Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : My recent experience with a popular Web Host's dedicated server account

[youser]

I always love the support of HostGator and their dedication, polite tone , strong team. Never had an issue with them. But I had a worst experience with the bill generation ( Just a technical issue ). The below mentioned is related to it( I have nothing to say negative about the company). This is just about a serious issue and my details about it is needed to share

There were times that we all face some ' critical issues ' with service and support by Web-Hosts.

That's a common thing in the world. The issues might be of Technical or just Billing . The resolution and the customer satisfaction would be solved finally at any host and the customer will not be left alone. I believe that. But you do stuck in some situations where the representatives failed to understand the issue and unable to resolve the issue. There might be several issues for that.

Recently, I got a dedicated server from HostGator. The issue occurred with multiple bill generations and bill dates. I followed up on tickets and there were a long delays in between the responses from the staff. I tolerated it( I understand, It happens some times).

When I try to escalate the ticket contacting the staff on chat, I experienced a most bitter time on my life. The executive acted in a different way which should not be.

My intention to contact on chat is to escalate the ticket and get clarify about the Wrongful bill if possible. But the representative on live chat, himself decided and made wrongful statements that the bill is solid and nothing wrong with the generation system. I tried so hard to make myself clear and get it corrected. He is reluctant to look at the issue or consult his team. He tried to prove that I am wrong and bill is correct. ( I think in that way because he is not ready to check what the issue is even after providing him more details)

For every information I send, he tried to prove it wrong right on that chat in seconds of time with out checking where the issue is. ( I don't think that's because of some technical issues in client panel, his team or a communication barrier )

Finally, when I became strong with my evidence he started agreeing one by one and looked at the billing system. He seems to be agreed and said he going to refund the entire payment I made( I never asked him or in helpdesk to refund my payment. I am not even in the mood of going that far. I know that refunding the payments for dedicated servers is not possible )

After a while and after some time, he came back with " Sorry, I cannot refund the amount ". Instead I removed the " wrong bill ".

I am happy with that. But his later responses are ..." I understand, but just because you say something doesn't make it true. I must double check everything."


After this too... he was in mood that there were nothing wrong with him and still said " I apologize for the problems that you experienced setting up your server. I have done everything I can to get this resolved, and given you a free month of hosting, so you have not lost any money. " ( Actually , he has not given any free month. Just deleted a wrongly generated bill . Even the mistake in first bill is not corrected )

There were several statements by him which are rude and inappropriate. Some of them are ..covering up the faults , improper actions, giving wrong stats and dates of bills and supporting them... and serious self made rules " whether or not you used it was entirely up to you." ( Actually the time between the date shown there and the server activation date is 45 days. Why should I pay for that, their administrators agreed for the order before that. Just the issue is second bill generation and dates )

I tried to leave the conversation for three times , but I was forced to respond for 1 hour 45 min. So my advice... if you find some one is not knowledgeable to answer or you find anything rude, just leave the chat before it turned wild. And regarding wrongful bills if you may find any, contact the helpdesk immediately and get them corrected.

( I am in contact with their Customer relation staff and still trying to resolve the issue. )

Update : I have to add one thing. The main cause for this problem is also because of delays in their responses last month. That issue might not be occurred , if my earlier request to their management( About delays in my server order requests ) is addressed at right time. FYI, it is not responded by any one yet

[48-14]

Sorry to hear about that. HG support is usually friendly, but I have also had a few times I wanted to rip my hair out of explaining things at least 10 times before someone understood.

Unfortunately it's a common thing in the service industry...people who should not deal with people at any level. Maybe their having a bad day or a bad life but they forget that when they treat customers badly it reflects on the company and not on the individual directly.

[CrazyPenguin]

You might want to send Brent the owner of Hostgator a PM who is an active member here at WHT. He might be interested in this issue.

Brent-> http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=25426

At least it would be nice to hear what Hostgator has to say about this situation.

[BrentOfHG]

Hello,


Do you have a ticket number I can take a look at? It's hard to comment on this without knowing if the bill was good or bad. In situations like this our customer service agents are suppose to request the customer email sales@hostgator.com to discuss a billing related issue.

Our billing system can be very confusing which is why we have people specifically trained for it.

[youser]

Brent, thanks for your response

I have sent a PM with the ticket details

[BrentOfHG]

The majority of the issues youser experienced are due to hostgator America and Hostgator India being two completely separate companies. At this point in time there is no way to mix and match billing, datacenters, and support between the two countries.

I'm truly sorry for the issues you've had and believe your experience going forward will be 100x better once we have you up and running in a single country.

-Brent

[youser]

Originally Posted by hostgator.com

The majority of the issues youser experienced are due to hostgator America and Hostgator India being two completely separate companies. At this point in time there is no way to mix and match billing, datacenters, and support between the two countries.

-Brent

The earlier issue and the wrongly generated bills are because of the involving of Hostgator.in billing dept( Update: Wrongly posted earlier, I want to correct it. It is not true that "the wrongly generated bills are because of the involving of Hostgator.in billing dept". The bills are also generated on Hostgator.com. Just a ticket related to hostgator.in is there because I wanted to know if there is possibility of paying in Indian currency via local office). But that could have solved in the first place when HostGator America executive actually take over the ticket. The thing you mentioned that there is involvement of HostGator India is just at earlier time. Later all the confusion caused is at HostGator America itself. I am not pointing something negative here. Just clarifying you and notifying an important thing here to consider

Ticket related to HostGator India is just one and that is just a basic thing here. However, I am a Hostgator's customer and don't know what goes internally

Update :
>Yes ! The earlier issue and the wrongly generated bills are because of the involving of Hostgator billing dept.
I want to quote it here.

Billing, Support and Datacenters ...everything here involved is of HostGator America. Please do note that there is nothing related to HostGator India except the billing collection is Hostgator.in. That too ... I have drew back to hostgator.com immediately when there is no possibility at HostGator.in. After that, including the bill ...everything went on is at Hostgator.com ( Just I started the order asking if there is a chance by paying in Indian Currency and everything else is of hostgator america. )

So it clear that there is nothing related to HostGator.in here

Please let me know if I need to provide any additional details to backup my comment and prove that your point about Hostgator.in 's involvement is not completely correct

Hope everything goes smooth

[youser]

Consider the Hostgator.in 's ticket and Hostgator.com's tickets here are separate. Please look at the other tickets

[kinda]

I read the entire thread and wondered that the company Rep says it is their partners fault and nothing to do with it.

Did you get any resolution yet?

[youser]

Brent,

I have explained the two issues in detailed in Original thread and followed up with #7. But hope there is something not addressed well in post #6 by Brent. So responding to post #6

====================
There is lengthy explanation of mine in Post #7 . There were some formatting errors occurred when I edited the post with some additional details on that day. So I am making that simple with this post

======================
HostGator America
----------------------------
Invoice, Bills generated , server order, Datacenters and my every deal is with HostGator America. There is nothing related to Hostgator.in here. If you say that there is a ticket which Hostgator india involved, yes a ticket related to hostgator.in is existed. But nothing went on there.That's just a pre-sales request about the mode of payment. As there was no response regarding that, I have proceeded with my first deal

HostGator India
---------------------------
I wanted to pay the bill generated on HostGator America in the form of Indian currency. So on their(Hostgator America support staff) suggestion , I have sent a request to Hostgator India. They have agreed that, but told that they don't have access to ticket opened at Hostgator America regarding the order and requested me to open a ticket again. I did opened a ticket(to Hostgator India sales team). Again they said that they don't have access to information. So I have sent a request to HostGator America to send them necessary details and let my order be processed

If you review this, it is called just a pre-sales deal
======================
(Explaining in more detailed, in response to your post #6)
later, I decided to leave that matter and finished the order with the instructions of Hostgator America. I have explained everything to them on same ticket(Initial ticket) and every doubt was clarified( About Invoice, billing dates and delays with my order. Because they might cause additional troubles ). They promised me that there will not be any problem with Invoice and billing further. I finished my payment on Hostgator America and got my server activated. No one objected on that day

And ... the other issue( the chat conversation)... has not been addressed by Brent here in post#6
======================

[adyshor]

The problem here is the lack of communication, if HostGator.in in HostGator.com would corroborate in solving the clients issues this complaint wouldn't be here. I know they are 2 different companies, but they are still called HostGator, and this is a stain on the brand, isn't it?
Sorry about your bad experience my friend.

[youser]

Originally Posted by adyshor

I know they are 2 different companies, but they are still called HostGator, and this is a stain on the brand, isn't it?
Sorry about your bad experience my friend.

But the incorrect invoice and bills with wrongly published dates were happened at Hostgator America. That was not the Hostgator India's fault I thought it is a simple technical error and there would not be any complaints about Hostgator America though. But the representative on Chat(HostGator America) is so rude,he even asked me to pay the entire amount according to the wrong dates

When I explained about the wrongly published date and request him to correct it, he stated that there is nothing wrong with the bills and instead that's the right thing to do. Whether the service is provided or not, you should pay the bill when I first order a server there and it's the company's policy(HostGator America). Of-course, later some other executives modified the dates of invoice generation , server activation and bill payment date(Wrong bill for the period of 35 days).

In simple words, "They wanted me to pay the bill prior to server activation though" . I still have the copy of HostGator America's conversation with me

Again , I assert that the entire communication, dealings were happened at HostGator America and not at Hostgator India.( The communication with Hostgator India is just prior to purchase)

[DanJo]

Hmph , at least there is more than 3 topic of HostGator complain/feedback that I read it from few forum in an hour. Since the invoice is removed and why not leave it at behind, the existing problem now is the operator of livechat. I think from there, they need more experience and knowledge to handle livechat or call in. No offend every top provider do have those troubleshoot.

[BrentOfHG]

Hi youser,

I want to make things right and for you to be happy but at this point in time I along with my staff am very confused. I've pm'ed you back asking what exactly needs to be done to right however we may have wronged you.