Web hosting is something I haven’t really given much thought to, until this week.
As I wrote about earlier, nearly 16 years of content evaporated as a result of a successful hacking attempt on PC WEENIES.
Rebuilding will take some time, but I was able to get the basics of my site up and running within a weekend. Unfortunately for me, I did not have any recent site back-ups, so for all intents and purposes, I’m starting all over again, from scratch.
I host PC WEENIES on BlueHost, and this weekend I had to lean heavily on their customer support to get to the bottom of the issues that had plagued my site. Their phone support was not so good. I’ll chalk it up to the language barrier and a poor phone connection. I had much better luck with BlueHost’s live chat, where I chatted with at least 3 of their support agents. While nothing could be done to reclaim my old data, they were at least helpful in getting my new WordPress install up and running. I’ll give them a B+.
In addition to BlueHost, I have my portfolio site hosted on HostPapa. This morning I woke up to a nearly $1055 charge on my credit card. I was being billed for three years to the tune of $881.38, with an SSL Wildcard fee of $109.99 and backups at $47.99.
To say that I was shocked at the bill was an understatement.
Worse yet, there was no warning. No heads-up from the company. Just a charge, quickly followed up with an email invoice – all happening in the dead of night.
Thankfully, my credit card company alerted me and I immediately denied the charge. I did call HostPapa later in the day, and did get a chance to speak to a polite customer service rep. According to the invoice, I was placed under their “Pro” plan, which (in my view) seems beyond execessive for hosting a simple 5 page WordPress portfolio site.
My hopes are that the situation will resolve. If not, I’ll be looking at new webhosting.
-Krishna