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I have been blogging for a few years now and I will tell you that for the first few years I had nothing but praise for Hostgator.  All of that praise ended about 3 weeks ago when I was forced to migrate all of my sites from a shared HostGator server to a VPS server.  I felt as if the previous years of good HostGator customer service had gone down the proverbial toilet.  I think all of my problems began because I asked them to do something, other than let the electricity flow through the server space they rent me.  The following is a brief rant about the horrible customer service I received from HostGator.

To set this story up I was forced to switch over to a VPS Hostgator server because the security department told me it had to be done.  At first I thought it was alright but it was really a very strong twisting of my arm because they shut EVERYTHING down and basically told me :tough shit!”   The process of switching from a shared HostGator server to a VPS HostGator server was the single most stressful event I have ever had to deal with since I started working on the Internet.

HostGator told me to do things and then couldn’t “sit” on hold with me because THEY were too busy.  Then I had to complete the task and call them back each time.  Each time I called them back…I spoke to a different person.  The entire switch from a HostGator shared server to a HostGator VPS server took about 3 days and ALL of my sites were NOT available on the Internet for about 2 of those days.  Each time I called HostGator I got a different person.  On more than one occasion I was told that the last HostGator representative was wrong and received an “apology” for any inconvenience.  Yada Yada Yada…Some of the people I spoke with were nice and knowledgeable and yet others were downright stupid and rude.

I will not get into the specif ics of my switching and all of the aggravations I experienced because it just makes my blood boil.  The worst part was NOT seeing my sites available on the web for 2 straight days.  I grew sick of the apologizes and the wrong information I received time and time again.  In the end I felt as if I should feel privileged for the fact that HostGator was taking my money.   I felt in the end that HostGator security were Nazis and I was the hapless concentration camp victim.

In closing I just want you to know that if you are thinking of using HostGator, that is alright.  Just don’t expect the level of customer service you deserve and do not expect two answers to be the same when you are forced to make multiple calls for assistance.  Maybe HostGatorhad exceptional customer service a few years back, but those days my be over.  Before you pick up that phone and ask them for help you better know what you want and document everyone you speak with because when you are still talking about the same issue 3 days later with the 8th person, you too will want to be able recant the tale of the horrible HostGator customer service.

HostGator really has no centralized or streamlined customer service that facilitates the process.  Just keep calling back and speaking to enough HostGator employees until it gets fixed.  You will have to keep calling and playing customer service roulette because they are just too busy to stay on the phone long enough to really help you through the issue you are working on.  Also, they can’t help you too long because they are much more computer savy than you are and you are an idiot to them.  Not all of them, just some of them and those are the ones I remember the most dealing with on the phone.

I still use HostGator because for me because it is the easiest thing to do right now, I just dread the next time I am told I have to expand or when I need any assistance from HostGator customer service.

This may sound odd but I have nothing to say about HostGator, as a host provider today.  I have a few websites that I run, nothing major, but the few that do exist… I lay claim.  The point is that all the switches are switching and everyone seems to be happy.  I have no problems or phone calls from HostGator telling me that I have a problem.  In my little corner of the universe, the Internet is NOT down.

So…today is just “a day“, as I have nothing interesting to write about HostGator because I guess whatever it is that I pay them to do….they are doing.  Since they are doing what I ask them to do, I am going to work on another article on another site, that holds a tad bit more interest.

I guess HostGator can be pretty reliable….at least today, and today is  a good thing!  At least for right now it is…

First off I must say that I have been a loyal user of HostGator for a few years now.  What started off as just one site turned into having many sites and the only thing I remember hearing is that I could have unlimited domains with HostGator for one low price.  Now that some of those sites have started to make a drain on the server that I share, I am told I need to expand to a dedicated server.  HostGator has told me that I may want to upgrade my service from a shared server to a dedicated server, of some sort.

I am not a techno type of guy and if that is what HostGator tells me about the server, I do not mind.  What I do mind is finding out by email.  Let me explain….

I received an email that told me a website had a “runaway script” problem, so they shut down all my sites.  I was shopping at the mall and my cell phone rang.  I answered to a recording telling me that my websites had been shut down, because of a drag on the system.  I called HostGator right away and then I was told I had to respond to an email. 

I rush home to respond to an email that explained to me why my websites were shut down.  I called HostGator and I kept getting referred back to my email.  The “customer service guy” could only talk to the “security guy” via email.  This meant that while my site is banished from the web I have to rush home and then sit around to wait for an email as to if they reactivated the website.  Or if there was another problem, which would have required another round of emails.

The problem was fixed after I disconnected the two runaway plugins and somewhere overnight the site was resuscitated.  The point I do not like is the way I have to be relegated permission to discuss my sites problem with somebody.  When the entire problem is that one of my sites are not on the Internet, then I need HostGators help in solving the problem when I call. 

Having to wait around for emails would be like driving nails in my fingers, if the website that was at issue was one that earned some significant money?  I just did not like the way I had to trouble shoot problems by email?  I do not expect HostGator to fix each and every problem but if I am expected to correct an issue in an plugin, that is causing runaway script….then I need faster answers to my question than sending emails back and forth.  Is this a new system or is it just time to upgrade?  I don’t know.

Other than having this one little issue, HostGator had been an outstanding organization overall.  I just hope they stay that way.

I have to be fair to HostGator in the fact that I have had nothing but good service from them for quite some time.  I pay about ten bucks a month and if I just paid  in advance, I would pay less and I would save even more money.  Overall, it has been decent service.  Looking back on the years of using HostGator I can say that I am thinking that some of my websites have strarted to grow in a way that they may need their own server or some other sort of upgrade from the present minimal HostGator service package.

I am looking in the not to distant future to start breaking out different websites / blogs on various subjects.  I really like the concept of being able to turn the passion of whatever, into some keystrokes that spit cash into my accounts at the end of it all.  To think that the only thing I need to do is write articles about what I am passionate about, and tag my experiences of what did, or did not work for me………. 

That is what brought me to HostGator…the need to create a web of sites that could earn me enough money to support myself and my family.  Others had done it and so could I. 
The whole thing of creating the site was always the problem.  For the first few years I struggled with having to just be able to understand how to change the header photograph on a Word Press template.  I have come along way in being able to make a basically good looking website, because of Artisteer.  (This Site is an Artisteer Template that I designed)  Because of being able to build these sites in under an hour, I started to chunk them out one after another.

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I was going to make a million dollars on AdSense!  The only thing I had to do was create sites, auto-content them on their way and get rich.  It sounded great, but that is not what happened.  The auto-content plugins worked but the filtering was horrible and I can remember watching one of the creator’s auto-content coffee website.  There was a YouTube video automatically posted that had these two really stoned kids using a coffee grinder to grind up their marijuana.  It posted to his auto-content website because of the “coffee grinder” being the auto-content key phrase.

The point is that the whole thing went bust and yada, yada, yada.  The end result is that I did learn some valuable lessons on websites and how they work and how HostGator works.  I now am in the phase of culling the auto-content pack of websites as they come up for renewal.  If they have not paid last years rent, they go.  AdSense will be the big decider on their performance.  I am looking that if they earned less than 10 bucks in the year, they are not renewed. 

I am looking to re-inventing some of the old sites.  Starting some new ones and pounding the products that I believe in, through the Internet and sort of let my experiences travel on the web.  It is my goal to help like-minded individuals achieve their goal.  You would know my intentions are clear, simply by me stating that I affirm the teachings of Wallace D. Wattles.  I am here for the sole purpose of being to your benefit for having met here.
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If you are starting out on the web and are looking to do it is cheaply as possible, then HostGator could be the company you need.  I am a step ahead of you because I am thinking of expanding and I am not sure how I want to do that.  I may expound on the HostGator virtues and yet also start a new round of sites at lunarpages.  I am thinking of doing that merely to gain the experience.  To venture out into the experience to help provide me with content. 

Content is king on the web and original content trumps all!  Now that I know I need to write about my life on various blogs, I have unlocked the kingdom of riches.  I just need to create the site, live my life, write about those experiences and watch the money arrive.  I have done it in the past and the future only looks brighter.  In that future I hope to grow.  I have used HostGator to grow, but I am wondering if I need to continue to diversify as I expand?

I am undecided as to what I intend to do, but I will tell you that if you are just strating out on the web….HostGater is pretty cool and if you are persistant enough that someone will help you….the problems go away fairly easily.

I give a double thumbs up for the past services of HostGator.  It is my future of expansion with them that I am unsure of… 

 

For a bit of the back story I have been having a problem with the plugins I got from some “guru”.  Those auto-content pluggins are running amok on the server.  The auto-content plugins were causing the server to have too much of a drag and slow everything down.  Understandably so, when the server gets too slow…your website gets the plug pulled until the problem gets resolved.  The auto-content plugins create hit or miss problems on just a select few sites.  But since it is a shared server, all the websites go down.

I never pretended to be a computer geek.  I started this whole blog / website thing because I thought it could grow into some sort of business and help me earn some needed cash.  So, my wife and I persevered through getting ripped off by some “less expensive” hosting service after we lost an entire year of data.  We just picked up the pieces and kept going.  We soon landed on the doorsteps of Hostgator.  We were told they were good, and we thought they would be around and not just shut down one day.

We really like the whole advertising gig that Hostgator has saying “unlimited blogs”.  I would say that is a true statement, but the truth is not what seems to take place as you start to add onto the number of domains you acquire.  Once you get over 50 domains you will start to realize that you can easily put a strain on the Hostgator server.  When that strain happens, they shut you down and send an email to you.  Also, they will have a recording call your phone number telling you your sites have been sedated.  (This is a great time to make sure your contact information with HostGator is up to date!)

There were a few times that I got ugly with HostGator guy on the other end of the phone because of cocky or better than thou attitude.  BUT! I will be fair, I have spoken to some really good HostGator reps and they were great.  (I think I even sent a email in one time I was so thrilled with the service received?) 

The point it that I have learned that the entire outcome of the call depends entirely on who answers the phone and what mood they are in that moment. 

The sad commentary here is that the only way HostGator customer service could improve is if they started to lean towards becoming a totally centrally controlled corporation and came up with a zillion rules and policies and procedures.  Which would kill the company.   HostGator has had tremendous growth, but I wonder not only how they have been able to do it, but I wonder even more how they will survive the future when they grew based on customer service and phone skills? 

I hope they survive and I hope they can maintain their ability to be mega large.  I hope that when I call they still will have the time to talk to me.  To explain things to me. Help me feel good about your organization.  If I have to expand beyond that “shared server”, or whatever I need to do to allow the progression of my sites expand, make me feel good about HostGator.  With that being said, let me stop doing what I enjoy the most, which is writing… and….go check my email to see if the HostGator security department got my email requesting they check to see if the server drag is down and my blog site can be revived.  I have to go see if they can bring it back to life or if I have to read another email and act like I understand the gibberish and then call back to HostGator, wait on hold, and get another person.  After I authenticate myself all over again I continue with the problem and then I am told to check my email, which I then say I did.  I then say that I need help fixing it and then “he” (Hostgator) says that he didn’t shut it down, the security department shut it down.  He has to communicate via email and he can only communicate with them…via email.

 If you think that paragraph was bad…you should of have tried living it!

So, I will go now with the thought of having to upgrade to a dedicated server, but was asking myself why I went to HostGator in the first place?