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Review by daxue 
UPDATED: 1.4 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 152 visits, last login: 28 days ago
 Sicklerville,Camden,NJ
 $9 per month (24 month contract)
 about 1 days
 "great list of features, fully function"
 "crappy acceptable use policy"
 "you get what you pay for..."
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
webhostingbuzz is good for websites that don't rely on uptime as i've used them for four years and they're slowly learning how to improve their hosting.
as with any shared hosting, if one client puts at-risk scripts on the server, it does affect server uptime and their downtime is in the completely acceptable range. right now my webcalendar doesn't work since their /usr/tmp directory is full but most bugs are crushed within hours. they're also very reasonable in their tech support and tell you what they can and can't do. if you tell them the problems they're having, they will resolve it or compromise. as for their 24/7 support, its really true since i've submit tickets at 3 at midnight and have them respond within the hour.
the features on their website are great. they have almost all the information ready for you to access unlike some other hosts. also, they offer good advice for users on their blogs which i haven't seen many companies.
so don't expect 99.955 uptime but rather 99.5% in my opinion. great for storage and file tranfer occasionally. i have it hosting unimportant scripts that generate statistics and it's pretty fast and reliable. the cpanel is slow occasionally during high server load.
Update: 12/30/07
The trick with WHB is getting on good servers, they have multiple servers and some of them have risky clients. One of my servers was on those risky servers and it was down. But out of 4 accounts, only that 1 account was bad. I've turned off that account after my subscription expired.
Update: 6/10/08
They've updated their "Acceptable Use Policy" that basically blocks you from using anything but HTML. You are only permitted to have 10% of the content you upload be files over 500kb. Hosting a high-resolution gallery or a few youtube videos? forget it, you'll get suspended since your HTML files are only half a MB and your video is 10MB. Bummer.
Followup comments:  | 
a whb client
@rr.com
| Everything is down right now Webhostingbuzz has been down today on and off. Right now it's down. When I say they're down, I don't just mean one site, or one server. Their main public site is down, their support site is down, and my server is down. This has been happening on and off all day, 5 times that I've counted (who knows how many when I wasn't looking).
So, guys, I know you don't like sending out things like, oh, I don't know, EMAILS, to do things like INFORM YOUR CLIENTS about just what the hell is going on, but if you're reading this, how bout sending out an email when shit happens? Thanks. | |
| | WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK | Re: Everything is down right now Err, all servers and networks are running fine. This sounds more like an issue with your ISP. | |
|
WHB customer
@comcast.net
| site down My site has been down almost all day so far. I don't go over 1% bandwidth monthly. I wonder why it has been down so long. The support forum says shared9 is fine, but I can't check mail, go into my ftp, or see my site. I wish I could actually know what is going on. Hmm | |
|
NewWHBCustomer
@insightbb.com
| So Not happy with webhostingbuzz I've been pretty loyal to Siteocity.com for hosting... but because WHB has gotten such great reviews I decided to try them out with my site... even though they were twice the price of siteocity.
Since I've been with them (less than a week) My site has been down at least once a day! When I talk to them on live support the only person that ever answers is Vita (who is not that nice) The site normally comes back up within 30 mins or so, but Would not ever recommend them as a hosting company | |
| | WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK
| Re: So Not happy with webhostingbuzz We have escalation channels if you are not satisfied with any aspect of our service, and we do everything in our power to correct anything.
We have support forums, which include our status area, which update you as to anything that is going on.
We also widely publish our management team's email address to get in touch with - management[at]webhostingbuzz.com
So please do get in touch if you are not happy, and we'll do what we can to change this. The vast majority of our 15,000 customers are very happy with the services we provide. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of WebHostingBuzz |
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Review by kiaki
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 1.9 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
brunei darus
 Business customer
$10 per month (12 month contract)
"cheap... that's it"
"too many problem, lousy service, worst customer service, provide wrong information"
"DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THEM"
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
affortable price, yeah... but lousy service as well... is ok to have a problem, nothing is perfect. but they just have way too much problems.
not only giving a lot of wrong information, but the way they solve problem are worst.
they will ignored, closed and deleted the submitted ticket while you are waiting to be 'help'.
they even asked the same question again and again. even though is handle by different people, but can't they read back the previous tickets to understand the situation?
i'm using other hosting company plan in my country, brunei, which i consider it's bad. but web hosting buzz is worst.
i won't think it's value of money even though the price are kinda affordable. because i'm not sure in these 2 months i'm consider using it or not. i just used web hosting buzz service for 2 months...
my first month mostly wasted on the dns setting, which they also admit it's their mistake. come to 2nd month, which mean now, i face the problem with the email account it's been around 2-3 weeks already and yet the problem still haven't been solve.
if anyone wanna use their service, better not. if not, u will just end up like me; everyday waiting for their help and replying the same question again and again. in simple, wasting my time and money
DON'T RISK YOUR TIME AND MONEY JUST BECAUSE OF THEIR AFFORDABLE PRICE!!!
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of WebHostingBuzz |
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Review by hoopdedoo
Posted: 2.5 years ago
member for 6.2 years, 13 visits, last login: 322 days ago
Lancaster,Fairfield,OH
$7 per month
"Cheap."
"Dismal Customer Service - actually abusive"
"AVOID! Cheap is good, but customer service is so important when needed. Pay an extra 25 bucks/yr somewhere else."
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
WebHostingBuzz's slick website has some amazing rhetoric about fast, reliable service and how their "customer service is second to none." I wasn't with them long enough to be able to personally testify about their reliability, but I've seen SO MANY negative comments about it, I'll be sure to provide some links in the message after this one, and you can judge for yourself whether they're falsifying their 99.9% uptime claim.
But, I CAN definitely testify about their horrible customer service. Over the course of 3 days I attempted to get a straight answer from them about whether they would honor a promotional ad or not. If they had simply told me that the ad was on a website that wasn't under their control and that they couldn't honor it, I would have dropped the whole matter immediately - I'm reasonable that way. But, their responses to me were evasive, misleading, untimely, redundant, condescending, and ultimately insulting.
Read the whole unabridged thread for yourself. I remained polite and professional throughout, but even when I specifically told them that I was becoming frustrated and repeated for the nth time what I wanted to know, they ignored my straightforward requests and just tried to sell another plan (which I would have bought if not for their nonsense).
At the end, Matt still doesn't get it. He thinks my disgust with him, Malik and Faraz was about the false ad, and he resorted to calling me names because I intend to expose their lousy customer service. He's so wrong - I really don't care at all about the ad or small price difference. Matt, this is ALL about the rotten customer service you guys gave me.
The WHB website's statements about their customer care are just lip service. My next post will also contain links to dozens of other jilted customers' statements about their own mistreatment by WHB.
Their prices are great. Cross your fingers and go for it! But, I myself am so sick of awful customer service by greedy companies in (and out) of our country, that I'm willing to pay another $25 per year for another hosting company, probably »www.lunarpages.com , or »www.hostmonster.com ),who actually have a 24/7 toll-free number, and much better reviews than WHB.
NOTE: The false ad still exists as of tonight, at »www.hostsearch.com/discount.asp .
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 1:04 AM
This website lists a promotion for your service: »www.hostsearch.com/discount.asp
The promotion states:
"Free Domain Registrations with WebHostingBuzz
5 FREE Domains, 70GB space, 1000GB BW, Host Unlimited Websites for $3/M WebHostingBuzz offers 5 Free Domains, Unlimited Sites, 70GB WS, 1TB BW, Site Builder, Autoinstaller and an award winning customer service which is damn hard to beat!"
This indicates that the promotion is for your 5 website, 70gb service (platinum) for $3 per month, but once you click on the link it just takes you to the regular website, and I can’t see how to sign up for the promotional price.
Could you please guide me to it?
Thank you,
Bret
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FROM WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 4:54 AM
Bret,
Our entry level package is $36 per year ($3 per month). We only accept annual billing for it due to credit card transaction fees, etc.
---------------
Matt Russell
Chief Operations Officer
WebHostingBuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 5:21 AM
This is what was advertised:
5 FREE Domains, 70GB space, 1000GB BW, Host Unlimited Websites for $3/M WebHostingBuzz offers 5 Free Domains, Unlimited Sites, 70GB WS, 1TB BW, Site Builder, Autoinstaller and an award winning customer service which is damn hard to beat!
Here is what I see: "5 FREE Domains, 70GB space, 1000GB BW, Host Unlimited Websites for
$3/M." That certainly looks like an advertisement for 5 free domains for $3 per month.
I would appreciate a direct answer. Is the ad wrong?
Thank you.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FROM WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 5:51 AM
No, the ad is correct. $36 / year breaks down to $3 per month and you can claim the 5 free domain names.
---------------
Matt Russell
Chief Operations Officer
WebHostingBuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 5:49 PM
Thanks, Matt. I've signed up. It only offered me one domain name that I could find. Could you please direct me to how I can claim the other 4? I attached the 2 paid invoices.
Thanks.
NOTE: I attached the invoices, which included the order number, but look at the next question from WHB
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FROM WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 8:42 PM
Hi,
Please let me know your order number and will look into this.
-----------------
Regards
Faraz
Manager Billing and Accounting Affairs
WebHostingBuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 8:58 PM
=> Order Number: 371239xxxx
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FROM WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 10:00 PM
Hi,
This is a Bronze plan and comes with 1 free domain , see
»www.webhostingbuzz.com/website-h···-hosting
For five free domains i can have this account upgraded to Platinum and adjust your current payment in invoice as well. Please let me know and will take care of it for you.
-----------------
Regards
Faraz
Manager Billing and Accounting Affairs
WebHostingBuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Thu 5/3/2007 10:55 PM
Faraz, respectfully, this chain of emails is starting to frustrate me. I was dealing with Matt earlier, who specifically said I would get 5 websites as advertised. Part of what is frustrating is that each email you and Matt have sent me does not include the previous emails between us, and there have already been several important parts of the conversation lost because of it. I've been re-asked several questions, such as being asked for numbers that I had just provided in the message before.
I'm attaching Matt's most recent email. Do you also need for me to re-send the other emails that I've sent to your company? My first one to you shows the advertisement that states: "5 FREE Domains, 70GB space, 1000GB BW, Host Unlimited Websites for $3/M". The advertisement is very specific, and Matt replied: "the ad is correct. $36 / year breaks down to $3 per month and you can claim the 5 free domain names."
If you need for me to send you every previous email back and forth about this, I can, but if I need to do that, it will certainly shake my confidence in your business even more than it already has. In all my messages I've been extremely patient, polite and thorough, but I am now at the point where I don't want to re-explain again, and I do expect for the ad to be honored.
Thank you,
Bret
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Fri 5/4/2007 3:14 PM
Any reply?
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FROM WHB
Sat 5/5/2007 1:45 PM
Bret,
The ad needs a bit of correction which we will take care of. Thanks for pointing it out. As mentioned on our website 5 free domain names come with platinium plan only.
Regards
S.Malik
WebHostingBuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Sat 5/5/2007 9:08 PM
And thank YOU for so clearly demonstrating your abominable customer service to me while I'm still in the 30-day money back timeframe. A simple apology for the frustrating issues I brought to your attention in my last email would have gone a long way, but your reply was just a continuation of your nonsense.
"Matt" sent me an email stating that the ad would be honored, but then "Farad" and "S. Malik" ignored my questions, ignored my complaint of how you had treated me so far, asked inane questions that I had already answered, and have apparently overridden Matt's decision. So....
1. Please begin the refund process immediately.
2. Be prepared for me to post this entire dialogue online at the following 3 websites (for starters - I'll find plenty more, though).
»Company entry - WebHostingBuzz
»www.webhostingstuff.com/review/W···com.html
»www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1
3. I'm also going to find out how to report the false advertising, false promise and terrible customer service to the Better Business Bureau.
4. I'll let you know if (when) I discover some other avenues of action.
Sincerely,
Bret
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
FROM WHB
Sun 5/6/2007 12:17 AM
Hello Bret,
Cancellation/refund completed as per request. Thankyou once again for using our services and
look forward to do more business with you in future.
-----------------
Regards
Faraz
Manager Billing and Accounting Affairs
WebHostingBuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
TO WHB
Sun 5/6/2007 5:23 AM
Bret,
I made a mistake here. Obviously, if you feel such a simple mistake is worth all your time to post at those websites, go right ahead. I'll happily respond and let people know the truth. Pathetic.
Regards,
Matthew Russell
Chief Operating Officer
www.webhostingbuzz.com
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
My buddy tried to warn me ahead of time, and I should have listened. He didn't know anything about WHB (but he sure does now, and since he's in the website creation business, he's going to be highly instrumental in cautioning others about WHB). He's always used »www.bluehost.com, and he has high praise about his customer service experiences with them. He said he would always pay a little extra for what they've done for him. Well, I tried the cheap way. Now I'm going to try the quality way. To WHB's credit, at least they refunded the 36 bucks. That surprised me.
Followup comments: equazcion
join:2007-04-24
Fresh Meadows, NY
3 edits | Agree. Just showing my support of your complaint -- I agree with you completely here. The support people tend not to read the tickets too carefully, so they tend to ask you for information you already provided. Either that or they just use that as a technique to stall for more time. It's especially frustrating because you're sitting there waiting for a reply, and when it finally comes, it's not a resolution but rather a request for information you already gave, and you have to reply and sit there waiting again. And god-forbid you should express that frustration. Calling you "pathetic" after you got frustrated for multiple reasons that were ALL WHB's fault is pathetic itself.
First of all, it should be a priority of WHB's to get the false ad taken down. But more importantly, I TOTALLY hear you about the apology you suggested. I've gotten this feeling so much from these people. As you said, there have been so many times when a simple apology (early on, and not just after the posting of bad reviews, as a method of damage control) would have really gone a long way. Matt isn't nearly as concerned with customer service as he is with WHB's public image. When you threaten that, that's when you get attention. Otherwise you just get slick evasive answers that are really not answers at all. I'm sorry Matt, but this is true, and you need to give some serious thought to the way you handle these situations. This person's complaint could have, and should have, been resolved within the very first response from support. There was no need for this. Now you have yet another bad review posted for the public to see. Was it worth it? | |
| | WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK
| What? What qualifies you to judge me? The fact that I went out of my way to try and help you? I'm underwhelmed by your gratitude.
The fact is, management contact details are clearly visible on our website should anyone want to get in touch. I take customer service VERY SERIOUSLY, and a good proportion of my working day is on tasks related to this. Believe it or not, I am human, I can make mistakes (as we've seen in my emails above) and I do suffer from human emotions too - such as disappointment for when I try and help someone that throws it back in my face.
The original poster is pathetic. It was explained to him that we made a mistake, and it really is a minor mistake. We are a human company and yes, we can make them. Threatening to hurt their business as a result of a minor mistake by posting crap on various internet sites is pathetic. | |
| | | hoopdedoo
join:2003-08-27
Lancaster, OH
1 edit | Re: What? Wow! I think that Matt's replies speak for themselves! Still calling me names, and now abusing another customer as well. He's still so far from understanding what the complaint is actually about, I'm actually a little amazed! For all his fancy rhetoric, he's pretty dense.
Potential Customers: BEWARE! Is this type of treatment for making a valid complaint about ineffectiveness and rudeness worth saving 25 bucks a year? Not to me!
I sympathize with his hurt feelings over his misguided belief that this is all about some petty mistake he made. I assure you, it's not. I do believe him that he takes customer service very seriously, but only from a very self-centered perspective, not in the best interest of their actual customers. This company just has too many published complaints for anyone to believe in their commitment to customer service. I'm weary of trying to make him understand what this is about, so perhaps he'll step back a little from his emotional reactions to all this and re-read the sequence of events to understand it. Probably not. | |
| WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK
| You truly are pathetic You're pretty pathetic. I held my hands up and admitted I made a mistake. What more do you want?
I couldn't really give a damn about this post, anyone reading it will understand we made a mistake. If you are the kind of customer to really capitalize on this, then we're very glad that you've gone elsewhere. We have an incorrect ad (that will be addressed), we informed you of this, and this has absolutely NO reflection on the good service we provide.
We bring a lot of features, good service, fast performance and quick customer service at an entry level price point. You really need to re-align your expectations in what you get. We do not advertise 24x7 phone support, you knew that before signing up. How is that relevant?
Keep going posting the "dozens of unhappy customer" reviews. The unhappy customers are the people like you, that like to capitalize on a mistake, or those that haven't abided by our terms of service and found themselves suspended. It's pretty much that simple. | |
| | equazcion
join:2007-04-24
Fresh Meadows, NY
4 edits | Re: You truly are pathetic The complaint wasn't even about the fact that a mistake was made. The complaint was about how each support question was answered. I could be wrong but I don't think the original poster would have minded that a mistake was made, if he had just gotten direct answers to his questions from the beginning.
How is he capitalizing on the mistake? He hasn't gotten anything out of it. How has he or I not abided by the terms of service? We haven't. You have yet to even address the fact that a false ad exists for your company. It's still up, by the way, offering 5 free domain names, etc, for $3 per month.
How about the evasive answers? For example:
Customer: "...This indicates that the promotion is for your 5 website, 70gb service (platinum) for $3 per month, but once you click on the link it just takes you to the regular website, and I can’t see how to sign up for the promotional price. Could you please guide me to it?"
Support: "Our entry level package is $36 per year ($3 per month). We only accept annual billing for it due to credit card transaction fees, etc."
Matt, this is called an evasive answer. It does not directly answer the question that was asked. That's why the customer began to get frustrated, prompting his next comment:
"I would appreciate a direct answer."
I'm only telling you why these bad reviews exist and giving you advice on preventing them from occurring in the future. Do with that what you will. | |
|
LostMyBusiness
@verizon.net
| Fantastic Im awfully glad I found this thread while looking for reviews about webhostingbuzz prior to signing up with themm! Where I come from, the customer is ALWAYS right, even if it requires you to respectfully decline someones business.
Personal attacks are effectively the WORST way to scare off potential customers, under any circumstances. I don't care if your customers call you the scum of the earth, as a professional MYSELF I understand the importance of remaining composed rather than displaying such public disregard for those who pay the bills -- and yes, when you call one customer pathetic, it resonates with existing and potential customers - pathetic or not.
Thanks for showing the world your companies inability to handle disagreements (unfounded or otherwise). | |
|
nonsense
@cox.net | Shamefull Glad I read the post while checking on WHB before signing up. What a lousy way to treat a customer...shame
This type of company would never get my business or business from anyone I know.
Thanks for the heads up.. | |
| | | |
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Review by equazcion
Posted: 2.5 years ago
member for 2.5 years, 14 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
Fresh Meadows,Queens,NY
$16 per month (month by month)
about 1 days
"Lots of space and bandwidth for dirt-cheap price."
"Bad support, overloaded servers."
"You get what you pay for."
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
Ok, so I'm paying $16 a month for a reseller plan with unlimited domains and a lot of space and bandwidth. I'm no stranger to the hosting community and the business, so I'm aware of what to expect and what one can and can't complain about at that kind of price.
That's why my "bottom line" is "You get what you pay for," and not "Don't use this host." While I have a lot of complaints, I recognize that this host might still be fine for some people.
Support:
The support in a general sense is not too good. The support people are pretty much there to dispense canned, almost pre-written responses to only the most basic questions. I understand the need for this, since I've had to deal with the hordes of beginners out there asking hordes of very basic questions. So this will be fine for the average beginner.
However it would be nice if, say, when someone asks them a question that shows a certain level of knowledge, that they pass the question on to someone who could put some actual thought into their answer -- instead of giving the standard response that's designed to shut the client up as quickly as possible and reduce the trouble ticket queue. It's as if the support people always keep a copy handy of some handbook entitled "How to dispense with a support request in as few steps as possible."
But, of course, for $16, can I really complain?
Server performance:
Running server-side scripts tends to make hosts nervous because scripts consume resources. However some hosts take it too far, and blame user scripts for server issues.
I admit it, I run a lot of scripts. I code in PHP for 14 out of the 24 hours in my day. However I'm smart about it. I have ways of checking the server load and the process list, and I always keep tabs on my running scripts and how much CPU and memory they're using. Many of my scripts even monitor the server load themselves, adjusting their performance accordingly. I don't have to do this. But I do it, as a courtesy to the web host and to the other users on my server.
So you can imagine how pissed off I got when I visited my domain name and found that my account was suspended for "resource abuse."
Before I go on, please note that I only found this out because I checked the domain. My account has been suspended 3 times total so far, and I have yet to get a single email telling me that something was wrong -- even though, after the first such occurrence, I clarified my email address to the support people.
So I submitted a trouble ticket, and they told me I was suspended for resource abuse. I asked which resources were being abused. They said that my scripts were using a combined total of 10-15% of CPU resources. Now that's just plain fiction. I have access to the server's process list and I can always see (and prove) that all my scripts combined never use any more than 2% of the CPU, and that's at the highest.
The server's scheduled hourly processes, now those are a different story. I set up an Ajax widget that continually monitors the server load, and if you watch it, you can clearly see that around the top of ever hour, the load spikes to somewhere between 20 and 25. That's astronomical for a dual-Opteron server. It's around those times that performance slows to a crawl. From the process list I can see that at least some of this is due to scheduled backups, which is understandable -- but then they shouldn't complain about user scripts, since it's plain to see that they aren't the cause. The cause is a poorly set-up server that's probably overloaded with too many accounts, as so many "budget" hosts tend to do.
But, at $16 a month, can I really complain?
More account suspension woes:
One of the scripts I used was a mail processing script, that takes incoming messages and adds additional text to the message body before sending the email back out again. I was testing this script, so I had to run it often, and that required having it send an email each time I tested it. During this testing, I again found my account suspended (and again I got no email informing me of this). Upon contacting support, they told me they have a "firewall" that prevents more than 200 outgoing messages per hour. Fine. But how does it prevent that? By disabling the entire account.
Now bear in mind that I wasn't sending to a mailing list. I was sending to the same address repeatedly, my address. Their "firewall" doesn't take this into consideration though. I asked if they could add an exception for that one email address, so that I could continue to test my script without being seen as a possible bulk-mailer or spammer, and they told me no -- "We can't correct the script, as we're not developers, we use ready solutions." This answer might satisfy a beginner user. However as a non-beginner, I can tell you that any spam-prevention software that doesn't feature an exception list that can be easily edited by non-developers, is software that simply does not belong on a server. So either they're using some very poorly-designed software, or they were simply too lazy to accommodate me, choosing instead to get me off their backs as quickly as possible -- a common practice among budget hosts, so neither case would surprise me.
But yet again, at $16, can I really complain?
Damn straight I can complain. $16 a month means $192 a year. That's not chump change. What am I getting for this $192 a year? A slow, overloaded server, and support that might as well be automated?
Again though, I'm one of a group of people that shouldn't be with a host like this, and there are plenty of people outside that group for whom this host will be satisfactory. If you want to make a website to show the world your collection of cute-kitten photos, or your collection of designer dinner plates, then I'm sure you won't notice any problems at all with this host. They'll be able to answer all of your questions and you won't notice any problems.
But if you're looking to do a bit more, look elsewhere.
I know the webhostingbuzz people tend to read these reviews, so if any of them are reading this, this is for you:
Please at least send out some emails. I've yet to get a single email that wasn't a useless monthly newsletter, and even those stopped coming after october of last year. Email is a cheap way to at least create the illusion that you care about your customers. If there's a problem with a site, don't just suspend it and wait for the client to ask. Send them an email. Despite the cheap price they're paying you, some clients do still consider hours or days of downtime to be a bad thing.
And today.... today was a nightmare. It seems your entire network went down. Repeatedly. My server was down and your website was down, and the support site was also down. DNS wasn't even functioning. I'm surprised you don't keep your main site off-location as a backup, in your own interest. But in the interest of the clients, at least your support site should be kept somewhere else, so that you can keep in touch with your clients despite the current state of your network. And lastly, even without that, such a major occurrence should at least warrant a mass email to everyone telling them what the situation is.
That's it.
Followup comments: equazcion
join:2007-04-24
Fresh Meadows, NY
2 edits | More downtime Just wanted to add a bit to this. The downtime has continued into today. It's now 1pm. WHB has a forum at whbstatus.com. Although it appears that site, too, is in the same network that keeps going down. Not only that, but even when it's functioning, the support people tell us absolutely nothing about what's going on. This has gone from annoying to frustrating to almost humorous.
I invite anyone who's curious to come check out »www.whbstatus.com/showthread.php···7&page=1
That is, if it's not down. Which at the moment it is. | |
| | fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| Re: More downtime Sounds like a dedicated server is more up your alley and not a shared hosting environment.
Care to guess how many customers reside on one server at a time?
You are right.. when you pay $16.00 a month, for a reseller account no less, you can't expect a powerhouse of a service.
--
"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-reitchous and lazy..." | |
| | | equazcion
join:2007-04-24
Fresh Meadows, NY
2 edits | Re: More downtime I don't think what I've described really qualifies as requiring an entire dedicated server. I'm running PHP scripts. You shouldn't need a whole server for that. That's why PHP tends to be installed even on shared servers 
But I agree on what to expect for the price. | |
| | | | WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK | Re: More downtime I didn't hear from you yet, and I'd like to get this resolved. My personal email is matt[at]webhostingbuzz.com | |
| WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK
| WHB Response Firstly, we have 3 canned responses in the entire helpdesk. These are for when the ticket changes department. No other response is canned, and all are custom written. We do make an educated guess at user experience but if you explain in the first point of contact that you are an experienced user, then we can talk to you on a more complex level.
Whilst I do not doubt your ability to code PHP scripts, we also run 100 servers 24 hours of 24 hours each day. We know what to look for and we only suspend accounts when we are absolutely sure that they are the culprit.
Obviously you read our explanation at whbstatus.com, so please get in touch with me directly so we can look at the suspension issues of your account, and what we can do to either help you find a more suitable solution or repair our business relationship. | |
| |
lmnop
@rr.com
|  Re: WHB Response
| |
| | | WHBCTO
join:2006-04-27
UK
| Re: WHB Response The original poster is now satisfied with WebHostingBuzz. There was some element of misunderstanding, but I believe everything is now resolved to both out satisfactions.
Our suspension policy, unless it's gross breach of terms of service (eg child porn or hacking), is always to email first and only suspend if we do not get any response. If a runaway script is at fault, we'll always try and suspend that script and not the entire account.
Our goal is to work with customers to be succesful - this helps us both.
Matt | |
| | | | equazcion
join:2007-04-24
Fresh Meadows, NY
4 edits | Re: WHB Response I got a couple of instant messages asking me to confirm this comment, so I thought I'd clarify:
The misunderstanding had to do with a continued complaint I had after posting this review. I was complaining to Matt via email for a few days about an issue that I thought had to do with server performance, which I turned out to be wrong about. The server actually seems to be performing rather well lately, and the hourly load spike I described in the review seems to no longer occur.
The events that I describe in the review, however, were no misunderstanding. If they had been just a misunderstanding then I would have deleted the review altogether.
The truth is that although those things did happen, everything is running smoothly right now, and have been since I wrote the review. My account hasn't been suspended again since, and I haven't needed to submit any support tickets; so I can't comment on the status of email notifications or the quality of support. There also hasn't been any significant downtime since (at least not on my server).
I hope that helps. | |
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Review by windowsxp550
Posted: 3.8 years ago
member for 3.8 years, 13 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago
Saint Paul,Ramsey,MN
$7 per month (12 month contract)
"None"
"They are the absolute worst host."
"Do Not Give These Guys Your Money. You Will Regret It!"
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
the amount of frustration I went through each time my site went down, became unbearable. It was so frustrating to be in such a helpless position. WebHostingBuzz only has email support so I when a problem would pop up, I had to submit a ticket and then sit and wait for for WebHostingBuzz technician to answer, typically any simple problem would turn into a 8 hour problem. Then when the problem is solved they avoid directly telling you what the problem was.
WebHostingBuzz was so bad, that I opted to switch to another host in the middle of my WebHostingBuzz paid contract. I would definately recommend everyone to steer clear of this hosting nightmare.
I have lost money with WebhostingBuzz and am determined to make sure that their business practices be exposed so that other people don't end up in the same situation I was. Below is a transcript from one of the many tickets I placed with WebhostingBuzz. Read it and decide for yourself...(Note: "Jason" is my name. So everytime you see Jason, that is the customer sending a message to Webhostingbuzz)
---------Start Copy/Paste from WebHost--------------------
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:18 PM
There is either something wrong with the server or my admin pw has been changed. I am currently in the process of switching my website to a CMS. I have had a professional working on it, so I gave them my admin pw. The site is www.fixmyxp.com. I can't get ahold of the programmer now, and I can't log in and the site is down. Please help (reset my pw or let me know what the status is asap)
WEBHOSTINGBUZZ [Luke from Support dept]
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:22 PM
Hello Jason,
Forwarding you to the epartmentment where you will be able to reset your password.
Luke
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:30 PM
Ok?
not sure what you mean by epartment? How do I contact them?
Thanks,
Jason
WEBHOSTINGBUZZ [Fahad from billing department]
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:32 PM
Hi,
I will require 2checkout order number and your name, email, phone, home/office address used when signing up for this account for verification purposes. Also let me know if you have any ded IP orders for this account.
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:44 PM
I just got ahold of the programmer and he swears that he didn't change the
password. So I think that this error is a server error. Did you check
before forwarding me onto PW reset?
Please check as I think this isnt the problem
{{ NO REPLY FROM LUKE, INSTEAD RECEIVE REPLY FROM FAHAD}}
WEBHOSTINGBUZZ [Fahad from billing department]
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:45 PM
Hi,
I can have this issue fixed if you give me asked information.
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 12:55 PM
I don't think this is a pw problem anymore (can you confirm what happened
..did you guys lock the account or something???)
Here is the info you asked for:
{{Information was here for Fahad to see}}
Let me know ASAP!
{{NO RESPONSE FROM EITHER FAHAD OR LUKE}}
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 01:08 PM
Please reply asap! I need to know what happened? I have gotten
confirmation that the programmer did nothing to change the pw. So this has to be something on your end.
(and please don't just send me a email saying my password has been reset..you can reset my password, but I do want a reason, as to what happened )
{{NO REPLY AGAIN}}
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 01:22 PM
Please reply asap. You guys don't have a phone number where I can call...so I'm sitting here with my email open waiting....
WEBHOSTINGBUZZ [Fahad from billing department]
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 01:27 PM
Hi,
Can you access your account now?
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 01:32 PM
no
WEBHOSTINGBUZZ [Fahad from billing department]
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 01:55 PM
Hi,
New password: *******
Also there is no way passwords can be changed unless one has access to Cpanel where one can do so. I guess you should be more careful in given account details to people.
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 02:07 PM
You could not make this any more frustrating for me....if you would have
read what I wrote in my emails...I clearly said that this was not a Password issue!
I furthermore stated that I wanted a REASON!!
I cannot call you so I am stuck awaiting your responses....and when I get
them, they are responses like:
"Is it working now"
Put yourself in my shoes....how frustrated would you be!..
THIS IS NOT A PASSWORD ISSUE! THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SERVER...
{{NO RESPONSE }}
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 02:25 PM
I am beyond frustrated with the difficulty you are having with telling me what is wrong.
I have sent several email responses saying that I have determined this not to be a password issue. There is something wrong with the server.
I cannot call you, I instead am staring at my email waiting for your response.
Please reply I have been trying to resolve this for the past 2 hours. This is like keeping me on hold for 2 hours....If you had phone support, I highly doubt that you would keep me on hold for 2 hours just to tell me whats wrong.
I will continue to submit tickets every 5 - 10 minutes until I get a response. I am forced to do this, since this is my only communication method with you and this is an urgent matter.
{{STILL NO RESPONSE SO I SENT SAME MESSAGE 4 TIMES EVERY 5 MINS}}
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 03:19 PM
what is wrong! No response. Is the server dead???
Jason
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 04:22 PM
I am beginning to suspect that the server is dead. No response from
anyone...
If this is the case why can't you just transfer my account to a different
(working) server.
Please advise.....(btw I have a backup of my entire site as of Oct 16th...I
just need to get the site back up asap, whatever it takes...)
WEBHOSTINGBUZZ [Fahad from billing department]
Posted on 19 Oct 2005 05:03 PM
Sky should be okay now..
--------------End copy/paste from webhost--------------------
See what I mean. I even told them, that it was not a Password issue plus I asked them to give me a reason (and not just simply reply with a, Your PW has been reset BS).
Then what did they do?
They did exactly what I asked them not to do....and not only that..he had the audacity to make that snide little remark about not giving my password out...
And they never did tell me what happened....after 4 to 5 hours of emails (me to them with no response)...the final response was "Sky should be okay now"....(Sky is the name of the server). Horrible Customer service....
The problem I shared in this review was only one of many other negative experiences I had with WebHostingBuzz. I hope that by sharing this, I can at least to help someone else avoid the stress and headaches I encountered.
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 Review by TheSaint
Posted: 4.1 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 1241 visits, last login: 69 days ago
Atascadero,San Luis Obispo,CA
$3 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"Price, wide set of features for the cost,"
"Yearly billing, vague AUP, slow Cpanel, so-so support, lots of downtime ethics?"
"Good for sites that you don't care about if price is your only concern, they are not to be taken seriously"
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
From my www.siteuptime.com tracking page:
www.(my site url).com
Since: October 13, 2005
Outages: 12
Total Uptime: 97.768%
This host goes offline, alibiet for short periods of time, quite frequently.
While their plans may offer high transfer make sure to read the fine print:
»www.webhostingbuzz.com/legal.htm
Customer agrees that WebHostingBuzz will monitor and meter Customer's daily bandwidth and disk usage and in the event that Customer exceeds the bandwidth or disk usage allocated to each hosting package on any given day WebHostingBuzz may take corrective action which may, at WebHostingBuzz's sole discretion, include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this Agreement. All bandwidth is measured daily and monthly bandwidth allowances are divided by the calendar days of a given month to determine the daily bandwidth allowance. Customer agrees that in the event of a dispute WebHostingBuzz's monitoring reports shall be the final method of determination how much disk space and bandwidth was used and agrees to pay the excess usage charges when due. Customer's logs files are counted against any disk usage.
Now here's what bothers me:
...include the assessment of additional charges, disconnection or discontinuance of any and all Services, or termination of this Agreement...
Exactly what will those extra charges be? Sure, they may boast 200gb of transfer a month, but if you use more than the 1/30th they allot per given day, what will be the consequences? What if you wanted to host a large file as a mirror for a game patch or Linux distro? I'd fell more comfortable if they explained in detail what the charges would be if you went over your daily limit.
Their support is solely comprised of non-native English speakers, presumably from India or another up-and-coming middle eastern country. When submitting support tickets or emails (their only method of tech support) you are met with courteous, albeit short replies. The language barrier is moderate, but they normally look into the problem in six hours or less. Not the best response times around, that's for sure. None the less, they have always fixed problems within 24 hours.
Cpanel access can be slow at times as can ftp transfers. The site pings are fairly low, I think it might be server overload. After all, this is shared hosting. A certain amount of overselling is expected. Another low is that they don't support FXP protocol for site-to-site ftp transfers.
The uptime has been 95% or better it seems like, I've just started official monitoring services to check up-time. They do not host their main webpage (webhostingbuzz.com) on the same servers as their customers get. The WHB main site is hosted in the UK, but the client sites all get US based shared server space.
After reading the following article:
»www.webhostingtalk.com/showthrea···d=314977
I started to really wonder about the quality of their services and more importantly, the ethics of their employees. This review is updated fairly often, check back for more information as it becomes available.
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 Review by TigerLord
Posted: 4.5 years ago
member for 7.4 years, 3415 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Montreal
$4 per month (12 month contract)
"Very good tech support ,"
"Not any real bad ..."
"Excellent webhosting company !"
| Pre Sales information:
Setup experience:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
|
There are many webhosting companies out there, but it is hard to choose without being scammed by a cheap company. For 48$/year, I get 20GB of bandwith per month, 1GB of space, cPanel, Fantastico, all the features you need supported, and absolutely great tech support ! Only down is I experienced 2 or 3 downs for a couple of hours during the last year, but generally, it's really a great ISP, and I highly recommend it to you all !
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WebHostingBuzz
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