A vindictive hosting company

[Marshall]

I feel I have to share this for, at the very least, it is a cautionary tale. At the most, it is a warning.

Back in February, I made, admittedly, stern complaints about the quality of the technicians of a hosting company that really screwed up one of my clients accounts/websites. The problem had been going on for days and, needless to say, neither my customer or I were happy. Words like "incompetent," "idiots," and things similar, were frequently used. However, no foul language was ever used.

Within a day after the issue was resolved, my company's website name, which is registered through this hosting company, was suspended. I only realized this after my emails failed. I contacted them and they cited ICANN's regulations about owner verification and that they sent me an email. NOT. Okay, they claimed it bounced, though all their other emails made it through. Ultimately, I had to email a copy of a government issued ID to get the domain restored. Now mind you, the contact information for the domain name has been the same for 18 years - no changes whatsoever. When all was said and done, I told them I believed this was done in retaliation for my comments about their support, an allegation they denied. I said if they did it again with any of my other domains, I would treat it as a deliberate and malicious action to harm me and my company.

Fast forward to today.

This same hosting company royally screwed up one of my clients sites last week trying to install a new SSL certificate. The result was the site was down for 115 hours, until I got it moved over to a new hosting company. In the course of the 115 hours, I contacted them numerous times only to hear "Our engineers are working on the problem." In addition to the usual "incompetent" remarks, I said "Moe, Larry and Curly could do a better job." After the move was completed, as a courtesy I told the original hosting company they could tell their incompetent engineers to stop trying to solve the problem as the site was no longer with them. This was about 3PM Monday, 4/10.

Along with my main business site, the same server has another site I own which deals with recycling. What should I get at 1AM this morning (4/12) but a suspension notice for the second domain stating the "Recently you registered, transferred, or modified the contact information for one or more of your domain name(s). ICANN requires all accredited registrars to validate your new contact information." The second domain was created on July 27, 2007 and none of the contact information has ever changed, just like it never changed for main business site since 1999.

Now I ask you, are the two suspensions mere coincidence or something else? And is there a moral - be careful what you say to your hosting company? Personally, I do not believe in coincidence. Do I think the suspensions were malicious? Without a doubt. Will I be moving my sites? You bet.

[topr8]

sorry to hear your troubles!
i'd add though that it makes sense to have your domains registered though an entirely seperate company to your hosting company

[phranque]

my company's website name, which is registered through this hosting company

And is there a moral

yes, there is.

[engine]

Yes, sorry to hear of those troubles. A web host really is an important, and you can never know how good or bad they are until you have to deal with an issue.

I would think it unlikely there's anything vindictive. No question, move it as soon as you can.

The ICANN validation can come through at any time, and it's not always on the anniversary, afaik.

[Marshall]

FWIW - I started with this hosting company in 1999 and they were truly excellent. A few years ago a larger company bought them up, a long with what I understand to be about 100 other small hosting companies. They keep the name of the hosting company and seem to hide the fact they actually own it. It has been since then the service has gone down the tubes. I know I cannot mention names, but some of you may be familiar with who I am talking about.

[martinibuster]

I almost moved to a new dedicated server last week myself, after a week of trying to get a SSL certificate properly installed. Just before I pulled the trigger on the new host I gave support one more try and the person I reached fixe it all up. Everything was perfect.

The people who tried to help (except for one guy) were earnest and wanted to help me solve my problem. So I was never rude to them. I have vented my frustration to them in the past but never insulted them.

I agree with the previous members that it's not a good idea to host a site at the same company a domain is registered at.

[TorontoBoy]

I know the company that is growing fast because of many acquisitions of smaller hosting companies. I, too, along with a friend, had to move hosts, because after my host was purchased their excellent service went downhill quickly. They removed all the excellent existing tech support people. My last 2 tickets took 18 days and 2 weeks for a response. When you research my host you can find numerous complaints for recent bad service.

I think you should just move all your business somewhere else. It won't get better. With research you will see that others have the same experience, or worse. This conglomerate has a track record for buying and then gutting host providers.

I agree with the previous members that it's not a good idea to host a site at the same company a domain is registered at.

They have you by the balls.

Why cannot you name names? It would serve to warn others to not use this hosting company.

[edited by: phranque at 12:26 pm (utc) on Apr 12, 2017]
[edit reason] hosting specifics [/edit]

[martinibuster]

Web hosting is a competitive space. Allowing names in this context would lead to the moderators having to study each post and decide if it's legit, part of a negative campaign against a competitor or simply a member grinding a whisper campaign against a company they have a business dispute with. And you know not everyone with a dispute is an angel, there's always two sides to a story. It's messy. It's better this way.

[phranque]

Why cannot you name names? It would serve to warn others to not use this hosting company.

Charter - Webmaster General [webmasterworld.com]:

Hosting Questions:
Public discussion and/or recommendation of hosting companies is no longer allowed at WebmasterWorld. We are closing the floodgates to get a better handle on the spam that always crops up in hosting discussions.

[keyplyr]

I started with this hosting company in 1999 and they were truly excellent. A few years ago a larger company bought them up, a long with what I understand to be about 100 other small hosting companies. They keep the name of the hosting company and seem to hide the fact they actually own it. It has been since then the service has gone down the tubes.

Been there! In fact that scenario has happened to me twice now... a real PITA.

Everything is fine, the company has the interests of their customers at heart, then because they are doing well, they get bought by a conglomerate... then all down hill. First the customer service starts to take a lot longer, then they start removing services, then server issues... ad infinitum.

It's such a pain to move hosts if you have a complex site, especially with a back-end that needs to be rebuilt. Hope I don't have to move again for a long time.

[not2easy]

I think I used to be on that host myself. At the end of 2014 I moved all my sites and deleted all the files on the account although I still had 4 months remaining that had been paid for the year in April 2014. The first signal I had of the downhill service level was when I asked them to look into the "heartbleed" patch for the VPS I had, and they sent me a link to wikipedia's heartbleed entry.

I thought moving out had resolved that problem, but no0oOo. They charged me without any authorization the following April (2015) for an entire year's hosting. I did not have any domains registered there, nor any auto renew features in place. When I contacted them about the charges, they reversed the charge, but with a $40 "service fee". heh. Made me wish I had simply filed a chargeback. :(

[brotherhood of LAN]

The ICANN validation can be a bit of a pain, every registrar has a different interpretation of it. I'm using the API of 10 well-known registrars and not one of them behave in the same way.

I believe most vanilla hosting companies use the likes of WHMCS as their billing/customer platform and use enom as their registrar. If you're ever having issues with the domain reseller (the hosting company), you can always take it upstream to the registrar, who are obligated to resolve the issue for you.

[TorontoBoy]

I thought moving out had resolved that problem, but no0oOo. They charged me without any authorization the following April (2015) for an entire year's hosting. I did not have any domains registered there, nor any auto renew features in place. When I contacted them about the charges, they reversed the charge, but with a $40 "service fee". heh. Made me wish I had simply filed a chargeback. :(

That was a common tactic and got a lot of people very angry. Opt out web hosting? That's just evil. A lot of people fought the $40 service charge but wrote that they never were able to get a refund. I left in Dec 2016 and had to fill out a "request to terminate service" form, which had to be approved before I terminated the service. How's that for a role reversal?

Cancellations must be requested via the form indicated above at least forty-eight (48) hours or more prior to the Service's renewal date. If a cancellation notice is not received within the required time frame, you will be billed for the next billing term and are responsible for payment as set forth above.

They have strict rules for termination of service. Because of the issues with some people getting charged for the next year's hosting cost and not being able to get a full refund, I specifically asked them, in writing, if there were any further charges after termination, and they wrote back that there will be none. It is sad when I must be specific about post termination charges.