is also with Virgin and you know owns virgin Money

    I say VANTHEMAN go somewhere else. i am with prontohost.net and scalahosting and have no problem.

    << snipped: english only >> (Sorry didn't know that)
    Last edited by johannes; 01-11-2008 at 06:15 PM.
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  14. #14
    I just had chat with hostgator and here is the transcript.
    (not sure if i can post here but if in error i will remove)

    Welcome to HostGator Live Chat! You are now chatting with 'Daniel C' Daniel C: Welcome to HostGator, how may I assist you?
    johan: hi i believe your company discriminate against sOUTH aFRICANS
    Daniel C: How so?
    johan: a sa signed up with you payed with paypal and later his account was cancelled because he is from SA
    Daniel C: It may have been cancelled due to fraud, but we do not discriminate on ethnicity or origin.
    johan: no it wasnt as the money was already processed and now he have to wait for a refund from paypal. one of you people also stated on WHT that you dont except orders from SA unless it is wired and for a full year. Wouldnt you say that is discriminate
    Daniel C: Yes, that is our policy.
    johan: why?
    Daniel C: A lot of fraud does occur in certain areas, so we have updated our policy accordingly.
    johan: so you are saying we South Africans cant be trusted?
    Daniel C: I am not saying that at all, but the fraud ratings are higher in certain areas.
    johan: South Africa?
    Daniel C: South Africa, Nigeria, China, among others
    johan: I see, why dont you state that on your website then?
    Daniel C: I will inform the management, but I have not control on what is on the website.
    johan: So Paypal excepts me but you wont?
    Daniel C: That is our policy sir.
    Daniel C: I cannot change it.
    johan: Bad policy and people should know about that. Well i have to take my business elsewhere
    Daniel C: Ok, have a great day.




    Just wondering if this on there website is truth or what

    • 600 Gigs of Web Hosting Space
    • 6,000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth
    • All for 7.95
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  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Six Degrees From You
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    1,079
    would think that something of this nature should be blocked from their order system.

    For instance if the IP or address or phone or (whatever criteria is chosesn) of the person placing the order is within either of the 2 countries listed they get redirected to an explination of why they can't order.

    Hope they get this sorted for you, mate.

    ene
    The thing is they DO allow you to order, and use their services, if you are from those two countries, you just need to have a yearly contract.
    Just wondering if this on there website is truth or what

    • 600 Gigs of Web Hosting Space
    • 6,000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth
    • All for 7.95
    Yes you can use all of those resources, as long as you do not abuse any of the other rules on their TOS. I for one had a HG account for a couple months and used it as a file store and used up, I think, 90% of my space.

    Paul
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  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
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    johan,

    Where are you getting the information that HG will not accept your order? The WILL accept it if you take out a yearly prepaid contract.

    Paul
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  17. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    1,135
    In hostgator's defense... they really are not trying to discriminate. It is a numbers game, and in my entire tenure in the hosting industry I have to agree that a huge amount of fraud comes from southeast asia as well as many various parts of africa, and parts of eastern europe. Also, frausters are getting much, much, much more sophisticated, where in the past verification by telephone or card scan was a plausible way to validate an account, now fraudsters understand these approaches and plan ahead for them making them look much more legitimate (e.g. they have a card scan ready with the same card number at the time of order, for example, or use VOIP lines with local area codes in the same area as the cardholder...)

    And don't forget that there is a huge cost to a business for accepting fraud. Chargebacks that most definitely result from accepting fraudulent orders, the bank investigations, the risk of losing your merchant account and not to mention the administrative overhead of reviewing chargebacks... Oh, and the merchant provider typically charges a fee on top of the chargeback for their overhead in processing it... and the legitimate cardholder often calls upset and accusing the hosting provider of perpetrating the fraud when in reality the hosting company was just as much a victim.

    All in all a bad deal for everyone involved except the fraudster. Hostgator is simply protecting its interests based on statistics and there is nothing wrong with that.
    ---
    Dan Ushman
    Co-founder & CMO
    SingleHop, Inc.
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  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Scotland, UK
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    Quote Originally Posted by Net View Post
    If that is the case, you shouldn't accept the order or at least put some reminder that you do not allow orders coming from those specific country.

    What a shame! How about those respectful and honest business man who live in China ?

    Oh well, it is your choice and business :-)

    To the OP: I recommend you to look for other host. There are plenty that is more stable and reliable.


    Net
    While it's unfair on the legitimate users from such countries what do you expect businesses to do? It's those countries job to lower the fraud rate however take china for example it's next to impossible to get any sort of abuse handled.

    If a country is costing you money in fraud then I do feel hostgator is justified in such actions.

    I never used to agree with such actions but as times goes on and we suffer from it more and more I feel like it can be justified.
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  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
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    Quote Originally Posted by johannes View Post
    Just wondering if this on there website is truth or what

    • 600 Gigs of Web Hosting Space
    • 6,000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth
    • All for 7.95
    Take a look at their TOS - http://www.hostgator.com/tos.shtml

    They have so many restrictions on content and resource usage it would be very difficult to come close to using that much space and bandwidth.
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  20. #20
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    texas
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    We wish we could block it in the billing system, but unfortunately I don't believe our version of modernbill can do something so complicated. We are working on a inhouse billing solution that will hopefully solve this problem along with 100's of other issues we have with modernbill.

    The problem we've had from South Africa to be exact is that the orders are legit but even with a good payment method. We receive more spammers then legit customers based on the patterns we've seen recently. By taking south africa orders we lose more business then we gain as a result of servers getting blacklisted.


    We have more issues from China and South Africa then Vietnam now a days.

    I'm available to anyone who has sign up problems, and I'll personally take the time to make a decision against policy.
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  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by PaulStuffins View Post
    johan,

    Where are you getting the information that HG will not accept your order? The WILL accept it if you take out a yearly prepaid contract.

    Paul
    Yes sure but who wants to pay yearly . If SA all of a sudden is a problem for HG they must state it on there website, and much the same here in SA we also get fraud from USA, EU, China etc.

    i know South African running hosting companies selling to USA etc just living in another country. i also checked the signup and there is no mention of this anywhere in the signup process. You can order a dedicated etc, pay and then a while later your order gets cancelled.

    In there TOS there is no mention of this either.
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  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    We have more issues from China and South Africa then Vietnam now a days.
    .
    i still don't understand why you have a problem with South Africa. When i signed up with Paypal i verified myself and Paypal finds me to be legit so why cant you.

    The fact remains why accept orders and then when it is a SA ip cancel the order after you accepted our money and how can that be fraud

    There is no mention of these restrictions anywhere on your website and in your TOS

    If you don't want our business how about stating in on your website. You don't need no billing system for that. When i signup state "South Africans not welcome" We will understand we have gone through a lot in the last 15 years and can handle rejection.
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  23. #23
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott.Mc View Post
    While it's unfair on the legitimate users from such countries what do you expect businesses to do? It's those countries job to lower the fraud rate however take china for example it's next to impossible to get any sort of abuse handled.

    If a country is costing you money in fraud then I do feel hostgator is justified in such actions.

    I never used to agree with such actions but as times goes on and we suffer from it more and more I feel like it can be justified.

    That is why I mentioned it is your choice and your business Sir.


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  24. #24
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by PaulStuffins View Post
    The thing is they DO allow you to order, and use their services, if you are from those two countries, you just need to have a yearly contract.
    Paul
    It would be HELPFUL to customers if they stated this DURING the ordering process not AFTER they have taken the money.

    Poor poor customer service.
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  25. #25
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by hostgator.com View Post
    We wish we could block it in the billing system, but unfortunately I don't believe our version of modernbill can do something so complicated. We are working on a inhouse billing solution that will hopefully solve this problem along with 100's of other issues we have with modernbill.

    The problem we've had from South Africa to be exact is that the orders are legit but even with a good payment method. We receive more spammers then legit customers based on the patterns we've seen recently. By taking south africa orders we lose more business then we gain as a result of servers getting blacklisted.


    We have more issues from China and South Africa then Vietnam now a days.

    I'm available to anyone who has sign up problems, and I'll personally take the time to make a decision against policy.

    Then in the meantime, you can put on top of the order page or some reminder in your page that you do not accept orders from china and south africa so that the customer will not experience any charges if they want a refund just like the case of the OP.

    This is the reason he got disappointed.


    Net
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