WebHostingPad SCAM

After I wrote my WebHostingPad review, I received many feedback from my visitors. While the reason I don't recommend them is because I don't think they are able to provide good service at $1.99/month, my visitors are telling me that they are actually a SCAM host!

This is a serious issue because we are not talking about poor customer support or poor server quality. We are talking about WebHostingPad keep charging the customer credit card even they have canceled their account. We are talking about WebHostingPad not honoring their money back guarantee. We are talking about MONEY being cheated. The worst web host we can have is a dishonest web host that want to steal our money.

Here is the email from Terry.

Beware of Web Hosting Pad. I signed up for their service because of the price and the promises that they make. Boy was that a huge mistake. So I ask for a refund per there policy in 3 days and was told in the email below that it was cancelled as well as refunded. Well its been 9 days and no refund. I disputed the charge with the Credit card company and then called them. Andrew told me that since I filed a dispute with the credit card company he was not going to issue a refund. The Credit Card company in turn told me that they would take care of it.

I am also filing a complaint with the BBB as well as the Attorney General. Until this all goes thru I just wanted to warn anyone who may be thinking about doing business to beware.

Here is a copy of the credit which they never gave!!!

Hello,

This is to inform you that your account has been canceled and that you have been issued a full refund. Please allow up to 5 business days for the refund to appear on your credit card account.

Andrew
Technical Support / Billing Manager
www.webhostingpad.com

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: WUG-693508
Department: Cancellation
Priority: High

WebHostingPad Money Scamming Tricks

 "Free" Add-ons And Trials That Will Be Billed

When you sign up, they will provide you free add-ons and trials for 30 days. These add-ons include something like spam filtering, advanced web stat, premium backup service, directory listing, SSH, etc.

But they make it difficult (or impossible) for you to cancel them so they can bill you after 30 days (for 1 whole year of service!). Many customers have canceled the "free" trial but WebHostingPad still charge them later.

Here is a reply from WebHostingPad when a customer asked for an explanation after he has canceled the free trials.

These were addon services that you checked at signup. They were free for the first 30 days and then you were to be billed if you didn't cancel the services.

Unfortunately there are no refunds on this addon packages, I can only cancel renewal for next year. If you would like us to cancel these packages please get back to us.

Please refer to our terms of service here : http://www.webhostingpad.com/billing_policy.html

Add-on Features and Services

The business directory listing is free for the first 30 days. After that, it is $12.00/year billed to your account unless canceled during the free trial period.

Advanced spam filtering and advanced website stat tracking are free for the first 30 days. After that, they are $12.00/year each billed to your account unless canceled during the free trial period.

Preferred restore service: All backup restrictions terms and conditions still apply. 30 minute restore guarantee applies to starting the backup restore. Actual time needed to complete restore will depend on size and content of the backup.

All Add-ons are non refundable once the 30 day free trial period has elapsed.

Alex
Technical Support
www.webhostingpad.com
877-998-4678

Hidden Refund Charges

Their full money back guarantee is not full because they will charge you $25 to process your refund! So once you pay them and ask for a refund, they will deduct $25 from you!

What I don't understand is the hidden costs of the refund. They said I'd have to pay for the domain. So since I paid $61.59 and the domain costs $14.59$, I would have gotten a $47 refund, I thought.

Now they also state that there's a $25 charged for refunds, whether checks or credit cards were used and that it will take 7-10 days to complete a cancellation, while the purchase and set up took less than 1 day.

Suspend Your Account After 30 Days

Since money back guarantee last for 30 days, there are incidents where customer account are suspended after 30 days by accusing the customer of violation of their terms and conditions (usually using too many resources, ahem, "unlimited" hosting?). Since they intentionally do it after 30 days, there will be no refund.

Worst still, they will not notify you after they suspend your account and you will have to find it out yourself!

Charge Your Credit Card Again Even After You Have Canceled!

Shawn wrote me an email.
Webhostingpad.com is the worst web host scam in the world� Two years ago, I made the mistake of signing up for two years of hosting through Webhostingpad.com. Three months later, I cancelled my account (lost all of my money I paid for two years)� and I went to a much better web host.

Then, I just discovered Webhostingpad.com illegally billed my credit card again for another two years without my permission! I emailed Webhostingpad.com about this, and they responded in their typical fashion- rude and ugly. I reported this fraud to my credit card company and had the charge removed. I have filed a complaint with the IC3 and the FBI. I also filed a report with the Secret Service, and am working on a report with the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau.

Better Business Bureau Rate Them 'F'!

There are 79 complaints filed towards them and 27 of them are related to billing, 3 related to contract and 14 regarding refunds. That means half of the issues are regarding to money scams.

A grade of "F" is awarded to them on the scale of A+ to F (the lowest grade!).

Stick With Reputable Hosts!

I can forgive a web host with poor customer support. I can forgive a web host with slow server. But I cannot forgive a web host that is cheating our money. Stay away from them! Stick with the best web hosts, especially HostGator and FatCow. If you have some scary story to share, leave me a comment below.

Comments

Sat, 01/09/2010 - 01:31 — Sheana

Be careful with these guys. They misuse your credit card. I signed up and they suggested I click on Trial free software and then after a month once the trial period is over without my knowledge charged me for it. When asked they gave me a "tough luck" answer. Terrible! Andrew was the guys who responded maybe he is the only guys there....I don't know but it is not right! No ethics! Please be careful when you signup with these guys. I am waiting for my year to come up so that I can move!!!!

I sincerely wish i read these reviews before I signed. So regretting now!

Wed, 10/05/2011 - 12:30 — Debi McSwain

Web Hosting Pad customer service is non existent. They are a group of surly unhelpful people that speak cryptically and give you tiny clues to the resolution of your problems and seem to enjoy watching their customers struggle and eventually leave. I do not recommend doing business with WebHostingPad. Get out as soon as you can and certainly don't sign up with them.

Sat, 12/17/2011 - 20:00 — Richard Burkart

I have used WHP for almost 3 years and I have always enjoyed very prompt customer service involving several relatively difficult issues. I have used many other much more expensive hosting services which were not nearly as good. I have never experienced a billing issue of any sort. I plan to renew my 3 year account shortly and this time may go for the 4 year premium package.

Mon, 01/25/2010 - 05:46 — Michelle

I further support the earlier post mentioned "Hidden Refund charges" I paid for the 36 months hosting for a tryout, noting that they insist FULL refund before the 30 day ends, thus the trial. When i contacted them for the refund, they THEN explain to me that there is a FINE PRINT (Pls NOTE guys..) that the full refund refers to "web hosting" and NOT the "domain name". As mentioned in the above post, they're going to deduct $14.95 for the "domain name" thus the refund is NOT a full refund. Plus, I checked out other domain sites such as godaddy.com, domain name is super low and nowhere near its hefty $14.95!! What a rip off! So beware! And small thing..the "live chat" is actually an artificial intelligence...try asking some complex questions! I guess lots of site uses this? not sure bout that..doesnt really matter though. Guess it shouldn't try to mislead us that its "live" though. Good luck!

Mon, 02/08/2010 - 10:29 — Mohamed

When I signed up with webhostingpad last year (for a web hosting period of 3 years) I thought that I made the best deal in my life for the price they offered. But, I must admit, I made the worst mistake in my whole life when I believed their lies. They suspended my account without any notice, and when I contacted their online support, I was told that I should send an email to admin@webhostingpad.com and wait for a reply--and, as usual, the reply never comes! Because I had a similar experience with http://gisol.com, I was keen on making weekly backups of all my files on their server, so I didn't panic when my account was suspended. My story with webhostingpad is not over yet, and I'm in the process of taking the legal actions against them.

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 01:13 — Neil

Just over a year ago WebHostingPad successfully charged my credit card for a year of service. It was without any notice, but I was happy enough since I had had no serious problems with them. However, the did not renew my domain name even though they had successfully charged for it. My web site went dead. I tried to log into my account (billing) but was locked out. Tech support couldn't get me access. Meanwhile they told me my domain had entered the "redemptive period", a period of a few weeks in which domain registration mistakes can be fixed before the name is given to someone else. They promised to take the required steps to retrieve my domain out of the redemtion period, but didn't. Next thing I knew, Epson had become the registered owner of my domain, all my advertising $ on that site were now wasted and my website identity was gone with nothing I could do. Despite many phone calls and emails with them, and even a lengthy correspondance through the BBB, all they ever offered in way of appology was two months free hosting and a free domain name! (Well the free name wouldn't really be free since they had charged me for it! Plus I'd have to be CRAZY to ever have my domain registered with them again!!)

During the exchange through the BBB they were either alarmingly ignorant of the domain registration business, or else they outright tried to deceive the BBB by claiming that domains could not be retreived out of the Redemption period.

Then, to add further insult to insult and injury, after a year they attempted to charge my account for another year (the two free months never having been actually given to me). Thankfully the credit card had expired.

I refused to pay the $72 they were asking for (despite me having cancelled the account) only to within days receive a letter from a debt collection agency!!

In corresponding with them they have been very insulting.

I bet my experience of loss of domain isn't unique, I'm wondering if they routinely purposely lock people out of their accounts when a third party makes an offer to buy a domain name, and then pocket the sale money themselves.

Be warned. WebHostingPad are a company from hell.

Fri, 02/26/2010 - 22:36 — K. Hughey

I also had the exact same issues as above, and Andrew was the person I had the most interaction with as well. My card kept getting slammed with charges, there were no refunds and they are rude beyond any professional comprehension. Don't even think about trying them. You'll be sorry. They are beyond being a scam, they are flat out thieves.

Wed, 03/31/2010 - 16:11 — WebHostingPad G...

Hey, they did it to themselves. Here is there 'F' rating at the Better Business Bureau. http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/internet-web-hosting/web-hos...

Sun, 05/23/2010 - 18:40 — Tyler

I signed up for two years of hosting, and at first everything was going fine. Then I go to my site one day and it says "account suspended".

I called and emailed them back and forth I dont know how many times, and what they came up with was my site was "attacked" causing the server to be unstable. This was all a crock of shit, my website wasn't attacked, I just started using some of the bandwidth that I had paid for "unlimited". Crooks.

Fri, 07/02/2010 - 21:43 — Anonymous

Webhostingpad.com is no longer with the BBB, and this is by choice. This is the reason for the F rating. BBB is a scam just as much as webhostingpad.com is, its all about the money.

Fri, 07/23/2010 - 11:17 — Blam

Of course they are all about the money. Do you think they do their services for free. Noted that scamming should NEVER take place, but your response seems rather juvenile.

Tue, 07/06/2010 - 16:10 — sharma

* 115 complaints filed against business
* Failure to respond to 12 complaints filed against business.
* 2 complaints filed against business that were not resolved.

All i have to say is :-
This website must be banned by the governments of US & Canada

Sun, 07/18/2010 - 08:59 — Anonymous

I signed up for 3 years unfortunately.
This provider has been a problem from the start, the main aim is to get your card details, after when you need service, to be contacted by different student types who have no knowledge or authority.
After 6 months could not get a connection, 12 months later I decided to cut my losses & run!
I had tried 3 other 'service providers' & on a scale 1 to 10 they would get - 100.

Be warned.

Thu, 09/16/2010 - 11:14 — New Yorker

No matter what you call about, on which day you call or at which hour, the customer service is surly, rude and just downright mean.

Mon, 11/15/2010 - 13:27 — Stacy

They will auto charge your credit card and then say it is "against our policy" to offer refunds -- even if you cancel on day one of the renewal year. Scam. scam. scam.

Wed, 09/29/2010 - 20:57 — Worms Etc

Their service was good at first but has been going downhill. 24/7 online support chat, but the techs can only handle minor issues and almost always tell me to email their supervisor. When I ask why they cannot pass the question themselves they end the session. That will really Tick you off! Nothing to do about it.

I needed an ssl so I asked for one. They took the money quick and were friendly and acted fast to get things on the ball but 10 days later ii is still in the works.

When in preparation for getting the ssl installed I asked for a permanent IP. When they switched they took the site off the old IP and it went down until the IP propagation was over. I new something was not right 3 days later when the site was STILL DOWN. I emailed tech, may times, with my concerns. They kept brushing me aside. Finally after testing myself I found out that the did not enter proper IP addresses int o the nameservers. In all it took 5 days to get my site back up fully. I was told 30 minutes max.

I have to send 5+ emails for any response. Even though I still have a year of hosting paid for with them that they will not refund I moving host.

I will admit they are the cheapest, but if you loose one or two hours worth of online sales due to service issues you could have got a better host for free. I promise that I could go on and on about how bad there service is.

I only recommend them for non-critical web hosting. You get what you pay for it seems.

Sun, 12/05/2010 - 05:57 — George

this is just to confirm what has already been said by other victims of webhostingpad.

i was lured by the promise of money back guarantee and low prices along with award support... let me tell you how "award support" spells for web hosting pad:

today i noticed my website was unavailable so i contacted them online on the client support chat session. they answered:

"Unfortunately, the server you are hosted on has experienced a load
issue. Our administrators are aware of it and fixed. Now everything is working fine at server end too. I apologize for the inconvenience."

my whole experience with their support staff, which i presume is made up of one single person on all three departments, since i get to talk to the same person on three different days, on different matters. i also think they copy/paste answers to clients since they are never coherent or accurate to the demand...

ten minutes later, after asking what their contractual uptime availability was, i get the answer:

"I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. Please check it now;
everything is working fine at server end too. However I have informed our admin department concerning this re-occurring issue and they established direct monitoring on the server."

you judge for yourselves...

since i was getting very annoyed with the slow and unprofessional service i asked for a supervisor to clear the matter out. after waiting 10 more minutes i get this:

"Sorry for that, i was checking with one of our admin department."

so now i get the phone and call. wait, there's more to read...

when i called the phone number no one was available and was asked to leave a message. the voicemail box was full and had an error.

i called and tried to speak to them again several times but unsuccessfully.

i then tried to contact online chat support colleagues from sales.
the same colleague from support answered but when i asked him if we had talked before he just hang up and deactivated the online support
chat.

since then i have called them twice and waited over 10 minutes on hold and paying international rates but no one answered.

this is my latest from a series of unpleasant experiences with web hosting pad.

my advice to you: AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Sun, 12/19/2010 - 12:05 — Benjamin Lee

Since it was very cheap, I decided to check it out by talking to the live chat. During the course of conversation, the live operator named Brent something copy and paste the message that was meant for another window into my chatbox. I cant remember the exact words but it said something like this....

"Please send us the last 4 digit of your credit card so that we could verify your domain ownership before reseting your password."

In my mind, why do webhostingpad needs credit card info for reseting password? It doesnt sounds right. I believe it is a scam. I almost got into it by its cheap hosting plan.

Thu, 07/14/2011 - 04:30 — James

It is a normal procedure to confirm the identity of the account holder using the last 4 digit of the credit card number.
Thu, 12/23/2010 - 00:21 — Bell

They continue to charge my credit card for the 3 year plan. There is no customer service. This is a SCAM! SCAM SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have now been billed over $300 and yet to speak to a human. I will fight this.

Sat, 01/15/2011 - 20:39 — Roy

Like they say, you get what you pay for. But in this case, not even!

I foolishly signed up for their 3 year plan. From the start, their Cpanel was sluggishly slow. Sometimes I couldn't even log in. Then a few weeks later my site was hacked. Apparently they couldn't restore the backup so it was wiped. It was SO SLOW that it was unusable. I just gave up and cancelled my account. It was outside my 30 days and lost all my money.

I bet this is how they make all they money. Sucker people into paying for 3 years and then wait for them to leave.

I wish I had done more research first. I think the most important thing is to check out BBB scores, ask people in forums, do web research and read the fine print. Also check about cancellation fees and pro-rata refunds. If a webhost gives pro-rata refunds without cancellation fees at least you know they believe in their own service!

Wed, 02/16/2011 - 03:45 — Bob

I had this scam experience with Webhostingpad,

after few months of good service, all my websites were down.

All the .php files disappeared from my CMS and Forum engines.
They were not accidentally, they were sistematically deleted.
Not a cracker attack, the .php files are into different domains parked into Webhostingpad plan.

They told me someone with my hosting password deleted them.
Noone has my password, and only me is the webmaster of my sites.

But it seems the job of an intentionally written script.

They proposed me a restore of the sites at $19.90.

I think they use to check how many users periodically backup their sites, and do this scam to the ones who never did it.
Brake your sites intentionally and ask money for restoration, if you don't care by yourself of periodic backups.

Thu, 03/17/2011 - 13:45 — Anonymous

webhostingpad is total scam. i bought 3 year hosting
there were 30$ hidden charges charged. when i asked
for refund. they refused to issue any refund and after
also after 6 months they cancelled my account and didn't
issue any refund. because after 6 months i couldn't dispute
through bank.
i reported them internet crime departement.

the only thing i say, don't ever buy webhostingpad services.
total organized fraud.

Sat, 05/14/2011 - 14:14 — Paul

My site was doing much better than I had expected, Their terms state that when your site has too much traffic that you can request to pay for more resources. Well apparently they do not offer more resources. When I asked them my site was suddenly suspended without warning.

Spent a week trying to get my files back from them and they have refused to refund my money, which sucks because I just renewed a 3 year contract with them.

Their support staff and managers have been very rude, have lied to me multiple times, and have yet to give me an explanation for my site suspension.

I'm currently filing a complaint with the BBB and will be seeking legal restitution from them as well.

STAY AWAY!!!

Thu, 07/14/2011 - 08:32 — Unsatisfied Web...

Webhostingpad uptime is extremely unreliable.

Also, their 99.9% warranty is a joke. When I tried to get the promised service credit for a sub-par 99% uptime, they calculated that they would return me 99.9% - 99% = 0.9% of the money I paid them for hosting.

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:25 — Danny

Webhostingpad.com is the absolute worst service one can purchase. Sites were constantly down and they terminated my account after threatening them with a chargeback after they REFUSED to honor their 99% uptime “guarantee” by issuing a credit for all the downtime.

Chargeback has been filed and the BBB is investigating.

Thu, 09/01/2011 - 13:26 — Alfred Tanya

Today I have one of my domain shut down by this sick hosting service. Because of trackback and pingback plugin in my wordpress. They didnt give me any chance to fix it. simply by throwing my domain away. They also didnt give me any backup files of the domain.

What a mother fucker hosting service ever!!

Sun, 09/04/2011 - 08:59 — Stefan

It has being a year since a sign up with them and I'm actually happy with it...
Every single problem I had, they helped me in no time and i didn't any bill for extra add-ons and stuff like that... I've simply being billed for my domain and nothing more.

They service is cheap so you can't expect an super-duper web host, but still I think it is alright for the money they charge.

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 12:23 — aaronwt

I hope it works out for me. I'm in the process of switching over my tertiary domain to them. I got six years of hosting for $95. I figured it might be too good to be true. But that would have been the cost of 18 months with my existing host for that Domain. I was planning on migrating my other two domains to WHP but after reading these reviews I'll probably scrap that idea for now and keep the one domain on there.

Tue, 10/11/2011 - 07:26 — Anonymous

There are quite a few charges that will only show up in your billing statement after six months to a year, such as additional domain registration costs. Don't be surprised if it ends up costing you three times as much as listed. I initially got their 4 year plan, and ended up canceling after a year because of the additional charges, and furthermore lost my domain name because of that and had to switch to another one. (And I find it quite ironic that on their site they guarantee that there will be no hidden charges -- yeah right.)

Tue, 09/20/2011 - 22:19 — SD

Hi,

I've been with WHP for more than an year now but I haven't faced any such issues. Infact, just to see the difference between a very cheap hosting and cheap hosting i purchased a hosting plan from mochahost.com. To my surprise, WHP is much better than mochahost.

Wed, 09/21/2011 - 03:25 — Jamie

No issues thus far - been with them a little over two years.

Tue, 09/20/2011 - 14:02 — Stu

My site at webhostingpad.com has been suspended several times now with no advance notice.

Each time, I open a ticket and the response is that my site has been abusing the server. My "site" hosts a few pictures of my dogs and some other very small files. When I look at the usage graphs in cpanel, there are brief (small) spikes on the cpu, but memory and everything is is flat lined.

The latest trick is that they suspended my service (5 years paid) and tell me I will have to get a new host unless I buy their VPS service for my site.

These people are crooks and using bait and switch in my opinion. Avoid webhostingpad.com at ALL costs!

Again, run away from webhostingpad.com.

Fri, 11/25/2011 - 14:41 — Anonymous

They hosts some 900 accounts in 2.0Ghz quad core dual cpu with 8GB(!) ram.

Which is slightly better than your home PC. :)

Sat, 10/01/2011 - 11:53 — Viv Richards

I have used Webhostingpad for just over 2 years. When the first year was up they sent me several e-mails to inform me they would bill my card for another years service. That was very very fair warning. I haven't had any serious problems. The customer service has been quick and effective.
No Problemo!

Fri, 11/25/2011 - 14:31 — Anonymous

They can change their offer at anytime without notice, retrospectively.

For example, they offered free domain name for the plan when I was signed up and
put some dodge stuffs in their t&c then refused renew my domain later. even further,
they charged some $15 for domain renewal without any prior notice which is silly price
as you can buy it from godaddy or somewhere for half or below price.

Even they usually ask you to sign up for 3 years plan - pay in advance.

This devious clause has been embedded into their t&c.

I contacted attorney general regarding this issue as well but seems what that guys doing is
simply forward my mail to webhostingpad and forward their reply (which is very much copy & paste
style where I can imagine how many people complaining about this).

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

they maybe nice your first year or so but who know what they gonna change after then? you will get NO REFUND AT ALL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE AND NEED THERE'S NO WAY TO DISABLE AUTO RENEWAL.

Fri, 11/25/2011 - 14:37 — Anonymous

After a review of your hosting account it has been found that your site
is using too much resources for a shared server environment.
After our most recent audit of the servers our records show that you
have ***** files on your hosting account.

This is in violation of our abuse terms at
http://www.webhostingpad.com/abuseterms.html which states:

"Web Hosting accounts come with a limit of 10,000 files per account.
Each block of 50,000 files after the initial 10,000 will incur an
additional charge of US $10/month."

Here is what you can do from here:

- Reduce the number of files on your hosting account:

Go through your hosting account and remove any backup files or files
that you are not using for the operation/functionality of your
website(s). You will also want to go through your e-mail accounts hosted
with us and be

sure to remove excess messages from the server, as this can be a large
number of the files on the hosting account. Make sure to also check any
FTP accounts that you have created and remove any unnecessary content from

there.

- You can upgrade to a VPS plan:

Details of the VPS plans that we offer can be found at
http://www.webhostingpad.com/vps/
If you want to upgrade to the VPS plan and wish for us to transfer your
shared content to the VPS plan you must purchase the package with the
WHM/cPanel control panel.

- If you do not wish to upgrade to VPS or reduce the number of files on
your account we will automatically charge you for the excess files per
our terms.

If you have any questions do not reply to this mail.
Please submit a ticket at http://support.webhostingpad.com

Thank you
Webhostingpad.com

Sun, 12/25/2011 - 20:13 — Jet Lie

I took a hosting with Web Hosting Pad for 2 years on 15 of November 2011 and also took 3 addons services for free. I took until the beginning of December before i get the pasword. I already staded that time i like to get my money back yet i still could'nt load the website. They also asked for the last four numbers of the credit card after i knew why they did so they could charge me 93 $ more for the addons billing says 15 of November 2011 so where is it for free not even one day.
I will do an investigation i have a Journalist, webmaster and Lawyer who will help me and if i have enough evidence they will be charged accordingly.I also will do a Ripoff Report


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