To Newbies - My experiences

[indy]

:| Hello, I consider myself a newbie although I have had a website before. My comments are for other newbies that are hunting for a server, otherwise I probably would never participate in a forum. I spent three very frustrating weeks, days and evenings hunting for a server for my website. Why did I end up with Hostgator? 1.- I had another choice but when I went to sign with them, their links wouldn’t work. 2. – Hostgator had a lot of information and help in way of Q&A, tutorials, and other help. 3. – They also had phone, email, and other ways to get in touch with them. 4. – There seemed to be a lot of people that had good comments about them etc. 5 - They had a monthly payment plan and not just with a credit card. 6. – They did not appear to oversell their bandwidth, were reasonably priced, and seemed genuinely concerned for all of their clients.

I have been with them for a bit over two weeks. They were longer in setting me up than they said they would be, but that was no problem as I wasn’t in a hurry. They cut my username from eight letters down to four and when I asked to have it changed back, they said that they couldn’t. I published with Frontpage 2000 and it went well. I don’t think some of their instructions are complete and some of their tutorials aren’t exactly the same as the actual setups. However they do have more of such information than most other servers.

Their email setups do not seem to work as they should. I have read everything and tried everything that I could come up with and I still don’t have email that works completely and what I do have doesn’t have my name on it. For example I can send mail and receive mail from all sources but my own website. I have sent at least six emails to hostgator and have received quick answers but for the most part, they do not relate to my questions. I sincerely believe that their employees speed read your emails, and if you’re lucky, they will have a vague idea of what you are asking, but then I think they have predefined answers that they just paste in their emails.

I have devised a way to be able to receive form email through my guestbook, please don’t ask me how. Also, after losing some infomation that I had come across in setting up a View Guestbook, I now have a manual one that is fine, I don’t mind.

I wanted a very simple website with Email and a Guestbook that works most of time. Hey, 1.5 out of 3 isn’t too bad!

In conclusion, would I have gone with Hostgator again? I probably would have searched a bit longer, although I probably wouldn’t end up with anyone better. Why don’t I quit and go with someone else and get a refund? With working part time, traveling time taking pictures, making my stereoview cards, and building a website among other things, I don’t feel like taking the time and effort hunting for another server and changing everything over. I am very tired and as long as my website works somewhat, I will continue for a while. In the not too far future I will probably switch over to someone else. At least this is a monthly payment plan which is good. I do know that what ever I do with my website, I will definitely have to figure out how to do it myself. (Unless I can my get my computer, internet whiz of a newphew to help me.)

Most sincerely,
Steve Hull
www.stereoviewsindiana.com

[Iowa]

I am about to sign up with host gator, I have had many different hosting companies in the past, never had a major problem with any ot them. One thing I realize is that my 10 or 20 bucks a month covers the cost of my hosting, and if something goes down the e-mail response from someone saying yeah it is us not you do not worry.. or the ok i think I accidently erased something that allows my scripts to run and you fix this.. (ie... files that pertain to cgi in the cgi directory that only the host company can replace) I realize that my 20 dollars does not cover cgi help in terms of why doesnt my script work, nor how do I use SQL, or PHPmyadmin.. funny how people think that because they pay 10 bucks or 20 bucks a month that this should include help on how to get their scripts to run.. even a 20 min phone call would basically make that 10 or 20 bucks worthless..

People need to realize that all the help and open couteous help that HG offers is a just that.. good customer serivce and couteous help.

from what I have read around on places that rank host companies and forums HG is a good place.

I hope to get about 1k customers on my reseller plan over the next 5 years.. and maintain that level.. that is my goal..

[lobo]

Just make sure you pay on time. If you miss even a day, they shut you down without any warning. Then the tech guys tell you it's not their problem and to talk to sales. They've done this to me twice already. First time was my fault. I didn't realize they don't automatically bill unless you tell them. Second time my wife lost the credit card they have on file and we got new account numbers such that they can't auto-bill. Both times without a courtesy warning. They just shut you down like a delinquent renter.

Imagine how painful it would be for you and your 1000 customers if you had to move to another hoster if things go south with HG. I'd spread the 1000 customers around to several hosters so you're not totally dependent upon HG. A mistake I will not make again. Like the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. They were extremely helpful to me at the beginning. Then they kind of get tired of answering your questions and get short with you. They will start off with something like "It's usually our customer's mistake" or some crap like that, even though they've screwed up a few times on me and never apologized for them.

Just my experiences from being on 7 months now.

[GatorBrent]

We always send out multiple emails, as well as call any phone number on file before we issue a suspension. We give 7 days to pay any past due invoice.

If you you pay via Paypal, they even send out their own email to you notifying of the failed invoice.

We try to be just as helpful to people who have been with us for years as to those that have just signed up, and show no prejudice one way or the other.

It sounds like you're upset about being suspended for non-payment and have taken it upon yourself to launch a personal vendetta against Hostgator as a company, so I must ask that you refrain from posting false information.

[lobo]

Ok, now I'm being accused of lying. I spoke with Brent this morning and I gave him a new credit card number so this problem is now fixed. No sympathy for my predicament, but at least it's fixed. He confirmed that there was no phone number on HG's file so no calls could have been possible.

I checked my PayPal account and it shows that a subscription has been cancelled, but no email was sent to me. Now of course, if my account was suspended, which impacts my email, how was I supposed to recieve it?? Typically PayPal doesn't send automated emails instantenously.

In addition, the attempt to charge was on 17 Jul 2004. My account was cancelled the same day. Hardly a 7 day grace period. Seems more like you have a vendetta against me and I can't figure out why for the life of me.

Please get your facts straight before you make such accusations, whoever you are.

[GatorBrent]

This is Brent and I remember speaking with you on the phone today, as well as emailing you the failed payment details. The emails even show in our out going logs as being sent.

Paypal trys 3 times...

1st time payment fails they email you and us.
3 days later they try again and email both again.
They try once again 3 days later, and if it fails they cancel the paypal subscription emailing both buyer (you) and seller (us) and notifying each party of the cancelled subscription. If you don't believe me you can contact paypal and ask them about their procedures for handling non-payment issues.

I'm sorry for your troubles, although we can't be to blame for this, and we certainly can’t be expected to stand idly by while misinformation is being posted about our business practices.

There's two ways we contact people - by phone number and by email address. If you don't provide a phone number, and have a non-valid, or non-functioning email address, then there's not much more that we can do. It is up to our clients to enure that their contact information is kept current.

Thank you for correcting the paypal problem, and now that you have given us a number you can rest assured you will be called if there is ever another payment issue.

[lobo]

Ok, finally a light at the end of the tunnel. I looked back further in the PayPal logs and I now see an attempt to charge on 9 Jul 2004 and 12 Jul 2004. I don't know why I didn't get those failed messages, but I'll take that up with PayPal.

Thanks, Brent, for stepping in because I was really getting flustered. It looks like a compounded level of miscommunications. I hope we can smooth things out going forward.

Regards,
Johan

[GatorBrent]

If you didn't get our warnings or theirs, it could a problem related to strict or misconfigured spam filters.


I'm glad we got this worked out and am looking forward to a long lasting relationship. You can reach me at brent@hostgator.com if you ever have any other issues requiring my personal attention.

[JWright]

Brent,

It's threads like this that will get me to become a HostGator customer. Not because of the problems, of course, but because you allowed us to see how you handle problems, and you didn't delete this thread that, if not read to its conclusion, doesn't make HG look very good.

I've read your posts here and elsewhere, and I appreciate the way you represent your company.

Jeff Wright
Twentycent Web Services

[Gregory-Eric]

Originally Posted by JWright

Brent,

It's threads like this that will get me to become a HostGator customer. Not because of the problems, of course, but because you allowed us to see how you handle problems, and you didn't delete this thread that, if not read to its conclusion, doesn't make HG look very good.

I've read your posts here and elsewhere, and I appreciate the way you represent your company.

Jeff Wright
Twentycent Web Services

I also would like to thank HG and you Brent for not hiding issues, but instead, dealing directly with them. That's how to do business with integrity.