scriptygoddess18 Jan, 2008
HostICan (also known as HostISuck, HostICant, and a plethora of other nicknames)…
Posted by: Jennifer In: complaint department
UPDATE: If you're reading this then you're reading me from the new host. Crossing fingers this works out better. (I could cleary see there was something wrong with HostIcan just in trying to do the move. For starters it took my site down just taking a backup of my site. As well it would not let me pull down a full backup of my database, and just reviewing the database to double check which lines it had decided to skip when trying to run the download, took the site down (meanwhile the new host had no problems with that). I have noticed a few "timeouts" – hopefully that's something that will work itself out. /sigh
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I am SO SORRY. To anyone who followed my advice and signed up with HostICan – I'm sorry. I'm SO SORRY. A million times over. As well, I am SO SORRY that I am hosted with them. If nothing else it was a huge learning experience on what to check on with a host provider.
When I first switched to them I thought they were great. I loved them. Well… the honeymoon is DEFINITELY over!!
You may have noticed that sometimes when you come to my site a "warning" of sorts is up that says I'm using too much "CPU/Memory" on their servers. NEVER. NOT ONCE on any host did I over use too much CPU/Memory – certainly not on a regular day to day basis. And anytime I might have had a script that I was running, the host helped me pinpoint which script was causing the problem. (I'm haven't put anything new like that on my sites for a long time). (This didn't even happen the time that my site got slashdotted.)
Despite saying this on their website:
SERVICE GUARANTEE:
We guarantee that we'll provide quality service:
* 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
* 24/7/365 Phone & Email Support
* Your satisfaction or your money back. (emphasis mine)
(Which, by the way, is NOT under the heading "30-day money back guarantee") they still say they will not give me a refund / pro-rated or otherwise. (I paid for two-years up front when I signed up with them – and did so thinking that I would be able to get a refund (LIKE THEIR SITE SAYS) should things not work out.) So now I'll be calling my credit card company to dispute the charge – and hopefully switch to a new host as soon as possible.
Ugh.
This by the way is the letter I'm sending my credit card company:
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to dispute a charge by HostICan on June 20, 2007 in the amount of $262.80. I had purchased hosting from them and paid for two years up front with the understanding that if I was not satisfied at any time with the service I would be able to receive a prorated refund.
The websites I have hosted with HostICan have been in service for 5+ years. I have been with a number of different host providers, and never had any trouble with CPU or Memory usage. Shortly after signing up with HostICan I noticed my sites would go down and in its place a “warning” message would come up saying that I was using too much CPU and/or memory resources on their servers. I contacted them and tried to understand why this was happening. They first suggested I wait and see if it happens again. It did. I contacted them again, and they suggested I use a specific plugin for my content management system that should help. I installed it. But nothing changed. I still saw my site going down.
They now say that I’ve "outgrown" the server I'm on and suggested I move to their more expensive plan which costs 5x more a month than what I'm paying now. My site hasn't gotten significantly larger since when I first signed up with them, so I feel that this is not a fair assessment. I asked them to tell me the hardware configuration of the server I’m on, and I got two different answers. I asked them to verify/prove which answer was correct, and they could not.
When I asked about getting a prorated refund because I was not satisfied – I was told I would not get one because I was outside the 30-day guarantee. However, on their site, they specifically say that satisfaction is guaranteed. (Please see printout from their website included with this fax). The phrase "Your satisfaction or your money back" is listed before any mention of their "30-day money back guarantee". If this is truly the case that you do not get a prorated refund – then I think their site is incredibly misleading. I took it to mean that if one cancelled within 30 days – all money would be refunded, and after that time, it would be a prorated refund, as is standard practice with other hosts I’ve contacted and hosted with.
As well, on their customer forums, it would seem that many other people are having a similar problem as I am. This leads me to believe there is a defect with either their servers or monitoring system. Instead of investigating the issue, they are belligerent and blame their customers.
Sincerely,….
I thought it would be interesting to mention that I've been having trouble posting this even because my site has been going up and down like a yo-yo.
