Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : What would you do?

[ochiba]

I hate the fact that CQHost has treated my account like crap because I'm stuck in a 3 month contract, and I know I'm being a pain about this, but dangit, I don't think what they are doing is right! In December I dropped the matter because I just gave up. But then in January after having to bend over backwards to accomodate CQHost while fighting for my site against a disgruntled ex-member of our online club, I thought, wait a minute, why do I as a customer have to beg at heels of the company I'm paying my money to?! After they invalidated my own websites legal ToS (ironically they changed theirs afterwards) which pretty much put my entire investment into my community at risk... I decided that I wasn't going to be a quiet customer anymore. I've demanded that they fix all of their services that they haven't fixed for the past 4 months. And admittedly, they've been doing that too. However, they still have not refunded or partially refunded my account for their gross negligance/sheer stupidity in December. It wouldn't have been so bad if my site hadn't been going down for 2 whole months in a row

I've talked to support, I've talked to sales, I've talked to billing, and CQHost's obvious motto is, "mum's the word." Here is our latest correspondence:

My Email:

Last month (December) my service was down for over 19 hours. In the first two hours of downtime, I reported to CQHost that my service was down, sent a traceroute, and asked for a resolution. I was told that my site was up and that it was a problem with my ISP. I continued to reply back for the entire day citing that others could not access my site, and asked/practically begged CQHost to investigate why my site was down instead of just telling me it was my fault. Almost 20 hours later I received an email from CQHost stating that one of their clients had caused the problem, and that the client's account would be terminated and my site would be up in minutes. I asked for CQHost to honor their uptime guarantee. I received no response. I've asked now several times for CQHost to honor their uptime guarantee and I have not received any response. I was then billed for another 3 months, and my refund for December never credited. Now in January, my site is down again for now over 4 hours and it is still not up. I received an email from support stating that they *might* move me to another server as my current server is having difficulties. I was told not to reply to the email. I would appreciate a refund for December, and if my site is down again all day, I would appreciate a refund for January as well.

I like the features that you have to offer, but my site has had bad uptime since November, and now I'm worried that I am stuck in a contract and won't receive any service. Please honor your uptime guarantee. And I'm not sure if you can help me, but please have support move me to a more reliable server if that will prevent these downtimes. It's not that I want my money back, I'd much rather have my service up and working! I don't want to pay for something that I'm not getting, that's all. Please reply. It seems as though whenever I bring this issue up, no one replies to my emails.

username: ochiba
domain: ochiba.net


Their Reply:

Notice to our customer:
Server hawkeye is currently down for maintenance.
At 08:54 (EST) this morning the server has failed.
We tried to reboot it 4 times without success (the server hangs 10 minutes after the
reboot). Actually a technician is working on the box and do a complete system check
(including both raid drives).
An ETA cannot be estimated at this time but rest assured that we are doing everything
to restore the server online as soon as possible.

Once the server is fixed, we'll begin the migration of most accounts to another more
reliable server (you don't need to modify your domain name record, it will be
transparent).

Thank you for your understanding.


CQhost Billing billing@cqhost.com
http://www.cqhost.com
Sales department: sales@cqhost.com
Technical support: support@cqhost.com
Usa: 1 800 976 27 09 Toll-Free
Fax: 1 800 866 38 24 Toll-Free
Outside USA: 1(561) 760-7624

See what I mean?! I'm beginning to wonder if I'm writing in invisible ink whenever I mention them screwing me over in December (granted I was down most of the month of November too, but since I hadn't done traceroutes I don't think it's fair to blame them for anything). Honestly, I wouldn't have cared if they made some bogus excuse about not refunding me for the month, it's the fact that they won't even acknowledge my complaint!!!


Anyway, I guess I'm just venting and letting folks & webhosts see exactly what it is that makes customers badmouth them.

If you were me and still stuck in a stupid contract, what would you do?

ticked.
ochiba

[SoftWareRevue]

Originally posted by ochiba
. . . . . . . .If you were me and still stuck in a stupid contract, what would you do?

ticked.
ochiba

I couldn't find anything on their site regarding the uptime guarantee. Aside from them stating they have a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Seems to be the way they like to do business. Offer something; then don't deliver.

Although I couldn't find something about uptime guarantee in their AUP (or anywhere else for that matter); the following taken from their AUP should have been enough to keep you from signing in the first place.

"13. Although all hosting plans permit unlimited data transfer, each plan is subject to a surcharge in the event usage exceeds the allotted free bandwidth for that plan. Customer is responsible for charges related to bandwidth exceeding the plan's allotted data transfer."

If I were you; I'd leave now.
But then, if I were you; I wouldn't have been there in the first place.

If they lie about bandwidth.
If they lie about 99.9% uptime.
Why are you still there?
Forget the contract.
Chalk it up to experience. A lesson to read everything before signing.

[ochiba]

And unlike legit companies which usually apply any changes to the next contract term, they say that by using their services you have to agree to the AUP (even if they were different when you signed the contract)

I signed up with them 1) because I desperately needed to find *any* host to put my site back up since Liquidweb's unreliable uptime practically killed it. and 2) because I had not ever heard of this forum or forums like this. I judged them by their advertising :ucker:: they looked professional, and I was scared of all the websites that had the same advertising as LiquidWeb (and the same controlpanel) Unfortunately when you do a search on Google for Webhosting, it pulls up only the scammers.

They don't offer all of the things they advertise. I don't see how they get away with it, but oh well... it is experience. I won't ever sign up with a company that does not allow me a monthly contract option. I actually prefer quarterly contracts, but never again will I sign up for one unless they also offer monthly and I have a chance to see how they work.

I'm planning on opening another account with GearHost and then moving my site there as soon as their *nix plans are available this week. I'd like to move to a dedicated server eventually, but I don't know how to manage one so I'm sticking with shared hosting until I do.

[serve-you]

One thing to note here...
You keep bringing up the fact that they changed their AUP, and did not tell you. This is going to be pretty much standard anywhere you look. The "use of your account.." disclaimer is nothing new. This is not only used in the hosting business, but in just about any type of company's TOS.

This is not done so that the company can make changes behind your back. You should also note in most TOS', that if any time you do not agree to the terms set forth, you should contact them in some way or another.

The AUP/TOS for a hosting company should not really affect your hosting plan in most cases. However, if you are with a company offering things such as "unlimited" services, you probably wouldn't agree to the terms in the first place if you actually read through them.

-Dan

[Incognito]

We all make mistakes sometimes in selecting who we do business with and that includes choosing our host. About all we can do at that point is try to move on....find someone better. Meanwhile, try to get you money back...first by direct contact with the host and then, if numerous contacts get you nowhere, by a chargeback through the credit card company.

I feel you give someone a chance to correct problems and make amends...but if they fail or refuse...you find someone else. I have no experience myself with CQ and am just expressing general opinions as to how to proceed in these situations. I can't tell you if this is their norm or an exception.

Good luck wherever you go.

[ochiba]

The AUP/TOS for a hosting company should not really affect your hosting plan in most cases. However, if you are with a company offering things such as "unlimited" services, you probably wouldn't agree to the terms in the first place if you actually read through them.

-Dan

I don't know when they started saying they did offer "unlimited" bandwidth, but when I ordered their services you got only the bandwidth you paid for. I still am restricted to 15Gig on my plan. I think that unlimited nonsense is to attract people who still believe in Santa Claus and what not. As I *did* read the ToS they specifically say you can't go over what you are allotted... so there goes the whole unlimited thingy.

And their ToS are very different from the original. I don't care about that, but I still think (call me crazy) that if you force a contract for your services than whatever applied during that contract period should remain the same until that contract period is over. Or you should offer a pro-rated refund back if someone does not agree to any changes made during the contract period.

I'm just annoyed with their ToS because they invalidated mine while hiding behind theirs. And *no* not all webhosts do that. My other webhost backed my ToS for my club which allows me to still run it and that by itself saves me hundreds of dollars of my investment into my club. But I'm mad about the fact that they won't acknowledge ripping me off. You see, I don't complain about being down in January, because they said they were having server problems... I.understand.that.it.happens! However, in November they practically called me an idiot when my site would go down for hours saying it was my own ISP. Since they didn't answer my TTs until the *end* of the month, I didn't know I was supposed to send them a traceroute so all of my TTs were in vain for that month. Me not knowing any better took their word for it. In early December my site went down again for 2 hours, I sent them a traceroute like they asked. They again said it was *my* fault. So I go to my offsite forum and everyone is complaining about my site's crappy uptime. So I send them the posts along with another traceroute. I then ask them to at least *check* to see if it is a CQHost problem. They don't reply. Almost 20 hours later they (don't apologize but...) tell me it was another client's fault. Now they won't acknowledge the fact that my site was even down.

The ToS have nothing to do with me being miffed at this host -_- That's just a cherry on the sundae. However, I'm taking the advice on the board and just chalking it off to a sunken cost. I'll be moving my site this weekend and I figure I'll just host a few remote files and fully use my bandwidth until my contract ends ^_^

At least I'll get *some* of my money's worth.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts ^_^ I really appreciate that!

ochiba