Realwebhost.net - negative review

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Here is the story, I used these guy for a year and all was fine. My time to renew came in August and I did, well, as soon as I paid my money things started to go wrong and the guy who owns it was a real ass about the problems. First it was outages, my web site blinked in and out for about 2 weeks, problems with getting the e mails, etc. So I sent this e mail to the guy:

what the hell is going on? My web site cannot be found, my e mail address
cannot be resolved, what are you people doing? First year you gave me good
service, now it has been very spotty at best. I am not happy.

Here is his response,

First of all we are trying to fix the server and we are doing this as fast
as we can. Second do not use this tone with us!

Now keep in mind that this has been happening for 2 weeks, it was not just a matter of one day. I understand that equipment has to be mantained and databases backedup, but for him to tell me they are doing it as fast as they can after two weeks is BS. I don't mind an acasional interruption, but this often? NO WAY.

I decided not to respond as they did fixed it after I bitched. Well, one week later, the guy updates his SQL database without letting anybody know. Now, I am not a programmer, and I know nothing about this, but if I had known I could have contacted the guy who does my programming and provided me with my art software (http://www.artsoftartists.com/) for selling to take care of the site and be prepared.
Well, the result was that my web site was all screwed up for two weeks, but it was screwed up in a funny way. For example you would click at my journals and the header would come up, but the content would be empty, making people think there were no journals posted. etc. This was the worst, they had done previous updates before that mess up my site but were of functions I did not use very much so I was unaware the errors exist. So I wrtoe the guy this e mail.

I would like you to move my web site to Kevin Saitta's private virtual server and refund my money. I am very upset that you make upgrades and updates and you don't advice your clients. This is not the first time you have done this and mess up my site. I am not a programmer and everytime you mess my site up I have to call Kevin and ask him to fix what you have messed up. I am tired of this and I would rather pay Kevin to host my site than you.

Here was his response

Our charge to move a site outside of the shared server you are will be 25.00, please read our rules http://www.realwebhost.net/rules.php when requesting a refund, Read them carefully and read them all.

So, although he caused the problems, he wanted me to pay him to move the web site to a virtual server my programmer has with him and on top of it, keep my money (for which I has paid one year in advance just last month).

So, stay away from this guy, and his hosting service. The moment something goes wrong you will not be given any customer service support and in addition if the guy does not like your attitude he will act like he is doing you a favor instead of providing the service for which he is being paid.

[ldcdc]

Jorge, I'm sorry to tell you, but your host is basically right from most points of view, the major exception being the fact that they caused/not handled those issues on the server properly. That looks indeed very serious.

As for the rest, yes, you did a have way of addressing them that some hosts would see as borderline abusive. Maybe you had reason for the tone, but some hosts simply don't put up with such. It's up to them really, to define these boundaries.

Their TOS, that you agreed to when you paid them, clearly states:

If you pre-paid for service, no refund will be given for any un-used time. For example, if you signed up for a year, and used 6 months, you will not receive a refund for the un-used 6 months.

That is often the case, and one of the reasons why paying long terms in advance should be given careful thought. If you don't want to completely lose those money, find a use for the account (store something there, let a friend use it for his blog/whatever that doesn't need better service that you have received).

Moving sites, especially to other hosts, is not the job of your hosting provider. You can ask your new host to do that for you, but even they are  under no obligation to do so.

I understand that you're upset, but, ultimately, in this situation, you can choose with your wallet.

Thank you for taking the time to detail your experience. I wish you a better hosting experience with your next host!