Good service at first, shady after you're with them a while

I've been with Justhost for over a year now and just had to pay my first yearly fee. I got in at a great, great rate, $41.88 for a year and was assured via customer service that I'd be renewing at that rate. I had talked to them multiple times about billing and they never once told me my rate would increase.

When it came time to renew, which by the way they would not tell me exactly what day I'd be billed on- just that it'd be "about a week" before my actual service expiration date, they charged me $71.50 instead of the rate they assured me I would be keeping. I contacted customer service and they refuse to give me any real answer, their version of an answer is "I can give you the lower rate if you want to pay for another year up front right now" or "Cancel and we can debit your account". Since I am not the only person that uses the website I can't really do anything to cancel the service, but it seems like they love adding charges and changing rates without notice. The customer service guys seem to have no care that they could've possibly caused me to have NSF fees at my bank because I was never informed of what the bill would actually be.

Of course, now their billing website has been updated to reflect the new rate and has no record of my old rate.
If you plan to be with Justhost be warned that although the initial hosting is cheaper they WILL raise your rate without your permission. As of right now, except for prepaying all at once I am not seeing a viable way to keep the 'lower' rate, also just so you know their plan which supports 3 domains is almost $120, plus domain privacy is an extra $10, otherwise they let anyone and everyone see your address which you must provide to them for billing purposes. You have to pay EXTRA for 'premium speed' customer service which I doubt is any faster than their standard service, and its not uncommon for you to talk to 3-4 different employees in the course of getting your problem solved- this is bad because it means you'll be explaining yourself... a lot- the service guys apparently haven't figured out how to read quoted emails. Extra domains on their service are $14.95 a year which seems like a bargain until you realize you're now paying $70+ for just one.

As far as the actual service, it seems pretty good. I probably would not recommend it for extremely tech savvy people, because it is supposed to be dumbed down a bit for the average user, which is what I am, and I find it easy to use. However I just can't recommend a place that essentially scammed me by NEVER telling me my terms would increase. Oh, I'm sure there is a clause SOMEWHERE, which is why I can't report it or anything, but it is still very ridiculous.

Biggest Pro: Cheap at first
Biggest Con: Poor customer service, sneaky billing tactics

24 hours down time and still counting.

I have never known a hosting company like this. I have around 10 domains hosted with Just Host. Yesterday around 4:00pm GMT they all went down as did email. It's now just gone 4:00pm the next day and they are still all down.

After numerous emails (via gmail) they've agreed to credit my account with this months hosting cost, a small amount compared to the less of sales. No-one has given me any glue as to when my sites will be back up or why they are down. The support team are just fobbing me off with "our support team and they are currently working on the issue and this should be resolved shortly" SHORTLY. That was hours ago.

I moved to Just Host because of bad service and long down time from previous companies. I thought 1 hour was a to long. Until now.

From day one Just Host has been a nightmare I haven't received more than 2 months without some down time.

Congratulations Just Host you have now managed 100% down time in 1 day. Maybe they can manage it for another day.

You get what you pay for with Just Host. Low price, low level of service.
Very, very, very disappointing.

Horrible.

There was many incidents of downtime. There support staff asked me to give my login credentials over the internet, and it was a bad overall experience.
AZ

Biggest Pro: It sometimes worked
Biggest Con: Downtime

When they go down, they go down hard

Been down all day. The only response is that they are working on it. No response as to when it will be up, why it's down, nothing. Basically no information at all. Just suck it up and it will be up when it's up and they're working on it. This is the first time it's ever been down, but you can usually tell the merit of support when there are issues. I won't slam them too bad unless it doesn't come up in a couple of hours.

Just Host is TERRIBLE

I would not recommend Just Host to anyone.

They get a "D" grade in my book. My site is down for several hours every week, and sometimes for more than a day at a time. Even when site's running, it's intermittently slow without any explanation.The company provides no advance warning for "scheduled maintenance."

After each repair and "free upgrade" they say I'm "one of their best servers" and then, each time, the site fails again. Also, they don't do the daily backup as promised, so now that my site's been down all day Friday and they don't know when it will be fixed, they can't move it because there's no backup. Unbelievable! I pay for premium service.

I can't wait until I have the time to move my site to a better host. Unfortunately the domain switch takes time and effort.

Add-On Charge

I had found JustHost.com through the usual search and hosted my website with them. I had two other websites to build for businesses and decided to host them through JH also. When I bought the domain name for one (paid online with a CC), my email receipt had an extra $9.95 charge for "privacy service". However, I didn't order that.

When I emailed back to ask for a credit, they claim in "service agreement", there are no refunds, though I didn't order the service.

They still refuse to refund the $9.95, so I'm moving all my accounts from them.

They're crap.

Allowed my domain to expire despite assurances to the contrary...

I transferred my domain to Just Host several weeks before it was due to expire and require renewal. I was assured by Just Host that they would take care of the transfer and renew the domain name. I provided them with the necessary information and received a confirmation that "all was OK" and that "I shouldn't worry" about the renewal.

JustHost at some point received a cancellation of the transfer BUT NEVER NOTIFIED ME!! Recently, I tried to access my email and web site only to find that the domain name HAD expired and was in redemption!!

JustHost refuses to take responsibility for the expiration of the domain name despite their email assuring me that the transfer and renewal was "OK" and for ruining my business presence on the web. When I disputed the issue with them, they said I should redeem the domain and let them know so they could transfer it. It will cost me $160 plus and additional $10.95 to redeem the domain name that JustHost let expire!

Their support people do not talk to each other and apparently do not keep any records of the issue I opened with them where they confirmed that the domain name was renewed. The billing department also keeps sending me notices that they will add an additional three months free if I continue with them. I signed up for 4 years but after this experience, I just want OUT.

JustHost is the WORST for service and the word "incompetent" immediately comes to mind when it comes to administration. Although I canceled my account through their web site, I continue to get notices about whether/not I want to cancel.

I was initially locked out of the admin tool that would allow me to cancel my subscription online. I emailed support, who sent me my login username and password. The password was incorrect. Fortunately, I found the correct password in my records and proceeded to logon to the cancellation UI.

I have been trying to get them to confirm that my cancellation actually was processed by their server and have not been successful. I have no confidence in their administrative abilities and hope that I will get a refund in a timely manner. They seem to excel in putting obstacles in the path of what should be a no-brainer cancellation transaction.

You will eventually regret using Justhost

Looks like users here have a good sense of JustHost, as of this writing they have <15% overall rating and nothing higher than 2.9 on the rating scales. Not sure how they get such great reviews on other sites, other than they must have employees filling out reviews or pay sites for editor reviews.

To start, they give very little control over domain features, everything has to be requested through email to support which takes forever. For anyone beyond the most novice user, their cPanel implementation is useless, most features missing or disabled. Can't even get a phone number for billing.

If there's an issue prepare to be down for days as you go back and forth in email getting no answers. Tech support was friendly when you got someone that you could understand, but not helpful at all. Most definitely outsourced Indian support. If you let a domain expire (shame on me) it's nothing short of EXTORTION to get it back (charged me for a 1 yr renewal more than GoDaddy charges for a 10 yr registration. Have emails from them and the payment transactions to prove this. Billing would not even tell me what I was paying for other than to have my domain back, not how long the renewal was, when they would do it, nothing. And this was after asking repeatedly over about 4 email interactions that total took all day. Would say you get what you pay for, but there's plenty out there that even beat their prices.

One of the worst, most unethically predatory companies I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. STAY AWAY.

Biggest Pro: You can eventually escape and go elsewhere
Biggest Con: The money and time you will waste dealing with them

Very long but READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE SIGNING UP!

Anyone who thinks they should sign up with these idiots should be strongly warned! DO NOT use them as they are just scam artists and I can give you the reasons why. I know people think "Oh this guy just had a bad experience an is now bashing them for no reason". Everything I will tell you is documented and makes for a great read. Have fun.

1. Anyone notice they state 24/7 Phone Support in their features? Where is the phone number? Try and find it. The only place it's listed is in their terms of service. WHO LISTS THEIR TECH SUPPORT NUMBER ONLY IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE??

2. Call the number. It's a joke! This is what your will here: "For sales, press 1. If you do not recognize a charge on your statement, or need to request a refund, press 2". Really?? The first 2 options are to either give them money or request it back?

3. Fill out the online order for but don't submit it. Close your browser window. You'll get an email a few minutes later saying "I can see from our records that you attempted to place an order with Just Host today, but for some reason you ran into difficulties and the order was not completed. To apologise for any problems you may have experienced, here's a special link to receive 50% off the usual cost of our unlimited Just Plan! So to receive Half-Price hosting please go to: (url removed). Note: This link is only valid for 24 hours, and can only be used once."
How do they know your email address? They are running a snooping server to get your email address without even submitting it! Imagine what they do once you sign up with them.

4. They say their support is all based in "Chicago US". Every last one of them is in "Chicago US". Here are some chat excerpts:

Me: and where is technical support located?
Shawn: Chicago (US)
Me: all of it? You don't have any support in say India?
Shawn: No, all our Support is located in Chicago

Me: what city are you in?
Samuel: We are located Chicago(USA)

Me: you are in India correct?
Victor: We are in Chicago,
Victor: 223 W.Jackson Blvd. #600
Victor: Chicago, IL 60606
Victor: USA

Yet when I asked one guy to log into my account to look into an issue (after blocking a few IP's I found in my access logs) I got:

Me: let me know when you are in
Charles: The page is not showing the login screen here.
Charles: It is showing 403 Forbidden error
Me: what is your IP address and I'll check the IP Deny Manager
Me: go to www.whatismyip.com and it will tell you your IP
Charles: It is
Charles: 203.193.165.78
Me: Ahh, you are in India
Me: one moment
Me: try now
Me: let me know when you are logged in
Charles: I am in now.

At the end of the chat:

Me: ok, can I add the IP ban again for India or do you still need access?
Charles: You can ban it again.

Me: I need to show you something but must remove your IP from IP Deny Manager
Samuel: 220.227.236.18
Me: your IP is 220.227.236.18? Are you sure?
Samuel: Yes
Me: what city are you in?
Samuel: We are located Chicago(USA)
Me: But that IP address is from India
Me: http://whois.domaintools.com/220.227.236.18
Me: so you are in India correct?
Samuel: Our Main office is in Chicago(USA)
Me: I am asking where YOU are located, not your main office
Me: YOU are in India correct?
Samuel: Yes, I am from india working for Justhost

GOTCHA!!! I even complained to a manager about this and got the following:
"We have never asked our outsourcing staff to lie about where they are from, I guess that they want to make any transition for customers a seamless as possible - I will speak to all of our support functions and discuss this with them..
Kind regards
Jamie
Jamie Irish
General Manager"

Notice the words "outsourcing staff". Yet the last email I got from his said, "Kind regards, Jamie Irish, Technical Support Manager"

Any time anyone from Just host logs in the IP's are either from India, Russia, or California. What happened to poor Chicago?

5. No one there seems to know just how many customers they have:

Me: how many customers do you have?
Shawn: more than 95000

Me: how many customers does JUSTHOST have
Victor: We have more than 5 lakhs
Victor: customers
Me: you have more than 5 customers?
Me: and what is a 'lakhs'?
Victor: We have more than 500000 customers
Google 'lakhs', it's Indian for '100,000'

But the site says they have 200,000 "March 17th, 2010
I am over the moon to be able to write this blog post announcing that Just Host has reached the amazing milestone of hosting websites for over 200,000 customers." This is found in the Blog link in the bottom menu.

6. Basic features are listed with a big checkmark on their Features page, but actually are considered "Extras" when you try an use them
Awstats....$19.95/year
SSH accesss...$19.95/year
Daily backups...$19.95/year
Priority Support...$19.95/year
Domain Privacy...$9.95/year

They want you to PAY for backups, yet put this in the ToS, "Backups - We will make every attempt to retain nightly backups. However, as with any data storage systems, backups can fail. We encourage you to perform your own backups on a periodic basis or sign up for our daily backup service."

Sounds to me like you can either get free possibly failed backups, or pay $20/year for them to possibly fail.

I think this is enough to scare anyone away. If you still want to give them your money don't say you weren't warned!

justhost = ignorant nazi bastards - do not use

Piece of shit, do not use these idiots for you hosting. All I ever had with them was problems. To begin with their first server was slow, so I upgraded only to find that they messed up my DNS and my website was down. Their customer service people don't know shit, don't even waste your time speaking to them, go directly to their support department and even then it might take several emails to get them to look at the problem. I put my website on Amazon Cloudfront and justhost messed up the DNS pointing and trying to get them to change it was like talking to a child. Later I had been uploading backups to the server and it turns out that you don't have unlimited storage space, you have almost none, they sent me an email and before I could download all of the files, they blocked my account over night, shutting my website off. Seriously, a couple of days to resolve things would have been nice, but apparently they are just a bunch of ignorant nazi bastards. Do no use these guys. Oh and I found out that my website wasn't even on a justhost server it ended up at singlehop. ~ Wyatt