it’s coming down to the time when i should start thinking about switching host providers again. at this point it’s down to either HostGator or HostMonster each of which has their own google “complaints” page – this time i’m doing at least that much more homework… – and both of which have almost identical articles on hostings that suck which is questionable, since it also recommends 1&1… the reason for thinking of hostgator is that they have the balls to post an forum of customer reviews and apparently don’t remove the bad ones. the reason for thinking of hostmonster is that i have a very good friend who is a web designer and he uses hostmonster and speaks glowingly of them. probably going to start the process during the coming week or so, so that when i cancel with 1&1 they can’t screw things up as badly.
pipeline data apparently is apparently aware of the fact that they are running a scam, because when informed that we were going to the police with charges of fraud, they suddenly refunded the $11.95 that they had withdrawn from my bank account after i had cancelled my account with them… up until they were informed that we were going to the police, they had steadfastly refused to refund the money – which they were entitled to because of the contract i didn’t sign – under any circumstances, but when we told them we were going to the police, that is a circumstance under which they will refund it. there’s still no word on the $300 “early termination fee” – i’ve put in a dispute with the bank, and they’ve already started an investigation – but this doesn’t make it look too good for them. it may be a while, but today i’m guessing that i’ll eventually get the “early termination fee” refunded as well.
also… <tee hee> Fart Intensity Detector complete with schematics.
Check out my provider, SeaNic.net. I pay $47/year and that includes my domain registration.
There are higher priced plans, but just recently the low boy that I’m on added a buttload of free apps (WordPress and osCommerce amongst them) as well as a mySQL database (which I am REALLY happy about).
They’re right on top 0f things in the support department. I’ve sometimes written them an email with a problem and barely had time to take a pee and freshen my coffee before I had an email that said (correctly) that the problem had been fixed.
I’m in the middle of my 6th year with them and would recommend them highly to anyone. So much so, that even though I can get hosting credit for people that I recommend that sign up with them, I’ve never bothered to follow through on it.
Last year they had a hideous fire at their main server farm. It put sites down for a week or so. They not only made good with the folks who stayed, but they also set up a complete separate server farm that you can back your site up to (for free) so that those sort of interruptions don’t happen.
They’re worth a look see.