All web host promise you a money back guarantee. But the question is how
many of them really keep their promises? Some of them will make it very
difficult for you to ask for a refund. Some will tell you that you are not qualify
for a refund because of some funny reasons. Some will take weeks or months to process your refund.
Some will only give you a partial refund.
How does BlueHost fare in their money back guarantee? Well, as a reviewer,
this is an important thing for me to experience myself first hand so I can let you know.
Do They Make It Difficult For You To Ask For A Refund?
Well, it is just too easy. When you are in
BlueHost helpdesk, all you need to
do is open a ticket and you will see the "Cancelations" request available in
the form! They are not hiding the cancelation form. They even show it to
everyone using the ticket system.
There is nothing fancy in the form either. Unlike
other host, they will usually ask you for a reason, beg you to keep
staying with them or even lure you by giving you more offers and discounts. BlueHost
is plain and simple, it is just a normal support ticket. You just need to enter 4
items - your email address, your full name, your domain name and a message.
What's Next After Submitting The Cancelation Form?
BlueHost cancelation request are processed by the billing department. They
promise to process your your refund request in 1 working day. Billing
department are not working 24/7 like the technical support department but they work long enough to serve you.
Monday - Friday 6 AM - 10 PM (MST)
Saturday 8 AM - 10 PM (MST)
Sunday Closed
So please don't expect someone to reply to you if it is Sunday or in the
midnight!
I submitted my request in the working hours and within half an hour, I received
the following reply from Robin.
To cancel your account and have a refund issued, please verify you are the
account's owner by replying with the password on the account or the last
four digits of the credit card -- this is for security purposes.
When a cancellation is processed, we delete all of the content from the
account. This includes all emails, files and databases, and once they have
been deleted, there is no possibility of restoration. I know you probably
haven't had time to upload anything, but we do need you to please confirm
you have backed up all necessary files before we process the cancellation.
Thank you,
Robin
Billing
888-401-4678
This email is interesting because it is not a canned reply. Robin wrote, "I
know you probably haven't had time to upload anything..." which means he did
notice that I asked for a refund within 24 hours without uploading anything! I
felt guilty to sign up just to ask for a refund!
So I replied with the last 4 digits of my credit card number. The next email
came back in 2 hours. The email is titled "BLUEHOST.COM
CREDIT COMPLETE".
So that's it? That's it? Yeah, that's it. Everything's
done. Cancelation completed and money refunded. This is really an exceptional experience.
BlueHost is really keeping their promise on their money back guarantee.
Waiting For My Money Back In My Credit Card Statement
While credit card purchases appear in our statement only 1 to 3 days after
the transaction, so as with refunds. And for my case, both my purchase
transaction and cancelation transaction actually appeared in the same day! LOL.
My purchase and cancelation was done on 20 June (Saturday) and the
transactions was reflected in my credit card on 22 June (Monday), which is
pretty fast even though Sunday is a holiday.
If you eyes are sharp enough, you may notice that I have another
transaction of $142.20 from BlueHost again on 24 June. Why? Because feeling
guilty, I went back to repurchase a new account after my cancelation request!
I will use the new account to show you more about BlueHost later.
Summary and Conclusion
If you haven't know it yet, BlueHost offer a 30 day money back
guarantee in which within 30 days after you account is opened, you
are qualify for a full refund. If you are taking their free domain name offer
and registered a new domain when you sign up, then a $11.95 domain registration
fee may be deducted from the refund depending on which day you ask for a
refund.
If you asked for a refund within 3 days (72 hours), the $11.95 domain
fee will not be deducted because the domain registrar allows you to
release a domain name back to the registry in 3 days. But after that, you will
have to pay the $11.95 fee but you will still own the domain name for the rest of
the year. You can even host it with another web host such as
HostGator. All you need to do is just to
change the DNS configuration of your domain name in BlueHost control panel all
by yourself.
EVEN if you cancel your account after 30 days, you will still receive a
pro-rated refund! That means if you sign up for 24 months and
cancel after using the service for 10 months, you will STILL receive 14 months
worth of the hosting fee in your refund! This is really a good business
practice.
As you can see, BlueHost money back guarantee is not an empty promise.
Related:
- Have you read my detail BlueHost Hosting
Review?
- Have you watch my video on
signing
up with BlueHost (3 min)?
LunarPages introduced a new plan known as
the Starter Plan in
July 2009, making the total of shared hosting plans to 3, i.e. Starter, Basic
& Business. The plan is cheaply priced at only $2.95/month. While I have mentioned that the Business plan is overpriced and
not required by most of us in my 
