Dream Host or Blue Host
I received a note tonight from Blue Host about their new 24/7 web service, about time already.
It reminds me of a little email converstaion we had back in June last year when you were in the West coast and I was in New York:
You:
You know WordPress has a gazillion templates. Where are you hosting? I'm at Dreamhost.
Why am I missing you so much right now? Am I missing New York and you're New York to me?
Me:
Mine is on Bluehost. I transferred my domain name from somewhere else. But I think Bluehost sucks. Server has been down.
One thing is certain that you must miss New York. I am here and I still miss it. Don't try to figure out, just keep on missing me.
You:
Dreamhost is great. Transfer there.
Sleep well. Dream well. Switch to Dreamhost because wouldn't you rather dream than be blue?
Me:
I paid for a year already for the blue, but I will take a look at the dream, yes, I would rather be dreaming than being blue. I am blue enough already. Plus the server of Blue is like you, sometime they just are non accessible. Better customer support please.... ;-)
As far as I know you are still using the Dream Host, and I am the Blue Host. But I never really use it, since I have the free blogspot.
It reminds me of a little email converstaion we had back in June last year when you were in the West coast and I was in New York:
You:
You know WordPress has a gazillion templates. Where are you hosting? I'm at Dreamhost.
Why am I missing you so much right now? Am I missing New York and you're New York to me?
Me:
Mine is on Bluehost. I transferred my domain name from somewhere else. But I think Bluehost sucks. Server has been down.
One thing is certain that you must miss New York. I am here and I still miss it. Don't try to figure out, just keep on missing me.
You:
Dreamhost is great. Transfer there.
Sleep well. Dream well. Switch to Dreamhost because wouldn't you rather dream than be blue?
Me:
I paid for a year already for the blue, but I will take a look at the dream, yes, I would rather be dreaming than being blue. I am blue enough already. Plus the server of Blue is like you, sometime they just are non accessible. Better customer support please.... ;-)
As far as I know you are still using the Dream Host, and I am the Blue Host. But I never really use it, since I have the free blogspot.
posted by NYE at 12:17 AM
5 Comments:
Long Story Short: Bluehost sucks.
As you can tell from the chat transcript I was trying to be as nice as possible for 2 reasons. I wanted a full refund, and the guy is just a peon in the company.
Richie: Welcome to our real-time support area, my name is Richie, how can I help you today?
andrew: Hi Richie, I need to cancel my account and get a refund. I should be entitled to a full refund seeing as how I did not recieve the service advertised as 99.9% uptime, my domain is ********.
andrew: Unfortunately it was much much lower than that. I’ve had serious downtime these past 2 and a half months and it just isn’t acceptable.
Richie: i apologize for that. If your account is under 30 days then we do offer a full refund… after 30 days is a prorated refund
andrew: What about the 99.9% uptime guarantee as advertised here:
andrew: http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&root=15&id=234
andrew: I have been down for probably in the 40-50 hours since joining 2 months ago. You guaranteed only about 8 hours a year.
andrew: That is a serious violation of the contract I entered.
andrew: I am hoping we can resolve and give me my refund fully as good customer service so as not to sour this any more.
Richie: Unfortunately you do not qualify for a full refund, I apologize… I would be happy to cancel your account and give you a prorated refund of $63.44
andrew: Please explain why I do not qualify based on the 99.9% uptime guarantee, it is right there in black and white on your help pages.
andrew: Is it just a blatant lie that will force me to file complaints with the BBB and such.
Richie: We do not offer a SLA (Service level agreement) where you would qualify for a full refund or credit
Richie: I’m sorry.
andrew: So how can you have a guarantee if it is not guaranteed?
Richie: If you read the Terms of Service it makes that fact abundantly clear.
andrew: Bluehost has been in violation of the 99.9% uptime guarantee every month since I joined.
Richie: again, I apologize, and I can understand why you would want to cancel, however you only qualify for a refund of $63.44
andrew: Richie, can you honestly tell me that you would be happy if a company offered you a guarantee and didn’t follow through, then would not make good on it.
Richie: I understand your frustration, however, $63.44 is the amount you would get if you canceled your account today. I truly am sorry.
andrew: I was charged $95.40 for this. And $63.44 is just unacceptable based on the service I have recieved. You are customer service oriented and your company does wish to make good with their customers yes?
Richie: I am sorry that it is unnacceptable for you, I truly am, however, it is what you would receive at this time, and unfortunately this is something that is non-negotiable
andrew: Richie, could you please explain to me what the 99.9% uptime guarantee means if not that I will get 99.9% or you will refund me.
Richie: we guarantee 99.9% or you can cancel your account and recieve a prorated refund
Richie: or if you cancel within 30 days you can receive a full refund for web hosting
andrew: But that was guaranteed elsewhere in the fact that I never entered into a binding contract with you to begin with.
Richie: If you read out TOS you would know that we do not offer any additional compensation above the prorated refund if the uptime is not met
andrew: So your telling me that you won’t show me the great customer service of giving me a full refund(minus the domain of course), instead, you wish to sour me forever to bluehost, forcing me to tell everyone I know and meet not to use you in real life and the internet, resulting in alot of negative publicity for bluehost over, what $25.
andrew: I strongly urge you to check with your manager before deciding this.
Richie: I have. The prorated refund does stand, I am sorry.
*****At this point he cleared the chat transcript so as I couldn't post it(they aren't very smart though, at the end of the session it asks if you want it e-mailed to you*******
Richie: I can take care of it for you now, I only need you to verify the last 4 digits of the CC on the account.
andrew: Very well, that’s the beauty of it I suppose. Not your fault, but Bluehost. I’m sorry you have to work for such a company. I will unfortunately have to initiate a chargeback for the full amount, and post my experience to blogs all over the internet, and tell all my friends and acquaintances to steer clear of bluehost, all over $25. It’s sad really that a company would choose that.
andrew: It’s too bad it will cost bluehost so much more than it will cost me.
Richie: because of the planned chargeback, before we can delete the account you will need to speak with our billing department. They will need to confirm the chargeback before the account is deleted
Richie: our Billing department is here during standard business hours, M-F 9am-5pm (MST)
Richie: you can call 1-888-401-HOST to speak with the billing department
andrew: Is there an e-mail address I should e-mail them at at.
andrew: Or is it live chat.
Richie: You can call, and speak with a billing representative
andrew: No, I don’t believe I will be calling. Not worth the effort to talk to them, this was draining enough. :) Is there an e-mail address?
Richie: billing@bluehost.com
Richie: I am sorry it has been so draining for you…
andrew: It’s ok Richie, not your fault. I did make sure I saved the chat script as we talked so as to post it elsewhere on the internet. Anyway, I honestly wish you have a good night. Like I said, I know companies have policies and all, not the fault of the employee if he does as he’s told.
Richie: Well, I thank you for your understanding
andrew: Good Night! And hey you got paid for 35 minutes without having to work too hard. ;)
Richie: I wish, I get to take phone calls during this time as well. Busy night. Have a good night! :)
andrew: hahaha bye.
My reply from the CEO of bluehost when I posted the above to his blog:
No where does it say we will give you a full refund, and you most CERTAINLY were not down anywhere near 40 hours. Give me a break! Take your $$$ and go find a different host.
We never say anywhere we will give you your money back after 30 days, so for you to expect that is assinine.
Thanks,
Matt Heaton / Bluehost.com
My reply back:
Check your facts Matt, a few days ago I was on box 126 which was down for over over 26 hours! Unacceptable! I did take my money elsewhere, to lunarpages!
Sweet post. If anyone out there wants to get with Dreamhost, save $97 with Dreamhost code: WTF
BLUEHOST SUCKS, THEY suspended my account WITHOUT A REASON AND WITHOUT A REFUND!!!!!, just becase my website was REALLY needed at least 1giga bandwidth, while they overselling FAKE VALUES fake disk space, and FAKE bandwidth, they putting extreme CPU limits, they CAN'T host .php at all.
My advice, STAY AWAY FROM BLUEHOST, EVERYTHING IS FAKE
bluehost = FAKEHOST.
Some said Bluehost sucks but many more said they are good.
So who is right?
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