itsCURT.com

Well, I’ve been hosting my websites on the internet for over 5 years, I’ve even ran a web hosting business myself for 2 years. Me being the frugal internet shopper I am, I switch hosts from time to time, looking for the best deals. Of course, when looking for deals for a web host, you must be careful. There is always the factor of reliability, uptime, speed, support, and pricing. However, when searching for reviews on JustHost, I was unable to find negative reviews. That’s the thing about web hosting reviews, if the webhost offers an affiliate program, the only results you see on google will be biased results, promoting JustHost due to personal gain. JustHost offers over $65 per signup to it’s affiliates, for referring people to it’s hosting, that’s why the top results are full of positives about JustHost. Well, everybody’s going to make money somehow, so I’ll put their affiliate link on my post too. At least this review isn’t going to be PRO-JustHost, all my posts are unbiased!

Been a customer for less than 24 hours and have none of my 4 support requests fulfilled in a timely manner. What’s the point of having different support departments, such as billing, and technical when the departments take hours to answer a ticket, with hours switching issues from department to department. They are also not there to help you, most of their services which are free for them, are charged to you as upgrades, such as priority support and SSH access.

JustHost’s Affiliate program with CJ also didn’t credit me for my signup, I was hoping to be a loyal customer but their support and service is way too slow. Especially their live support.

Website Features: 3 of 5 stars
Reliability / Uptime: N/A
Hosting Software: 4 of 5 stars
Live Support: 1 of 5 stars
24/7: Support: 1 of 5 stars

Well when I first ordered the hosting, I was prompted with a 50% off code, bringing my total down to $2.95 a month. I received the 50% discount code because I was annoyingly prompted to stay, when I tried to exit the site. The order page however, made it seem like $2.95 was the regular price for hosting. There were dead order links on their site, and I had to edit the URL to remove the junk to make it accessible. The front page of JustHost.com says hosting is $3.95, so I didn’t think $2.95 was the price at 50% off. Before I purchased the plan, I contacted JustHost using their live support, and inquired about this. The support representative asked me for some time so she could look into it for me, and ten minutes later she referred me to email billing@justhost.com. I just went along to order the hosting, and left a note on the PayPal payment to refund me 50%. This is what i put on PayPal comment:

I have used a JustHost Coupon: 50-OFF for 50 percent off, however, it does
not seem as if it’s taken off the discount. Please pro-rate a 50% off refund
to this PayPal account before provisioning the hosting account. If you are
unable to offer the 50% refund, please skip the account activation and offer
a full refund.

After I’ve sent the payment, I’ve noticed that their systems set up the account instantly, so I’ve had my account set up and ready to go. This is not a problem, but the PayPal note has totally been disregarded. So I’ve opened up a customer support to support@justhost.com, and billing@justhost.com.

Received on Nov/17/2009 9:53:52PM

Hi, I’ve left a note on the PayPal payment hoping a staff would look through
it, but was unaware accounts were instantly set-up. Here is the issue I
have, and I would like the 50% discount I’ve signed up with refunded to my
PayPal. Thanks for understanding.

Regards,
Curt W.

PayPal Note:
I have used a JustHost Coupon: 50-OFF for 50 percent off, however, it does
not seem as if it’s taken off the discount. Please pro-rate a 50% off refund
to this PayPal account before provisioning the hosting account. If you are
unable to offer the 50% refund, please skip the account activation and offer
a full refund.

Regards,
Curt W.

After that ticket, I’ve received a response pretty quickly! Two responses in just under 10 minutes, I received a response from support@justhost.com stating that my ticket to support is closed.

Sent on Nov/17/2009 10:02:19PM

Hi  Curtis,

I am forwarding this ticket to the Billing Department.
They will assist you a bit later.

Thank you for your patience.
–
Kind regards,
Donald Bray,
Just Host
www.justhost.com

Sent on Nov/17/2009 10:04:45PM

Hi  Curtis,

You already have another ticket on the same issue. The manager will reply you
soon via the ticket.
I am closing this one.
–
Kind regards,
Donald Bray,
Just Host
www.justhost.com

Alright, so my ticket is now in the hands of billing, okay. I’m starting to get annoyed by the different departments of customer service. But since I needed to get my site up, I couldn’t keep waiting on a single issue, so I’ve replied with more questions:

Received on Nov/17/2009 10:07:03PM

Thanks for the quick reply.

Before I change the nameservers of my domain name, can you update the DNS
settings for me?

I’d need a CNAME record for irc.thebotnet.com to point to irc.botsites.net

Also, I might need you to restore a mysql backup for me or grant me SSH
access in the upcoming days.

Looking forward to hosting with you guys.

Regards,
Curtis W.

Two hours later, I get a response from a billing representative:

Sent on Nov/18/2009 12:10:03AM
Hi Curtis,

Thank you for your email.
Please can you advise me of your paypal email address so that I can look into this for you.

Kind regards,

Lee
–
Lee Garrett
Billing Representative
www.justhost.com

Now I’ve worked in webhosting to know that a billing representative could easily track down my payment if they wanted to, unless they were lazy. Their website advertises support requests answered in under an hour, while priorty support for $20/month is in under 30 minutes. Instead of a one hour wait, it took two, with my problem still being unresolved. I reply only two minutes later:

Received on Nov/18/2009 12:12:22AM

Hi Lee, my PayPal Address is: xx@itscurt.com

And I receive a simple reply an hour and thirty minutes later..

Sent on Nov/18/2009 1:33:39AM

Hi Curtis

Thank you for your email

$70.80 is the correct price for the 50% off plan. I am sorry for any mixups

Kind regards
–
Ben Moore
Billing Representative
www.justhost.com

Quite understanding, about the 50%, however, the response time it takes them is just way too long for these types of questions and answers.

After this response, I’ve decided to just forget about support, and to set-up my website and let them keep the money. After loading my site content, on their server, I would like to preview it before bringing it live. I did not update my nameservers, but wanted a temporary URL to preview my site. Knowing that the server is hosted through cPanel software, I’ve attempted to preview my site through this URL: http://cl68.justhost.com/~username/ . Unfortunately their cPanel software is configured differently, which I was unable to preview my URL. However, I contacted their live support representative through online chat! I’ve stated the problem, and the other representative asked me again to hold. Another 5 minutes later, the representative suggested that I just point my domain to their nameservers, thus blowing off the entire reason why I wanted a preview URL. The support representative was not too helpful, then advised me to contact support@justhost.com. I asked the support representative if he could open a ticket for me, then he said sure, and two minutes later he said he did. However, no other ticket was opened regarding that issue.. Now back to me working on my own!

Are we forgetting something? Oh yes, an unanswered question from the previous support ticket! I’ve sent them another reply:

Sent on Nov/18/2009 1:59:14AM

I guess you’re right, but I also need another issue fixed from the technical
support department, which was previously asked, but  unanswered on this ticket..

It turns out my DB is over 100MB and would take a while to transfer, and may be
difficult to import without SSH capabilities. I would like to request temporary
SSH access and DNS adjustments on my accounts, as requested from my last
message.

I received a response 22 minutes later.. 22 minutes, is that quick to you? Maybe, but is it helpful? Maybe not.

Sent on Nov/18/2009 2:21:41AM

Hi, Curtis

Thank you for your email.

We have looked into your request and feel that you would be better assisted by
our technical support team. I have now transferred this ticket to them, they
will respond to you shortly.

Kind regards,

Kerry
–
Kerry Brown
Billing Representative
www.justhost.com

Now I guess you understand why I am so arrogant and against the multiple support departments.. 50 minutes later..

Sent on Nov/18/2009 3:09:50AM

Hi  Curtis,

We cannot set temporary access for your account.
Please upload your database dump to our server, provide us with the name of
database and we will import it.
And also provide us with DNS adjustments so we will set it for you.

Waiting for reply.
–

Kind regards,
Alexander Zander
Just Host
www.justhost.com

Now, it costs them nothing at all to enable SSH access for me, but they charge $20 a year for SSH access, and they refuse to give me 1 day of access to I can import my databases. I usually wouldn’t mind just letting them restore it for me, but since I am transfering a website where thousands of users access in a day, I cannot risk the downtime. The time it would take me shut down my current site to download and re-upload the database to the new server, and the unknowing response time of the customer support, plus the time it would take me to restore and re-configure the site for the new database would be too much downtime for my users to consume. Being frustrated, I remind them of my other task that I required, only 3 minutes later.

Received on Nov/18/2009 3:12:15AM

Set the CNAME records of irc.thebotnet.com to point to irc.botsites.net.

From then on, I just went to bed and hoped the next day would be better. About 30 minutes later I get a response:

Sent on Nov/18/2009 3:44:34AM

Hi  Curtis,

Sorry, but thebotnet.com is not pointed to our hosting.
Therefore, we are unable to point its subdomain.

Please let us know if you need more help.
–

Kind regards,
Alexander Zander
Just Host
www.justhost.com

I guess that’s true, but to this point, none of my support questions, and tasks have completed the way I planned it would. Maybe it is just me being snobby, but it’s for you to decide. The next morning I wake up and decide to cancel my hosting, as I’m going to find another host which would give me free SSH access for cheaper.

Received on Nov/18/2009 10:42:52AM

Domain: thebotnet.com

I’ve been a customer for under 24 hours, and request a full refund and account
cancellation. I have not ordered or transferred a domain.

Their billing support seems faster, I wonder why.. Anyways, 20-30 minutes later, I get the canned cancellation message:

Sent on Nov/18/2009 11:07:51AM

Hi Curtis

Thank you for your email.

I can confirm that your account – including any upgrades has now been fully
cancelled and a pro rata refund issued. This may take 7 working days to
process.

If you would like to transfer your domain to a new registrar, please email
support@justhost.com and we can release it 60 days after it was registered.
This is as a result of regulations set by ICANN regarding the transferral of
domains. For more information please visit – http://www.icann.org.

If you have paid for your account via a PayPal subscription please remember to
cancel this to avoid further PayPal payments being sent to us.

If you have any questions regarding your cancellation or refund please do not
hesitate to contact us on 1 -888 755 -7585 (USA) 0871 – 311 – 0813 (UK) 1 – 888
1 229 – 654 (AU)

We hope you enjoyed your Just Host experience, and look forward to maybe seeing
you again soon. Thank you for considering us as your web hosting provider.

Have a great day!

Kind regards,

Jamie

Jamie Irish
Customer Support Manager
Just Host

Funny thing is, they wish to pro-rate my refund, and I haven’t even been a customer for a day. So for the $70 I’ve spent on the two years; they get to keep $0.095. Whatever; I still think it’d be easier for them to just refund the payment in full. However, they’ve stated that the pro rata refund has been issued, and they’ve also stated it may take 7 working days to process. My refund has not been issued, but would probably be issued in the next 7 days. They should fix their wording on that statement. I’ve opened a dispute for a full refund via PayPal and cancelled my subscription with them. Their support desk is horrible, and their live support is useless. Their live support just refers you to their billing or support email, and doesn’t open tickets for you when prompted. This is the second time I’ve ranted about a webhost on my blog, and I’m not a picky person.

I’ve never really been the guy to use or rely on support, but I at least expect them to help me out somewhat when I need it. Now I can’t really give a review based on reliability and site performance as I’ve been a customer for under 24 hours, but I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re a customer that needs support for your sites.

Update: I just realized I’m not the only one with bad reviews; there are TONS of them for JustHost! Just read all the horror studies about them!

1. http://www.webhostingreviews.com/just-host-reviews.htm
2. http://www.webhostingreviews.com/just-host-reviews-page5.htm

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 7:10 pm and is filed under Rants, Reviews, Website Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.