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HostGator Sucks - Fraudulent Billing
All webmasters should beware of ever hosting a website with Boca Raton, Florida based Hostgator… HostGator is the worst hosting company ever run by a bunch of snotty Boca brats who could care less about the fact they’re going to be staring down multiple lawsuits for fraudulent billing practices. There is also a building community of people who have expressed disgust with HostGator’s affiliate program and accusations that the company has been cheating affiliates and resellers of profits. In my case, it’s their fraudulent billing practices (ie: billing customers after *HostGator* has cancelled an account) that has me on the soapbox today.
My saga with them began when they took down one of my websites I had hosted with them back in November 2006 without notice because they claimed my site used 11% of the CPU. The support department told me they would send me a .tar file of my site and a mysql export within one week which I told them was unacceptable because the site has paid advertisers (not Google Adsense) and I already had another dedicated server with PEER1 to move the site in question to immediately. After several hours of tying up their phone support, they finally relinquished and put the .tar file in an ftp for me to ownload. I told them cancel my account immediately and do not bill my credit card again.
I had my site back up in several hours on my dedicated server and thought I was done with them for good, but they have continued to bill my credit card 24.95 per month since the incedent back in November. I have called support and they said I needed to log into CPanel and cancel my account from there, however, they locked me out of Cpanel. I told them I was going to do a chargeback on the fraudulent billing and their representative stated they would file a judgment against me with the credit bureaus if I reversed the charges. I then posted my story to several webmaster and webhosting forums back in April 2007 which prompted the owner of Hostgator Brent Oxley (who is only 24 years old) to respond to the public accusation. Brent promised and swore up and down he would refund my charges in full as long as I quit posting to the forums. Brent didn’t keep his promises.
Here we are, now in August 2007 and they are still continuing to attempt to bill me for an account they cancelled. They have an obscure policy where you have to login to their site to cancel an account, you can’t do it over the phone or in writing, as per their policy. Much like the way AOL used to hide the “canncel my account” information and would not allow members to cancel their account by phone or mail. I had no recourse at this point but to block any charges from them through Bank of America and issue a chargeback but that’s only good for the last 60 days of billing, so I’m still out 6 months x $24.95 per month for the fraudulent billing. That’s thanks to Brent Oxley’s slick manipulation on the forums to keep me from charging back several months ago.
I have an impeccable credit rating and this is the absolute most dispicable act I’ve ever seen from an internet company since AOL pulled the same BS on consumers back in the mid 1990’s which resulted in an eventual class action suit against AOL.I also don’t appreciate having my credit rating and/or my debit card being played games with by a bunch of spoiled little rich kids from Boca Raton (btw, I used to live in Boca before moving further north in Florida).
Here’s a little blurb about this boy wonder, Brent Oxley, billing scammer from WebhostGear.com…
| DALLAS, TX and BOCA RATON, FL — In 2002, Brent Oxley was a 19 year-old college student working with high-traffic Web sites when he became frustrated with the hosting companies who provided unstable service, poor support and scams that ripped off inexperienced customers. He decided to start Hostgator to fill the void in the marketplace and provide the better hosting environment for which fellow webmasters were searching. Today, Hostgator is one of the largest and most respected Web hosts in the industry, growing from just under 100 customers to over 10,000 in three years. |
Well, it seems there are hundreds of unsatisfied customers who have been through a similar situation with HostGator as I’ve been through. There are also many people on the webhosting forums claiming that HostGator has been cheating affiliates out of referral earnings, and other sorts of scaammy activities. For example, here is a blog about one person’s horrendous experience with hostgator…
Hostgator Sucks - Brian’s First Amendment Site
Here is another person who has been fraudulently billed by Hostgator as well..
Better Business Bureau Pulls One Out
Here is a thread on sitepoint with somebody who had his database destroyed by HostGator…
If you search for “HostGator Sucks” or “HostGator Scam” on Google, you will see the following number of results…
Results 1 - 30 of about 21,700 for hostgator sucks. (0.13 seconds)
Results 1 - 30 of about 52,200 for hostgator scam
I urge anybody reading this to never have any dealings with HostGator or you will be sorry, that is unless you want your website in the hands of 20 something year old punks who with treat you like dirt. I don’t know what the heck is wrong with these “internet generation” kids who think they can hide behind a computer screen and scam people as if it were not a real crime??? As I’d mentioned in my previous article regarding MoneyMakerGroup forums, this particular generation seems to need a lesson in business ethics, integrity and honesty. Either that or their parents should have taken them out behind the woodshed a few times and given them a strap across their lazy, apathetic, ignorant backs.
by coopersview
Hi C4G,
I would like to send out this warning!
Reading through the thread in ASA on Planet Trust, I have the reason to believe that Jake (ASA), Jack Cobb (Planet Trust), Chris (Elitesurfing) and Vee are playing the game together on ASA members.
Seeing members being treated like fools by these people and a few cheerleaders really makes me angry, especially Jake who owns ASA, Jack Cobb who plays the honest guy, Chris as the bad guy and Vee as a wolf in sheep’s skin pretending to be nice and trying to save the industry. LOL!
This industry is so corrupt just by looking at these few people. Prove me wrong!!
JMV
by Moboking
I have received those fraudulent billing emails, Hostgator really sucks
by C4G
Get used to it, they’re not gong to stop. Those bastards at Hostgator will stop at nothing to steal your money…
by brent oxley
I’m the owner of hostgator so please don’t delete my post as I will personally help anyone that contacts me.
The only way we have ever done cancellations, and ever will is through hostgator.com/cancel.php we do this because many people like to lie and makeup fake cancellations to try and get money back.
The second you fill out hostgator.com/cancel.php you get a ticket number back. (anyone here is welcome to try this for proof)
What is your ticket number? If you can provide one which would prove you did in fact cancel I will give you 5x every penny you have ever paid us. Please post it and email me this at brent@ hostgator.com as I most likely won’t see any response posted here.
Hostgator Sucks - Brian’s First Amendment Site is ran by someone in the kkk. I don’t know about all the reviews, but most of them on the site are fake. This site was created by the alias brian WHITE in response to us kicking an anti semitic site called jewwatch.com from our hosting. This same guy use to run a hosting company named something along the lines of kkk web hosting.com. He ended up scamming a guy on webhostingtalk which brought this to light.
As for the bbb complaint maisonbisson admitted she ignored our response asking for more information. We’ve actually got complaints before because when we didn’t respond offering to do everything we could to help the customer before canceling.
A refund was issued and had she worked with us via the ticket system it would have ended with the same result. We have the best rating the BBB gives, and we actually have less then a 3rd of the complaints hosts our size have.
Did you read the thread about the supposed database being destroyed? The customer’s database was 100% fine and he posted saying “Ok the situation has been resolved and my website is working again. ” He also went on to recommend our service.
We host around 700,000 websites so yes there’s probably going to be 100’s if not thousands of people out there that had a problem with us due to their own ignorance, or from a hostgator staff member completely screwing up. The best large company in the world is going to have many people that hate them with a passion. You can’t please everyone, but we are going to keep doing our best to do so.
How many owners get this involved, and offer to personally make things right? If you have a problem please be fair and give me a chance to help you first before hating us.
Thanks for reading!
-brent oxley
by C4G
Brent, thank you for replying.
The first issue is and will always be your company disabled my site for supposedly using 11% CPU. The list of features and such when somebody signs up *does not state* and account will be terminated without warning for this type of issue. Obviously this issue occurred because I hapeend to have a very active website that was receiving a lot of traffic. Had I been contacted via the phone number listed with your company or via email, I would have responded immediately and would have had no problem upgrading to a VPS or dedicated server because (once again obviously), the site in question was and is making enough money to afford those solutions.
Second, considering the fact I had to identify myself to gain support regarding this issue *obviously* identified myself as the owner of the account. After two hours plus on the phone with your teenager support representatives who were very disrespectful just to get a .tar file of my site (they first said it would take 7 days to get my site data) I told the representative on the phone to CANCEL my account immediately. That should have been enough to cancel my account. As a consumer I have the right to request cancellation in any manner I choose, not through clicking on a webpage that you have designated. AOL is a prime example of this legislature when they were beaten in a class action suit for the exact same type of billing practices.
As far as you making accusations here regarding Brian’s First Ammendment Site being part of the KKK. You are once again wrong in your bringing this issue public here on my blog and has nothing to do with the fact he is blogging about the nastiness of your support department. Under the First Ammendment people do have the right to operate sites such as the one you mentioned. After all Rev. Fred Phelps has been running GodHatesFags.com for 10 years now (if you remember, Fred Phelps groups is/was the one picketing Iraq soldiers funerals because he said the war in Iraq is caused by the Jews and Gays). Not to mention, the now deceased Rev. Jerry Falwell was continually allowed to express his homophobic and anti-semetic opinions in public and even on CNN and MSNBC).
Once again, I have stated your services were exceptional while my site was hosted with you, however as a person old enough to be your father, I resent the game playing regarding charging my debit card for an account *YOUR COMPANY* cancelled and took down.
You not only cost me time and money, you’ve dragged this issue out since the end of 2006. It’s time you finally just credited my account back for all charges from Nov 2006 - July 2007 and stop sending me “Hostgator Account Due” emails because I blocked your charges through Bank of America.
One last thing. As an adult who owns two homes “mortgage free” and 5 automobiles without a single payment on them, and who doesn’t use credit cards, my credit rating is impeccable. To be threatened by your teenage staff that your company would file a bad credit rating on me if I blocked your charges and requestted a chargeback really set me off.
While you may host 700,000 websites, that does not matter at all to me. Granted popularity and brand market recognition does breed detractors, hoever, all I care about is putting an end to this once and for all. You had promised me on Webhostingtalk back in April you would personally take care of this issue and refund my account. Well, after finding more charges on my debit card in July, I’d had it. You have my PM address on DigitalPoint forums (in fact, you just PM’ed me there), I challenge you to please send me a direct phone number to discuss and end this once and for all.
If you fix this problem as promised, I will personally use all the smae manners I’ve used to gain your personal attention to openly state that HostGator owner is a sincerely honest person who cares about one little client out of 700,000.
by Damien Patrick
I am curious to know if these issues were resolved by Hostgator. I have been using their services for several years and must admit that I only ran into two problems which required phone calls to fix, then again I never tried cancelling before, I have always considered them a fair company as I have tried 11 hosting companies out up to today and the others did not offer what I needed which was support on a 24×7 basis 365 so I’d love to know the outcome of what happened, did they pay you?
Has all been resolved?
Have you ever tried other hosting companies and how would you compare them to Hostgator?
by C4G
Yes, Brent resolved all the issues promptly and courteously. HostGator has had so much growth and they have been scrambling to find qualified support technicians in the past but Brent has that all under wraps.
I would definitely recommend HostGator at this point.
by Bach
I think hostgator is ok. the only problem is that they are a little slow on fixing problemas. They put my website offline today and Iam losing money and traffic. I know it was part of my fault and I could fix it but they didnt give me a chance so I was force to move to other hosting service because my site cannot be more than 5 minutes offline.
other than that I think is an ok hosting service.
by Robin
Thanks Brent, i didn’t aware that i can cancel my account directly. FYI I signed up using my client’s name, because they asked me to, and pay via different paypal email address.
Then i was forced to verify the account by giving my government identity, and surely my client will also hate to be verified that way.
I don’t like to be verified, you have my IP address, and i pay via verified PayPal address (every paypal users are verified!). Isn’t that enough? Apparently it’s enough for hundreds of other websites i’m dealing with.
Your sign up process is the most annoying steps i’ve ever experience. I’m canceling my account.
by Randy
host gator support stinks.
always get a hard time in my 2 calls to the.
infact they play phone games, i called in, pressed option 2 for support was in q for like 10 mins till i got to be number 1 in q, then someone picked up the phone did not say nothing and put it on dold. i called in on another line while first line was still on hold and that 2nd line was answered first after like 10 mins while the first kine still was not answered after over 30 mins.
by Leonidas
Randy and Robin, I’ve been thinking about canceling as well…how did it go?
I truly hate HostGator.