Dean warned me, but after using GoDaddy for about a year with no problems, I ignored him. But every dog has its day and it seems that GoDaddy has awarded itself in pissing off yet another customer.
This time, it’s me. And here’s how the Theatre of GoDaddy Hosting unravels.
Since Thursday evening, I have not had access to my hosting account at GoDaddy. At first, the problem was a billing issue. So I called in on Friday morning, rectified the billing issue, then the chap on the phone told me to wait 24-hours for things to work through the system.
This problem affects these domains:
- cubicledivas.com
- planakillerpodcast.com
- podoptimize.com
- leesabarnes.com
It also affects about a dozen of my clients since most of their podcast files are hosted on podoptimize.com. So, I’m losing money every hour it’s down and so too are my clients.
On Saturday around 6pm, I called GoDaddy for a status since none of my sites are up. Of which the chap told me:
“We made a mistake. The person should’ve told you 24 business hours.”
Apparently, because I paid for my hosting through PayPal, I had to wait until someone in the PayPal office at GoDaddy showed up for work Monday morning.
So, first thing this morning, I called the billing department to inquire about the PayPal folks. He put me on hold for about 3-minutes, came back and said:
“They just got into the office and they’re working through the queue right now.”
To which I said:
“That’s nice. I’ll call back in a few hours.”
I just got off the phone with the same chap, Chris. That has never happened to me before where I call a call centre and I get the very same person. I asked him for a status to which he said:
“They’re working on it.”
To which my normally polite tone turned ice cold. I asked for a manager. He said there’s none around. I asked to be transferred to said PayPal office. He said he can’t. I asked for a guarantee that it’ll be up before the end of the day. To which Chris said:
“I guarantee it.”
So, here it is for everyone to see. GoDaddy has promised that by the end of their day (5pm MT), my (whatever) will be resolved and I’ll have access to the files on my server.
GoDaddy is great when everything works and you follow the template. As soon as something doesn’t follow their template, it takes days for things to be resolved. I remember one problem I had where it took 2-weeks to resolve a domain name issue.
So, I’m looking for a new webhost that can support my podcasting needs. Any suggestions? Here’s my requirements:
- Needs to be on Linux.
- Has to allow SSH access.
- Must be able to host multiple domains on the 1 account.
- I’d like a dedicated IP.
- Must have unlimited MySQL accounts.
- A minimum of 100GB diskspace and 1000GB transfer.
- I must be able to create separate FTP accounts, a minimum of 5.
- I need unlimited subdomains.
- Must support php, java, tomcat, apache.
- And I don’t want to pay more than $25 per month. Preferably in Canadian funds, but I’m open to paying in USD.
So, what’s out there? Help me.
Tags: hosting, wordpress, podcast hosting, linux hosting
Oh and like i said please let me know of only free hosting i cant pay anymore thanks to godaddy for charging my credit card 5 times on just one account.
And only re funded 2 saying the others dont appear to be valid sorry…
But in the future i would like to upgrade to a better host with paypal once i get paid members..
I really hate goddady i spent a lot with them and never got anything back, i lost my host and no refund premum hosting 36 months worth.
I goto start all over cause of there lies and lazy fix it atitude!
I allways got a Host Misconfiguration message and they blamed me!
Is there any free hosting for php + sql i can use, 500+ mb and no limit on how many ppl can login to my site 🙁
I spent a lot on this software to own a dating site and have made a total of $o.oo in the 6 months hosted by um.
I also switched from ‘dontgotodaddy’ to bluehost for my corporate website. Very happy with the change.
Why is it that no one ever listens to me until it’s too late? 🙂
Regardless, I’m glad to see the problem is solved. But yes, stay away from Godaddy hosting. They are great for domain names but horrible with everything else.
Go check out SolidSpace at http://www.solidspace.com. They offer affordable hosting plans on a variety of platforms with great customer service. Very responsive with great managed services. And they do a lot of podcast hosting. In fact, they have a podcast management interface called SolidCasts (www.solidcasts.com).
I’ve had Dreamhost for a couple of years as well. The sites did go down more than I would have liked last fall, but they seem to have been more stable lately.
Great prices, too.
One downside: customer service is only through e-mail, but I’ve always had a response within 24 hours.
I have been with PowWeb.com for the last five years, and have no problems. Tech support is responsive, they have a great user forum and the control panel was recently upgraded. It’s a joy to work with especially when I am not a web person.
I also host a site at Total Choice Hosting,com. I like them as well, but if I had to do it over again I’d stick with PowWeb. Thanks for sharing your story…glad to see you’re back up.
+1 for Bluehost.
Every hosting has its own downsides. So my strategy is to identify those problems taking into account the features you need most with your business. Then try to minimise the probability of each problem. It may be just a to-do item, or a tool you install on the server, or a backup service.
And the more sites you host on one account the more serious each downtime becomes to you. Allot $10 per domain, not just $20 for an account, so when you grow up to 10 domains or more you could switch to virtual server account, server grid account, or dedicated account.
I just switched from Bluehost to Media Temple. I had outgrown the shared hosting plan I was on at Bluehost, who served me well for over 2 years, and I was considering their next plan up. Before I made the move, I checked out a bunch of other alternatives and found the grid server approach of Media Temple fit my needs best and for less money. Check it out:
http://mediatemple.net
That’s why I just love this community – everyone’s so willing to help. Thanks to you Jim, radiodogg and Kevin.
BTW, my site’s are back up and it’s 10-minutes to 4pm MST. Well, that’s one thing they did right today – they kept their word.
Any other hosting suggestions?
Hi,
I feel your pain. I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that all hosting providers have their own special kind of suckitude, and there’s no escaping it. Of course, paying more generally gives you more, but that’s not always the case. So far, I’ve had very good experiences with http://www.bluehost.com. They will give you shell access, but you need to send in a request with photo-id after you’ve signed up, before they will activate that. I’m pretty sure they support tomcat, but perhaps not on their most basic plans. Although I’ve had problems with http://www.pair.com in the past, I have to say that their customer service has been very responsive and helpful in my experience. So, if it’s true that even the best will have occasional downtime, they’re worth considering as well. HTH
Hi,
That sucks alot. I almost went with them awhile back but held off. Now I’m glad I did. You might want to look into http://www.rawvoice.com, they’re all podcasters, and also run http://www.blubrry.com. Good luck!
Check out Dream Host, http://www.dreamhost.com. Great prices, lots of storage and bandwidth, unlimited domains, and an active community for fast support. I have eight domains hosted with Dream Host and have zero complaints.