Hello guys - those of you probably noticed my site is not online for more than 2 weeks. What happened ?
Amerinoc my first hosting provider had major crash of their hardware and my site was completely lost. They didn't had any backup and that caused me to start looking for another hosting provider. The price for that pleasure was $250 for a new host. I have opened cheap commissions with the pricing you see on top. And until Halloween I got my $250. You better believe - I'm fast AF - and I'm showing that on picarto. Anyway.
I saw some of the most popular artist is with HostGator - so I decided to go with them. Sadly for me /as a client/ I didn't get the necessary service even with them. Their support required time to respond, time to answer and and at the end none of what they said was helpful. I was with them for 5 days and then I asked for chargeback.
For these 5 days I found that their system was really great - however as a newcoming client I was expecting from their support to give me the necessary information for me to set up my site as quickly as possible. Like a tour of some kind. This is located here, that there. The CP can be found on that link. None of these happened.
As a new coming client is not my job to learn what is where located since the first day ! I would be a support myself if I should knew what and where is located on their site.
I've had issues with domain transfer. The initiation was slow and the e-mail on the system was wrong : instead of the e-mail that had to point to my old registrar there was mydirtydrawings.com@whois - and they were stating that the problem is on me. I had to complain about that and they posted ticket to themselves.
I've had question regarding the FTP settings : their support named "Jon" asked me - why do I need FTP settings if I already have WordPress installed and you see - my site is active ? - I had to give explanation to the support why do I need to have full control over my own website I paid $250 for. Then he said : you can find that on the CP. and that was it. Where is the CP ? Link please ? Can you help me out, assistance please ?! None of that.
Another thing was with installing a plugin for the backup of my site. It was giving a critical error. Their interface is giving option to the client to pick if they have certain problems in order to state that when speaking with the support. So my problem was Wordpress related. It looks neat and promissing when you start picking the form, right ?
Well - that is correct until you start chatting with their support. I see Fatal Error. And copy-paste it to the support who's saying: I don't see any error. You probably should start using another plugin or ask Wordpress about that.
Great. And conversation was over. The same day I found out that the settings I was trying to input on my FTP client are not working and I was given a Critical error. I didn't really wanted to get back and talk to the support about that - they would probably tell me to speak with the company who made FileZilla... And that all was on my day 4 with them. Later at night I just got on support chat - who by the way requires 10 minutes to load - and every support online with some small exceptions requires between 5-6 minutes to respond / like they are not happy of doing their own job and they just need their work day to end as soon as possible. So I said : I want charge back.
I made a ticket for them pointing all the issues that happened to me. I want my money back!
No one responded to any of these tickets ! They stay like that even now:
And there was that guy William. Who just started to speak. He was paying attention, responding at once , giving me links - helped me with the settings for the FTP. Noticed that the Wordpress lines are because there's a conflict with two plugins : that was enough for me . He quickly fixed the problem with the wrong e-mail - and then he made a ticket that should initiate the domain transfer. I was somehow happy with his help and I said that to him: he asked me to give him high score on the chat - and I did that. I felt extremely tired - and went to sleep. When I woke up I started to think what happened last night. William was great - but there are many others on shift who actually were giving me crappy service the past 4 days. If I should have issues with my site - and those will happen for sure - there's no guarantee that this William guy will be on shift when this should happen. Where is William ?!? He can solve all my problems with the host ?I slept only for 3 hours.I figured that I don't need that kind of support.
I asked the support for charge back and then I went to see the status of the ticket William posted. It was still on hold. I asked for charge back - this time for sure.
Those guys were making tickets for themselves and for the misterious and unknown figure of Administrator.. /capital A/. I got my money back pretty quick. And then I found a new host. I went with FastComet.
Their chat system was fast. Lisa was there answering at once. Extremely helpful. She sold me the hosting and made a brief review of the functionality - I didn't asked for that - but I was happy. She was offering me to choose. I didn't asked for that - but I was happy. I asked if I could get FTP access settings - she offered me to help with the settings and gave me link to the tutorial : Do you want me to help you do these or you prefer to make it on your own ? I didn't asked for that - and I was happy. Domain transfer - the initiation was set by her and made by her -- it took her 2 minutes - because I delayed her with checking my e-mail. I asked her about Wordpress - she said : Our support will help you with installation of it and any plugin if yo want. I didn't asked for this - and I said : I can do it on my own - but if there's an issue whom I have to ask ? Just bug our support - she said. They will be there to help!
I didn't asked her about anything of these - she was just shooting these and I was extremely happy - and she was extremely helpful. What host gator support did /or didn't do for 5 days - took Lisa less than hour . I'd say : simple tasks. Now the issue. If you type my name it still will show where it's pointing. I asked Lisa about that - and she said that I have to point the servers from my previous registrars - at Amerinoc. I did that 2 days ago, but still the site points at HG.
I checked their system - my domain was not listed in there - if it's not there - then why it is still pointing at them?
My first registrar is pointing at FastComet ? I spoke with the support of HostGator/again/- who responded the usual way: slow. The support girl said : your domain is still at your registrar - I have no power to control the transfer. And without waiting for any other response from me- she quickly turned the chat - as a polite form of "fuck off". I gave her 10 - because I'm happy for not being with them anymore. Still my site points at them.
I asked Lisa /from FastComet/ and she noticed that I'm concerned: Davis - please calm down - it will take up to 5 to 7 days for this to work. Leave that to us - and don't bother ! Get some rest. Wait for a week!
This was my personal opinion about Hosting Companies I dealed with - HostGator in person. I don't complain about their system or functionality - I didn't made to get to that - I'm complaining about their unhelpful, slow and inadequate support. The service quality of the companies depends on the employees. The performance of the employees depends on the management and attitude of their superiours towards them - salary, attitude, valuing the employees. From HG - the support was somehow afraid to make a bold move and help the client. Probably the pay there is low - and they don't care. Probably the flow of people who come and go is extreme . Most of the employees I met were having names like : Ranjeev, Krishna, Muaseem, Musa, Krishnamurti , Khaled, Ravindra...
All of them were extremely happy - not to help me by doing a simple work. Their work. They were different.
To some of you HG probably works perfect - and I'm NOT trying to influence ... Still it won't harm for you to make a little research before choosing a host . I didn't do it - and I'm here in this position.
So I'm waiting for my site to start showing with FastComet.
Until then - I'm curing my nerves by doing cheap commissions. Feel free to bug me on mail and ask for inquiry.
Cheers,
M.