Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Hostgator Account Opened/Cancelled Same Day

[MannyMan]

I opened a Hostgator Baby account yesterday and paid for one year. At the end of the process, I got a message to click on a link that would bring me to their billing system to pay for the invoice so that they could activate my account. Below is the email I got:

Thank you for choosing Hostgator.com as your web hosting provider. This email confirms that we have received your order.
If you have already submitted payment, your account will be setup within 20 minutes. If you have yet to make payment you may do so by going to https://secure.hostgator.com/billing and logging in with primary email address / password specified at time of signup.
Once setup you will receive an email notification with your account information. If you fail to receive this email please check your spam / junk email folder. If you still don't have it please contact sales@hostgator.com with another email address we can send to.
Please note that setup for semi dedicated accounts may take from 2-8 hours setup time.
Thank you,
HostGator.com Sales Team
***************************************************************

But no matter how I tried, I could not login to their billing system and kept on getting a LOGIN NOT VALID message, so I replied to the email to say so, and that was assigned Ticket #2726945, to which I got the reply, below:

***************************************************************
Sorry for the trouble!
We see that you were not able to login to your account on our support system. As a result of the new system change, some passwords needed to be changed. Your password is (new password)
Sorry for any trouble this has caused you.
Sincerely,
The HostGator Staff
***************************************************************

So I tried this "new" password emailed by the HG staff, but it did not work, and I was still unable to login. So I told them that, and then got the email below:

hello,
It appears that your new account is awaiting for payment. You can login to our billing system to pay the open invoice at:
https://secure.hostgator.com/billing/
Your username is your primary email address. Once logged in, click the number where it says "Total Due" . Now click the invoice number you would like to pay. You can make a one time payment by clicking the picture that says "Pay Now with PayPal".
Please reply back with notification after payment has been made so that we may open your account. Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Allen
HostGator.com Sales Admin
**************************************************************

So I emailed them back and said this below:

**************************************************************
Allen,

I don't think you understand. I am UNABLE TO LOGIN into your billing system, and keep on getting a message that my login credentials are not valid.
***************************************************************

While waiting for a reply, I decided to request the system to email me my password, and got an email with a password different from the password emailed to me by the staff, but which finally worked (for the Billing system). So finally got in and paid for one year web hosting in advance and got the HG invoice by email. In a few minutes, got the HG Welcome email with all the login credentials for the control panel, again with a different password from the password for their support system and also different from the password for their billing system. So guess what, I could not login into the control panel using the credentials in their welcome email. Kept on getting a message "login not valid". So I again submitted a new ticket via email, below:

<SUBJECT>PLEASE HELP. I AM ON A VERY TIGHT DEADLINE<SUBJECT>. Good God, guys, I can't login with this information below. I must say that this is an absolutely stressful experience. PLEASE HELP !!!!
**************************************************************

I was assigned Ticket Number 2727009 for this new request for help. Then got an email telling me that the first ticket, 2726945, was closed since it had been resolved.

As I had not heard anything, I updated my support ticket 2727009 with the comment below:

*****************************************************************
Still Waiting For A Resolution To My URGENT REQUEST FOR HELP

Then got a reply from a Ricardo, email below:

*****************************************************************Hi,
Please try it now. I've tested the login and it is now working.
Thank you for allowing me to help you.
Sincerely,

Ricardo
HostGator.com, LLC

And I tried it, but it still did not work, and replied as below:

****************************************************************
NO, it still does not work. I still get the message "Login Attempt Failed"
***************************************************************

After waiting for a while, I did not hear back, so I decided to do a Live Chat and spoke with Norris and told him of the problem, and I told him that if they would not solve my problem that I wanted a refund. So he said he was looking into it, and when he came back, never told me what the problem was and why they could not solve it, but simply gave me instructions on how to cancel the account, which I then did and received a confirmation email. Their website says the refund is issued the same day, but I am still waiting for my refund as I write this.

So Hostgator – IF NOT ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT STAFF KNOW HOW TO SET UP ACCOUNTS, THEN PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT NEW CLIENTS. PLEASE GIVE ME MY REFUND IMMEDIATELY.

[Sparrow-Sean]

Wow an experience, O.K for starters not to be painful. Are you sure you were inputing the Correct Details?

I know it is the wrong type of thing to ask here, but did it say a Username or Email? Sometimes these can get mixed up.

Otherwise, You will need to wait for your refund. How did you pay for the account mate? Credit Card or PayPal.

If Credit Card you will not receive this the same day.

[sidzzz]

Hi Manny,

HG has many flaws and recently they did change their login system. Now how it works is, everytime you login with your password and if it gets invalidated, their sytem issues a new password and mails it to you.

What could have happened is that, their support staff must have generated a new password and mailed it to you, and in the meantime you might have tried logging in with your old password and in this process the system would have generated a new password over-riding the password that the support staff generated.

Therefore the trouble with the password. However I have seen their support staff would prefer closing an account rather than solving issues (I guess it's easier for them). Pretty sad case.

[JohnJ]

Did you copy/paste the password or did you type it manually?

[MannyMan]

I used Paypal for payment.

I typed in the password manually.

For the Control Panel, it is Username (not email) and password.

[wirefusemedia]

heh.. I hate Host Gator, I hate most over sellers though, I've had them and it was alright but not the best.. for sure.
Sorry to head about your case though..

[MannyMan]

A few days have passed and STILL NO REFUND FROM HOSTGATOR as advertised on their website.

[MannyMan]

I think this should be a lesson to ALL POTENTIAL HOSTGATOR CLIENTS to just purchase and pay for ONE MONTH of Hosting until you are satisfied with the service. This has always been my rule, and I broke my own rule and now I suffer the consequences having to wait for a refund.

[ldcdc]

I believe it takes a while for refunds to appear on the card's statements.

[Sparrow-Sean]

Allow it time to Process, I know most Cases are Instant!
But allow time, I paid with mastercard and I got mine back after a Week, I would assume they are USA and I am Australia so the processing time to refund took a bit longer ...

[Manageandsupport_com]

Originally Posted by MannyMan

I think this should be a lesson to ALL POTENTIAL HOSTGATOR CLIENTS to just purchase and pay for ONE MONTH of Hosting until you are satisfied with the service. This has always been my rule, and I broke my own rule and now I suffer the consequences having to wait for a refund.

Agree. As with any service provider it is better to start off first with a monthly plan and then upgrade to a yearly plan if the service is satisfactory.

[MannyMan]

to JetWash and LDCDC,

As I stated very clearly, I used Paypal for payment. Issuing a refund to a Paypal account takes minutes, and not days.

regards,

[ldcdc]

As I stated very clearly, I used Paypal for payment.

Sorry, didn't reread the whole thread before replying and my memory seems to be lacking.

[markjut]

Sounds like a strange issue to have with two passwords not working, especially when it would be an automated billing system generating the passwords.

[Sparrow-Sean]

Yes Same here, When I logged into my account with them wen I had them it worked great, If HG could login through their end then there should not have been an error!