degradation of technical support

I have used Hostgator as my primary host service for over 3 years, currently hosting over 35 domains with them. For several years I was very pleased with their service, however, over the past 3 to 6 months it seems that their technical support has degraded substantially. I have had numerous simple issues take days to resolve or take several days and still not be resolved.

Unfortunately, I am now having to look for another host service to migrate my domains to because reliable technical support is critical to me.

Host Gator - Good Host

So far my experience at HostGator is great. Their prices are reasonable and it is fairly simple to sign up and pay. I was also pleased with the amount of space and bandwidth they give you. My account was set up in no time and so for I have had NO problems with this host. I have heard bad things in the past about this host, but so far I am very satisfied and will continue to do business with them. For only 9.99 I am getting a substantial amount of space and bandwidth and I am allowed to park 1000 sites there.

Mildly disatisfying

I had spent quite a while drifting from host to host before deciding to give in to the temptation of using a bigger and somewhat better known host. I think everyone has heard of Host Gator before and that was the first host that popped into my head. I setup an account and as soon as my nameservers had updated I began playing with the Control Panel and such... Just to see what (if anything) was new. My package uses CPanel X which is pretty much the norm for most web hosts. With that you can expect such liberties as 3 click script installation, advanced website statstics, phpmyadmin access and so much more. At first I was happy to pay the few dollars extra to what I was used to but that feeling soon faded as I began to notice a significant drop in the loading times of my website. I decided to weather the storm and see if the guys at Host Gator would fix it, and they did. That is, for a week or so before I noticed the drop in speed again. This time I was working on my website - and half way through my website went down. I was shocked. I spent the rest of the evening, the entire next day and the morning after constantly refreshing my browser hoping that I would see my website load up. And eventually it did. Since then I haven't had any trouble whatsoever and I think the problem with the speed was due to the fact that i'm using their shared hosting package, which is fine for some websites... But as I found, it's not fine for mine.

Nothing but problems getting signed up.

I recently tried signing up for hosting with Hostgator. I submitted my order, and the next page showed:

Your order has been received by our billing system and has been approved.

It went on to give me an Authorization Code and Transaction ID for my credit card processing.

A couple of minutes later I received a call from Hostgator saying that I needed to verify some information before they would give me an account. Since they called and their name didn't show up on caller ID, I was reluctant to give out personal information over the phone. They told me I could handle it by answering an e-mail. I checked my e-mail, and to verify this is what they wanted:

"respond to this ticket with a scanned copy of a Photo ID such as as a passport, or drivers license. Also please include a scanned copy of the credit card that was used in purchase, if you purchased a hosting account with a credit card"

So, they screwed up my order, and now they wanted pictures of my DL and CC. There was no way I was going to send them that information, so I called them again.

I was told that my order had been flagged because My IP address showed to be located 150 miles from my billing address, which is odd since I was ordering the service from a computer AT my billing address. I also learned that they had canceled the first order, after charging my credit card. They then created a new order that I was supposed to pay for. So, my debit card had already been charged once, and they wanted to charge it again. Most people know that when your debit card has been charged, the money is taken out immediately, and if the charge is voided, the money gets credited back in a few days. I was already out $119.40, and they wanted that amount again.

I asked to speak to a supervisor, and was transfered to a person who said his name was Fred. He wouldn't give me a last name, employee number, extension, or anything that could be used to identify him, even though they though it was perfectly OK for them to require personal information from me, including my driver's license number. We spoke for some time, and I asked him to send me an e-mail saying that my first order was canceled and that I would be receiving a refund for the charge. He said he would be happy to do that. I also explained that I wasn't comfortable paying for the second order until I made sure the money from the first order was put back into my bank account. He said he understood, and that the second invoice would stay on file for 10 days, after which it would be deleted if not paid. He also told me that I could call and ask for him anytime, and he would be glad to help me.

I never received the e-mail he promised me, and I woke up the next day to find that they had charged my debit card for the second order without my authorization. So, I called and asked to speak to Fred. I was told that I needed to explain everything to the first person I talked to, before they could transfer me to Fred. So, I went through the whole story, and after some time, I was transfered to him.

I told him that the second charge was posted to my debit card without my authorization, and I asked why. He said "Oh, I forgot to mention that if your credit card number is on file, and you have an open invoice, it will automatically be batched out the next day", even though this was in direct contradiction to what he had told me the day before. So, not only was I lied to about the e-mail he was going to send me, I was also lied to about the the invoice being kept open for 10 days.

At this point, I asked that my account be closed and my money refunded. He told me I would have to fill out a form and that he would take care of it. I filled out the form and submitted it. He asked that I hold for a couple of minutes while he took care of it. He then came back on the phone and said that the account has been closed, and the credit card purchases had been voided. He said that since the credit card purchases showed as pending in their system, that voiding them would stop me from being charged, and that no refund would be issued, even though my bank shows that I was charged twice from their company.

At this point, I have no idea whether I will get my money back. I can only wait and hope.

I would advise anyone interested in using this company not to do so, and if you must, make sure you don't give them a credit card, which they believe gives them free reign to charge whatever they feel like charging, whenever they feel like charging it.

Biggest Pro: None
Biggest Con: Everything

Overall A Good Service

I have been with many hosts over the past 4 years or so and have found that there is one host I always live by and that is HostGator, they provide around the clock support 24/7 and always solve any issues I may be having.

You get an amazing amount of bandwidth and disk space for the money you pay which is great value for money.

My only small complaint is that there are quite a few restrictions which do not apply to all users such as not being able to run scripts like top sites.

I think I would suggest HostGator to anyone starting out or even for those who take web building more seriously.

Biggest Pro: Plenty of bandwidth and disk space
Biggest Con: Slightly too many restrictions for some users

HostGator Review

I considered many different hosts before choosing HostGator. None of the ones I looked at could match HostGators low price. They provide all the services you ever need, a very clean easy to use admin control panel and all the space/bandwidth you'll ever need. This is my 2nd year on Hostgator and so far there has been no downtime that I am aware of. I highly recommend this host. A++

Biggest Pro: Uptime, reliability, and professionalism.
Biggest Con: I have seen hosts that offer more disk space/bandwith for a lower price but I find HostGator the most professional/reliable.

Great Host!

The best host on earth, never seen a better host.Its Uptime for the last 8 months has been a fantastic 100.00%. Its Customer Support is great although its LIVE support is not so good. The speed of server is pretty good. Value for money is great. I'm on 10$/month for 100GB space and 1000GB bandwidth. It also has support for unlimited Sub Domains, Parked domains and Addons Domains.

I recommend this host very much :)

Biggest Pro: Uptime 100.00%
Biggest Con: LIVE customer support not so good.

Hostgator Review

I'm not even sure if the first host I ever used is still in business. All I was concerned with was the absolute cheapest deal. I learned the hard way that by making price your main factor you are dooming yourself to get exactly what you paid for. By paying very little, you get very little. I experienced constant downtime until the host lost complete control of their server to hackers. The one redeeming point was they did eventually, after weeks of me nagging, come through with my refund.

My next host, and only since, is Hostgator. I only have one other to compared it against so take my recommendation for what it is worth. I chose them by asking others what host they had the best experience with. All I know is that I've never noticed a single problem to complain about in 8 months of using them. The total minutes of downtime can be counted on my hand. Any time I have requested help from support they have been quick to respond.

The fact that I have no complaints, is what I think says the most. In order for your site to be a success you need to rely on the fact that it will run smoothly. Having a good host saves you from all of the stresses a poor host causes. Piece of mind is the most important thing that you can buy.

Biggest Pro: No Problems!

So far so good...

Been with hostgator for 2 months now, and its been great. The email support has been amazing and with quick response times. 100% uptime so far. Overall +++.

Biggest Pro: support

Hostgator Review from a beginner

I have two accounts, one on bluehost and the other on Host Gator. Hostgator is a nice web host because they offer a wide range of plans for certian types of users. It is well priced and within everyone's budget. They also have more advanced plans such as dedicated servers for those who want to utilize the power. Setting up my site was easy except for the help section. The help section can be confusing because if you buy your domain from somewhere else, the instructions will say you need the same DNS nameserver, but they do not tell you how to look it up. Overall I don't have any complaints. Their online help is great for the quick answers that you need.

Biggest Pro: price
Biggest Con: help database