[Gamoe]

I have various hosting accounts with GoDaddy. Each has at least five gigabytes of allotted disk space. Well, it just so happens I accidentally went over the allotted space on one account by something like 3 GB. Well, I get a message warning me of this shortly after. I hadn't even realized I had gone over my limit. So, I immediately delete some files to get back under 5 GB.

Well, a few days after this I get a charge for $237.65 for a 100 MB space increase. The underhanded thing it that I didn't give them my credit card number for this. This is a credit card I used for a one-time charge a while back. Also, I don't want an increase. Going over the limit was a one-time mistake I immediately corrected.

Thy could have simply denied uploads above the limit or have done something of the like. But they should not have charged my credit card-- I only gave them my credit card for a one-time charge. I didn't authorize this charge in the least.

The fact that I've been a long-time customer and I have all my accounts with them and that I have extra space on other accounts I haven't used should mean something. But apparently it doesn't mean anything to them. So, they're losing me as a customer.

I am going to dispute the charge with my credit card company and I am, as of now, looking for a new host.

[nonhuman]

Well, I like Dreamhost. I know there's a lot of very vocal people who both love and hate it, but it's worked for me for 3 years now without a major problem.

Fell free to use my referral link if you go with them.

[ DreamHost Web Hosting : Home ]

[CharlesS]

Well, with those prices, you know there'd have to be some kind of caveat.

I mean, 250 GB of bandwidth for $4/mo? 100 GB space and 1 TB of bandwidth for $7? That's absolutely insane! They've got to screw you over somehow to not massively lose money on that.

[mduell]

You went over, you got charged... where's the surprise here?
Did you even read the Terms of Service (or a similar agreement) when you signed up?

[CharlesS]

I dunno, if I'm reading his post right, it's sounding like this was not an overage fee, but that they actually upgraded him to a more expensive plan with a higher rate each month. That would be kind of underhanded IMO.

[davesimondotcom]

I've been with Dreamhost since 1998 for my hosting and really enjoy their services.

I highly recommend their "Crazy Domain Insane" plan for personal hosting. For $9/month, you can host as many domains as you want as long as you don't go over your bandwidth/space. And those get bigger each month. (Disk goes up by .2 GB /week and bandwidth increases 8 GB/week.)

Right now, I'm up to 27.5 GB of space and 1390 GB of bandwidth.

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by mduell

You went over, you got charged... where's the surprise here?
Did you even read the Terms of Service (or a similar agreement) when you signed up?

mduell, I didn't agree to this charge. I didn't give out my credit card number so they could charge me this. I gave it to buy the hosting. They shouldn't even have my credit card number on file. I NEVER check the "save my credit card info" box.

Now, you know what? They can say whatever they want in their TOS. Not like it's written for the customer's benefit, and I doubt a lot of it would stand up in court. Suffice to say, that legal or not, they've crossed the line with me, and now I will exercise my right to take my business elsewhere, to another company who actually cares about having my business.

My previous host, Your-Site, was not as reliable and had other issues, but at least they didn't take advantage of a slip-up. If your disk space was over the limit, they'd warn you and let you have it over for a few days before they charged you. Funny thing is that a GoDaddy rep. once told me the same thing about GoDaddy, but they sure haven't demonstrated such understanding in my case.

[Rumor]

Have you tried calling them?

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by Rumor

Have you tried calling them?

Yes, of course, and to no avail. Apparently long-time customers mean little to GoDaddy.

[SirCastor]

I don't mean to be a jerk, but you did agree to this:

If for any reason Go Daddy is unable to charge Your Payment Method for the full amount owed Go Daddy for the Services provided, or if Go Daddy is charged a penalty for any fee it previously charged to Your Payment Method, You agree that Go Daddy may pursue all available remedies in order to obtain payment. If You pay by credit card and if for any reason Go Daddy is unable to charge Your credit card with the full amount of the Services provided, or if Go Daddy is charged back for any fee it previously charged to the credit card You provided, You agree that Go Daddy may pursue all available remedies in order to obtain payment. You agree that among the remedies Go Daddy may pursue in order to effect payment, shall include but will not be limited to, immediate cancellation without notice to You of any domain names or Services registered or renewed on Your behalf. Go Daddy reserves the right to charge a reasonable administrative fee for administrative tasks outside the scope of its regular Services, including additional costs that it may incur in providing the Services and pass along to You. These include, but are not limited to, customer service issues that cannot be handled over email but require personal service, fees incurred by third parties You have elected to use as payment methods, including PayPal and Certegy, Inc., and disputes that require legal services. These charges will be billed to the Payment Method we have on file for You. You may change Your Payment Method at any time by logging into Your Account Manager.

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by SirCastor

I don't mean to be a jerk, but you did agree to this:

I don't want to go into the inherent unfairness of a one-sided agreement written by a company, and how a lot of these things don't even stand up in court. I'm not even claiming that GoDaddy did anything illegal, but in my view, they did something rather underhanded and I'm exercising my right to take my business elsewhere.

[memory-minus]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

Yes, of course, and to no avail. Apparently long-time customers mean little to GoDaddy.

I'm surprised they didn't just hang up on you like they did when I was trying to get a domain transfer issue resolved a while back. Of course, I was transferring the domain AWAY from them so they had little reason to offer any assistance even though the issue was entirely on their end. Just seems that people get screwed over and over by GoDaddy.

I am now a full Dreamhost customer (domains and hosting) and am very pleased. They offer the right blend of service and price for me personally. If you (not you personally, people in general) expect a 99.99% uptime SLA when you're only paying $9 a month you're only fooling yourself. I do notice my site goes down every once in a blue moon and I do experience slowness from time to time but I am unwilling to pay more for any sort of guarantee that won't happen. You can't have everything for nothing.

[turtle777]

You Dreamhost haters can say what you want, but GoDaddy is definitely 1000 times worse.

-t

[olePigeon]

GKG | Making Domain Registration Work For You

They're not the cheapest, but they have the best customer service bar none. I registered all my domains with them and always suggest them to friends, family, and acquaintances. They also have the most extensive domain tools anywhere short of actually having a shell account.

I've recommended them on here so many times. They're awesome.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

GKG | Making Domain Registration Work For You

You gotta be kidding me

200 MB storage for "only" $ 50 / month

GKG | Making Web Hosting Work For You

-t

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by memory-minus

I'm surprised they didn't just hang up on you like they did when I was trying to get a domain transfer issue resolved a while back. Of course, I was transferring the domain AWAY from them so they had little reason to offer any assistance even though the issue was entirely on their end. Just seems that people get screwed over and over by GoDaddy.

I remember, not very fondly, how I wanted a refund for a service I didn't use (a domain name or hosting, etc.), and I happen to mention I also wanted to buy another hosting plan as well and the GoDaddy rep. told me that if I wanted the refund I should take care of my new order first. I found that rather unprofessional and unpleasant, but I just dismissed it at the time. Now I know better.

Originally Posted by memory-minus

If you (not you personally, people in general) expect a 99.99% uptime SLA when you're only paying $9 a month you're only fooling yourself.

I agree. I am not overly concerned with uptime, as long as it's up at least most of the time. I don't mind if there are some interruptions here and there. Honestly speaking, is it really possible to keep something live up and running 24/7? Unlikely.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

You gotta be kidding me

200 MB storage for "only" $ 50 / month

GKG | Making Web Hosting Work For You

-t

As I said, they aren't cheap, but they do have the best customer support. Judging from peoples' responses, you're paying more than that in fees.

[SirCastor]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

I don't want to go into the inherent unfairness of a one-sided agreement written by a company, and how a lot of these things don't even stand up in court. I'm not even claiming that GoDaddy did anything illegal, but in my view, they did something rather underhanded and I'm exercising my right to take my business elsewhere.

I can appreciate that. You can't say though that you didn't authorize them to charge you. That aside, I don't think it was appropriate what they did. The Right thing for them to do would be to get ahold of you and tell you that you were over your allotment. Even better, it would have been to stop you from uploading additional data.

[starman]

Well, here's what happened to me. Apparently, without even knowing it, my podcast became so popular that it dipped into 6 digit downloads. Because of that, I exceeded my bandwidth and got a charge for $1970. The kicker? This is from their own web site:

--
Q:
What happens if I exceed my alloted amount of bandwidth per month?

A:
Once you reach 80% of your alloted bandwidth within a month, the server will automatically send you an e-mail. If you then go over 100% of your alloted bandwidth, the server will disable your account. Please send customercare@vizaweb.com and e-mail and we will reactivate the account. Please keep in mind that VizaWeb will only allow your account to exceed bandwidth a little within the month before we will ask that you upgrade or pay for extra bandwidth.
--

I NEVER got the email. I did once before, but not last month. Nor did they shut my account down due to exceeding my bandwidth.

So right now, they have a request for authorization on my CC. I can't dispute it until the charge actually goes through. I sent a few emails out to them stating that they broke their own TOS and I will be disputing the charges.

[mac128k-1984]

You went over your 5gb limit by 3gb and your complaining that godaddy screws over another customer.

I can understand your complaint if you went to 5.1GB but 3GB over your 5GB limit. It seems that you gave them the authority to charge your card by contracting with them and you failed to live by the terms of that contract. A tough lesson but perhaps you'll be a little more cogniscent of your space usage now

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by SirCastor

I can appreciate that. You can't say though that you didn't authorize them to charge you. That aside, I don't think it was appropriate what they did. The Right thing for them to do would be to get ahold of you and tell you that you were over your allotment. Even better, it would have been to stop you from uploading additional data.

Well, in technical, legal terms then perhaps yes, I did authorize them, but I didn't actually explicitly authorize that particular payment. Still, I see your point of view. Thanks for understanding.

Originally Posted by starman

Well, here's what happened to me. Apparently, without even knowing it, my podcast became so popular that it dipped into 6 digit downloads. Because of that, I exceeded my bandwidth and got a charge for $1970. The kicker? This is from their own web site:

Wow, starman, I'm sorry for your troubles. At least it seems like you have a solid case against their charge. I hope you don't have to pay a dime.

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

You went over your 5gb limit by 3gb and your complaining that godaddy screws over another customer.

I can understand your complaint if you went to 5.1GB but 3GB over your 5GB limit. It seems that you gave them the authority to charge your card by contracting with them and you failed to live by the terms of that contract. A tough lesson but perhaps you'll be a little more cogniscent of your space usage now

Also understand that I have at least two active accounts that together have more than double the amount of disk space I went over free. If you want to delve deeper into the ethics of things, why don't they credit me the amount that I haven't used for all of my time being hosted there?

I mean, I'm only using about 1 or 2 MB on one account and less than that on another, and I have inactive accounts with the same amount of space I haven't even used. Then you start to see that it's more than a little unfair to receive this ridiculous charge for going over a few days at max. On technical and legal merit I am not debating. They have the big fancy lawyers that can conjure up legally sinister ways of screwing customers. I do not. But I know it's unjust nonetheless.

I'm not sure if you have something against me (judging by your responses towards me on other threads), but I assure you I am in no need of a "lesson" from you or anyone else. Oh, and you probably meant "cognisant", not "cogniscent".

I'll tell you this, though: I'll never give out a "real" credit card number again if I can avoid it. Even now, I use my credit card's "SafeShop" temporary credit card number service, so just to allow the merchant to charge what he is owed, when he is owed it, and not allow him to underhandedly take your money by accessing a previous credit card number you gave him.

Unfortunately, I paid these people with a "real" credit card number once, but it was enough for them to safely store the number and use it for their own purpose later on.

[natural1]

Just don't go to these guys: 1&1 Internet Inc. - Web Hosting Services and Domain Name Registration

If you think GoDaddy has bad service, 1and 1 will blow your mind (they suck, in case it isn't obvious from my post).

M

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

Also understand that I have at least two active accounts that together have more than double the amount of disk space I went over free. If you want to delve deeper into the ethics of things, why don't they credit me the amount that I haven't used for all of my time being hosted there?

Um because you agreed to have them host and they gave you the space to use as you wished. If you didn't use it that's no sweat off of their nose.

What you ask is a little ridiculous, Can I ask apple for a credit because I don't use my idisk space, or even Dreamhost because I'm not using all of the space they gave me when I contracted with them.

I have nothing against you, its just funny how people (not just you) complain about how they got screwed over when they themselves tried to get something for free. Regardless if you did this on purpose or not, you attempted use godaddy space for free, where as others have to pay for that space that doesn't sound fair. Could GoDaddy been a little better in warning you, I'm sure, in fact I'm sure most companies can improve in that department but that doesn't absolve you from personal responcibility. You used 3 gig of godaddy space so you had to pay. Its an expensive lesson but one that we all learn,i.e., stay within the terms of the contract or else you pay.

[Angus_D]

Originally Posted by natural1

Just don't go to these guys: 1&1 Internet Inc. - Web Hosting Services and Domain Name Registration

Really? I thought I'd heard good things about them.

[natural1]

Originally Posted by Angus_D

Really? I thought I'd heard good things about them.

Not from me you didn't!

Without going into great detail, they screwed me on a domain renewal that cost me $$ and a ding on my credit record (until I reportred them to the NYS AGs consumer fraud division - then they came around to my way of thinking and refunded my $$ and repaired my credit). Any company who needs to be threatened with legal action before they do the 'right thing' is not worth doing business with, imho.

[starman]

Vizaweb admitted the contradiction, stating that their FAQ is "outdated", and reversed the charges.

Uh, so, there's NO protection against this for users, eh?

I guess I'm ISP shopping.

[Rumor]

Here's a solution: host your own space.

[starman]

Originally Posted by Rumor

Here's a solution: host your own space.

With 2TB of bandwidth/month? I can't do that.

[residentEvil]

why not? for the cost of a few more dollars a month from your ISP, you get a business plan/static address. do what you want then.

[CMYKid]

you keep mentioning TOS's not holding up in court. of course, they're written by lawyers who are pretty familiar with what WILL hold up in court, but more importantly most contracts for service include a clause wherein you give up any ability to sue, requiring you to submit to arbitration.

Read your cell phone contract sometime.

[nonhuman]

For the record, Dreamhost is now offering their second-highest-level hosting plan for 50% off (the price of the second-lower-level plan). That sale price is good for as long as you have the account, so it's a pretty sweet deal.

The features you get:
1 FREE domain registration
UNLIMITED domains hosted
60 GB Disk (Increases 480 MB per week)
1.6 TB Transfer (Increases 16 GB per week)
12000 IMAP/POP Mailboxes (Supports IMAP IDLE extension so it can push email to your phone, Like Blackberry does.)
Unlimited mySQL Databases (v5)
375 Shell (SSH) Users
PHP4 Support
PHP5 Support
Full Unix Shell
Crontab Access
Full CGI Access
Ruby On Rails
Canned CGI Scripts
Server Side Includes (SSI)
CVS Repository
Subversion Repository (SVN)

My referral address: DreamHost

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

I have nothing against you, its just funny how people (not just you) complain about how they got screwed over when they themselves tried to get something for free.

Your statement insinuates that I intentionally tried to get something for "free", which is not accurate in the least. The charge comes from a purely technical issue. I have stated multiple times already that I am not debating legality or technicality here, but rather appropriateness and fairness.

SirCastor pointed out the technical issue (not in my favor) which I agreed with, but he got my point nonetheless. I'm sorry you cannot. And please don't re-hash this over and over again as you have in the past. It gets tiresome quickly.

Originally Posted by CMYKid

you keep mentioning TOS's not holding up in court...

I guess this was addressed to me. However, I see no argument...

[SirCastor]

Originally Posted by Angus_D

Really? I thought I'd heard good things about them.

yeah... I don't really know how this happened, but I've got a client that's running on a pretty sweet deal for $5.00/year (yes... five bucks a year) for hosting from 1&1

[SirCastor]

Originally Posted by starman

With 2TB of bandwidth/month? I can't do that.

You go through 2TB of data a month? What the heck are you hosting?

[starman]

My podcast.

[SirCastor]

What's the name of your podcast?

[starman]

World of Warcast

[JoshuaZ]

MacNN: Home to the Dreamhost Cheerleaders.

(I have nothing against Dreamhost. I just love the amount of MacNNers who love it.)

[MindFad]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

For the record, Dreamhost is now offering their second-highest-level hosting plan for 50% off (the price of the second-lower-level plan). That sale price is good for as long as you have the account, so it's a pretty sweet deal.

The features you get:
1 FREE domain registration
UNLIMITED domains hosted
60 GB Disk (Increases 480 MB per week)
1.6 TB Transfer (Increases 16 GB per week)
12000 IMAP/POP Mailboxes (Supports IMAP IDLE extension so it can push email to your phone, Like Blackberry does.)
Unlimited mySQL Databases (v5)
375 Shell (SSH) Users
PHP4 Support
PHP5 Support
Full Unix Shell
Crontab Access
Full CGI Access
Ruby On Rails
Canned CGI Scripts
Server Side Includes (SSI)
CVS Repository
Subversion Repository (SVN)

My referral address: DreamHost

That "Level 3" one is a pretty sweet deal. Is service really that bad?

With GoDaddy, I've only ever dealt with them for domains. All of mine are registered with them.I've had no reason to ever not use them for domain registration, but I have also have no desire to ever use their hosting services.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by MindFad

That "Level 3" one is a pretty sweet deal. Is service really that bad?

With GoDaddy, I've only ever dealt with them for domains. All of mine are registered with them.I've had no reason to ever not use them for domain registration, but I have also have no desire to ever use their hosting services.

I've always had excellent service with them, and I've been using them for 3 years. I actually managed to catch an even more amazing sale where I was able to get a Level 4 account for the price of a Level 1, forever. I'm currently paying $9.95/mo for 520.2 GB of space and 6040 GB of bandwidth (increasing slightly every week). Making it even better, I get about $14/mo because of my referrals, so I'm actually turning a profit.

Since I barely make any dent in that at all, I'm considering sub-contracting out some of my space and offering web/email hosting...

[CharlesS]

Before signing up for DreamHost based on the recommendations in here, you might want to read this thread:

http://forums.macnn.com/89/macnn-lou...ight=dreamhost

Frankly, I find that unacceptable. DreamHost seems more like a nightmare to me...

[Gamoe]

Originally Posted by CharlesS

DreamHost seems more like a nightmare to me...

There's enough controversy here and elsewhere about DreamHost that I know enough to stay away from them at this point.

But some of these other hosts, while they might be higher-quality, are a bit too expensive for me. Personally, I'd like a host with the following qualities:

- Linux, Mac OS X, Sun, or otherwise open-source OS hosting. I don't want my site to be served on a freaking Windoze machine!

- No more than $10 a month.

- More than (or at least) 5 GB of storage (preferably a lot more).

- Must support PHP at least.

- Preferably, I'd like command line access, so I would never have to find myself in situations like this again.

- Doesn't need to be very high-bandwidth (my site is very low traffic), but nothing I'd be afraid to accidentally go over, either.

- Doesn't have to have excellent uptime. I can happily tolerate a few service interruptions and down-times here and there. Just as long as the site is up most of the time it's fine.

- Would prefer good customer service that actually takes phone calls.

[memory-minus]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

For the record, Dreamhost

...

My referral address: DreamHost

Two referral links in one post. Isn't this considered spam? Or is it OK because he has a high post count?

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by MindFad

That "Level 3" one is a pretty sweet deal. Is service really that bad?

I've always received fast professional support from them. I had trouble setting up a domain for them to host. Actually they're automated system got hung up for a day but once I emailed them they were quick get my domain up and running.

[Angus_D]

Shocking thought:

You get what you pay for.

[Mastrap]

Originally Posted by memory-minus

Two referral links in one post. Isn't this considered spam? Or is it OK because he has a high post count?

Every single poster in this thread who mentioned dreamhost has a referral code in the address posted. Be honest honest about this kind of stuff, people.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Every single poster in this thread who mentioned dreamhost has a referral code in the address posted. Be honest honest about this kind of stuff, people.

No, I don't.

But if you want my referal code, PM me.

-t

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Gabriel Morales

There's enough controversy here and elsewhere about DreamHost that I know enough to stay away from them at this point.

But some of these other hosts, while they might be higher-quality, are a bit too expensive for me. Personally, I'd like a host with the following qualities:

- Linux, Mac OS X, Sun, or otherwise open-source OS hosting. I don't want my site to be served on a freaking Windoze machine!

- No more than $10 a month.

- More than (or at least) 5 GB of storage (preferably a lot more).

- Must support PHP at least.

- Preferably, I'd like command line access, so I would never have to find myself in situations like this again.

- Doesn't need to be very high-bandwidth (my site is very low traffic), but nothing I'd be afraid to accidentally go over, either.

- Doesn't have to have excellent uptime. I can happily tolerate a few service interruptions and down-times here and there. Just as long as the site is up most of the time it's fine.

- Would prefer good customer service that actually takes phone calls.

Gabriel, I offer all of these things plus access to Mediawiki as needed if you are interested in going with a smaller operation that can provide you with some personal, one-on-one support.

You should be able to upgrade Mediawiki from the web interface by invoking:

http://yourdomain/mediawiki/maintenance/update.php

You can also run this in the command line:

php maintenance/update.php

but this shouldn't be necessary. I've updated Mediawiki several times both ways...

[memory-minus]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Every single poster in this thread who mentioned dreamhost has a referral code in the address posted. Be honest honest about this kind of stuff, people.

I can guarantee if I put a "free iPod" referral link in my sig or messages I'd be banned with a quickness.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Every single poster in this thread who mentioned dreamhost has a referral code in the address posted. Be honest honest about this kind of stuff, people.

Hey, in both posts where I put my referral address, I said so. Really, it doesn't affect the people who click the link, and it doesn't affect me unless they actually sign up for an account. So what's the big deal?