I Hate Hostultra!

[spiralfive]

Hi. I originally wrote this on Zeeblo (a community I'm more active in, and that provides the hosting for WebmasterNoobs.com)

I am so *&^%$(# mad at Hostultra right now it's not even funny. I got paid hosting with them on February 24, 2005 (I even have the activation email), with their "Mini 1" account, which costs $20 a year. I also registered Spiralfive.com on the exact same &*(#)@& day. I thought I was getting a great deal, but I was sorely mistaken. For one thing, then include this super-super stripped down version of cPanel, that only allows you to use the *&$( file manager, manage mail, and subdomains. For heaven's sake, there are free hosts with more features than that! Zeeblo, 1L, SuperFreeWeb, and lots of other hosts have much better specs and feature. But that's not even what burns my @$$, it's the fact that I KNOW that I registered it on February 24th (it was a late birthday present), and now I"m being told to re-new the account on November 1st. I didn't want to renew the account, I just wanted to change the nameservers to Superfreeweb or Zeeblo so I wouldn't have to fork out $60 (I also upgraded to Mini 2 Package) on inferior hosting. BUT, they won't let you change the nameservers to another host. I thought that that was bad at first, until I remembered you can have a domain name on a free account also. So, (this is after I cancelled my paid hosting account) I posted in their support forum requesting the domain be changed to my free account. 1 day went by, no reply, no post views. So, I re-posted the same message (since I run a forum myself, I assumed that the admin utilizes the "recent topics" feature and would find it easier). Additionally, it's like a ghost town except for their site adversiting forum, where everyone advertises their sites full of pop-ups and routine activeX ad/spyware (thank god for Firefox). Anyway, I thought I had my domain back at this point, surely someone was going to reply to the message. Today, a few minutes ago, I logged back in and noticed that my thread had been closed with no reply. I also had no emails nor PM's from them. Now I was just plain pissed. So, I started another thread requesting my domain be changed AGAIN. A few minutes later it was merged with the oringal thread and re-opened. Then I received a reply from admin saying that I made 4 posts and I would be banned for 7 days. So, I went over to the Spiralfive proxy (still active, since it was not hosted on Hostultra) and registered spiralfive_1 and created another thread with my activation email and the renewal email and the domain renewal email along with a link to the WHOIS information. Their renewal date did not match up. It should have said February 24, 2006 at least. I renewed it mid-year to the MINI2 package, so it should have actually been something like August 2006. Anyway, I did not receive a reply to that thread either, and it was deleted. They also banned spiralfive_1 and the spiralfive anonymous proxy IP. At that point, I just gave up. Hostultra now owns a domain that I worked on for several months and brought it up to a PR4 (for some reason it recently went back down to a PR3 site), 2k daily visitors, and a $6 a day income from Google AdSense. Any Comments?

Also, until the domain expires, Spiralfive will be located at spiralfive.em.bz (whenever I get another host that works well, it's slow now)

 

[Palyriot]

Man, you need to freakin advertise that everywhere. I hate it more than anything when a host ****s you over. You have to give them an even worse name. Did you try emailing them?

 

[spiralfive]

I tried everything. This is a big loss to me, as Spiralfive was just starting to take off. I am a paying customer, and they won't even give me support. I would have no problem with them if they'd just let me have the domain name, or change it to a free account so I can forward it to a new host. But, I guess that's life....no, thats just a sorry web host. The thing that sucks is, I have proof that I purchased the account in February, yet they don't even pay attention to it. I can't use their support ticket system (not that it's any use, it sucks too) now that I don't have access to the members area. Oh, and don't worry, they have nothing but horrible reviews. Unfortunately, it's only for their free hosting. I also would be less mad if they'd just talk to me, instead of banning me for trying to get their attention.

 

[Virgil]

You should go to WHT and post about this. Try to calm down a little before making your post over there so it reflects on the post's overall tone. Try writing down all your facts and proofs so you don't forget to mention any specifics. Bad hosts get burnt faster over there for things like these.

Too bad to read what they did with your domain.

 

[spiralfive]

Oh, Sorry. Well, they register the domain in their name (not mine, which I did not know). I just assumed that they registered it like a normal registrar (Sedo, Enom, etc.), and would buy everything in one convenient purchase. But, now that they prematurely ended my hosting account, I cannot use it. All I asked them to do was switch the domain over to a free account, so I could forward it to another host (since they apparantely "can not" change the nameservers). This really sucks. And by the time I get the domain back, all the traffic will be gone (2 months off). I'll have to start all over again, but I guess the backlinks will remain. I guess there is a little something left. But, I will never purchase another hosting account from them.

 

[Senad]

WoW that is horrible to hear especially them banning you for 7 days for making a post on their support forums?

But I cannot also say that you are not to blame either as I am seeing it HostUltra is giving away Unlimited Data Transfer AND Unlimited Disk Space. You as a customer should have gone through a screening process and took a good solid search before registering with that hosting company.

My goal here is to attempt to educate you that unlimited/unmetered in a shared environment = a flat out lie. Wherever you see this please be aware of it because they will do a lot more than just close your account (case and point your domain name). You will also probably not get any sympathy from WHT because as soon as they see unlimited they will blame you for your lack of searching before choosing your host (as they have done in the past).

I hope that you get your domain name back in some way shape or form and best of luck in trying to get your domain name back.

 

[iNod]

Lets add another Unhappy client of HostUltras to there very nice record.
HostUltra Unhappy Clients Tally
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||(Continues...)

Shall I say any more? The thing with these big companies is they don't give a rats poop about people who pay 2$ for 5GB/200GB. They only care about the people who pay 150$ for 5/200GB. I suggest getting a small web hosting company.

iNod

 

[spiralfive]

WoW that is horrible to hear especially them banning you for 7 days for making a post on their support forums?

But I cannot also say that you are not to blame either as I am seeing it HostUltra is giving away Unlimited Data Transfer AND Unlimited Disk Space. You as a customer should have gone through a screening process and took a good solid search before registering with that hosting company.

My goal here is to attempt to educate you that unlimited/unmetered in a shared environment = a flat out lie. Wherever you see this please be aware of it because they will do a lot more than just close your account (case and point your domain name). You will also probably not get any sympathy from WHT because as soon as they see unlimited they will blame you for your lack of searching before choosing your host (as they have done in the past).

I hope that you get your domain name back in some way shape or form and best of luck in trying to get your domain name back.

No, I was a paid customer on their Mini 2 package (300mb/8gb, I believe). I just wanted to change the domain over to the free account so I could at least get my domain back. Their unlimited hosting probably does work, only because they have ActiveX and PopUps all over your site. And you can't block them with a pop-up blocker, because it's coded to load on-click. Though, I removed the ads through a simple JS script. I don't even use it anymore though, because I did have the other account.

The thing that really burns my @$$, is the fact that I can't even talk with anyone. I look like an idiot when I go on a proxy server and register as a different user (only to be banned again) and try to talk to "Tyler". If I could just talk with someone on Hostultra, I probably wouldn't be as pissed as I now am.

 

[CrazyTech]

I'd make it a point to share this on WHT (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/) and as others said, don't use the profanity and current tone. It sounds like you certainly got the short end of the stick on this one. That's why I always recommend that you purchase your domain with a registration site outside of your host.

 

[Senad]

Even so a host cannot offer unlimited/unmetered space/bandwidth. It's impossible. There should have been warning flags set in your mind as soon as you saw that offer on their website. Most shady hosts will flat out lie and make this offer but in the end you will be forced to upgrade one way or another (I've seen it too many times).

There is unfortunetly nothing that you can do since they are pretty much squatting on your domain name hoping you pay the fee (any host can change ownership back to you if you ask for a transfer to another registrar such as NameCheap, that should not be the issue). They are pretty much flat out lying that they cannot change anything, it's just a matter of taking your domain name and waving it in front of you hoping that you sign up again.

There is definetly NO REASON that they SHOULD be keeping your domain name since it has been over 6 months (most companies transfer the ownership of your domain name to you after 6 months of hosting). In the future never take yearly plans, I like to say that it's best to make your host work for your subscription each month :D.

 

[spiralfive]

Well, I wouldn't have a problem it they hadn't short handed me. The domain would expire at the same time as the hosting, and I could move on. According to them, they cannot change, transfer, change, etc. anything to do with the domain name. I believe they're trying to trap me there, so I'll purchase another plan and then get to use the domain again. Little do they know, that's not gonna happen. And yes, I regret registering the domain with the host, but I did not know at the time that they trapped you in the host. Quite frankly, I didn't even consider it. I mean, why would I change hosts? It's a small site, and doesn't go anywhere near the bandwidth provided. From now on I'm registering domains with Optinom (I registered WebmasterNoobs.com there) , GoDaddy, or someone else. Anyone else seperate from the host itself.

 

[jmweb]

I wouldn't bother sharing this on WHT. The Forums here at Namepros are enough. Just try and be carefull next time and avoid any $2 a month hosts. A reliable host cost more then a coffee and a bagel a month

 

[spiralfive]

Well, like I said, I had no problems with reliability, jus the occassional MySQL downtime. It's just the fact that I only got 10 months out of a 12 month plan. Next week, whenever I'm "unbanned" from their support forum, I guess I'll just ask them what they're gonna do with my domain.

 

[spiralfive]

Just to update: the ***holes registered the domain for another year. I'm guessing they're hoping i'll puchase hosting again to use the domain name. Not gonna, happen. Only thing I lost was a domain name that goes along with my username.

 

[Camron]

I have heard some bad things about them. Good luck, I hope you get your 2 months and your domain back.

Thanks,
Camron

 

[dkr]

I've purchased Hostultra's MINI1 plan before, and it sucked so bad, it wasn't funny either. Absolutly no useful functions. I wonder how the did that... Their free hosting is better than it...

 

[Camron]

Yea there free unlimited package is a cgi script which is not available any more. I think atgig.com uses the same script? But its like 500kb max upload or something. But you can upload php.

 

[weblord]

calm down and write your reviews for hostultra.com

http://www.ciao.co.uk/hostultra_com__5644930
http://www.jubileestallions.org/reviews/hostultra.com
http://www.hostoholic.com/detail-host_ultra-28.html
http://www.webhostingstuff.com/company/HostUltra.html
http://www.webhostingjury.com/reviews/Host_Ultra

hth

 

[Masahiro]

Always avoid cheap hosts, promising any amount of space higher than 10MB for $1 a month. They must be making their money somewhere, and often it's by cutting corners and being unethical towards their customers.

Go for a reliable, trusted host - one that's been in the business for some time and actaully knows where their servers are, not from a 12 year old who oversells his reseller account which he brought from someone who dosen't know where the server is themselves.

 

[Ramphix]

Dont we all hate hostultra...