h20h hosting, or should that be h2woe?

Duncan Riley> Another tale of hosting woe I’m afraid from me, and this time is a company that goes by the name of h2oh, and also trades as andhosting (with a site design that looks like a ripoff of Dreamhost). Back in December I purchased a dedicated box with h2oh for a rather significant sum of money for hosting for Donklephant, one of the ex-Weblog Empire sites that I still host because they were having some problems with the VPS host they were on, and thought I could always use some additional web space. They promised setup within 72 hours, which was reasonable, but 1 week later still nothing after numerous emails. Eventually I get a response saying I need to fill in another form, which I did immediately, but by this time I was starting to suspect something wasn’t right. Nearly one week later and another pile of emails sent to them, nothing responded to and I email them telling them I want to cancel the order and I want my money back, that this is ridiculous. Suprise, suprise…I get an email saying they’ve set it up after nearly 2 weeks. As you can imagine by this time I wasn’t interested, I’d cancelled the account and I wanted my money back. More emails sent, still no response. I lodge a Paypal dispute only to be told that they cant investigate it because it was a “virtual” good. I’ll be relodging it because a dedicated server I’d argue is a physical good. So here I am with a warning: its doesn’t matter how good you check out a hosting company, you pay for what you get and cheap doesn’t always mean nasty, but with h2oh/ andhosting, it means no customer service and no hosting until you try to cancel your account. Do Not Use them, it isn’t worth the waste of money, and in future I’ll be paying for my hosting with my Visa, at least this way I know I can get my money back!

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  1. By Anthony posted on January 2, 2006 at 10:44 pm
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    These guys are very dodgy. You should have asked around because I and many other would have told you that these guys mainly host adult and treat mainstream web guys like crap because they make all their $$$ via the naughty side of the web.

  2. By Duncan Riley posted on January 2, 2006 at 11:32 pm
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    You live and learn, and I learnt the hard way unfortunately, next time I need a box I’m throwing open the submission again :-)

  3. By The Hunter posted on January 3, 2006 at 12:48 am
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    Yes, thats true these web dudes they get their $$$ in a very naughty way :-)

  4. By Chris Garrett posted on January 4, 2006 at 6:20 am
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    It seems the majority of web hosts are dodgy nowadays, so many people seeing the easy setup control panel software and getting into the business for a fast buck I guess. I made a mistake with my new hosting account but at least it works, sounds like you have been really ripped off Duncan!

  5. By Chris Garrett posted on January 4, 2006 at 6:21 am
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    Ps. Surely if they make their money from the “dark side” they ought to provide better service for fear of losing vital parts of their anatomy??

  6. By Riley posted on March 1, 2006 at 8:08 pm
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    I had similar problems with H20H which I won’t get into but I discovered a funny thing, I typed their address from one of my bills they had sent me into my browser and low and behold……..My site was being run from a Carwash in WI……..now this is hilarious
    Check it out, H2oh has the same billing address as Cartunes & Beyond Incorporated in Oconomowoc, WI and all this time they have been trying to pretend they have a staff of over 20 people answering my emails etc!!
    What a scam!!

    live and learn

    give them a rating here
    http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=30701567&title=Cartunes+%26amp%3B+Beyond+Incorporated&state=WI&csz=Oconomowoc%2C+WI+53066&ed=fy0ZKa131DynMjIZPy6VY.GS4zUH1b.kIs4epiP.pi3NU2qb5pJCfY4p&stx=cartunes+beyond+inc&lsrc=details&&rvwconf=1