December 2009

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 Blue Host and Host Gator. If you have some scary story to share, leave me a comment below.

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Step By Step Guide On Signing Up With HostGator

While signing up with BlueHost can be done in 2 minutes (as seen in this bluehost video), signing up with HostGator may need at least 10 minutes! There are too many options and too many page loads. You may even make some mistake and need to start all over again.

In October, I have moved this site from LunarPages to HostGator. I took the chance to capture the order process so I can show you here what you will need to go through so you won't give up half way.

Step #1 - Enter Your Domain Name

You can either register a new domain name or use an existing name. HostGator doesn't offer free domain name and if you are registering a new domain name, you will need to pay $15/year for it. If you want a free domain name, choose Blue Host instead. In my case, I will be using my existing domain name 10cheapwebhosting.com. I planned to add my real domain name 10-cheapwebhosting.com (with dash) as an add-on domain later.

LunarPages LPCP Control Panel

Step #2 - Select Your Hosting Plan

Select your hosting plan. It will be either Hatchling, Baby or Business. Baby is recommended and is also the most popular choice because it allows you to host unlimited domains. I've selected Baby.

LunarPages LPCP Control Panel

Step #3 - Select Billing Cycle and Enter Coupon Code

The billing cycle is either monthly, 6-months, yearly, 24-months or 36-months. Remember to enter your coupon here if it has not been automatically entered for you. The 20% discount coupon is always published in their homepage. If you want to try them for $0.01 for 1 month, use the coupon code FREEMONTH. I have selected 24-months with a 20% discount coupon because it will be cheaper that way since I will be with them for a long time.

LunarPages LPCP Control Panel

Step #4 - Confirm Pricing, New or Existing Customer?

In this page, you will be shown your final hosting fee after the coupon discount. You will also need to tell them if you are a new customer or an existing HostGator customer. If you are an existing customer, probably you won't need to read this tutorial. So I assume you are a new customer.

LunarPages LPCP Control Panel

Step #5 - Enter Billing Information, Username and Password

Enter your personal information and your prefered payment options here. You can pay with credit card or PayPal. You can select your own username with HostGator which is a cool feature because most web hosts will simply assign you an ugly username automatically. My previous username from LunarPage is "n0-che2" which is not easy to type and remember!

Step #6 - Confirm Your Order

Review your information before you click the "Process My Order" button. This step is very important because if you make any mistake, you will have to repeat all the steps above again! So please double check your information especially your credit card information. If there is something wrong, hit the "Correct My Information" button.

Step #7 - Order Completed!

Congratulation! You are now hosted by HostGator. You make a wise choice.

Step #8 - Check Your Email

Unlike BlueHost which offer instant account activation (where you can use your account immediately after you pay), HostGator is activating account manually. They promised to setup your account within 20 minutes. But I have mine setup in less than 5 minutes. You will receive 2 emails. The first look like this

Thank you for choosing HostGator.com as your web hosting provider. This email confirms that we have received your order.

If you have already submitted payment, your account will be setup within 20 minutes. If you have yet to make payment, you may do so by going to https://secure.hostgator.com/billing and logging in with primary email address and password specified at time of signup.

Once your account is setup, you will receive an email notification with your account information. If you fail to receive this email, please check your spam and junk email folders. If you still can't find it, please contact sales@hostgator.com with an alternative email address we can use.

Thank you again for choosing HostGator. We are looking forward to serving you soon.

Best regards,
HostGator.com

The second email will inform you that your account has been created.

Thank you for your order and welcome to the HostGator Family!

Your Package: Baby
Your Domain: 10cheapwebhosting.com
Your Username: <snip>
Your Password: <snip>
Your sites IP address:
174.120.169.220

Your name servers:
ns2153.hostgator.com
ns2154.hostgator.com

----------------------
Until your DNS has been changed and resolves to our nameservers, you can access your cPanel at:
http://gator1077.hostgator.com/cpanel

You can view your site before the DNS has been resolved at:
http://gator1077.hostgator.com/~<snip>/

If you purchased your domain name with us, the above links will allow you to view your domain before it has resolved. Your domain may not be viewable for the first 24 to 48 hours depending on your location.

There is a file called default.html in your public_html folder. This page will give you basic links and information on how to get started. You're welcome to delete this file or upload an index.html file in the public_html folder. Once that is completed, the default.html file will not show by default.

Please be sure to read:
http://www.hostgator.com/gettingstarted.html for all the information needed to manage your DNS and account.

Please, sign up at https://secure.hostgator.com/sitebuilder.php if you would like to take advantage of our Sitebuilder tool.

You can find answers to your questions in our customer knowledge base. Please visit http://support.hostgator.com/ for helpful resources, and frequently asked questions.

Please note:
Any email sent by your account within the next 12 hours will not be delivered to the recipient. After 12 hours, and any applicable DNS propagation, mail should arrive as normal.

If you are in the U.S. or Canada, your account qualifies for $50 dollars in free credit for Google Adwords pay per click program. To redeem your coupon, please login to your control panel or https://gator1077.hostgator.com:2083/frontend/x3/hg/addons/adwords.php and login with your username and password. Just follow the instructions on that page to get started!

Best regards,
HostGator.com

After your account is created, you may need to update the DNS servers of your domain name if you are using an existing domain name. The steps varies depending on who is your domain registrar but it is usually a simple procedure. HostGator has many tutorials on how to do it here.

Potential Problem #1 - Invalid Credit Card

If you entered the wrong billing information (for example, wrong credit card number), your order will not go through. You will have to start all over again! And that actually happened to me. So please make sure you really check your input at Step #6.

Potential Problem #2 - Username or Password Not Accepted

While HostGator give you the freedom to choose your own username, there are many criterias that you need to follow.

The username must be 3 to 8 characters long. It can only contain alphabets and numbers. No hyphens and spaces are allowed. It must start with a lowercase letter! For simplicity sake, please choose a short username with all lowercase letters so you can remember and type it easily.

The password must be 3 to 15 characters long. It can contain hyphens (dashes) and underscores. It must start with a lowercase letter (that means no numbers for the first character!) and it also cannot contain any part of your username.

If you don't follow these rules carefully, you will be stuck at Step #5 and it can be very annoying.

Conclusion 

Signing up with HostGator is indeed a lengthy process and if you don't do it right, you may need to repeat it again. Or you may get stuck with the username and password. However, they are an incredibly good host that is highly recommended. That's why I am willing to pay them 2 years in advance! Read my Host Gator review to know what it is highly recommended.

Related:

- Best Web Hosting Chart
- HostMonster Review
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