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During my unannounced getaway from dotTech, there was a time when I wasn’t sure about the status of this website. What will happen to dotTech? Would I continue to update dotTech? Has dotTech officially reached its point-of-no-return? During this time the only thing I knew was that at the moment I wasn’t able to update dotTech. So, I figured since I wasn’t able to update dotTech for the time being, I could save a little bit of money by moving dotTech off a dedicated server and onto shared hosting. (Shared hosting is significantly cheaper per month than a dedicated server.) This made sense because there there wasn’t a lot of traffic coming to dotTech since I wasn’t updating, so there was no need for a dedicated sever at the time. (dotTech is on a dedicated server now, though.)
So I did a little bit of window shopping, looking at web hosts. I eventually ended up purchasing four years of shared webhosting from HostICan. I should have known better (never, ever purchase hosting from a company that has anything short of excellent reviews), but I got sucked in with a 50% off coupon; after all four years of shared hosting for $78 is a banging deal. I didn’t just pick HostICan out of the blue; I did do a bit of research on HostICan and they had mixed reviews about them. I figured with their 30-day money back guarantee I was relatively safe by going with them. Boy was I wrong.
Five weeks into my contract, HostICan send me an e-mail telling me I have “outgrown” my shared hosting plan and I need to upgrade to VPS, starting at $48/month. They then proceed to suspend my account – without even giving me a chance to respond to their e-mail - losing all of dotTech’s data in the process. (Some dotTechies may remember this as the dotTech turmoil era, when visiting dotTech.org would bring up a gruesome “account has been suspended account” page and all the recent forum posts were lost.)
In my e-mail response to HostICan’s support team I asked why my account has “outgrown” the shared hosting. (I was mighty suspicious how my account suddenly “outgrew” their shared hosting plan after the 30-day money back guarantee was up considering traffic was fairly constant for the whole five weeks.) They ignored the question. I asked what I did wrong. They ignored the question. I asked if it was possible for them to temporarily reactivate my account so I could at least grab my data. They told me they didn’t have a backup of my data. That is the last I have heard from them.
Now while I do have my suspicions about their justification for suspending my account, all webhosts have their rules about what they tolerate on shared hosting and what they don’t; so if I outgrew HostICan’s shared hosting, fine – that is not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is the fact that HostICan never explicitly told me why my account was suspended (aside from a vague e-mail), they never gave me a chance to rectify my mistake (I could have kept my other websites on HostICan and moved dotTech away from HostICan, back onto a dedicated server), and they lost five weeks worth of data in the process (luckily we didn’t lose everything, since I had a five week old backup).
I have repeatedly tried to e-mail, chat, and call HostICan to try to get this issue resolved; but they are ignoring all forms of communication and to this day my account remains suspended even though I paid for four years worth of service and only got five weeks.
After the lack of communication and their behavior, I tried to ask for my money back but of course, they didn’t respond. Getting the cold-shoulder from HostICan made me turn to the other “insurance” I had (or so I thought) – PayPal. However, turns out PayPal is of no help since PayPal “doesn’t cover service items”. With HostICan ignoring me, and PayPal being useless, it seems like my $78 are pretty must lost. $78 isn’t a large sum of money but it is nonetheless my money that HostICan has literally stolen.
I have already filed a complaint with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) regarding HostICan’s behavior. Although I don’t expect much to come out of the complaint, it felt good filing it. Next step on the anti-HostICan campaign: Spread the word. This is me spreading the word:
Avoid HostICan more than you would avoid the plague.
I have quoted your post at DonationCoder (http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/bb/index.php?topic=24906.new#new )
Thought you might like to know that I connected with 1&1 for a personal website; as I thought I was getting a pretty good deal with a money back offer. I tried it, but couldn’t quite understand their site, so after about 3 months into the contract and paying 3/4 of it, I told them I just wanted out without paying the remaining payment. They agreed. A year later I got a letter from a collection agency requesting that payment. I told them my story, they naturally couldn’t do anything and were next to hostile threatening me to the credit bureau. I attempted to deal directly with 1&1, but forget that. Tried to find all my paper work; got fed-up and after several threatening phone calls from that collection agency, I decided to pay it just to get out of the hostile environment. We were talking about $40 so I decided my mind was worth more than that. So that is my dispute with 1&1 so people be careful!
I am glad you are back with us Ashraf
It’s always curious when a company’s ownership and management is opaque, as is the case with HostICan. At last month’s WordCamp Richmond 2010, an address entitled “Selecting a WordPress Host” was given by “former power and density engineer” Denis Motova, “now the strategist at HostICan, leading all of HostICan’s marketing strategies”.
Obviously, one such “marketing strategy” was HostICan’s involvement in sponsorship of this event, for which due acknowledgment was made: “A big thank you to. . . HostICan, a privately-owned company based just outside of Richmond, Virginia”.
Last month’s event can be found here in HostICan’s photographic record:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hostican-web-hosting
though Denis Motova’s shyness seems to keep him away from the camera.
Still and all, as HostICan’s Marketing Manager (AKA “the strategist”) Denis Motova’s actual role in this “privately-owned company” is crystal clear. Or, er, well. . .
According to Better Business Bureau (central Virginia) Denis Motova is no mere employee. Denis Motova is “the principal”. And though HostICan fails to enjoy the status of a BBB Accredited Business, the company’s history is well chronicled:
http://www.bbb.org/richmond/business-reviews/internet-web-hosting/hostican-in-ashland-va-21017360/
where it seems that HostICan’s past has certainly been checkered since its launch in December 2006 (it barely managed nine months’ operation before its BBB Accreditation was revoked in September 2007.)
Explanation of BBB’s rating of Mr Motova’s business is also provided, so that there can be no doubt as to why, on a Rating Scale of A (best) to F (worst), HostICan merits an F.
Yet this F-rated privately-owned company whose Principal appears, inexplicably, to go around representing himself merely as some kind of employee, has numerous awards – so many, in fact, they’re difficult to keep track of.
Actually, some are difficult to even find: for example, being voted the Number 1 Business Hosting Provider by Findmyhost, as well as earning the Editor’s Choice Award 2010 (also from Findmyhost) is pretty persuasive – or rather, it would be if WoT’s persuasion to stay well clear of the Findmyhost website proved the stronger in my case. Still, it’s possible to browse without fear amongst websites such as HostReview, whose award to HostICan for Top 10 Budget Hosting features on HostICan’s self-laudatory webpage. . . even if HostReview seems nowadays to offer no kind of endorsement at all. One wonders why.
Bedecked, then, with the worst rating possible from Better Business Bureau, with its reputation embellished by awards at least two of which come from a source Web of Trust warns against visiting, and other awards so far out of date the award-giver seems not to wish for any kind of association now, HostICan clearly has some difficulties where corporate image making is concerned.
As the, er, Marketing Manager, Denis Motova must regret that. As the company’s, um, actual Principal, even more so. This no doubt accounts for his intervention here:
http://www.howtospoter.com/my-reviews/beware-of-hostican-hosting-fraud
albeit, not here (latest post, July 2009):
http://www.theskykid.com/random/hostican-affeliate-program-scam/
though definitely here (last month):
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=992816
where Denis goes so far as to promise to “talk to my Board” about getting a refund for someone.
(As Marketing Managers do not generally describe their employing company’s Board of Directors in such proprietorial terms, still less have such direct access to ‘em, it’s surely now safe to say that Denis Motova is not a mere employee. At all.)
What else might be deduced from even an idle meander around the ‘Net about Denis Motova and HostICan, I’ll leave to others. Meantime though, the question remains: why would a web hosting business already F rated by BBB and at the centre of many a critical post elsewhere on the Internet now risk so very, very much in the way of further reputational damage. . .
for the sake of screwing dot tech / Ashraf out of $78??
Is the company in such desperate financial shape it needs to rake in every dollar in every possible way, no matter how shoddy or sleazy such ways may be?
Or is this a system failure, and HostICan is actually an incredibly well-run ethical company which on this occasion has fallen victim to the epic incompetence of one or more employees who should be sacked forthwith?
HostICan’s marketing manager and/or strategist and/or owner and/or board chairman and/or chief coffee maker really ought to be talking to Ashraf sooner rather than later, otherwise the next conversation to occur with “my Board” could be the biggest embarrassment $78 has ever bought. As a former “power and density engineer”, Denis Motova of all people should be aware of the power of consequences that can befall when any business starts acting in the most dense of ways. . .
April 22, 2009 – I go to check my e-mail…and it’s not there! No explanation, nothing. I proceed to try and contact AOL (the provider), to no avail. I had started with them back in 1995, when I paid for dial-up Internet access. I could not find an e-mail address to contact them (and didn’t have an active e-mail account to send from), and the only phone number I could find was for ordering paid services (I was on AOL’s free program by then). I figured it was worth $19.95 for me to get some answers, so, I call the 800 number. When I inquired about my e-mail account, a very polite young (sounding) lady informed me that my account had been “terminated for violation of AOL’s Terms of Service by the AOL Community Action Team.” I asked for a phone number to contact this “Community Action Team.” No phone number is available. How about an e-mail address. None available. I was given a snail-mail address (postal). Problem: My address book was online with AOL, and now it was lost forever. 14 years of accumulated business and personal contacts gone. I cut my losses, and got my own reseller account with GoDaddy. And, I keep a back-up of all address books!
Ashraf, so sorry about the hosting experience but glad you were able to successfully move on.
This is the downside of the Internet (and much of business life nowadays), the lack of accountability (and why, too often, easy-to-use telephone service numbers are not provided). Would someone actually act like this face-to-face?
I definitely do not recommend 1&1. I picked up some sites there for cheap, but they want you to do everything their way, and don’t give you much flexibility (for external name servers, etc). Transferring away from 1&1 has been a nightmare too.
I’m a big fan of oneworldhosting.com Not the cheapest, but their service is great. I resell them and really appreciate talking to a live person whenever my customers have any issues. I learned my lesson when I chose 1&1 for a new customer, and regretted it.
Reported their malpractice at WOT
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/hostican.com/comment-15015685
sounds like a breech of contract to me.
I’ve been using 1&1 since they started off in the States with the 3 years free, and we’ve been using them since for our domain names as well as hosting. Even when I by a .ca domain name elsewhere I still use dns forwarding to manage it through 1&1.
Have you posted this article on reddit.com , if not I highly recommend that you do
Know what, the money isn’t much. I mean it could be but it’s not. the data, it’s not like you lost the launch code for some ICBM. it’s there loss because word of mouth has tarnished them.
Maybe Stan covered this above, but:
I ALWAYS use a regular charge card for every online purchase, INCLUDING all my PayPal purchases, and INCLUDING all my eBay purchases. I’ve generally found PayPal’s vaunted purchaser protection to be worthless, and I’ve generally found the protection I get from my credit-card issuers to be amazingly good. They generally refund first and ask questions later. If nothing else, this gets the vendor’s attention!
Once after wasting maybe a month trying to resolve a dispute with the vendor and Paypal’s resolution center, I phoned the VISA bank and complained. That day or the next day, I got an e-mail from the vendor, apologizing for the problem, and explaining that HE was refunding 100% of my money. With PayPal, even if you win, you never get back 100% if there have been shipping costs, etc. — even if the product was defective or maybe non-existent!
Just an idea… You may want to contact your local TV station to get them to broadcast your bad experience with HostICan.
Here in the San Jose, California area we have this ABC7 TV news, which has a section called “7 on your side”, which is devoted to helping consumers getting thier money back. I have seen them successfully take on big names like American Express, Chase as well as local home contractors to over-zealous unscruplous dentists. In nearly all cases the TV crew was able to get the consumer thier money back and lay out the facts for a lot of people to see and avoid the unscruplous merchants.
In a few cases, like a cheat car-dealership, they were able to get the owner prosecuted too! Needless to say I find that to be the best section of the local news.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/channel?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=7109212
You can see if there is something like that in your local news stations. You could contact them to start something like this if they don’t have one.
just a thought..
To increase the power of “spreading the word” my wife has a suggestion:
Do a Google search on “HostICan” and when you come to the reference for your review [HostICan = StealICan] simply click through to the page containing the review.
I realize it’s a wee bit labor intensive, but it may be an effective way to boost the review up to a position where it becomes prominent in every user’s Google search.
I currently find the dottech review at the top of page 6 in my Google search. I don’t know how far I can boost it with the ‘manual’ method, but I’ll play with it a while and see…? (I don’t know how well Google identifies individuals who repeatedly click on the listing, and thus discounts those clicks… I think it’s appropriate to regard the boosting of the importance of the review as a public service.
Just food for thought…
@Everyone: Thanks for the support, advice, and feedback. All is greatly appreciated.
Just ent a email to: sales@hostican.com
Here my reply:
Dear Daniel xxxx,
Thank you for contacting HostICan Sales.
We do appreciate your interest in HostICan. Your inquiry was submitted to our sales department, and one of our sales associates will be in contact shortly.
For future reference, this will be your Sales Inquiry ID: KAV-589147
Please let us know if you have any further questions. We will be in contact shortly.
Best Regards,
HostICan Sales
HostICan Web Hosting
(Intl) +1 (804) 412-0390
(F) (804) 550-3339
@Daniel: That’s their automatic reply message generated any time someone sends an e-mail. Getting a follow-up e-mail from a sales rep is the real miracle. ;-)
Thanks for trying, though.
@Ashraf:
:) I really do hope that they reply, if they don’t I’ll go onto their live chat :P
ROFL, I just got this back from a live chat.
” sorry but I don’t click on random links by unknown people. Have a good day.”
I just sent an email to these people stating that I have 4 websites (which I do have) and after hearing about the ordeal they put you through, I won’t be hosting with them. Just thought I should let them know that screwing over good customers will make them lose business. Sorry you had a hard time with them Ashraf.
Thanks for the heads up, I have a friend looking for a site to host his web site on now.
Will tell him to not bother looking at HostIcan
Thank you.