SiteGround Problems

[forrest]

Rule #1: Individual results may vary....

Rule #2: Tell it like it is and provide proof of what you say...

We recently have had problem after problem with a certain host. It became bad enough that we registered a new domain and abandoned the balance of our prepaid account. We also registered a URL to publicize our problems and efforts. If you want the details, you can see the evidence and a full dialogue at www.sitegroundsucks.com.

Forrest

[Brandon]

Thats awesome that you decided to let people know about your experiences with your hosts, especially if they are bad. Maybe thats not such a good thing for the host but it is definately good for the consumer. It should teach the host a lesson on customer service, and that a problem with one customer could mean losing many.

The above said, I mean it if you have not edited any of the dialogue o between you and support... and as long as you haven't spun the story at all to make it sound more dramatically bad.

Good luck with future hosts

[Geoserv]

Have you heard anything from them since posting that website?

Geoserv.

[Jerlene]

I'm a site ground customer and I know how they are. Their services are good but I hate their support.

[forrest]

Thanks for the comments everyone. This is a bit long, but may be helpful with additional information and answers to prior replies

Brandon: No spin or alterations, other than to remove the names and links that may create personal liability, spamming or flaming. The story is real, as the link to the trouble tickets near the bottom of the site shows. It would be hard to make up a nightmare such as that. I thought about publishing all the trouble ticket threads in detail, but it is miles and miles long and would require the same personal name removal to avoid personal libality on my part. The legal standards for comments about a person are different than those for comments about a "public entity" - or one that holds itself out to be a public entity... such as a movie star, company etc. That having been said, the truth of any statement is always an absolute defense against slander or liable. That is why I put that information in the website site and quoted case law etc. It is also protected speech under the 1st amendment.

My guess is I have well over 40 hours investigating, trouble shooting, testing (and proving) THEIR problems over the last 4 -5 months. In fairness, as the logs indicate, there was one occassion only, after I had problem after problem with SG, that a local Qwest DNS had some bad data cached and I did initially blame SG for the problem, but in the end, made it clear to all that is was not SG's problem after I did the research and testing.

The last I heard from them was from the part-time admin, as posted in the website and log - www.sitegroundsucks.com. He is absolutely great. He has given personal attention to the problems, but I think his hands are tied beause of lack of time and other duties. When he discovered that HE had personally not been receiving some emails also sent to his personal SG address as well as cc:'d to the sysadmin@siteground.com address, he pulled the logs and took them home to investigate... no answer back to what he found. We actually began communicating via my new host for reliability!

I went to the trouble and expense of the www.sitegroundsucks.com domain name, not so much to cause them to lose a few customers, (they claim to have 35,000 as of 9/05/06) but to prevent someone else from having the same continuous problems we had. It was devistating for us to lose almost a week's worth of email correspondence from Ebay and PayPal. After 4 days of back and forth correspondence, I finally discovered that what they were trying to do was catch all the Ebay & PayPal phishing spam. What they actually did, in reality, was to kill and delete all email's with references to Ebay and PayPal about auction ends, customer payments, shipping notice through PayPal etc. without any "spam holding box" or other notification to the recipient. The only thing that came through was advertisements from Ebay sent via a different IP address than those in their normal range! They first said it was my Cpanel filter setting... I replied that they were all set to "off". After a few threads back and forth, then they admitted they had recently implemented SPAM COP and they were working out the "bugs" by customizing the code and filter(s) - with no customer control or options.

In the end, after tracking blocked IP's, their hits to my Cpanel, the time of day and path of emails etc., I discovered and ASKED about where they were administering the SG site from. They are actually phisically located in Sophia, Bulgaria and remotely administer servers with IP's traced to Houston, TX. I suspect they have a partial group there to address technical & hardware problems or they are sharing someone elses servers. The owner is also from Romania, with a NewYork addresss.

I'm not a reseller or in any related business, just a retired private individual running my wife's web site where she sells Fiestaware® to cover our medical and insurance costs - we're not yet eligible for medicare - so I have no vested interest in any of this one way or another.

For anyone interested, you may contact me directly at forrest@fiestabuys.com and I'll tell you how to register a unique domain name and site like this one -www.sitegroundsucks.com - for $2.99 for 11 months - assuming you have an existing hosted account anywhere if you want more than 1000 words and links, pictures etc.

So again, all I can say is that.... "individual results may vary", but mine were about as bad as they get. Thanks and good luck to all.

Regards,
Forrest

[forrest]

Sorry... this was originally just a duplicate post. Thanks again and our HostMonster host is performing geat - try them!

[v. knutsen]

SITEGROUND IS ++++not+++FOR THE NOVICE!!!

I made the mistake of ordering the "year" version instead of the month to month version +++BIG MISTAKE+++

FIRST---after starting a website in Sitebuilder, I suddenly could no longer access it. AFter emails back & forth, I STILL COULD NEVER ACCESS MY PARTLY BUILT SITE!!!

SECOND---I had them delete my half built site. Then, after struggling to learn my GoLive program, I decided to do a site in my MSPublisher 2003. I successfully previewed my site & tried this week to load it. I CANNOT LOAD MY SITE!

*****SITEGROUND HAS NO PHONE help SUPPORT.********
I strongly suspect I am just a few keystrokes or commands from successfully loading this site. But I still cannot get adequate suppoet

I have sub issues on this, (trust me, this is my SHORT list of frustrations) but this is the overview. DO NOT PAY FOR LONG TERM siteground PROGRAMS TILL YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET IT TO WORK.

If siteground advertised its ++help limitations++ UPFRONT, (i.e. NO phone support) they would be honest. However, they HEAVILY market their fast turnaround time... in answering questions.But that is not the same as problem resolution, especially for rank novices. They claim they have the best support in the business.

But I wonder...how much money have they made from people who have just given up?

we are close to trying to get at least a partical credit card chargeback.

I had looked for internet lists of the top sites. siteground was on them. Wonder if those lists were real?

[forrest]

All I can say is see sitegroundsucks.com... it tells the entire story of how, why and when. A bunch of Bulgarian con artists using "American" sounding names - if you ask me. Most of these guys went to the American University in Bulgaria and developed the knowledge and then applied their own brand of "ethics" to con the public. And 600-700 accounts on a 200 MB server???? - (Rented from EV1Servers/ThePlanet) The web site above is long, but it gives great insight into WHY you can't get real support, but only canned "cut and paste" responses from first-line no-ops that drop your problem into the ultimate Bulgarian Black Hole. Good luck!

[! ! Zockloros ! !]

Yeah, gotta love "sucks" sites.

Thanks for helping other people out by letting them know of things that are screwed up. Wish more people would do this.

[Jerlene]

SiteGround is ran by Bulgarians? They've supported me fine. Could still use some work but they're fine. I've b&m at them and they give me what I want so I won't complain anymore.