Your Worst Hosting Experience

Has anyone had a particularly horrid time with a hosting company? Apart from the joy of listening to other people's horror stories, it might give some insight to those who don't know the pros & cons of various hosting companies.

When I first started a website it was like 2001 and I had a anti yahoo site, more or less offering cracking tools for yahoo ID's.. It's a long story why we wanted some ID's but long story short, I made good $ with this site ;)

Anyways, It was a phpbb2 site, and we would get hacked every week during the last few months that I owned it..
Was just getting annoying after a while, knowing that when I get home from work, good chances are that it was down..

but then I switched topics and never had a problem again..
*edit, didn't this say worst hacking experiance ?*
well, thats what I replied to, if it didn't.lol
I've had horrible host, like yrhosting. don't ever use them

Personaly, when I was gosh 13-14 I had my first site with a company, I have since forgotten the name, but support was basicly cussing me out and telling me I was stupid and had no idea what I was doing, and I was clueless at that at that point I admit....But still, I then said I wanted to cancle my account and download my site, but it was all deleted. I then went to another great host, outgrew them fast and have been on dedicated and VPS's since then.

On the business side, I am/was hired by a few forums as an admin, a few of them were with ASO, the level of support, and the amount of downtime (a few hours every few nites), and the overcharging over there was horrid, That is the worst experiance I have had I think...I moved the other sites onto my server and thanks for the business ASO.

When I started my first forum, I signed up with Lunarpages.

They were very good at first, very helpful. Server was usually pretty speedy and I was quite happy.

But, my forum grew. After about 6 months, I got an email one day. Lunarpages told me my site was too "server intensive" and that I had been moved to a production (garbage) server. It further said I had 10 days to resolve the issue or move to another host.

Thats when I found ASmallOrange... Been there ever since.

I'm living it. I get notices daily from my advertisers complaining.

Host Department.

Worst support EVER. Horrible phone & chat support, and it's VERY slow.

GeekHosting

pages took forever to load, or froze altogether. and we were getting pages errors all over the place.

pretty poor support too.


i'm with DataFlame now, and it's going great. :)

Haisoft sucks!

Slow slow slow and customer service is horrid. "Page Not Found" and "Database Errors" at least once an hour and would stay like that for 20 mins to an hour and they had every excuse in the world. That was about 5 months ago and a girl I know who runs a very successful site (that I use) is still with them and they are still having problems. I'm glad I left when I did.

Since having my own personal website starting around 2000, I've burned through 4 hosts here's the run down:

Yahoo: To expensive not many options you even have to pay extra for POP3 access

GoDaddy: I couldn't get mySQL to work for the life of me. I was also relitively new to databases and it could've been my fault. I also didn't like the control panel. In their defense I recently setup a website for a friend using GoDaddy and everything was smoooooth! :)

1and1: I was very happy with them until I had to deal with support getting an actual human to write an email is a chore everything is a canned reply :( plus mySQL is capped at 100MB unless you upgrade to a dedicated server.

Dreamhost (current): I've had my frusterations but I cannot find comparable better quotas anywhere else. For a while I seem to of been on my own server now I have a couple of other sites and no problems. Support is very friendly and easy to deal with. They even offered to move me to a new database server after I chewed them out about connection issues. :p

Having one right now and have done on numerous occasions with
Do not consider this host -> solidinternet.com

They suck.
Downtime and related problems = always.
Uptime = whenever they do not cock something up.

Excuses = A book full. Never their fault.
Support = sometimes, depends on the mood of a Guy called Robert

*****Stay clear of this one*****

sounds like you need to move

We did, hehe. Use the space for testing now. I got an infraction on their forum 2night. LMAO

LOL... too funny!

How important would your .htaccess file be ? Very ? It is for me.

Get this for a solution to 500 errors

Well, I'll see how this goes. This one has left all of us stumped. I would be ashamed to release something like cpanel for sale :rolleyes:

Just an update, the issue has been resolved (partially) with mod_rewrite being a problem at the moment. Hence the 500 errors, if you are still receiving this on parts of your site please remove the .htaccess file in the folder.

oh my....

We ran our phpBB board over there and were plagued with errors, etc. Unknown to them we have an identical set-up, posts and all on my personal site. Never a problem. They constantly blamed phpBB. So we convert to vB. Guess what!! same thing errors freeze ups you name it. Never their fault.

I jumped ship and we have not had a problem with our new host.

I jumped ship and we have not had a problem with our new host.

Please knock on wood. I'm still knocking on mine...so far so good.

very good! I'm glad you found a good one

very good! I'm glad you found a good one

Me too. I was a nervous wreck back then. All better now. :cool:

I didn't reply to this thread before, because I've had great experiences.

Until yesterday.

I signed up on an amazing deal with IX hosting (https://www.ixwebhosting.com).

The first 4 hours were great. I uploaded all the files and media I wanted to use and I was in a jolly mood.

Then it came to CHMOD a few folders, and I couldn't 777 them, so I sent in a support ticket.

Their tech support (and I use that term loosely) told me that they didn't know why, but they would 777 the folders for me while they looked into it.

Odd, but I wasn't put off.

I then went to upload some more files and kept getting 530 errors (A 530 error is very specific, it simply means that the username, password or account group provided do not match the server) so I sent in another ticket.

They used a cookie-cutter reply with instructions on how to set up an ftp client.

I contacted them again.

They sent the same reply.

I contacted them again.

They then told me that they'd checked from their end and everything was fine, so I asked friends on ventrilo to try and login for me.

I explained to the 'tech support' department that people from england, germany, canada, and no less than 6 us states were getting the same error.

Tech support said it must be my firewall.

I asked them why my firewall would have any relevance to the 9 other people, so they sent me the cookie-cutter file on setting up an ftp client again.

I've just put in for immediate cancellation and a full refund (they offer a 30 day refund and I can understand why).

The moral of the story is STAY AWAY FROM IX HOSTING (https://www.ixwebhosting.com)!!!

WOW... I can't say I blame you there.

when i started my site i was open for about 2 weeks and had 100+ members every thing was set just the way i wanted and doing great then the sever i had never seen a problem with being as i apart of a few sites on the same sever went down and me and the other site at the time lost everything we had id dont know what the hosting company was i sublet from the guy running the other site and showed me how to webmaster my VB site this so far has been the worst experience ive had as a site owner

Speaking of worst hosting companies, the one that surely top them all is the Roundberry/Hostedtoday/Advantages1web consortium. It's the same company and the same crappy hosting solutions.

Your site get host on Hostedtoday servers, You get charge by Advantages1web and you get the support from the indian donkeys of Roundberry. My god! They are a complete nightmare for any experienced webmaster. Now just imagine a newbie webmaster. Ouch!

They'll literally make you lose your mind and they’re a bunch of filthy liars. With them all the "cliché" about bad support customer services become a reality, meaning a n-i-g-h-t-m-a-r-e. And when you have reaches the point of no return they'll start messing with you knowing that you won't renew your hosting plan with them. Also, you’ll realize very quickly that the "99.9% uptime" they guarantee is a misrepresentation. If you expect a site that will run smoothly, takes this advice; STAY AWAY from Roundberry/Hostedtoday/Advantages1web consortium, especially if you're putting lots of efforts to run a successful business and paying for advertising.

A typical answer I remember from their miserable "support department" after they had made an unauthorized transaction on my credit card was "Please hold tight until we get back to you." That says it all! ::shock:

Don't hold back any tieone - tell us how you really feel! ;)

Sorry that you had such a bad experience, and thanks for warning the rest of us.

ezzi.net were our worst experience - they kept losing power in their datacentre, after the 4th/5th occasion we gave up and moved.

tell us how you really feel!

Quite well now. :D
But surely insane the full year I was with them. :banghead:

OH NO!
I start shaking and sweating again.
I shouldn't rehearse through such bad memories. :hide:

With 1and1 I ran out of mysql space and the site crashed and died.
Then the 2nd time with the same host. It lost connection to the mysql server for about 10 hours then it went back up for some strange reason.

And now Im still with the same host LOL =\

With 1and1 I ran out of mysql space and the site crashed and died.
Then the 2nd time with the same host. It lost connection to the mysql server for about 10 hours then it went back up for some strange reason.

And now Im still with the same host LOL =\

Funny, I moved from 1and1 and while ago due to the database size cap, plus support is slow as all heck.

I just started another 1and1 hosting account a week or so ago for my blogs, nothing mission critical and today my blog and email from them was down for about 3 hours.

Supposedly 1and1 is one of the world's largest domain registrars you'd think they could run a few servers. :D

Quite well now. :D
But surely insane the full year I was with them. :banghead:

OH NO!
I start shaking and sweating again.
I shouldn't rehearse through such bad memories. :hide:
LOL - poor baby!

Deep breaths - it'll be ok -

Supposedly 1and1 is one of the world's largest domain registrars you'd think they could run a few servers. :D
ugh, I almost opened a hosting acct with them for blog hosting too - now I'm glad that I haven't had time.

Everyone complains about go-daddy?
There so popular. and they even have go daddy girls LOL

But they suck?

If they don't even have a 24/7 tech support phone line and the only way to get support is through an online ticket system, good chance your're dealing with a resseller.

Ressellers suck. All!

If they don't even have a 24/7 tech support phone line and the only way to get support is through an online ticket system, good chance your're dealing with a resseller.

Ressellers suck. All!


Most are resellers to one extent or another - the question is how far down the line are you.

I have a dedicated, that is managed by someone and located in their cage within a datacenter. The whole thing is how far down the rung are you. I can contact either my server guy or the datacenter directly. (although I dont know enough to communicate with them effectively)

Everyone complains about go-daddy?
There so popular. and they even have go daddy girls LOL

But they suck?
yes, for hosting, GoDaddy sucks. They should stick to domains

Supposedly 1and1 is one of the world's largest domain registrars you'd think they could run a few servers. :DWe have dedicated (root) servers from 1&1 and have never had a problem with them or their customer service.

We have dedicated (root) servers from 1&1 and have never had a problem with them or their customer service.

My only beef with them is (shared) hosting wise is customer service is slow, dedicated customers probably have a different support staff. I've never gotten an issue taken care of in less than 3 emails, each email takes about 2 days to get a human response to that makes it 6 days for basic support.

As a registrar, I think their control panel stinks compared to GoDaddy but I use 1and1 because you pay for domains at the end of the month rather then per order.

Just my opinion, your mileage may vary. :)

We have a 24x7 phone number for support.

I had a reseller once, was very satisfied but then the host had lots of downtime.
More customers started complaining and then suddenly the company was gone and the servers went with them.
Luckily i had a backup of the database but getting my domain back was a long journey.
I've been with the current company for over a year now and am very satisfied with them.

We have a 24x7 phone number for support.
I do with mine too - but they never answer it :rolleyes:

I do with mine too - but they never answer it :rolleyes:LOL - Well 1&1 do, I've called them a number of times. :D

Well my experience is a bit different. You guys mostly speak of site issues. I had 17 dedicated machines leased at The Planet. They are are horrible... no other words describes it. In 21 days 10 of my dedicated machines had some type of nonrecoverable hardware failure. Non of it could be explained.. I just watched HDD after HDD being replaced and replaced... needless to say I learned a life lesson of leasing hardware and having them all with same operation. This was a few years back and I've since purchased and collocated all hardware and spread myself evenly around multiple Data centers.. but the moral of the Story is The Planet is incompetent and are not interested in your issues.. only your money.

If they don't even have a 24/7 tech support phone line and the only way to get support is through an online ticket system, good chance your're dealing with a resseller.

Ressellers suck. All!

I agree that most bottom tier resellers aren't up to par but I really disagree with your idea on the phone number. It's a nice perk for serious situations but is hardly a must in my eyes. I don't want to talk to these people... I just want them to be able to read and comprehend my e-mails and handle an issue should I have one. I actually prefer e-mail based systems as you have the option of documentation to refer back to if they don't so what they said they would or something similar. Also.. if phone support is available.. someone is abusing it...which means techs are tied up on phone calls support really shouldn't be having anyway instead of working on issues.. and yes this happens with e-mail to but resolving e-mails is as simple as clicking forward where as it can be a bit different getting an already angry client of your phone line....