A final review

[ADK]

I've been a member of Host Gator for almost three years now, and for the most part, they've been rather pleasant.
I'd also like to say that the customer support has always been pleasant and helpful, even when I personally have been frustrated.

However, a recent incident has left me rather troubled, and uncomfortable with continued hosting with them (especially considering they are almost double what most other hosts are.)

Specifically, the way an account is handled after it has been suspended. Now, mind you, being suspended for payments past the 10 day grace period is more then reasonable, and I actually LIKE that they keep the information on the site, even if it means they charge you for the months its still down. Considering the trouble it must be, the flat fee of $10 for starting up late accounts again is also reasonable.
All this I found the first time my site went down, paid off the fees and it went up again.

Recently, I was late again, and had to wait to pay out of pocket. After I paid it up, the site was up briefly... ..then, I got a new invoice. I started a payment (a paypal e-check) and the site got suspended while it was in progress... ...three days after I had first received the invoice.

Confused and a little angry, I contacted customer support, and they informed me that the amount was from the time it had been down, it simply wasn't automatically sent to me. For that reason, it didn't count as part of the grace period, no matter when I received it.
Further pressing led them to inform me that their policy was NOT to continue automatic charges to the account, assuming an account that missed a payment was canceled (which is a little confusing when they keep charging, and keep the site up.)
The policy itself was reasonable... ...except they ddont' show it anywhere. The person I talked to linked me to the FAQ, where the question was pretty similar to what mine is... ..but that means that anyone who aske,d like me, would only find out the hard way after going through a similar blip in uptime and downtime, and unable to pay it all at once.

The suspension notice said NOTHING about this, which is the place I would think such warning and information SHOULD be held.

As I said, the situation, and how it was handled, coupled with the fact that hostgator charges more then other sites offering the same or similar things, has lead me to decide to move to another host.

Again, I'd like to clarify that my problem isn't that there was downtime, but that the grace period was 'skipped' and the downtime happened again because I didn't have a chance to see it much less pay it, and that this information was not in any way provided until AFTER the fact (that it was different then my first experience didn't help)
E-checks take 3-5 business days... ..if given the proper grace period, there would be no downtime as the money would already be recieved.

As parting words, I'd like to request/recommend that the information about restarting suspended accounts, and such policies, be covered in the suspension notice itself, not only found out by digging after the fact.
Hopefully, this will lead other people to having a better experience then me.

[GatorJoshL]

Good morning,

I apologize about the issues you've seen with our billing system. We realize the issues and limitations with the current billing system (ModernBill) and have a new billing system we have built in house that will allow us to correct these issues.

Please PM me a phone number and any tickets you might have as I would like to try and explain this a little better and speak with you regarding any issues you might have outstanding.

Again our apologies, and I assure you personally that we will do everything possible to make this right.

Thank you,

[ADK]

While I still have some details involving the account I'd like to resolve, I would just like to say that so far, I'm feeling much better about the situation.
Addressing the issue as a problem with the billing system not 'a policy' actually went a long way for me.

I just wanted to post that I'm pleased with how you're handling the situation.

-ADK